‘There was someone there!’ That was the observant one.
‘I didn’t’ see anyone.’
‘There was! I think it was…’
He cut off with a yelp as she snapped her batons into their forearms. Automatics clattered across the sidewalk. She ducked under a wild swing and slammed her elbow into her attacker’s guts, winding him. There was pain in her back as Mister Observant landed a punch; she ignored it, swinging around to lash a baton into his face. Turning again, she drove her knee up into a face which was begging for it, and then turned to face the last man standing, even if it was more like reeling.
‘You… you’re that Twilight. Mister Tonaldo’ll pay a lot for your head.’
‘You won’t be collecting.’ Snap kick to the knee. She felt his kneecap give and heard the scream of pain, and cut it off by smashing the butt of a baton into the side of his head.
Then she listened. No sirens, no sounds at all. There were still people living around here, but none of them was going to call the cops when a fight started in the street. There were fake bank notes scattered all over the road. If anyone noticed they would come running, she was pretty sure of that.
Checking the pockets of her last victim, she found his phone and dialled 911. Technically, this was a borderline emergency, but if the police did not get there fast enough they would need riot teams.
The Everglades, FL.
‘Did you happen to see the news today?’ Dom asked as they watched Jon snapping pictures of Shona. The blonde was sitting on a wooden chair on the jetty beside Ever’s hut, dressed in a tiny bikini bra and a pair of ragged, blue-jean shorts, pretending to fish in the swamp. Ever was standing nearby, watching the proceedings with a grin on her face, and ensuring that none of the wildlife disturbed them.
‘No,’ Penny replied.
‘Your friend Twilight made the front page of the Millennial Times without you. Captured a cool million in counterfeit twenties in northern Churchton.’
Penny grinned. ‘Good for her.’
‘Someone actually got a picture and a couple of words out of her.’
‘Oh, she won’t like that.’
‘The words were printable. Perhaps some of your media savvy is wearing off on her.’
‘Huh. What is it you’re planning to do with me today?’
Dom seemed to consider for a moment. ‘Once we have some shots of Ever on her own, I want to do some group shots. You and Ever, you and June, all three of you. There is a pool of fairly clear water on the island behind the hut. Ever says it is waist deep and quite safe. We will get some nude shots in that, see which comes out best.’
‘Nude?’ Penny almost squeaked.
‘This will not be a problem, I hope? No one will see anything too intimate.’
Naked in a pool of water with June, or Ever for that matter? Yes of course it would be a problem. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m just not…’
‘You fly around New Millennium City in a semi-translucent costume which covers barely anything,’ Dom said, smiling. ‘Do not tell me you are modest. You have exceptional body, yes? You have nothing to be ashamed of.’
Penny had spent years being ashamed… No, that was wrong. Penny had never been ashamed of her body; she had just spent a long time thinking of it in negative terms. Now she was Cygnus, and she was fucking stunning! Damn right she had nothing to be ashamed of. Cygnus was not ashamed of anything! It was time to be Cygnus.
~~~
‘You seem… different,’ June commented. They were both up to their waists in water, hair slicked back, and naked. June was speaking sotto voce since Jon was busy snapping photographs.
‘I do?’ Cygnus replied.
‘Uh-huh. For starters, we’re breast-to-breast, buck naked, and you seem to be enjoying yourself.’
‘I’m being Cygnus. Cygnus thinks you’re hot and doesn’t have any problems with showing off.’
‘You’re talking like she’s a different person.’
‘Turn a little toward me, girls,’ Jon suggested. ‘Cygnus, if you keep your right arm roughly where it is… Yes, that’s perfect. No nipples.’
‘Well… isn’t she?’ Cygnus continued. ‘Penny is a doormat. She’s got no self-confidence. She’s…’
‘Got more humility?’
‘She’s got a lot to be humble about.’ Cygnus’ fingers stroked over June’s ass beneath the water. ‘And she’d never touch you like this.’
‘What happened to destroying our friendship?’
‘I’ll probably start worrying about that again when the camera’s off me.’
‘Then Penny comes back?’
Cygnus’ fingers shifted and June let out a tiny gasp just as Jon hit the shutter release. ‘Perfect, June!’ the photographer said.
‘Probably,’ Cygnus said.
~~~
Dom and Jon had decided on something a little different for Ever and Cygnus. They had the two girls lying on the jetty, Cygnus against Ever’s green back, limbs and hair providing suitable censorship.
‘You are,’ Ever said softly, ‘more like me than Svetilo.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Cygnus replied.
‘The power Ultras wield comes from an energy… outside of normal understanding.’
‘Oh… Well, yes. The scientists call it “cosmic energy.”’
‘The weapons people have created to disable Ultras negate their ability to use or direct this energy, but they do not work on me. My power comes from the swamp, from nature. Whether it is a different energy, or a different way of accessing the same energy, it is not the same.’
‘Okay.’ The girls moved as one, angling more toward the camera. Ever shifted her leg to ensure coverage below the waist and Cygnus found herself with an armful of green breasts.
‘You feel more like me than Svetilo does,’ Ever said.
Cygnus grinned, and then straightened her face quickly. ‘I’m no nature spirit, Ever.’
‘No, obviously, but you have tremendous power, and it flows… from within.’
Red had said she smelled different… And the device Pulya had used to negate Dom’s powers had done nothing to Cygnus… Maybe she was different somehow. If she was, how could she find out? And did she really want to know?
~~~
‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ Ever asked as she mock-frolicked with June and Cygnus in the pool.
‘Uh… not sure,’ June replied.
‘What are we doing tomorrow, Dom?’ Cygnus asked in a louder voice. She had her back to Jon and the camera was not going to notice her speaking.
‘You three have the day off.’ the Russian replied. ‘It’s time I got in front of the camera or we will have no pictures of me for the calendar.’
‘Would you like a tour of my swamp?’ Ever said. ‘I can show you it as no one else can.’
‘I’m game,’ June replied.
‘Sure,’ Cygnus agreed. ‘We get to take a boat, right?’
Ever grinned, and splashed Cygnus with water. ‘Unless you want to carry both of us, yes.’
‘Yes!’ Jon exclaimed. ‘That’s what this needs. More of that, ladies.’
June and Ever looked at each other, and giggled, turning toward Cygnus.
‘Oh no,’ Cygnus said, ‘no ganging…’ Then the water hit her.
New Millennium City, MD.
David Tonaldo turned the device he had been given over in his hands. It looked like a medical inhaler, complete with an unmarked container of something inserted in the top. It was unmarked, because the something it contained was not any form of medication.
‘How many doses in this thing?’ he asked.
The man in the sharp suit with the immaculately cut blonde hair smiled at him. ‘Three, Mister Tonaldo.’
‘And what, exactly, does it do?’
‘Makes you feel like God.’
Tonaldo looked up at him. His name was Hernando Vasquez and he belonged to a small criminal organisation which wanted to be bigger, hailing f
rom Brazil, or what was left of it after the Amazon Queen had claimed her share. Tonaldo had already decided he did not like the man, but the new drug he was selling could, potentially, be a lucrative proposition.
‘I should consider a less blasphemous choice of words, young man.’
Vasquez coughed. ‘You feel incredible, powerful. They say it’s like being an Ultra, except that you do not end up with powers, just a powerful desire to feel like that again.’
‘And what if you’re a real Ultra?’
‘We tried it on one. It was… explosive.’
Tonaldo frowned. ‘In what way?’
‘He exploded,’ Vasquez replied. ‘We have heard of a couple of other Ultras using it. One is in a coma, the other… her mind is gone. She sits in a hospital, staring at the wall. Has to be fed baby food.’
Tonaldo nodded. He had little love for Ultras, very little love at all. It sounded perfect. ‘We would need volume, and bulk rates. We would sell low to begin. This is something our customers would need to be hooked on, and then we can up the price.’
Vasquez’s smile faded. ‘Excelsior is not cheap to produce, and our operation cannot make large amounts yet.’
Tonaldo tossed the inhaler back to Vasquez and turned toward the door. ‘Then you come back to me when you can give me what I want.’
~~~
Twilight watched the meeting through binoculars from the rooftop opposite the hotel. It did not seem to have gone especially well for either side, but if Tonaldo was willing to leave the security of his apartments for a meeting, she wanted to know what it was about.
The tanned blonde in the expensive suit was an unknown. Twilight hated unknowns. Unknowns were likely to upset plans. It looked as though he had been trying to sell something. The man had the look of a South American used car salesman about him. Putting down her binoculars, she took out the small camera she carried around with her. Then she thought better of it; the camera was more useful for photographing documents than taking pictures at long range. This was going to call for an alternate strategy.
Hunkering down for a wait, Twilight lifted her binoculars and began her stakeout.
Miami, FL.
‘So am I talking to Cygnus, or Penny?’ June asked. She was standing in the doorway of the bathroom watching the tall blonde brush her teeth.
There was spitting and then a mumbled, ‘Both?’ Bending, she cupped a handful of water into her mouth, rinsed, spat again, and turned around. ‘Can’t I be both?’
‘Not sure. Penny doesn’t tease me like Cygnus does.’
Penny held up her hands, grinning. ‘No teasing, unless it gets better shots, and there are no cameras around.’ She paused. ‘At least I hope there are no cameras around.’
June shook her head, returning the grin. ‘I don’t think there are. Dom had the rooms swept by security. You got your shirt wet.’
Cygnus looked down at her chest and the water stain on the front of the camisole she was wearing. ‘I did… damn. Oh well…’ And she pulled her top off without a thought. ‘Come on, bed time. We’re going out early with Ever, remember?’
June’s brow wrinkled. She was no longer sure who the woman she was about to get into bed with thought she was, or even if it stayed constant for longer than two minutes. Whatever, she was fairly sure the ‘no teasing’ promise was not going to be kept.
New Millennium City, MD.
The car salesman was on the move. Twilight watched as he left the room, noted the black town car pulling up at the front of the hotel, and waited until she saw him appear before making her own move.
Appearing beside the car, she waited for him to step into the back with the courtesy light illuminating his features, and then straightening, snapping a quick picture before vanishing back into the shadows.
She had her picture, so leaving was an option, but he was going somewhere and it might be worth her while tailing him. The car pulled away and she considered for a second before shadow-stepping down the street to a new vantage point. The hotel was in the north of Uptown, and the salesman was heading south. Tonaldo had been risking his safety coming here, but a swanky hotel was not the best place to mount a sudden assassination attempt. The further south the salesman went, the more he moved away from Tonaldo’s zone of influence. Twilight frowned, and then ported down the street to follow.
The journey ended at a newly built, unoccupied apartment block on the western edge of Friendship. The city was expanding; not quickly, but a little more enthusiastically than some of the outlying towns wished. The building was one of several in this area which had been constructed in the last year. New Millennium was the new New York, with the dubious advantage of being closer to the national capital. People tended to dislike business and government being too close together, and now they were physically closer than ever.
There seemed to be no guards, even mundane ones from some company. There were flashes of light on the second storey, which suggested that there were people in there. Spotting what looked like an empty corridor on the floor above, she side-stepped through a shadow and then headed back toward the fire stairs at the back. One floor down, and she was just about to open the door when she heard the voices.
‘Room two-oh-four… Should be here.’
‘That’s the fire door, idiot. It’s this way.’
‘Why does this one want to meet here?’
‘Doesn’t matter. He wants to meet here so… What the fuck’s that?!’
‘That, gentlemen, is an example of what will happen to you if you cross me.’
The first two voices had Spanish or Portuguese accents, the third was American and oddly familiar. No one she could really place, but it was as if she had heard it before.
‘Where are you?’ the salesman asked. ‘Why can’t I see you?’
‘No one sees Ghostfire,’ the third voice said. ‘Enter the apartment. We will talk inside.’
There was the sound of a door opening and then closing. The voices were muted to nothing. Ghostfire? The mysterious backer of Thermite’s breakout. Apparently, from what she had heard, he was capable of invisibility. Twilight opened the fire door and peeked out.
There was… something standing in front of one of the doors on the corridor. At ten yards Twilight could smell it: rotting flesh and chemicals. The figure looked like a zombie, complete with pale, cadaverous skin; there were a few magicians who claimed it was possible to reanimate the dead, but this thing did not look like it had been brought back by magic, whatever magic was. She could see metal around the base of its skull, even an antenna mounted over one ear. This… creature was the result of some sort of sick, perverted science.
It was also in the way, but the antenna suggested it was in contact with Ghostfire or one of his people. The room had to have a fire escape… Turning, she slipped into the shadows, emerging outside and looking for a balcony or fire escape. It did not take long, but it was long enough that things seemed to have gone fairly sour already.
‘You’re telling me,’ Ghostfire was saying as she landed on the balcony outside the apartment’s window, ‘that your… Excelsior destroys Ultras? That you want to sell me, an Ultra, a drug which causes mental collapse or death?’
‘Uh, well, you don’t sell it to Ultras…’
‘It’s a vapour, is it not? Imagine the potential. Weaponised, you have the first anti-Ultra gas, and it even pacifies normals. I should kill both of you! Instead… If I ever see or hear of you attempting to trade this poison in New Millennium, you’ll end up like the door guard.’ There was a pause and then a scream, almost a wail; someone was terrified. ‘Are we quite clear?’
‘Yes!’ The salesman’s voice, so it was the other one who was still screaming. ‘Yes, sir. We will leave in the morning.’
Twilight turned and stepped into shadow. She would talk to Dannon about this. If someone was trying to sell some sort of poisonous drug, it was probably more than a local matter, and she could tell him about Ghostfire at the same time.
~~~
‘They were running so fast they didn’t even think of the fact that I was still holding their sample,’ Ghostfire said as he dropped the inhaler onto Kopf’s bench.
‘I don’t expect they will be back for it,’ Kopf replied, ignoring it for now. He was in the middle of a delicate distillation.
‘I want to know how it works, what it does, and how to counter it. It could make a very effective weapon, but not if I’m going to die from it.’
‘I will begin work in the morning.’
There was silence for a second. Kopf did not expect it to last; his protégé liked the sound of his own voice, especially when he had done something he wished to crow about.
‘What is so important that you can’t spare me a moment’s attention?’
‘The temperature of the flask must be kept within a very tight band, otherwise the distillate will be of insufficient purity and I will have another failure.’
‘Have you ever considered the possibility that it isn’t possible to give someone powers?’
‘Yes,’ Kopf replied. ‘In fact, I think it likely that a full manifestation of the gene will do nothing more than make it more likely that powers can develop in an individual under the correct circumstances.’
‘Then… why keep trying?’
‘I am a scientist,’ Kopf stated, his accent thickening. ‘I will give up when I have exhausted all possible ways of achieving my goal.’ His thin lips curled slightly. ‘That, and because I enjoy hearing the test subjects scream.’
The Everglades, FL, 12th November.
The boat had a shallow draught, screened water-jet engines, no cabin to speak of, and a flat forward deck which June was lying on wearing denim shorts over a bikini. Ever and Cygnus were in the back, and it was the latter who was driving. Ever did not get on well with machines.
‘Technology makes me uncomfortable,’ Ever was saying as they cruised at a fairly leisurely pace through the waterways. ‘Anything unnatural makes me uncomfortable, actually.’
‘Is that why Dom said she would make sure you wore natural fibres if they put you in anything?’ Cygnus asked.
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