True Dark

by Niall Teasdale

  June was waiting for her, wearing a short lemon-coloured dress and looking nervous. ‘Get inside and wish me luck,’ she said as Cygnus approached.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘No, but I think it’s the only chance we have of stopping him.’

  ‘Thirty seconds,’ Denny announced.

  Cygnus leaned forward and kissed her girlfriend, her lips lingering for a second before she broke away and stepped inside the hall. June turned and looked up at the sky, waiting.

  Maybe fifteen seconds later, Captain Freedom came roaring in to land with a bone-crunching impact on the drive. Cygnus had always taught June that three-point landings like that were murder on the knees and a stupid idea. Freedom obviously did not care. It was dramatic, you had to give it that, but it was also sort of expected so it lacked the shock value he was probably hoping for. He straightened slowly and glared at June. The fact that barely any of his costume was now attached to him detracted from the intensity of the glare, but there was not a mark on his skin, despite everything that Cygnus had done to him.

  ‘Where is she?’ Freedom said.

  ‘Inside,’ June replied. ‘Why are you doing this?’ He took a step forward. ‘I know you lied,’ she said quickly.

  He paused, still glaring. ‘Captain Freedom doesn’t lie.’

  ‘Captain Freedom might not, but Alexander Harrow lied. You said you didn’t remember all that time in the rock. You do, don’t you?’

  ‘I–’

  ‘All that time sealed up in volcanic rock. No light. No way to move. No way out. Almost thirty years, almost half your life, with nothing but black rock for company. I’d have gone mad. What did you think about? How could you possibly stay sane down there?’

  ‘So would I. If I remembered–’

  ‘You remember. I can see it in your eyes.’ He had not stepped closer and the glare had shifted away from her face. She was getting to him. ‘So, why lie? Why didn’t you want the sympathy? You might as well tell me. I know you’ve set Cygnus up, so you’re going to have to kill me too.’

  ‘Why would they sympathise?’ He raised his eyes to hers again and took another step forward. ‘They left me there while the world changed. They forgot about me. They didn’t even try to get me out.’ Another step. ‘Do you want to know what I thought about? Revenge. I thought about what I would do when I finally escaped. I thought long and hard about how I could destroy the country that gave up on me.’ Another step; he was barely six feet away. ‘Kilmer made it easy with his space army. He’ll get nuclear weapons in space. It’s the only way we can attack alien ships up there. He’ll do it, and then I’ll arrange for them to fall.’ Another step and he was clenching his fists, ready to hit her. ‘But Cygnus… Cygnus could stop it. She could stop me. I saw what she did to Magmatic. She could stop me, so she has to die.’ He pulled back his right arm, ready to strike. ‘And so do you.’

  June smiled. ‘Well, if I’ve got this right, there’s just one little problem with that.’

  ‘Shut up,’ he hissed, and punched her in the face.

  June blinked once, licked her lips, and punched him in the guts. He seemed to fold around her fist, all the air escaping his body in one, sharp gasp. Then he was stumbling backward and falling onto the gravel. ‘That,’ June said, ‘was for trying to have me kidnapped.’

  He looked up at her, eyes wide. ‘What the Hell are you?’

  ‘Me? I’m just a normal human being. And so are you.’

  ‘I’m Captain Freedom! My power comes from the soil of–’

  ‘No, you’re Alexander Harrow. Your power comes from the people of America, not the country. You just confessed on live TV that you want to destroy the American people. Without even knowing they were giving you the power to do that, they’ve taken it away from you.’

  Behind June, the door opened and Cygnus stepped out. ‘Do you know what the really funny part of this is?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Do tell,’ June said, grinning as the man who was once Captain Freedom tried to sit up.

  ‘America never forgot about him. As you’ve just demonstrated, if they had forgotten about him, he’d have died down there in the dark. Even while they thought he was gone, everyone kept hoping he would return. Every year, they would commemorate his loss and keep the flame alive. Huh, every time Doctor Ultimate came up with a new method of searching for stuff underground, he took it to New York and tried to figure out where this useless bastard was. No one forgot him. Maybe it would’ve been better if we had.’

  Harrow struggled to his feet and stood there, glaring at the two women. ‘I don’t want your pity.’

  ‘You’re not getting any,’ June told him. ‘Any pity I felt for you, I got over when you decided to kill me.’

  He pulled back his fist and Cygnus stepped forward. ‘Don’t make me hit you,’ she told him. ‘I’m not sure I’d be able to pull the punch.’ He swung at her anyway, except that the blow went wildly off to one side as his body gave out under him, and Cygnus caught him as he fell. ‘Unconscious,’ she said.

  ‘Meh,’ June replied. ‘Leave him there. Garbage collection’s on Tuesday.’

  25th October.

  ‘The fallout from the revelation of Captain Freedom’s real mental state on Saturday is still causing problems in a number of circles,’ the ACPN presenter said from the big screen.

  ‘Big shock,’ Penny commented.

  ‘Polls revealed today by several agencies indicate a near total collapse of support for Republican candidates Senator George Kilmer and Secretary of State Rachelle Montrose,’ the presenter went on.

  ‘Which is a shame for Montrose. She should never have accepted the VP slot. She’ll never get a chance for president now.’

  ‘Francesca Hart and Senator Stephen Walker are now leading the polls by an average of nine points. Senator Kilmer’s team have been trying to distance themselves from Captain Freedom, but the Captain’s endorsement of Kilmer is now being seen in an extremely negative light.’

  A splash screen of badges appeared over the presenter’s shoulder. FBI, UID, and NMCPD were represented, which was an interesting but not unexpected mix. ‘Alexander Harrow, the ex-Captain Freedom, is still being held in custody in New Millennium City while jurisdictional issues are sorted out.’

  ‘Ha!’ Penny barked. Both the UID and local police had turned up to take Harrow away. The UID had got in people’s faces and demanded that the man was handed over to them since they had jurisdiction over Ultrahuman crimes. Cygnus had agreed, but since Harrow was no longer an Ultra, she had handed him over to the NMCPD. It had not been an entirely kind act since there were now two federal agencies trying to get their hands on the ex-hero.

  ‘You’re enjoying this too much,’ June suggested.

  ‘At this time, the only confirmed crime Harrow has been charged with is conspiracy to murder two UID agents,’ the presenter said. ‘It seems likely that he will be handed over to the FBI this week, but the UID is still attempting to have him placed under their jurisdiction since he was an Ultra when the crime was committed. The UID has come in for some criticism recently over corruption in their ranks. However, evidence has come to light recently indicating that the FBI accepted uncorroborated evidence from Harrow suggesting that Cygnus was engaged in espionage activity for the Chinese.’

  ‘At least that’s one more thing we don’t need to worry about,’ June said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Penny agreed. ‘No more drones watching us and FBI agents failing to follow us.’

  ‘Are ACPN back in our good books? I mean, they did help with the Captain, and Marta did a pretty good interview with me yesterday. Plus, they didn’t push you for an interview when you told them you didn’t want to give one.’

  Penny pursed her lips. ‘I’m more inclined to be nice to Marta. She was the one who persuaded her management to run the feed from the house.’

  ‘That could work. Still no sign of those feeds coming back, I take it?’

  ‘My external connect
ions to the city are still down,’ Denny supplied, cutting in over the presenter. ‘Except for the fire department’s feed, which was never cut.’

  ‘I’m not sure we should accept them if they do come back,’ Penny said. ‘This city made its choice. They jumped on Cygnus like vultures on a carcass when Ultranova died. Along comes Captain Freedom and they jump ship. They didn’t even have the courage to talk to me before they cut the feeds.’

  June shrugged. ‘We’re doing well enough with Denny listening to the police radios. If we could improve coverage in Uptown, Deale, and Churchton, I’m not sure the police feed is necessary.’

  Penny nodded. ‘We’ll see how it goes.’

  31st October.

  ‘Penny,’ Denny said as Penny walked out of the bedroom to put the coffee on, ‘the camera and police dispatch feeds have been reenabled.’

  ‘Oh, have they now…’ Penny busied herself with the coffee machine and Denny appeared to recognise that the sentence which sounded like a question did not require an answer.

  Nothing had been said about the cutting of the feeds. There had been nothing on any of the news or community channels. No one from the city’s government, the banks, or the police had turned up to talk about it. It had taken a lot of talking to get the feeds put in in the first place. The fire department had been the first to get on board and had apparently fought to keep their link harder than the police had. Well, perhaps the commissioner had tried: he had announced his retirement on Friday, citing difficulties in communicating with the mayor’s office as his primary reason for leaving. And now everything had been turned back on, just in time for the usual chaos of Halloween.

  ‘Did I hear Denny say the feeds were back on?’ June said as she emerged from the bedroom. She went straight for the coffee machine, which was just finishing the dripping of delicious brew into the carafe.

  ‘Yes, you did,’ Penny said, her tone musing.

  ‘What are you going to do? You’ve my support either way.’

  Penny flashed her girlfriend a smile. ‘Thanks, love. Denny, shut them down. All except the fire service feed.’

  ‘Done,’ Denny announced without any inflection in her voice.

  ‘We’ll look into getting some networked receivers put in in the north of the city. That’ll let you monitor radio traffic better. And as for the feeds… If they apologise for cutting them, then maybe we’ll consider reconnecting them.’

  8th November.

  Penny walked out of the privacy booth with her ballot and looked around for the machine she was supposed to feed it to. Voting, she thought, should be handled in some manner which did not involve all this stupidity. Then again, voting should be handled without the rather undemocratic process of the electoral college system. It probably made sense when the delegates had to ride to Washington to decide who would be president. The polls suggested this one was a foregone conclusion anyway.

  With her vote cast, she stepped out of the way and waited for June. Voting was taking place in a school in northern North Beach so they had driven up there in Penny’s terribly conservative, very economical car. June had threatened to buy a Ferrari or something, but she never had. And now they could both fly.

  ‘Penny for your thoughts?’ June asked from right beside her and Penny jumped. June giggled. ‘Sorry.’

  Penny waved the apology away and started for the door. ‘I was just thinking about… stuff. It’s Andrea’s birthday tomorrow, for example.’

  ‘That’ll be the second one we’ve missed. I hope she’s got a cake or something.’

  ‘Cake would be good. I’d just like to find her soon.’

  ‘Yeah, there’s that too.’

  Honai, Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet, 9th November.

  ‘Happy birthday,’ Andrea said to the dark hut she currently called home. There was no cake.

  ‘Happy birthday to you,’ Twilight sing-songed, giggling.

  ‘We’re wasting time with this,’ Midnight said. ‘Xue has taken Chamdo and we know he’s going to come here sooner rather than later. We need to eliminate him now. Waiting is not going to help matters.’

  ‘She might be right,’ Twilight agreed.

  Andrea sipped from the little clay pot she used as a drinking glass. The whiskey in it had been stolen from General Xue’s personal supply. It was still not that good. ‘I agree,’ she said after a few seconds. Xue seemed to be working from some prophecy, one of his visions. He had decided that his greatest battle would take place in this region. He had narrowed that down to the village of Honai, which was where Andrea had settled. It seemed to be one of those prophecies that could not fail: Andrea had selected Honai because she recognised it from his description, and then he had decided that Honai was the site of his battle because Andrea was there. But he was holding back, waiting for some sign to tell him the time was right. It had given Andrea some time to consider things. ‘I agree, but we can’t do this alone. It’s time we called some friends.’

  ‘We don’t need–’ Midnight began.

  Twilight cut her off. ‘It’s about time. How are you going to contact them?’

  ‘Oh, if I put the right word in the right ear,’ Andrea said, ‘I’m quite sure it’ll get back home. I just have to hope they’ll come looking before Xue comes calling.’

  Part Six: Just Click Your Heels Together

  Honai, Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet, 19th November 2016.

  ‘And I guess it worked,’ Andrea said. ‘You’re here, and you beat General Xue.’

  ‘And he’s why you can’t come home?’ Jacob asked. At some point in the story, he had stripped out of his armour and was sitting there in his undersuit, perfectly happy in the cold night air.

  ‘He became the reason. At first I just wasn’t sure how integrating Midnight’s personality would affect me. But we both decided that ship needed to die. It was not in a high orbit, but we blew it up. General Xue and Guàiwù are kind of my responsibility.’

  ‘Assuming that’s true,’ Cygnus said, ‘that makes them our responsibility. I assume you want me to take on the monster?’

  Andrea nodded. ‘I could probably chip away at him until he falls over, but you have more chance of actually taking him down without half of Tibet getting demolished. He’s very tough, but he’s actually more resistant to energy attacks than physical ones. He’s also strong in a way that’s hard to describe. If he hits you, you’ll be looking for a new body.’

  ‘Okay… I think I have something which should stop him. It almost stopped me.’

  ‘And me?’ Jacob asked. ‘What am I doing?’

  ‘Keeping the villagers safe,’ Andrea replied. ‘Handling the troops Xue will bring with him.’ Cygnus got to her feet. ‘Where are you off to?’

  ‘New Millennium. I’m going to get June over here. Well, I’m going to get Astraea over here because she’s got some pretty cool crowd-control powers and she can heal.’ Cygnus headed for the door. ‘Besides, I think you two could do with a little time alone.’

  ‘You said you could still talk to Midnight,’ Jacob said when Cygnus was out the door and the crack of a sonic boom had marked her departure from the area.

  ‘Yeah. I think I have something a little more like classic schizophrenia. I hear voices. I think those voices are my subconscious voicing things I don’t want to face, or haven’t realised I know, or whatever. I can’t let go of Twilight, don’t want to, so I can’t let go of Midnight either.’ Andrea gave him a small smile. ‘Mind you, Midnight isn’t just a dark, brooding evil any more. She tends to voice my blacker thoughts, but she’s even cracked the odd joke.’

  Jacob frowned for a few seconds, then his lips twisted into a quirky grin. ‘I guess I got used to you being literally in two minds about everything, I can cope with this.’

  ‘I told you he’d be okay with this,’ Twilight commented from the shadows behind Andrea.

  Andrea ignored her. ‘I hope so. I’ve missed you.’

  ‘Well,’ Jacob said, his grin broadening, ‘when we’ve taken care of
this general of yours, we can go home and you can show me how much.’

  ‘Are you sure about that? I’ve got about eighteen months of catching up to do. It could get… interesting.’

  Jacob gave a shrug. ‘It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.’

  ‘Men,’ Midnight commented, ‘always thinking with their gonads.’ Andrea ignored her too.

  20th November.

  The chittering of an imp announced that there was news. The little creature was not visible, but everyone could hear it. June giggled. ‘It’s weird, but I missed that. I never thought I’d miss those things.’

  ‘They’re useful,’ Andrea said, ‘if ugly.’ There was some more chittering from the darkness in the corner of the room. ‘You’re ugly in an adorable way. Xue’s coming. As I figured, his main force is coming down the road from the west. It looks like he’s helicoptered units to the east and north. The northern unit is small. They’re aiming to mount a surprise attack with sniping and RPGs from the valley walls. I think the eastern unit is there to cut off escape.’

  ‘The monster?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Is taking point for the main group. Xue is in a command vehicle toward the rear with his bodyguards. In about thirty minutes, it’s going to start getting light. There’s no moon and it looks like it’ll be a sunny day, so I want this done with fairly quickly.’

  ‘But we need to keep the villagers safe,’ June said. ‘I can probably take out the snipers. Well, I can make them forget any desire they have to shoot at people. And there’s light enough out there for me to see by.’

  ‘Okay, if you’re sure, you’d best get started.’ Andrea turned to her boyfriend. ‘Jacob, that suit’s bulletproof?’

  ‘More so than the old one was. I’m pretty confident against small arms fire.’

  ‘Then you take the eastern road. Hold off any of the troops who might come in that way. The villagers will help. Stopping them from helping is just a waste of effort, but try to keep them alive.’