There was a sound, something someone else might have missed, but she heard and turned toward it. And then there was a rush of air in her face and a slightly bitter taste in her mouth. Coughing, she backed away from the man who had come up behind her.
‘What’ve we got here?’ the man said, a cocky grin on his face. ‘Looks like the two freaks split up.’ His grin left him as she smacked her left fist into it, and he backed away quickly as his two friends emerged from the freezer, one of them holding a gun. ‘No!’ he said quickly as the pistol was raised. ‘I got her with some X. We can dump her in the freezer with her boyfriend.’
Twilight looked at him, ready to point out the error of his ways, and then the pain hit her. Over her right eye it seemed to blossom the way some headaches began, but this was almost instantly painful enough to make her stagger and close her eye. He had got her with ‘X’? What was…? The thought hit her and she panicked. He had given her a dose of Excelsior and that stuff killed Ultras, or worse.
‘It’s working,’ the second speaker commented. ‘Give her a few seconds for it to sink in and then toss her in there. I doubt she’ll survive to freeze, but it’ll look better if they’re found together.’
Twilight staggered away from them, trying to get to the door, trying to gather enough concentration through the pain to make a jump. She had no idea where she was planning to jump to, but… She clutched her sword, holding it to her like a lifeline and it seemed, somehow, to bring her comfort. Yōgo-sha the sword was called, ‘Defender,’ though that seemed an odd name for an offensive weapon. The pain flared brighter and she almost curled up around her weapon, screaming in agony.
There was the sensation of being carried. They were carrying her to the freezer where she would die alongside Jacob. Except that he might just survive if Heather brought Cygnus back here… There had been a trap set for them too. There was no surviving… Her brain was on fire and there was nothing she could… The floor of the room was icy-cold and now there was nothing but darkness, and the darkness had always been her friend, and now the darkness was there to take the pain away. The thudding of her heart in her ears finally dimmed to nothing, and Andrea Morgan died in the cold and the dark.
25th March.
There was the sound of grinding metal followed by a loud clang, and Cygnus slammed open another door, granting her and Heather access to yet another room in the complex of laboratories some nameless corporation had built under Kent Island.
‘This is going to take time,’ Cygnus said, ‘but I think we’re going to make it out of here, even if we have to crawl up an air duct. We should have died under the rubble in the stairwell.’
‘I’m not sure I’d classify this as lucky, but I’ve always had better than average odds of… Well, luck has a habit of smiling on me. I don’t often get surprised, by anything much. My friends gave up trying to organise surprise parties for me and I just… kind of react when there’s a fight starting. And sometimes the building falls just right so I don’t end up a pizza.’
‘Probably a minor mutation,’ Cygnus replied. ‘Hugh, uh, Doctor Ultimate, told me that there are far more people around who exhibit powers than we’re led to believe. Invisible teenage boys in locker rooms…’
‘Invisible teenage girls with persecution complexes, seven-stone weaklings who suddenly deck the bully; random cases of super-strength aren’t even uncommon, but they’re put down to “hysterical strength.” If I have something, it’s really minor, but… I don’t like to mention it. The Division is kind of… They get concerned when their agents exhibit powers. I don’t think they’d kick me out for being a little luckier than most, but…’
‘I’m not saying anything. What about Twilight and Jacob? I mean, surely that kind of thing is frowned upon?’ There was a metal bench in front of the next door and Cygnus hefted it aside as if it were made of paper before reaching for the locking wheel behind it.
‘Kind of weird, actually. The policy is that secret relationships with Ultras are a sacking offence. He’ll need to inform our boss soon or he’ll have problems. One of the early directors recognised that Ultras have a habit of being attractive, charismatic, hard to resist, and UID staff tend to be around them more than most so banning interaction was going to be a sure-fire way to end up with blackmailed agents.’
‘That’s… remarkably enlightened,’ Cygnus grunted. The wheel gave and she pulled the door open. Across the room was another one; sighing, she started across to that one. ‘I don’t suppose you want to open this one?’
‘You’re doing fine,’ Heather replied. ‘Keep up the good work.’
‘How long’ve we been down here?’
‘Uh… thirty minutes. Maybe forty.’
‘We need to get out of here. I have a bad feeling about Twilight and Jacob.’
‘Yeah,’ Heather said, ‘I know how you feel.’
~~~
The cold finally cut through the endorphins and Jacob managed to get his eyes open. He was freezing; his teeth would have been chattering if it were not for the gag which had been stuffed in his mouth and he was tied to a wooden, upright chair, probably by cable ties. He was in a shirt and jacket, clothing for early spring, not arctic conditions, and whatever they had given him had sapped a lot of his strength already. He felt like he was going to pass out any minute, and turning to check his surroundings just made things worse.
To his right he saw the twisted, curled up form of Twilight lying on the icy floor. Her face was contorted, her mouth wide open, and there was no sign of breathing; she had died in agony from the looks of it. The bastards who had tasered him and fed him Excelsior had done the same to her and she obviously had enough Ultrahuman in her for her body to react badly.
Jacob pulled at his bonds and got nothing but pain to show for it. He was screwed, unless Heather realised something was up. He might not survive that long, and it looked a lot like he would never need to tell his boss about Twilight…
~~~
There was darkness, nothing but darkness, but Andrea knew she was not alone. Something was out there in the inky blackness surrounding her, something…
‘Can you feel it?’ An arm gripped hers, lifting her. The voice… The voice had been hers, but she had not spoken. ‘There’s something here with us.’
‘Who…?’
‘Am I? Come on, you know.’
There was light. Something like light anyway; a glow which seemed to come from nowhere and went nowhere, but it managed to illuminate the roughly hewn surface they were standing on. Obsidian rocks, a surface that glittered slightly. And the other woman.
‘T-Twilight?’ Andrea whispered.
‘You know it, babe,’ the other Andrea said, grinning.
‘Then who’s…?’
They both looked out across the expanse of blackness at the third figure standing silently in the distance. There were no features, just darkness, but it spread its arms and there was a cracking sound. The ground between them creaked and shuddered, and then it split, a seam appearing in a single, sudden burst.
‘No!’ Twilight said. The crack split wider.
~~~
A surface access hatch fifty yards from the buildings, almost to the perimeter fence, exploded upward with more force than was probably required and a grimy, annoyed Cygnus rose out of the shaft beneath it to land on the grass where she could fume silently and wait for Heather to join her.
‘See if you can raise Jacob,’ she said as soon as the brunette was clear of the hole in the ground. ‘We probably need a team of Maryland cops out here to go over this site too.’
Heather already had her phone in hand; apparently the same thought had occurred to her. She was frowning at the face of the thing, and Cygnus was worried by that frown.
‘He’s not picking up,’ Heather said. Then she let out a gasp as Cygnus swept her up and took off.
‘Call the cops on the way. My bad feeling is getting worse.’
~~~
‘No,’ Andrea said. She grabbed onto Twi
light’s arm with both hands and the widening gap stopped growing. ‘Not that. Never that. We stick together.’
There was a shudder and the space between them narrowed, slamming shut, but not sealing itself entirely. The dark figure took a step forward and screamed. It was a sound unlike anything Andrea had ever heard before; a howling, animal sound rang across the expanse of space and sent cold driving through her bones, but she held onto Twilight.
‘No! We stay together!’ Andrea screamed back and the ground split again, but this time it was between her and the dark figure in the distance. The ground shook and the crack widened rapidly, driving back the darkness and throwing the figure out into nothingness…
~~~
The summons to the Shadow Chamber had come as something of a surprise and the overpowering sense of anger he felt as he entered the room was unnerving. The cold, when it wrapped around him, was more biting than usual. Something was very wrong.
‘The girl,’ the voice said, its tone colder than ever, ‘something has happened to her.’
‘Is she dead?’ Durant asked, his voice barely above a whisper. His fingers were already beginning to go numb in the biting cold of the shadowed room.
‘She lives. Her shadow has consumed her and yet it has not gained control.’
‘There may still be time then…’ He stopped as the air froze in his lungs. The darkness wrapped around him like a suffocating cloud.
‘She must be found, and secured, and brought here. She is a threat to everything. See to this personally. Bring her to me!’
Durant collapsed to the floor, the darkness releasing him so suddenly that it was all he could do to keep breathing. His breathing ragged, he crawled toward the door and the light.
~~~
Bright light. Too bright. She wanted darkness. She wanted shadow. But at least she was warm now and…
Andrea sat up in bed with a gasp. She was in one of the guest rooms in Penny’s house, the one which had been more or less allocated to her whenever she stayed over. She recognised the decoration, the large bed, fitted wardrobes, and the desk which Penny was sitting in front of.
‘You’re awake,’ the little brunette said, a little redundantly.
‘I died,’ Andrea replied.
‘No, we found you in the freezer with Jacob. Heather took him to hospital, but your suit must’ve protected…’
‘No,’ Andrea interrupted. ‘I died. They gave us both Excelsior and it killed me. I died. How am I here?’
‘What do you remember?’
Andrea frowned and pressed the bridge of her nose between her fingers. ‘There was darkness. Isn’t there supposed to be a light? And Twilight was there with me…’
‘You are Twilight,’ Penny pointed out.
‘I’m… It felt like there was me and Twilight, and another me, a darker me.’ She looked up. ‘I don’t… I don’t feel like me anymore. The darkness did something. I feel like I’m broken. I feel like I’m not quite all here.’
‘Oh,’ Penny said. ‘Well… I, uh, I guess that explains…’
‘Explains what, Penny?’
Penny pointed across the room to a mirror on one of the wardrobe doors. ‘Maybe you should see for yourself. Just… try to stay calm, okay?’
Andrea slipped out of bed and walked over to where she could see herself. ‘You know, that is not a calming thing to–’ She stopped as her face came into view in the mirror. She looked just the same as she had before, except for her eyes. Her eyes were black, totally black. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Well, there goes my secret identity.’
~~~
‘She seems to be taking it pretty well,’ June commented. ‘I think I’d be freaking out, screaming, running around the house tearing my hair out…’
‘I can hear you, y’know?’ Andrea said as she walked into the lounge. ‘And don’t stare; it’s rude.’ She was dressed in a wrap and rubbing at her hair with a towel.
‘Sorry. I was the same when Penny first… changed. And you’re kind of, um, more exotic.’
‘Still not into girls, June.’
June giggled. ‘That’s what she said too.’
‘Yeah…’ Penny mumbled. ‘What are you going to do about Lena?’
Andrea’s face fell. ‘Oh, damn. I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘Wait a minute,’ June said, ‘there is a girl?’
‘You’ve met her, remember,’ Penny supplied. ‘Lena Tonaldo.’
‘She’s my information source inside the family,’ Andrea went on. ‘As far as she and her father know, Andrea Morgan makes some extra money working as a prostitute. Her father doesn’t want it known that his daughter’s a lesbian…’
‘Yeah, she kind of mentioned that when we were talking,’ June said. ‘I hadn’t thought that kind of attitude still existed.’
‘It does. Believe me, he’d lose face if it became widely known. Whatever, it was a useful way of getting into their apartments and the pillow talk kept me up to date on what was going on in there, but… David Tonaldo isn’t going to let his daughter sleep with an obvious Ultra.’ She looked down. ‘It’ll break her heart. I didn’t want her finding out like this. Then again, it was getting harder since I hooked up with Jacob. What’s his condition anyway?’
‘He was suffering from severe hypothermia,’ Penny told her. ‘I haven’t had an update since early this morning.’
‘I’m going to see him,’ Andrea stated, turning back toward her room. Then she stopped. ‘Um… does anyone have any dark glasses I can borrow?’
~~~
They found Heather standing in front of the window of a room which seemed to have a lot of electronics in it as well as a bed. Generally, things which went ‘bleep’ a lot in a hospital room were not good signs.
‘How is he?’ Andrea asked.
Heather looked around and frowned. ‘Twilight?’
‘That’s me.’
‘We figured civilian clothes were a good idea,’ Cygnus pointed out.
‘Yeah, but why the dark glasses?’
‘I’m having some trouble with my eyes. Jacob?’
‘He’s… improving, but they’re having some trouble getting his body temperature back up. They don’t think there’s going to be any permanent damage.’
‘But he’s not awake.’
‘No,’ Bryant shook her head. ‘They’re keeping him sedated until they get him back to normal temperature. Current theory is that the drug did something to his metabolism.’
‘We seriously need to get that shit off the streets,’ Cygnus muttered.
‘No arguments from us,’ Bryant replied. ‘It’s just a question of how? Are you two up for it?’
‘She is,’ Andrea said, her tone sullen. ‘I’m… I have a few things I need to take care of and I’m not fully recovered from freezing to death.’
‘Almost. Almost freezing to death.’
‘Yeah… that.’
26th March.
Roger looked up from the Brightstar comic he was reading and frowned. He generally liked the girls who worked in his shop to dress in a manner that geeks and nerds had trouble ignoring, and Andrea generally obliged. Today she was standing in front of him in dark glasses and a hoodie. Then again, she had been sick over the weekend and he had not been sure she would be in at all.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked. ‘You over your cold?’
‘Kind of,’ Andrea replied, ‘and I got cold, but not a cold. I need to talk, Boss. Privately.’
Frown deepening, the aging hippy got to his feet. ‘Zoe, keep an eye on things for a few minutes,’ he called out.
The blonde girl currently in the stacks looked around, saw no one to keep an eye on and called back, ‘Sure, Roger.’
He led Andrea into the back room and then turned around, one eyebrow raised. ‘Okay, kid, what’s the problem?’ Andrea took her glasses off and pushed back her hood and he added, ‘Oh.’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I’ll come clean. I’ve been sneaking around at night since I came to New Millenn
ium. I’m Twilight. This… this is new. Something happened and… Well, I can’t exactly keep a secret identity with jet-black eyes. I’d understand if you don’t want me to work here anymore.’
‘You are joking, right?’ Roger drawled. ‘I run a comic shop. You think I’d pass up having a real, live heroine working here?’
‘It might not be entirely safe,’ Andrea replied. ‘David Tonaldo put a price on Twilight’s head. He might come after me here if he knows.’
‘He won’t come here. Too public, too obvious. And it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I mean, I might take out more insurance, but if anyone does come I’ll have Twilight in the shop.’
‘Okay. I think you’re nuts, and I think we should ask Zoe if she’s okay with this.’
His eyebrow went up again. ‘Seriously? You think she’s going to think knowing Twilight is a bad thing?’
‘Well… no, but we should ask. And I need the rest of the week off.’ She sighed. ‘I need to get used to this, and I’m going to Boston.’
‘Your parents don’t know?’
‘Not yet. Can’t say I’m looking forward to that conversation.’
~~~
‘You know,’ Cygnus said, ‘this isn’t really me.’
‘I ain’t tellin’ you nothin’!’ The man she was suspending by his ankle from the top of the Americas Trade Tower was a relatively minor drug dealer. Nothing very far up the Tonaldo family tree, but she was hoping for a little more than bad grammar.
‘Where did you go to school? Did you go to school?’
‘I don’t know nothin’!’ the man squeaked.
‘Now, if that were true, that would mean you didn’t need to tell me that you weren’t going to say anything. That’s “not going to say anything.” Double negatives make you sound like an idiot.’
‘I ain’t scared of you!’
‘The urine stain on your pants suggests otherwise. When’s the next shipment coming in?’ She let her grip slide a couple of inches and he let out a screech.
‘Friday! We were told t’ expect new merchandise Saturday.’
‘Very good. You see? I knew you knew something.’ Then she let him go.
Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) Page 6