Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly

by Niall Teasdale

  Grinning at the praise, she dropped lightly to the floor below and walked through to the guest room he had suggested she use when she was there. That meant walking through into the large lounge in the centre of the ground floor, and then turning left. She started stripping off her sweats as she walked into the bedroom with its large bed and built-in wardrobes, and was naked when she started the shower running.

  It was a fantastic shower. Three heads produced a deluge of hot water which had her soaked in seconds, and there was plenty of space within the glass walls of the cubicle.

  There were four guest rooms, two with showers, two with whirlpool baths. There was also a dining room, which she thought he rarely used, and a large kitchen, which he did. Bobby liked to cook, and was actually pretty good at it.

  Penny let the water wash the soap from her body, exulting in the wash of hot rain, and glanced out toward the bathroom door. The cubicle’s glass wall had misted over, but there was a dark, humanoid shadow outlined against the light coming through from the bedroom. Was he watching her? If it was not him, she should find out who it was. Reaching out, she slid the glass aside.

  Bobby Lee was standing there, still shirtless, but with a towel draped around his shoulders. He was watching. He did not look away at the sight of her naked body beaded with water. Her heart was racing again. She swallowed.

  ‘Care to join me?’ she asked.

  He did not answer, but he dropped the towel and stepped forward, pushing his sweatpants off his hips, stepping out of them as they fell from his body. Penny was sure she would have tripped. She stepped back, feeling unsure of herself. She had invited him in, but she was still not sure what would happen. Maybe he just wanted a shower…

  Bobby slid the glass closed behind him and looked at her for a second, his eyes scanning up her body. She fought the urge to cover her breasts. ‘Bellissimo, gatinha,’ he said, almost too quietly for her to hear. ‘Você me honra.’ She was about to ask what it meant when he stepped forward and his mouth met hers.

  ~~~

  Bobby’s hands held Penny’s above her head, pressed against the pillows at the head of the bed. Her long legs were wrapped tightly around his hips, but they were not wrestling in the traditional sense. Her body strained in something almost akin to agony as he moved within her, slowly, teasingly, driving her to another orgasm.

  She had been acutely aware, as he took her in the shower, that she had no real idea what she was doing aside from the basics. This body, however, was incredibly flexible, which made up for her lack of talent. More than that, every time they made love it seemed as though some inner power swelled within her, and left him breathless and happy after every encounter. It also seemed to leave him wanting more, and they had been at it for over an hour, maybe longer.

  This time, when the fog of climax had cleared from her mind, she found him lying atop her, his head on her shoulder. He was still inside her and his breath was hot on her neck, and he showed no desire to move.

  ‘You are…’ he said, the words a whisper. ‘You are quite a woman, gatinha. I sense that you are not used to a man paying you such attention, and yet your body holds such sensual power… Ah… You have exhausted me.’ He lifted himself up and rolled to the side, and the shock of him leaving her wrenched a gasp from her.

  ‘I… I don’t always look like this,’ Penny said when her breathing had steadied. ‘I change into this shape, into this body, and the other me… She’s not pretty, or flexible. Actually, she’s a bit of a klutz and men don’t really pay her much attention.’

  ‘And yet, I think your friend, June, she would gladly sleep with you in either shape.’ He seemed to be taking shapeshifting in his stride. Then again, he had been an active Ultra. ‘I sensed desire in her. The kind of desire which takes a long time to develop. It comes from knowing someone well and loving what they are no matter what.’

  ‘We’ve been living together for a couple of years. Uh, we have separate rooms. She does want me, but I’m not into girls like that.’

  ‘Lucky for me,’ Bobby replied, smiling, ‘and for Red.’

  Penny giggled and glanced over at the big window which took up one wall of the room. ‘Oh Hell, it’s dark! How long were we doing that for?’

  There was a grunt as he moved. ‘Two, two and a half hours. Perhaps you should be getting home before June calls out the police.’

  ~~~

  ‘You’re back,’ June said as Penny slipped in from the balcony. ‘I was actually starting to get worried.’ Penny grinned at her, and was about to say something when June’s eyes widened. ‘You’ve had sex!’

  Penny giggled, blushed, and pushed the window shut. ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘Uh-huh. You look like the cat that got the cream.’

  ‘I did, several times.’

  June joined the giggling. ‘How was he?’

  ‘Hey! That’s kind of private…’

  ‘Yeah, and?’

  ‘Oh God, he was awesome! I think he was trying to build my confidence, but he said I was good too.’ She bounced across to the sofa, dropped down beside June, and cuddled up against her. ‘Oh, June, is this what you’re like with Red?’

  ‘Kind of. Maybe a little less giddy, but we’ve both been around the block a couple of times. Aside from that guy in the club on New Year, Bobby’s your first torrid encounter, you’re bound to be giddier. I’m happy for you.’

  ‘We both seem to have landed on our feet, don’t we?’

  June sighed happily and pulled Penny closer against her. ‘I’ve definitely had worse periods in my life, Pen.’

  20th April.

  ‘Oh my God! They killed Sally!’

  Penny let out a giggle at June’s squeak of outrage. ‘You know she’s probably not dead. I mean, she’s the title character. How can you have True Powers without Sally True?’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose, but… How are they going to write her out of that one? She pushed the Great Beast into a portal to Hell!’

  ‘I figure she’ll turn up on a beach somewhere with no memory of what happened.’ Penny gave a grin. ‘Given the programme, she’ll be naked.’

  ‘Yeah…’ June mused. ‘Yeah… you’re probably right.’

  14th June.

  It was a national holiday, but not a celebration. The TV channels were all showing the same thing, more or less, and there was something of a morose air to the proceedings. June the 14th was the anniversary of the destruction of New York.

  Penny made it a point to watch at least one of the documentaries on the event every year and there was a new one on Ultra! this year. New, but not really telling her anything she did not already know. They had interviews with some of the people who had been there, including Doctor Ultimate. Even he was just recounting things everyone knew.

  On the 8th of June 1988 a villain no one had ever heard of before, Magmatic, had demanded ten billion dollars in negotiable bearer bonds or, he claimed, he would destroy New York. His demands had been met with the usual response, ‘We do not negotiate with terrorists,’ and he had demonstrated how serious he was. On the 10th a volcano had exploded out of the water of the Hudson, swallowing Liberty Island, submerging the Statue of Liberty in lava up to its waist, and covering most of Lower Manhattan in ash.

  The city had dissolved into chaos. The bridges and tunnels had clogged with traffic as people tried to flee. The airports had been closed down with the National Guard mobilised to control the resulting riots. Calls for calm were ignored.

  The Union of Ultrahumans had arrived to aid in the search for Magmatic, along with America’s national hero, Captain Freedom. He was tall, blonde, handsome, and incredibly powerful, an Avatar-class Ultra beloved by pretty much everyone in the country. He, like his Soviet equivalent, Dukh Naroda, was essentially limited to operating on his native soil, which was the only reason the two had never been seen duking it out, but he was thought to be essentially immortal, just like his counterpart.

  When Doctor Ultimate had managed to locate Magmatic’s
lair using seismic sensors, Captain Freedom had led the assault with Adamantium, Brightstar, and several of the other Union heavy-hitters. It had been a disaster. Magmatic had blasted up through The Lake in Central Park to escape the attack, magma had exploded upward in his wake, and it had taken Captain Freedom driving the mutant back into the volcano to stop it. Neither of them was ever seen again and most of the city was destroyed by the flood of molten rock.

  ‘I always thought it was weird that Captain Freedom didn’t come back the way the Russian guy does,’ June commented as the credits rolled.

  ‘You’re not the only one, but I’ve heard theories.’

  ‘Like?’

  ‘Dukh Naroda is supposed to be some sort of representation of the Soviet people. When he dies saving them he moves on to another body. It’s considered an honour to be chosen, even if the person who becomes him loses their identity.’

  ‘Uh-huh. I know that.’

  ‘So we don’t have the sense of communal identity they do. Captain Freedom wouldn’t work that way. It could be he’s alive, but he’s buried so deep he can’t come back.’

  ‘Oh God! That’s horrible. Nothing like that’s going to happen to you, is it?’

  Penny giggled. ‘I need food, water… air. I’d just die. No one really knows Freedom is alive down there, it’s just a theory.’

  ‘I kind of hope he’s not. That would be just about the definition of a fate worse than death.’

  4th July.

  Red’s black car glided smoothly through the streets of Churchton, the most northerly district of New Millennium. Most of the times Penny had been in it she had sat in the back so that June could sit beside Red, but tonight she was up front looking out through windows that obscured the occupants but gave a clear view of the outside.

  It was Independence Day, there were fireworks lighting up the sky, but Red had decided that this was a good night to show Penny the other side of the city she felt she had to protect. Penny was not particularly enjoying the experience. Right now they were driving down a street which featured a lot of girls in outfits clearly designed to advertise their profession.

  ‘A lot of them look like kids,’ June commented morosely as they cruised down the street.

  ‘Runaways, mostly,’ Red said. Her voice was calm, matter-of-fact, but there was a slightly hard edge to it. ‘Some are kicked out to work by their parents or boyfriends.’

  ‘Doesn’t anyone do anything about it?’

  ‘The police sweep these areas every so often, but arresting this lot isn’t going to help them any. There are a few people who try to help them, but you’d be amazed at how few of them trust any sort of authority figure.’

  ‘I guess they wouldn’t,’ Penny said. ‘If someone’s going to run away from home, they probably have a reason.’

  ‘Not always a good one, but that doesn’t stop them feeling they have a reason to think social workers are trouble. In some cases they may be right.’

  June had the advantage tonight. Her eyes were working as well as any human eyes could in the dim light from sparsely operational street lights. Her view of the women on the street was filtered through neon and shadow. Penny could see everything, even if the colours were muted. She wondered if they were out on the streets dressed in such skimpy outfits in the middle of winter. She saw bikini tops, hot pants, mesh shirts, tiny skirts, most of them looking the worse for long hours of use.

  ‘There,’ June leaned forward to point at the road a few tens of yards ahead of them on the other side. ‘What’s he up to?’

  A large, expensive town car was pulling to a stop at the side of the road. Penny could see the driver, even in the shadow of his cab. He was dressed in a sharp suit, his blonde hair cut by someone who charged too much for the service, and he was good-looking in a heavy-set, slightly thuggish way. The idea that he needed to pick up street women seemed wrong, but that was what he was doing.

  ‘I’d have thought that was obvious,’ Red replied as three girls detached themselves from the shadows around a shop front and made their way to the car window.

  Two of them looked just like all the others, but one caught Penny’s attention. She was better looking than the others for one thing, but there was an exaggerated quality to her, as though her body had gone all-out on the whole ‘secondary sexual characteristics’ thing. Her legs were long and slim, her hips wide, her waist narrow, and her breasts were enormous but still managed to be very shapely. Her face was young, very young, though it was a little hard to tell since there was a mass of pale blonde hair obscuring her eyes with a ragged fringe. Her outfit was just as suggestive as the other girls’, black hot pants and a cropped T-shirt with mesh for a top half, but it looked newer.

  The light from Red’s car headlights caught a side view of the man’s face as they drove up and past. Red gave a grunt. ‘Tony Briscetto. He’s Mob. He was working his way up to Enforcer when I was active. I’d imagine he’s made it by now. He has a thing for younger women. Much younger.’

  Penny glanced in the wing mirror. The blonde nymphet was climbing into Briscetto’s car while the other two went back to their wall. Did the girl know what she was doing? ‘Is he violent?’ she asked.

  ‘Very, but not usually to the girls he picks up. He does get sloppy at times. He’s been indicted for statutory rape four times, but they’ve never managed to make it stick. The witnesses either recant or vanish.’ Penny found herself hoping the man did not get caught tonight. ‘That’s the kind of thing you’re going to see a lot of on the street,’ Red went on. ‘Are you sure you’re up to it?’

  Penny looked back at the mirror, seeing only tail lights receding. ‘Not yet,’ she said.

  ‘Huh. Let’s go back to the club and join the party. Don’t know about you two, but I’ve had enough of this.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Penny said. ‘I think I could use a drink about now.’

  ‘How many Ultras end up as alcoholics?’ June asked, her tone sullen.

  ‘More than we’d like to admit,’ Red replied.

  5th July.

  Penny was about to change the channel when a picture appeared behind the newsreader and she paused. The smiling face looked a little different head-on, but she still recognised it.

  ‘New Millennium City businessman Anthony Briscetto, long thought to be high up in the Tonaldo crime family, was found dead early this morning,’ the woman on the screen announced.

  ‘Couldn’t have happened to a nicer man,’ June commented dryly.

  ‘Briscetto was found in a motel room in Churchton,’ the newsreader went on. ‘Police have stated that there was no sign of foul play and the cause of death was a fatal heart attack. However, there was no indication of what Briscetto, who lived in Friendship, was doing in the hotel.’

  ‘He was banging a hooker,’ June said.

  Penny changed the channel. ‘Fatal heart attack. He looked pretty fit to me. And the girl he picked up, there was something odd about her. She was… Well, she was too stacked.’

  ‘You think she was an Ultra? Maybe a vigilante out to get him?’

  ‘No idea.’

  ‘Never heard of an Ultra who could fuck you into cardiac arrest.’

  ‘Bobby keeps saying I’ll give him a heart attack,’ Penny replied, giggling.

  ‘I don’t think he means it literally.’

  ‘Probably not. We’ll see tomorrow.’

  June gave her a grin. ‘So Saturday is becoming a regular thing?’

  ‘Uh-huh. We practise fighting all week, and then we practise wrestling on Saturday nights. This Saturday’s special though. He said he missed the fireworks yesterday because he wanted the real ones at the weekend.’

  The brunette laughed as she walked over with two glasses of wine. ‘You two are adorable. Has he said when he thinks you’ll be ready to go out?’

  Penny sighed. ‘When I am,’ she replied.

  11th August.

  The big screen in Bobby’s lounge was showing a map of New Millennium City, from Churchton
in the north to North Beach in the south, and far enough west that the Patuxent River was just visible, though the city’s western edge did not go out that far. Red stood in front of it while Penny, June, and Bobby sat on one of the couches. Penny was snuggled up against Bobby; it was show-and-tell night, and it seemed like the right thing to do.

  ‘Bobby says you’re almost ready to go out there and kick criminal arse,’ Red said, a slight smirk on her face, ‘so we have two priorities aside from finishing your training. One, a costume. You’re going to need one for registration. Our resident fashion expert is designing that now, so it shouldn’t be an issue.’ Red gave June a nod.

  ‘I’ve got a few ideas,’ June said. Somehow Penny did not find the way she said it encouraging. June had ideas, she was quite sure of that. The question was whether Penny would be able to wear them.

  ‘I thought you might,’ Red went on. ‘So our second item is criminal familiarisation.’ She turned and looked up at the screen. ‘If I were you, I’d stick to smaller-scale crime to start with. Purse snatchers, store bandits, the usual stuff that makes the general public annoyed. It’ll build your rep with the common folks, always useful. However, you should know about the big stuff.’

  ‘Well,’ Penny said, ‘I probably know some of it.’

  ‘She watches enough TV,’ June added.

  ‘All right then,’ Red said, smiling, ‘let’s see what you know.’

  Penny blinked. ‘Oh… Well, the Tonaldo family runs Churchton, Deale Harbour, and Fairhaven. I think they have their fingers in the gangs in Friendship, and I’d imagine they run financial crime through Downtown. The Knights keep northern Friendship fairly controlled, and Ultranova’s all over the bigger stuff in Uptown and Downtown.’

  Red nodded slowly. ‘Not bad. You’ve got the popular conception of what’s happening down pretty well.’

  ‘I get the feeling that’s not the real case then?’

  ‘Well… The Knights are pretty good at handling street crime, but they’ve never made any significant inroads into organised crime. Luckily, there’s not too much of it in Friendship as a whole, but the drug situation is getting bad. Less so in the north, but it’s still there.’