True Dark

by Niall Teasdale

  Cygnus smiled. ‘I can understand that. And here come the boys in blue. Do you want to handle this or–’

  Freedom lifted into the air. ‘You have it. I’m just a tourist.’

  ‘Sure. See you around.’ Cygnus watched as the great man flew away and then she turned to the pair of uniforms heading her way.

  ‘Was that Captain Freedom?’ one of them asked, his eyes on the vanishing white dot.

  ‘Sure was,’ Cygnus replied. ‘He stopped this idiot from ruining someone’s night.’

  ‘It’s amazing he even wants to help people after nearly thirty years in a dead volcano. Good thing he can’t remember most of it.’

  Cygnus thought of June’s comments on what she had seen on the TV. ‘Yeah. It certainly is.’

  15th July.

  ‘For New Millennium City residents wondering why the recent tour of major cities by Captain Freedom did not include our own town, the answer is a surprising one.’ The ACPN presenter had a distinctly upbeat look about her. Behind her, a portrait shot of Captain Freedom looking suitably heroic illustrated the story. ‘The Captain was seen overflying the city by a number of witnesses last night. One got a closer look when she was saved from a mugger by our national hero who then spent a few minutes talking to local heroine, Cygnus.’

  ‘He seemed nice enough,’ Penny commented. ‘Seemed like he didn’t like the government too much.’

  ‘During that conversation,’ the presenter went on, ‘the Captain let slip that he is looking for a place to call home here. He did have an apartment in New York as well as his more frequently used home on Andrews Air Force Base. It seems that Captain Freedom plans to make his new home in the new New York.’

  ‘Of course, he’ll probably spend a lot of time out of the city,’ Penny said. ‘He’s the nation’s hero, not ours.’

  ‘Yeah,’ June replied.

  ‘Still worried about him? He seemed fine to me.’

  ‘I’m sure he is.’

  ‘No, you’re not.’

  ‘No. I’m not.’

  San Francisco, CA, 17th July.

  The view from the restaurant was not perfect, but it also was not too bad. They had selected it – a fairly generic, French-style place near to Pier 43 – for its proximity to Pier 41, which was where the ferry to Tiberon embarked from. Basically, Damian had the weekend off, so did Bianca, and they had every intention of banging each other senseless back at her place for most of it. Going out for dinner prior to that was something of a concession to formal dating rules.

  ‘How’s work?’ Damian asked. Damian was having some trouble keeping his eyes on Bianca’s; she had decided on a deeply plunging red dress for the evening and she had magnificent breasts. There were still times when he found it hard to believe that a billionairess who looked like her was sticking with a homicide detective who looked like him. Whether she was wearing her blonde, shoulder-length wig, as now, or revealing her true, short, black hair, she was stunning. Her blue eyes flashed with intelligence and her body was the kind of thing sculptors would cry over if they ever managed to create something like it. Damian did not consider himself ugly – far from it. He was fit, tightly muscled, and possessed quite fine features with a strong jawline and a suitably rugged dent in his chin. His light-brown hair – which tried for blonde in places – tended to be unruly, his chin was frequently covered in stubble, and his eyes were not an especially memorable shade of brown, but he knew he looked pretty good. Compared to Bianca…

  ‘Same old, same old,’ Bianca replied. ‘We’ve been given the job of analysing some of the tech from the spacecraft brought down in DC and New Millennium City. I think that’s the most interesting thing to happen in the last quarter.’

  Damian’s lips twitched. ‘Are you allowed to tell me that?’

  ‘It’s not a secret. What we find out is a secret, but everyone knows the ships were brought down and the Pent– Well, it’s not the Pentagon any more, which is one of the reasons we have ships to analyse.’

  ‘Cygnus brought one down, right?’

  Bianca smirked. ‘According to the reports, Cygnus brought one down with one blast and then proceeded to flash-fry the entire crew in under a minute. Twilight made a habit of scaring shiploads of soldiers into insensibility before killing them with their own weapons.’ Her face straightened. ‘And no one knows where she is right now.’

  ‘She’s a scary woman to have wandering around like that.’

  ‘She sure is.’ Bianca was aware that Damian had… issues with Ultras. Given that he had almost entirely admitted to himself that he was one, he was trying to work through them, but his dislike still came out at times. ‘How’s your work going?’

  He grinned. ‘Same old, same old.’

  ‘Blood and paperwork? Hey, how’s that UID case they had you working?’

  ‘Huh. Still open, but that’s the UID’s problem. Parks hasn’t been seen since they decided to blare the fact we were looking for her all over the news. Even Hermann thinks that was a dumb move so she’s not blaming me that the case isn’t closed. It’s an Ultra case anyway, so it doesn’t reflect on my closure rate.’

  ‘But it irks that you couldn’t catch her.’

  ‘No. Yeah. Okay, so it does. Some anyway. I got the feeling that she was one of those Ultras that didn’t exactly get lucky with the powers she got. Maybe she could’ve been helped. I’ve got a bad feeling that help isn’t going to be an option now.’

  Bianca’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’

  ‘For all I think it was stupid, the UID posted her picture everywhere. Someone should’ve seen her by now. My guess is that someone else found her and is hiding her. She’s a junkie. I doubt it would be hard to get her to do anything they needed from her.’

  ‘Huh.’ There was a short pause and then Bianca said, ‘I’ve been hearing rumours of a new organisation starting up in the city.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Rumour has it that they’re all Ultras. Up at the top. There’s not much detail yet, but I think one of them is Diamond. She’s not actually an Ultra, but–’

  ‘But she thinks like a supervillain. Moving in on the old Nine Kings’ territories?’

  ‘Picking up control of a lot of Nine Kings’ castoffs, focusing on areas they used to focus on for now. Rumours also say they may be pushing at the Seven Princes in L.A. too.’

  ‘A war between them might get really messy. I’ll check with organised crime and see if they’ve heard anything.’

  Bianca nodded. ‘Enough shop talk. Got anything you’d like to do this weekend, or are we not getting out of bed?’

  ‘I think we should get up for at least a couple of hours.’

  ‘Probably… There’s always the hot tub.’

  ‘I’m not at all sure you’re taking this seriously.’

  Bianca shook her head. Her blonde mane swung about her face and neck. ‘I am very serious about the hot tub.’

  New Millennium City, MD, 18th July.

  Churchton was, Night Shift mused, a hole. A hive of scum and villainy, as the saying went. Despite having a general look that any Sith Lord would have been proud of, Night Shift had never been a fan of the movies. That kind of quote stuck in the memory, however. There were, he figured, good people here, but he had a strong feeling that the majority were out for themselves and up to no good. Maybe that was the cynical ex-cop-turned-hero talking. Maybe.

  Tonight was his fifth night prowling the streets and he had not been just watching. He had taken down half a dozen dealers and three muggers. He was aware that the other hero who made a regular showing in the area, Skadi, had not exactly been slacking off either. Despite this, there were always more of them and they never seemed to get the message. This place deserved a murderous vigilante.

  It was the kind of place where screams were not unheard of and the residents ignored them: getting involved was never a good idea. Of course, Night Shift did tend to get involved when there was screaming. Aside from being good for his rep, intervening in muggings an
d rapes kind of went with the whole hero deal. He was after bigger prey, but he was not fixated enough to ignore people in difficulty. This time, the scream sounded different and Night Shift’s sensor suite picked up a flare of light from an alley maybe thirty feet down the road. He was running by the time a second flare of light – more obvious this time – briefly brightened the night.

  He noticed the two bodies almost immediately. There was what looked a little like steam, maybe smoke, rising from one of them and Night Shift’s sensors picked up and emphasised the falling card fluttering onto the man’s chest. This was it! Blacklight was right here: the alley was not wide and it ended in a brick wall about fifty feet away. The only problem was that the bastard was invisible.

  ‘Blacklight,’ Night Shift said, the modulation in his helmet’s audio system giving his voice a menacing undertone, ‘you are under arrest according to the strictures of the Specialist–’

  ‘What the Hell are you talking about, man?!’ The voice sounded young, maybe late teens. There was anger tinged with confusion in there. This guy really thought he was on the side of law and order. ‘They’re scum. You should be on my side.’

  ‘I’m sure they are, but they deserve due process, not execution. Vigilantism is illegal and I’m here to stop you from murdering anyone else. Come quietly.’

  ‘Screw you!’

  Blacklight moved and Night Shift heard the footfall, moving forward and to the right to cut off the invisible boy’s path. Another step. The kid was trying to stay quiet, but Night Shift’s suit was built to make his senses far more acute than a typical human. Frankly, with the array of sensors in the helmet, Night Shift was amazed that the kid’s invisibility was working. Another step closer and they were still at an impasse.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ Blacklight said. ‘Get out of my way, old man.’

  ‘No chance, boy,’ Night Shift replied, emphasising the noun.

  This time, when Blacklight moved, Night Shift saw it. It was not much, a fringe effect as the light bent around the body, but it was there and it was right in front of him. Stepping forward to put as much force in as possible, Night Shift drove his power-enhanced fist into the middle of the fringe effect. There was a grunt of pain and the sound of someone stepping back. Following the sound, Night Shift threw another punch, but this time his target dodged back, away from the attack, and he hit nothing.

  ‘Shit!’ Blacklight said from the darkness, and then there was light. The filters on Night Shift’s visual system cut in to stop the glare from being overwhelming, but there was searing pain and the sudden sound of alarms going off. His armour had been penetrated and his vital signs were fluctuating badly. He staggered forward, dimly heard running feet going past him. Turning, he took a step forward to give chase. His vision went red and then black…

  ~~~

  ‘Cygnus,’ Denny’s voice said over Cygnus’s earpiece, ‘I am receiving a data stream on the frequency you gave Night Shift to contact us on.’

  Cygnus, flying over Churchton at about two hundred feet, frowned. ‘A data stream?’

  ‘Yes. From the XML tags, it appears to be an alert and biological data. From the information I am seeing, it would appear that he is injured. Low blood pressure which is dropping. I am attempting to get a location for the transmission.’

  Cygnus began looking around, but there was no obvious sign of the armoured man. ‘Hurry. Tell June she needs to get out here fast.’

  ‘Somewhere around Fourth Street and Avenue H. I cannot get closer without GPS coordinates, which are not in the stream.’ Cygnus was already turning toward the area Denny had indicated. ‘June is getting ready now. She should be there within two minutes. If you can find him, I can give her more precise directions.’

  ‘Right.’ Dropping into the crossroads, Cygnus shunted her powers around to her search and rescue configuration and began scanning. There was no immediate sign of a downed figure in powered armour so she shifted north a hundred feet or so and began circling. She had come around to the eastern side of the junction when her radar picked up something in an alley.

  Night Shift was lying on the tarmac, face down and still in full armour. There was no sign of injury, but the armour made it a little difficult to tell. She rolled him onto his back and found the carbonised hole in his chest plate. ‘Damn. He must’ve found Blacklight. Denny, get an ambulance out to my location. June, are you–’

  ‘I’m thirty seconds away,’ June’s voice came back.

  Cygnus flicked her gaze over the two other bodies in the alley and frowned. ‘Denny, put in a call to the UID too. Blacklight’s claimed another couple of victims. Hopefully just two.’

  ‘It may be close,’ Denny said. ‘His vitals are fluctuating. I have contacted both the emergency services and the UID.’

  ‘Thanks, Denny. If he lives, I’m going to make sure Night Shift buys you a nice new modem or something. He must’ve set up his suit computer to contact us if something went wrong. If he’d told us he’d found Blacklight, maybe he wouldn’t be bleeding out inside his suit now.’

  ‘He’s always been a loner,’ June countered. ‘Coming in on your position now.’ In her Astraea costume, June dropped from the sky, landing beside her girlfriend and Night Shift. She immediately dropped to one knee, resting her hands on the armour’s chest. She frowned. ‘I can’t… Maybe I need skin contact. Can you get him out of that suit.’

  ‘Hold his shoulders,’ Cygnus replied, shifting her powers and grabbing Night Shift’s helmet. It was not meant to come off without an instruction to disengage from the person inside it, but Cygnus was capable of applying a lot of pressure. She was being a little careful to be sure she did not take the head with the helmet, but the linkages gave way after a second and Night Shift’s face became visible.

  June slapped her palm onto his forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating. There was something, a sort of shimmering around her palm. ‘He has stabilised,’ Denny announced. ‘Well done, Astraea. It would appear that you have saved him. Perhaps he can buy you a modem too.’

  Cygnus grinned. ‘It’s more traditional to give flowers, Denny. I just thought you might prefer something different.’

  ‘I think I should like flowers too. They would make my lounge more attractive.’

  June was giggling. There might have been a little hysteria in there, but she was giggling. ‘I am so glad that worked. And we learned I need physical contact to heal people. I hope those two are beyond saving, because I think I blew my reserves on Night Shift.’

  Getting to her feet, Cygnus walked over to the two bodies further down the alley. She could see packets of brownish powder scattered on the ground around them. The wounds on their bodies were deep and the smell of charred flesh was obvious as she got closer. She checked for a pulse on each of them anyway, but the glassy stare of their eyes suggested they were dead. ‘No, you can’t save these two. They’re gone.’ Sirens could be heard in the distance. ‘And here comes the ambulance.’

  ~~~

  ‘I landed one good hit on him,’ Hoffman said. He was now awake and out of his Night Shift armour. He was also in the back of an ambulance because June’s healing touch had not repaired all the damage and he was to be taken to hospital to be checked over. ‘I caught a glimpse of him when he moved. His invisibility isn’t perfect when he’s in motion. The light distorts around the edges of his body. I hit him pretty hard. Not hard enough, but he’ll be badly bruised for a few days.’

  ‘He hit back a lot harder,’ Cygnus replied. ‘You were lucky, I think. Without your armour, I don’t think anything Astraea could have done would have kept you alive.’

  Hoffman’s eyes flicked to the blonde in the mask and barely-there costume. ‘You’re new.’

  ‘Technically,’ Astraea said, ‘I’m not really active yet. Still training. But Cygnus knew I could heal and get here fast.’

  ‘Well, thanks for your prompt save. Another few seconds…’ His gaze shifted back to Cygnus. ‘This kid, Blacklight, he thinks
he’s a good guy but he’s definitely not going to stop killing criminals unless someone stops him.’

  ‘I know. He’s hurt one of us now. I’ll find him and I’ll stop him.’

  Hoffman gave a shrug and then winced. ‘Looks like I won’t be able to help for a few days.’

  ‘At least your back’s intact this time.’

  ‘Huh. Thanks for reminding me.’

  ‘All right. We’ll be handling this now.’ All three of them turned to see Special Agent Halliwell standing at the back of the ambulance. ‘He’s our witness. You two can get lost. If we need to talk to you–’

  ‘Show some fucking respect, Halliwell!’ Hoffman roared. ‘Cygnus and Astraea just saved my damn life. And from what I’ve seen tonight, you are never going to be able to catch Blacklight, so you’d better hope Cygnus can.’

  ‘I’ll get him,’ Cygnus said, heading for the ambulance’s doors. ‘You get some rest, Night Shift. Leave Blacklight to me.’

  30th July.

  It was twelve days since Night Shift had been attacked and there had been no sign of Blacklight on the streets. Cygnus had worked out an entirely new configuration just for hunting the vigilante, based on Night Shift’s description and what else was known about the kid. It was possible that she had simply not seen him, but there had been no new bodies either. It likely meant that Blacklight had not been out, but Cygnus had, every night from four in the afternoon until two in the morning.

  ‘Maybe Night Shift hit him harder than he thought,’ June suggested over the airwaves. ‘Maybe he ended up dying of internal injuries somewhere. I mean, Night Shift has a mean punch. Just ask Jacob.’

  ‘Yeah… But no bodies found with those sorts of injuries and no admissions to hospitals.’ Night Shift was leaving the hunting to Cygnus – his armour needed to be repaired and, according to him, improved – but he was still in the city acting as a liaison between Cygnus and the UID who would not talk to her. The UID had been watching the hospitals and the morgue.

  ‘Okay, yes. So, maybe he’s been healing the bruises. Most people take a while to do that, you know?’

  ‘Says the girl who can heal bruises in a second.’