Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly

by Niall Teasdale

  It took a little help from Svetilo to get the youngest child from around Penny’s neck, and then they were climbing back into the sky.

  ‘Do I call you Dom or Svetilo?’ Penny asked as they crossed the roof.

  ‘You noticed Andy uses both?’ the Russian replied. ‘It’s courteous to use the codename in front of civilians, unless you know the Ultra does not mind. Andy does not. He is not that fond of his codename.’ She dropped into the alley behind the building and aimed a blast of light at the window they were going in through. Then she gave Penny a grin. ‘You can call me Dom any time you like.’

  Penny recalled what June had said about the Russian woman preferring blondes. Was Svetilo actually hitting on her in the middle of a fire? Shaking her head, she swept down into the lounge of yet another low-rent apartment, pushing the thought aside, especially since she was a little alarmed to discover that she did not really mind…

  Fire Bug was kneeling beside a frail-looking woman in a wheelchair. There was a boy of about fourteen standing beside them trying his hardest not to look scared, and managing it a lot better as two attractive women flew in to land beside them.

  The fireman looked up at them. ‘Margaret here has been very helpful,’ he said. ‘She says there’s an old couple in the top corner apartment, at the back. They may be stuck. I did a quick sweep of this floor from the hall and I couldn’t see anyone else…’

  ‘You can see through walls?’ Penny asked.

  ‘I can see through walls,’ he replied. ‘As long as they aren’t too thick, and the ones here are cardboard. You two get Margaret and Sam out, then head up to the roof. You can go in through the roof access, and I’ll make sure it’s clear after I’ve checked the floor.’ His lips quirked. ‘Okay, Sam, which of the pretty ladies would you like to carry you out?’

  Sam stared wide-eyed at the two women, and then pointed to Svetilo. She grinned broadly at him, lifted him into her arms, and started for the window.

  ‘He’s taking after his grandfather, that one,’ Margaret said as Penny and Fire Bug helped her out of her chair. ‘Always was fond of a big bust.’ Now that she mentioned it, Margaret was probably pushing eighty, but she had once had a very respectable bosom herself.

  ‘Svetilo certainly has that in spades,’ Penny said, grinning. ‘Now, don’t worry. I may look slim, but I’m very strong.’

  ‘Oh, my dear, I’m a bag of bones these days. Besides, I saw you lifting a car on the news. I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

  ~~~

  There were two more cruisers at the scene, an ME’s wagon, and a black sedan which Penny knew had Kevlar plates in the bodywork because the UID tended to go places where bulletproofing was advisable. She sat with her behind on the bonnet of the latter vehicle while one of the agents, a woman she did not know, talked to the cops and the second, who she did know, interviewed her.

  ‘It’s probably open and shut,’ Agent Dannon said as he watched her cleaning blood off her sword. ‘The machine gun is likely enough to write this off as justifiable, but…’

  ‘There are formalities to go through,’ Twilight finished for him. ‘I know. One of the reasons I don’t use lethal force much is the paperwork.’

  He flashed her a smile. He was an odd one. She knew he had a personal dislike of Ultras, though she had never found out why. It was a strange trait in someone who spent a lot of his time dealing with Ultrahumans, but then again he normally dealt with the bad ones so maybe a little hatred was warranted.

  On the other hand, he seemed to like Twilight. It was not entirely unreciprocated, if she were honest. Andrea certainly liked him. He was big, strong, and he had a nice smile. Andrea had allowed herself a little fantasy of lying in his arms. They looked like the kind of arms that you could feel safe and warm lying in. Twilight could not afford the luxury.

  Either way, she had concluded that his intolerance did not extend to normals who fought crime, just to people with powers. That was not an entirely attractive trait, but she could understand it. He thought she was a normal human with a sword, a gun, and a bag of tricks, so she was okay in his eyes. If he knew the truth…

  ‘You know,’ he said, ‘the heavy weaponry seems a little excessive for a jewellery heist.’

  ‘That thought had occurred to me, yes.’

  ‘There’s a rumour that David Tonaldo has put fifteen thousand on your head.’

  ‘I didn’t know the bounty had gone that high.’

  He did not fail to notice the implied point: she knew the Tonaldo family were gunning for her. ‘You’re hanging around with that Cygnus woman now, right? It’s twenty for her.’

  Twilight raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m insulted. I’ve been treading on his toes for way longer than she has.’

  ‘Yeah, well you killed one of his senior lieutenants tonight. Maybe he’ll up your price.’ He frowned. ‘What are you doing with that… woman anyway?’

  ‘Cygnus? We bonded over a weapon shipment Tonaldo was moving in. We actually make a good team, even if I’d never have thought it.’ Her eyes narrowed a little. She had an unaccountable urge to defend her partner. ‘Look, I know you don’t like Ultras. Don’t know why, and I don’t need to know why, but she’s one of the good ones. She’s new, a bit naive, still learning the ropes. She’s flashy, I’ll give you that, but she’s no publicity hound. She could be making a fortune letting people take pictures of her, or starring in movies, but she’s out there saving people from muggers. Don’t be so hard on her.’

  There was a slight flare of anger in his eyes, and then he calmed just as quickly. ‘Maybe. She’s over in Churchton right now with Fire Bug and Svetilo pulling people out of a burning building. That’s where we’re going next. Not really our business, but we’ve been asked to make a showing.’

  ‘Burning building?’ Twilight said, pushing to her feet. ‘I don’t suppose you could give me a lift?’

  ~~~

  Svetilo yanked the rooftop door off its frame and both of the women could feel the heat pouring through immediately.

  ‘Chyort!’ Svetilo exclaimed. Penny was not sure what it meant, but it seemed appropriate.

  Well it was hot, but Fire Bug was standing there in the stairwell and there were no actual flames to be seen.

  ‘These are supposed to be fire stairs,’ he said. ‘Someone made sure they’re more like a chimney. We need to get these people out, now.’

  Penny stepped forward and, for a second it seemed like the heat would be too much. Then, suddenly, it was not so bad, as though her body had adjusted to the temperature. They went down a floor and out onto the, significantly cooler, landing, and Fire Bug pointed to a door which Svetilo ploughed through as though it was paper.

  ‘The heat in there is going to light up the whole building soon,’ the fireman commented as they moved in, watched by an old couple who looked more shocked at their arrival than at the impending doom. ‘We need these two out, then… Svetilo, I need you to pull one of the long hoses up so we can pump water in at the top and cool it off.’

  ‘Cool would be good,’ the Russian grumbled.

  ‘And me?’ Penny asked.

  ‘We’re going in the bottom. We need to find the seat of the fire.’ He turned his attention to the two residents. ‘Margaret from the floor below said we’d probably find you here. These ladies are going to get you out. Then we’ll see if we can stop the fire.’

  ‘You’ll be lucky, son,’ the old man said. ‘Twenty years on the ladders and I never seen anything as fast as this.’ He coughed out a laugh. ‘Always thought a fire’d get me…’

  Penny lifted him into her arms as Svetilo blew the window out. ‘Not today, sir,’ Penny said. ‘Not while we’re here.’ Lifting off, she headed for the open sky.

  ~~~

  Twilight, Dannon, and his colleague, who had introduced herself as Special Agent Heather Bryant, stepped out of the sedan to see Svetilo airlifting two firemen and a hose up the side of the building.

  They spotted Cygnus easily; that costume really did s
tand out though it looked rather more smudged than usual. Good thing it also looked like it would wash easily. Fire Bug was with her, along with a couple of firemen. She was standing there meekly as the men discussed something and she gave them a quick smile as they approached, stepping away from the group to meet them.

  ‘Special Agent Dannon,’ she said, nodding to the man. ‘Twilight, what are you doing here? And with UID agents?’

  ‘The Tonaldos set a trap for me, or us,’ Twilight replied. ‘A couple of cops sprang it. One’s in the hospital.’

  ‘And Twilight left one of the goons in a body bag,’ Dannon said, ‘which is why we were there. This is Special Agent Bryant, by the way. We were asked to come here after that and your partner felt a need to check on you.’

  Penny gave Twilight another smile, this one a little more timid. ‘Thanks, but he’s not here. Pretty sure it was him, but he’s gone.’ She frowned. ‘Which isn’t like him. He usually wants to see the flames.’

  ‘What’s happening?’ Twilight asked.

  Penny looked up at the roof. ‘We got everyone out. Svetilo’s helping to get a hose in through the roof access. The stairwell is an inferno and if there’s any hope of saving the building they need to get that cooled down. Fire Bug wants to go in and find out where it started. He thinks it’ll be easier to put it out if we know where it’s coming from. He wants me to go in with him.’

  ‘Okay,’ Twilight said, ‘count me in.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘This suit’s fire resistant. I’ll need one of those smoke masks.’ She looked around as Fire Bug approached. ‘Where are we going?’

  The fireman raised an eyebrow, and then reached into his coat for another mask. ‘We figure it started in the basement. They’re not stopping it spraying the ground floor, so something’s feeding it from below. If we, well, if I can kill that they might stand a fighting chance.’

  ‘Better get going then,’ Twilight suggested.

  They walked into the burning building in a bell of smoky, rank air. The fire retreated in front of them and, at first, it did not spring back behind. As they went deeper, however, the heat in the building began setting light to the walls and carpet behind them once Fire Bug’s influence was removed.

  ‘When did you catch my crazy?’ Penny asked quietly as they followed behind the fireman.

  ‘You’re my partner, remember. If this is some sort of trap, I might be able to help. Plus, I know a bit about chemicals and explosives. I may be able to help a little when we get down there.’

  ‘Well, thanks. The Tonaldos are serious about killing us then?’

  ‘Fifteen thousand dollar bounty on me, twenty on you.’

  ‘Really? I’d have put more on you.’

  ‘That’s what I said, and thanks for agreeing.’

  Fire Bug came to a stop in front of a metal door. He put out a hand and then pulled it back quickly. ‘This isn’t going to be good. Okay. You two stand back as far as you can. I’ll kick it open. There may be a backdraft, but I can take it.’

  Penny turned her back to the door, moved as far as she could within the ring of free space they had, and then put herself between Twilight and the door. ‘I may not be fireproof,’ she said, ‘but I’m more so than you.’

  ‘Not arguing,’ Twilight replied, closing her eyes.

  There were a couple of loud thuds and then a wash of heat, but, as far as Penny could tell, no flames. The two women looked around to see Fire Bug standing in the space beside the door, smoke rising gently from his coat.

  ‘We’re going to need to be careful,’ he said as they stepped closer. ‘The fire probably ate a lot of the oxygen down there. If you start finding it hard to breathe, tell me.’

  Behind the broken door, stairs led down into the basement. Fire Bug produced a heavy torch to find the way, though Penny could see fine without it; what she saw was blackened brickwork. The fire had been intense down here and with more oxygen it was trying to reassert itself.

  The room at the bottom had been worse than gutted. There was a large boiler in one corner, which had presumably supplied hot water to the building until it had been reduced to copper slag. Charred wooden beams held the ceiling up. Above them the floorboards were pitch black and Penny was amazed that they were still even partially intact. The entire room creaked as they walked into it and looked around.

  Twilight scuffed her heel on the concrete floor and left a deep gash in it. The aggregate had been reduced to crumbling powder by the heat. Penny’s eyes flicked around the room, taking in their surroundings, the smells, the sounds, and…

  ‘He used an accelerant. Not just petrol, something heavier. Coated the walls and floor with it. Then he set it ablaze with one of his heat blasts. It burned so fiercely… But someone saw him.’ She turned, moving to a corner of the room. There was a pile of blackened material there, misshapen and almost impossible to identify until you made out the shape of a bone sticking up. ‘The building super, maybe…’

  ‘Where are you getting this from?’ Twilight asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Penny replied. ‘I can just… It’s like I can see it all happening. He roasted the room. He wanted it to burn hot even though he planned to use the stairwell at the other end to do most of the work. He wanted it to burn so that…’

  Her eyes widened and she darted into the middle of the room just as the main support beam sagged and started to give. Reaching up, she caught the crumbling wood in both hands and pushed upward. The ceiling groaned alarmingly, and then settled.

  ‘A trap,’ Fire Bug said. ‘He wanted someone to come down here and get caught under the falling ceiling.’

  ‘I’ve got it,’ Penny said. ‘You two get out and I’ll follow.’

  ‘Not a chance. As soon as you let go that’s coming down on your head, and if I leave this place is going to turn into a fair imitation of Hell. We need to brace that beam, but we can’t get out…’

  ‘I can,’ Twilight said, starting for the door.

  ‘You’ll roast!’ the fireman said. ‘That suit won’t stop the fire getting to you.’

  She looked back at him. ‘I can get out. Hold on in there, partner. Be back as soon as I can.’ Then she stepped out of the door and turned up the stairs.

  ‘She’s crazy,’ Fire Bug said to Penny.

  ‘She can do it,’ Penny replied through gritted teeth. ‘I know something about her you don’t.’

  ~~~

  ‘How long’ve they been in there?’ Dannon asked.

  ‘Five, six minutes,’ Bryant replied.

  ‘I don’t like it. Why’d she have to go in there?’

  ‘Twilight?’

  ‘Yes! Fire Bug I can understand, and Cygnus is strong and bulletproof. Twilight’s got that suit between her and the fire.’

  ‘And Fire Bug. She’ll be fine.’ Bryant was smirking behind her colleague. ‘If I didn’t know better I’d say you’ve a bit of a thing for her.’

  ‘Yeah, right. With that mask of hers all you can see are her eyes and jaw.’

  ‘It’s a good jaw, and her ass looks sweet in that tight…’

  ‘There!’ Dannon snapped, as much to stop the line of questioning as because something had moved amid the smoke pouring out of the building’s front door. A second later Twilight ran out, heading straight for the agent and the lieutenant standing beside them.

  ‘We need to get a jack in there,’ she said as soon as she had pulled her smoke mask off. ‘In the basement. Thermite set it up to collapse. Cygnus is holding the bloody ceiling up! You’ll need to supress the fire to get down there, but you’ve got to get down there or they’re both dead.’

  The lieutenant scowled at the building. ‘We can probably get in, but the jacks are heavy. It’ll take time…’

  ‘Nyet.’ Svetilo dropped to the road beside them. ‘It will not. So long as your men can keep me soaked, that is. I can carry the jack and my shield should keep me safe enough if they can stop the heat becoming too much.’

  ‘You might need
to make a dash down the stairs,’ Twilight told her. ‘I don’t know if they can get enough water flow down there.’

  ‘That’s insane,’ Dannon commented.

  ‘Volunteering for the SOP super-soldier project was insane,’ Svetilo replied. ‘This… This is just a little crazy. Where is this jack?’

  ~~~

  ‘How are you holding up?’ Fire Bug asked, his eyes on the beam over Penny’s head.

  ‘I think I’m an inch shorter, and my hands are a little burned.’ She gave him a grin. ‘I think I’m going to be feeling this one for the next week.’

  ‘Huh. It could take them a while to get down here. Are you sure you can hold it?’

  ‘So far, yes. If I feel it slipping then you make a run for the door, okay?’

  ‘Not a chance…’

  ‘I might survive this coming down on me. You haven’t a hope in Hell. If I say so, you run. No arguments.’

  ‘Mind if I argue until it comes to that?’

  ‘Don’t make me laugh.’

  He grinned at her. ‘I can’t believe someone who looks like you is holding a building up.’

  ‘It’s not the whole building. I don’t think I could do the whole building.’

  ‘Luckily, you won’t have to, khoroshen’kaya.’ A cloud of steam rushed into the cellar, resolving after a second into Svetilo, her dress clinging to her body and her hair a matted, frizzy mess, but she was holding a huge metal contraption which looked like it might be some sort of lifting gear.

  ‘That’s a good look for you,’ Penny said, ‘and I’m not just saying that because you’re about to save my butt.’

  ‘Your butt is far too sexy to let it get burned and crushed.’ The Russian put the jack down beside Penny and turned to Fire Bug. ‘I am hoping that you know how this thing works because I have no idea.’

  ‘We need to get it under the beam, in front of Cygnus if possible. Think you can hold that and step back a little?’