Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly

by Niall Teasdale

  It took all of three seconds before the firing stopped. Penny had no clue why until she wheeled around and saw ten men changing the magazines on their guns. They had been firing a lot of ammo, very fast. She banked, swung down, and ploughed through the crowd. There were three of them in the way and she barely felt the impacts, but when she turned around again two of them were down and the third was reeling on his feet.

  The firing started again, along with cries of pain and the sudden cutting off of streams of bullets. Penny twisted in the air to see that Twilight had joined the fray. She was swinging a pair of what Penny took to be expanding batons, and using them with an expert precision and speed which Penny found amazing. She had taken down three of the goons before the others even noticed there were two Ultras for them to deal with, and by then they had exhausted their ammunition supply. Three of the remaining four dropped their guns, two pulling knives, and went for Twilight.

  The last was struggling to get a new mag in his Ingram. Penny swooped down, grabbed him under the arms, and hefted him into the nearest packing crate. There was a loud crash and the sound of metal skittering across tarmac. Penny turned…

  And there was Twilight standing over the fallen men, pressing the ends of her batons against a crate to close them.

  ‘Oh,’ Penny said. ‘You hardly left me any.’

  ‘Six to four, it’s not a bad split.’

  ‘Huh.’ Penny glanced at the broken crate. ‘They’re shipping rifles?!’ There were several of them scattered around, and Penny had no idea what they were.

  ‘Caseless ammunition rifles,’ Twilight told her. ‘They’re a WTC design. Austrian, I think. Electronic ignition, high impact, high accuracy. Those aren’t what bothers me.’

  ‘Then…?’

  Twilight waved for her to follow and led her to the crate she had opened. Penny looked in to see several tubular launchers and matching rocket grenades.

  ‘These are Soviet. Armour-piercing explosive rounds,’ Twilight said. ‘The Tonaldos don’t deal weapons domestically, so they wanted these for themselves.’

  ‘What would they want with grenade launchers? No, wait… I was told that some group from the south side was trying to move in on their territory.’

  Twilight nodded. ‘For a rookie you’re well informed. I’d heard the same thing. Looks like David Tonaldo’s taking it seriously.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Penny agreed, frowning, ‘seriously enough to go to war.’

  ‘He’s not a very nice person. Ruthless, manipulative… Look, the cops are on their way. You can have the collar. I’ve got things to do.’

  Penny looked around at the fallen bodies. ‘Why not share it? We make a good team.’

  ‘I work alone,’ Twilight stated flatly.

  Penny turned around to argue, but Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

  13th September.

  ‘John Tonaldo?’ Red looked at Penny with narrowed eyes. ‘What do you want with that creep?’

  ‘Well, nothing,’ Penny replied. ‘He’s just come up in a couple of conversations recently.’

  ‘He’s on the board of a company our employer is doing the books for,’ June said. ‘If it’s dirty…’

  ‘Well,’ Red said, looking reluctant to continue. She sighed. ‘If it was David it could go either way, but John… Whatever this company is, it’s a cover for something.’

  ‘Yeah, well they were smuggling weapons into Deale Harbour on Wednesday morning,’ Penny said. ‘Me and a girl called Twilight stopped them. Well, mostly she stopped them and I distracted them, but… Well, they were stopped.’

  ‘Weapons?’

  ‘Guns, rocket launchers…’

  Red frowned. ‘That’s… not good. Twilight… Not sure I’ve heard the name.’

  ‘She didn’t exactly seem like the type to come to a club,’ Penny replied. ‘Then again, I’m not really the type to come out to a club…’

  ~~~

  Andrea spotted Cygnus sitting at the bar as soon as she walked into the room. For a fraction of a second she thought about turning around and leaving, but that would mean having to come up with an excuse Zoe would believe. ‘I left the gas on,’ was probably not going to cut it. Besides, Cygnus had never seen her face. How was she going to match up the girl in the off-the-shoulder top and the tight jeans with the mop of black hair to the PVC-clad ninja she had met a few days ago?

  No. Play it cool, don’t worry. Just a girl out with her friend on a Friday night. She followed Zoe toward the bar to get drinks.

  The blonde super-bimbo was sitting with Red and another girl who nature had endowed with breasts to make up for the lack of brains. That was unfair. The rookie was naive and stacked, but she had seemed like she was bright enough. There was enough light behind the brunette’s eyes to suggest she was not that stupid. Andrea decided she was probably just feeling inadequate.

  Also slightly less secure. Red looked her way and nodded as she stood behind Zoe waiting for the drinks. Red knew the truth about her. Not exactly who she was, but she knew there was something about her and they had had ‘the talk’ the first time Andrea had come here. The hostess had not asked many questions, just enough to decide Andrea was not going to be a problem. There had been a slight undercurrent of something else as well, but Andrea did not swing that way. From the looks of it, Cygnus’ friend, the brunette, did.

  ‘You know her?’ Zoe whispered. ‘The Red Huntress?’

  ‘We talked once.’

  ‘Oh wow. She’s amazing. Did you ever see that calendar she did? It must be really great talking to an Ultra just… casual like.’

  ‘Yeah, oh it is… Really special.’

  ‘I don’t think I’d be able to. I’d go all blabber-mouthed and make a fool of myself.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ Sometimes having a secret identity could be hilarious.

  ~~~

  Penny noticed the girl with the black hair nodding toward Red. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar. Very vaguely. Nothing she could put a finger on. Penny figured she was around five-nine; the heels on the white slouch boots were not especially high. The tight jeans and off-the-shoulder, midriff-baring, lacy top showed off a trim, tightly muscled body with long, slim legs. Not that much of a chest, but what was there was firm even without a bra. Her skin was tanned or naturally dusky. The face tended to the triangular; hollowed cheeks and a fairly narrow chin did the most for that impression. Dark brown eyes, a tangled mop of black hair… Maybe ‘tousled’ was a better description. The girl had a wide mouth which made her lips look narrower, but they were quite full. Her nose was fairly long and quite narrow.

  No, not ringing bells. ‘You know the brunette?’ Penny asked Red.

  ‘We talked,’ Red replied, which meant she was an Ultra of some sort. ‘I’d have liked to know her a lot better, but I don’t go where I’m not wanted. Besides, if I’d hooked up with her I might not have met June.’

  ‘Not been in town long then?’

  ‘Couldn’t say, but she first came here… about a month before you did. Uh… Andrea. Yeah, that was the name.’

  ‘She is cute,’ June put in. ‘Kind of serious though, for a Friday night.’

  Andrea did look as though she had no real plans to have a good time. Her friend looked like she would make up for both of them, and the whispered conversation suggested they were talking about the little group at the end of the bar.

  ‘Don’t know the blonde,’ Red said, ‘but she’s a civilian.’

  Penny turned away. ‘So it looks like the Tonaldos are setting up a war chest. This gang from the south must be pressing pretty hard.’

  Red frowned and then sighed. ‘I’ve still got some contacts I can ask. I’ll see if I can dig anything up. This is not what we suggested you get involved with this soon.’

  ‘I know, but it kind of fell…’

  ‘Fell into your lap, yeah. Stick to keeping a lid on things. The Tonaldos are, mostly, a known quantity. No Ultras in their ranks, they don’t like them. This other bunch… Well, th
ey’re an unknown quantity.’

  Penny nodded. ‘Thanks for digging for me. I feel like I should go looking for this Twilight. Something about her… I don’t know, but it sort of felt fortuitous that we met. If I find her again, I don’t want to go empty-handed.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do. You want to stay here tonight? June is and there’s still the spare room…’

  Penny gave her a grin. ‘Thanks. I brought my costume. I thought I’d spend the day overflying the city. I can get a feel for it in daylight and then I’ll be less likely to get lost at night.’

  Red gave June a look. ‘She’s not just a pretty face, is she?’

  ‘No, she’s not,’ June replied, and there was just a hint of something other than pride in her voice which Penny could not quite figure out.

  ~~~

  Penny felt a back against hers and turned to apologise. She had been backing up; her fault. She found herself looking slightly downward into a pair of dark brown eyes.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, smiling, ‘my bad. You’re Andrea, right?’

  Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s right… Oh, Red Huntress remembered my name?’

  Penny nodded. ‘I guess I should introduce myself as Cygnus.’

  ‘You guess?’

  ‘It’s kind of new. Not used to it yet. Are you, uh, active?’

  Andrea made a show of checking around them, though she was actually pretty sure that Zoe, the only person she did not want hearing the conversation, was in the back. Then she shook her head. There was no point in denying she was an Ultra, not when Cygnus obviously knew, but she could lie about the rest. ‘I don’t have…’ She lifted her hand, wiggling her fingers. ‘Not the kind that’s useful anyway. I know I show up on the Huntress’ radar, or whatever she has, but I’m not that kind of Ultra.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘Unless I’m a late bloomer or something.’

  Penny grinned. ‘I was.’ There were generally two ways you could end up exhibiting powers and Penny was of the opinion that she fell into the second. Some people manifested at puberty and as people started wanting powers, more people were doing that. A few even started before then, but only a very few. The X-class Ultras: mutants. The other way was some sort of trauma, which tended to produce powers related to the thing that caused them. Accidentals: A-class like Penny. Penny figured a degree of invulnerability after being hit by a space rock sounded right. Of course the shape-changing did not really fit into that concept, but… Well, every theory had its flaws.

  ‘I don’t think so’ Andrea replied. ‘I think I’m going to be just a little bit Ultra all my life. Can’t say it bothers me.’

  ‘Well, nice meeting you.’ Penny turned, starting for the back of the club where the restrooms where.

  ‘Yeah,’ Andrea said, ‘nice meeting you too.’

  14th September.

  With the club closing and everyone who remained starting to filter out, Andrea spotted Red and Cygnus, and the brunette, still chatting at the bar. She knew the proprietor lived above her shop, so to speak, and it looked like all three would be staying the night. Not that she was going to judge. She was of the firm opinion that what you got up to in your off time was no one’s concern but your own, unless it hurt someone else, but she had not taken Cygnus for the type.

  Zoe had picked up a guy about ten years older than she was and it looked a lot like Andrea would be going home alone. Not that that bothered her. She considered, briefly, going home and getting changed. When the sun rose it would be Saturday and she did not need to get up early. Roger did not like his weekends cluttered with work so Radium Comics did not open on Saturdays. However, she had had a couple of drinks. She was by no means drunk, but there would be some slight impairment. She was not going to go out actively looking for trouble.

  She grinned slightly. Maybe she would get lucky and someone would try to mug her on the way home.

  ~~~

  The air over Tracy’s Landing, commonly referred to as Uptown, was clear. There was little cloud on the autumnal day, and the only air traffic was a couple of helicopters, the odd Ultra, and Penny. She hung in the air above Carfax Avenue, high enough that she was little more than a white dot to the people below.

  Of course, that made the people below into ants. On a Saturday morning the streets below were full of shoppers and tourists, probably mostly the former. Uptown was noted for shops, clubs, and restaurants. There were some large hotels, but at this time of year, neither summer nor Christmas, the tourists were fewer in number.

  She turned and flew south toward Downtown. From here it was difficult to tell the difference. Both areas were built within the last twenty or thirty years, and both had been designed by people wanting to make a name for themselves. Downtown was the business district, the ‘New Wall Street’ in the eyes of many, and it had more offices than shops, but it still looked the same.

  It was a little depressing. She had come from a small sort of town and here she was hanging above… It was just so urban. The buildings were vast! Huge towers of glass and steel, and all she could really see was blue and grey. Down at ground level she was used to it, sort of. And Friendship was not the prettiest part of the city, but it seemed to have more colour. Up here…

  ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Penny twisted in the air and her heart jumped into her throat. Hovering behind her, large as life, and twice as glaring in the bright sunlight, was Ultranova. He was not looking at the city.

  ‘It’s, uh…’ Up close, and she had never seen him this close before, he was not quite as good-looking as his reputation suggested; certainly not unattractive, far from it, but no better to look at than Bobby. There was a lot more muscle on his frame, showed off perfectly by the skintight suit he wore, and the suit suggested he was better endowed. Embarrassingly, it also suggested he was enjoying the view rather a lot and Penny fixed her eyes firmly on his face. That was solid, strong, but softer than she had expected. His blonde hair, ruffled by the wind, was fairly short. She knew he avoided expensive hairdressers precisely because the wind reduced even the best cuts to ‘tousled’ in seconds when you were flying. He had a slightly Roman nose, a full mouth, and blue eyes. The eyes were nice, in a slightly cold way.

  ‘New Millennium City,’ he proclaimed, spreading his arms, ‘the finest city in the world. Where paupers can become kings.’ His arms dropped suddenly and he floated closer, right arm extending. ‘My apologies, I should introduce myself. I am Ultranova.’

  Penny giggled and took his hand to shake. ‘I, uh, know,’ she replied and then her eyes widened as he swept her hand up to his lips. Well, he was charming…

  ‘I suppose you do, but I find myself at something of a loss. I feel sure I would remember anyone so beautiful if I had met them before…’

  On the other hand, he was trying too hard. ‘I’m Cygnus, and we’ve never met.’ She gave a gentle pull on her hand since he did not seem to feel like letting it go. ‘I’m new and I usually work at night.’

  ‘Night,’ he replied, smiling, ‘is for more pleasurable pursuits.’

  Okay, trying way too hard. The need to tell the greatest hero in the state to cool his heels was, thankfully, averted by the sound of sirens drifting up from below. Penny spotted the car, something small and fast, being pursued down 12th Avenue by two police cruisers, and then she saw Ultranova flying past her as he headed toward it. Well she was not going to leave him to work alone; maybe she could help.

  Swinging around she dived after him.

  ~~~

  Inside the car, three men in full face masks were having the time of their lives.

  ‘We got, three, maybe four million here,’ the one in the back said, the grin evident in his voice. ‘All in negotiable, untraceable, bearer bonds. We’re made.’

  ‘Soon as we lose these cops, yeah,’ the driver replied, his attention split between his mirrors and the road ahead of him. He was acutely aware that one slip at this point would end it, but he was still thinking up ways to spend half a million bucks.

  ‘We�
��re made all right,’ the third said, his voice suddenly pouring water on the enthusiasm. ‘Capes.’

  ‘Who is it?’ the driver asked, not wanting to look away from his driving.

  ‘Looks like Ultranova and… some stripper.’

  ‘Well forget the bitch, shoot him.’

  ‘He’s bulletproof!’

  ‘I know. We just have to keep him off us until we can get to the rendezvous. Then it’s clean sailing. Shoot at him!’

  The passengers both opened windows, leaned out, and opened up with their Uzis.

  ~~~

  Penny was a little surprised to discover that she was catching up. She was actually faster than Ultranova. Who knew? Then the lead started flying.

  She twisted right, but quickly realised that the thugs in the sports car were far more concerned with the powerhouse that was Ultranova than they were with the slight girl in the brief costume. As she watched, he fired back, a beam of incandescent light lancing toward the car and just missing. Tarmac exploded behind the car forcing a cruiser to swerve violently. This was going to become dangerous.

  ‘Keep them busy,’ Penny yelled toward the hero. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

  She thought she heard him yell something as she dived toward the traffic, but she was too busy wondering whether she could really pull this off to listen. Swinging around she came up behind the cruisers and closed in on the sports car. If they had been on an open road she figured they might have been able to outrun her, but here, in traffic, their speed was limited and she was closing the gap. The car jinked left into oncoming traffic, swinging right onto 10th Street and she moved, grabbing the edges of the roof over the driver and passenger, and then pulling upward.

  It was more than she had ever even tried to lift before and the pull on her arms felt like it was going to yank them out of their sockets… And then there was the sound of an over-revving engine and she was applying the brakes as she held the car in the air twenty feet above the traffic streaming along below.