Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I’ll talk to Mister Leighton,’ June said. ‘Red can look after you.’

  ‘I’ll be…’ Cygnus began. She realised her throat was dry and she could not have continued even if June had not decided to interrupt.

  ‘No, you’ve just lost someone dear to you. You’ll at least take a day off.’

  ‘I… guess,’ Cygnus replied, getting to her feet.

  ~~~

  ‘I saw your father on the way in,’ Andrea said, her tone casual.

  ‘Oh?’ Lena replied. ‘He has been to see me a couple of times this afternoon.’

  ‘He did look more chipper than usual.’

  Lena giggled. ‘Poppa’s never been “chipper” in his life. He’s been pleased with himself all week, after Cygnus and Twilight broke up a load of his opposition’s places.’ She paused for a second, pursing her lips. ‘Then again, that thing on the news this evening might have something to do with it.’

  ‘I try not to watch the news,’ Andrea lied, ‘too depressing.’ She had, in fact, missed it today since she had spent most of her time at the gym. Fighting crime was exercise, but she had been letting her basic stuff slip.

  ‘Someone died, an old Ultra name of Zephyr. Cygnus found the body. Turned out she was in a relationship with him.’ Lena felt Andrea stiffen against her back. ‘Did you know him?’

  ‘Met him, professionally, a couple of times. He was a nice guy. Did it say how he died?’

  ‘Natural causes, they said. No foul play.’

  ‘Shame, he wasn’t that old.’ Twilight was having none of the natural causes idea, but there was no way to leave without drawing suspicion. Seeing how her partner was doing was going to have to wait until the morning.

  ‘Well, I guess Poppa thinks this’ll take Cygnus out of the picture for a while, so he’s not shedding tears.’

  ‘No,’ Andrea replied softly, ‘I guess he wouldn’t.’

  1st December.

  After checking Penny and June’s flat to find it empty, Twilight figured that Red might have invited them back to her place, and that was where she found them. Or she found Red and June; Cygnus was asleep in the spare room, sedated.

  ‘She barely slept last night,’ Red explained. ‘I have some sedatives for when my back gets really bad…’

  ‘What happened?’ Andrea asked, her mask in her hands, being twisted out of shape.

  ‘The initial estimation was heart failure, some form of coronary.’

  ‘So they’re not investigating further?’

  ‘There’ll be some investigation, but they aren’t putting a rush on it. Why?’

  ‘It’s just… Several of Tonaldo’s people suffered fatal heart attacks, and now this. And we’ve been hitting Ghostfire’s operation pretty hard the last couple of weeks…’

  Red frowned, an index finger tapping on pursed lips. ‘An Ultra who can induce heart attacks… I’ve not heard of an MO like that, but it’s not impossible.’

  ‘But they’d also need to get to Bobby,’ June said. ‘His place has a lot of security.’

  ‘True. I suggest we don’t mention this to Penny. She’s under enough stress as it is.’

  June nodded. ‘She tried changing back to her normal form, but she gets these weird noises in her head when she’s stressed and she could barely concentrate to change back.’

  ‘I… didn’t know that,’ Andrea said.

  ‘Neither did I until last night,’ Red told her. ‘Our Penny had something traumatic happen to her to turn her into Cygnus. She’s… different. Not a typical Ultra.’

  ‘She said Ever said the same thing,’ June supplied.

  Red nodded. ‘We’d better keep an eye on her for the next few days.’ She glanced at Andrea. ‘I’ll put some feelers out about an Ultra who can cause heart failure, but I’m not sure we’ll get anything.’

  ‘Well… we can try.’

  9th December.

  Funerals for heroes were odd affairs, in a way. Zephyr’s was well enough attended. There were several of his ex-students there, though Cygnus did not recognise any of them. There was a small UID presence, though Dannon and Bryant kept their distance, letting the mourners mourn.

  The odd thing was the costumes. Even those who were no longer active, like Red, were in full costume. Black armbands stood in place of black clothing, but the bright colours were jarring. At least Twilight looked the part, dressed all in black.

  Cygnus had not wanted to go in her skimpy, white outfit, but Red had insisted that this was how Ultras had been buried since the sixties. So Cygnus stood in the sunshine in thigh-high boots and a plastic swimsuit, feeling more self-conscious than usual.

  That was another thing: it should have been raining. There should have been thick cloud and pouring rain, but the weather stubbornly refused to comply with propriety. They stood there in the bright light of almost-winter, listening to speeches by various people and some clergyman. Cygnus had not known Bobby was nominally Catholic, but it made sense.

  There were press waiting outside the cemetery, and Cygnus was almost pleased that Ultranova was there to capture their attention with a heart-warming speech on how Zephyr had been a great man taken too early. Almost pleased. The speech sounded as though it had been written for him by publicity agents. At least it gave her the chance to slip away in Red’s car before any of the reporters noticed her.

  The entire week had sucked. There had been questions from sympathetic UID agents, but Cygnus had felt like they were accusing her of murder. Paranoia, and she knew it, but she could not stop herself thinking that way. Maybe Penny would have been more practical about it, but she had not been able to spend more than a minute in her other form. Whenever she changed, the voices started. She got a few seconds of whispering and then her mind erupted into chaos. It took all her concentration to change back.

  Maybe now, with Bobby in the ground, she could move on.

  10th December.

  The voices were still there, but they had subsided to a whisper. Penny, dressed in a T-shirt and some rather baggy shorts, along with a thick, towelling wrap, was still off work, but planning to return tomorrow, assuming the whispering stayed quiet.

  In fact, she felt well enough to check UltraNet. She had not logged in once in the last week. Twilight had been keeping her up to date to some extent, but she had started getting the feeling that both her partner and Red were keeping things from her. She had moved back to her own apartment after the funeral, partially so that she could be alone for a day while June was at work and find out what was going on.

  Apparently, there was nothing special. She saw no signs of anything odd in the reports. There were no personal messages from Twilight, but then she had seen her just about every day. There were quite a few messages in the fan mail folder. She figured she might as well give them at least a cursory look since she had neglected them for the last couple of weeks.

  Several had been sent by people who had seen her pictures in the calendar. A couple of those she was not in the mood for. There were several more general fan letters, and then the ones started from after word of Bobby’s death had got out. There were more of those from women, all of them offering their condolences. And then…

  You don’t know me, and I won’t give my name. They could kill me. Your boyfriend, he was murdered. It’s the same girl they used to kill those Tonaldo lieutenants. They call her Heartbreaker. She’s in Apartment 6, 1425 Kinsolving Road in Friendship.

  The voices were screaming in her head by the time she finished reading and the change happened before she was even aware she was making it.

  ~~~

  The sound of shattering glass brought Adrienne’s attention to the bedroom door, but she barely had time to react before Cygnus, her face twisted with anger, ran into the lounge. There was certainly no time to say anything before the heroine grabbed Adrienne’s shirt and lifted her bodily off the floor by it.

  ‘You!’ Cygnus hissed. ‘You were with Briscetto before he died, and you got Tonaldo out in the open for the sniper.
I saw you. Why did you kill Bobby?’

  ‘Cure,’ Adrienne squeaked, not denying it. There was no point.

  ‘What cure?’

  ‘For me… I kill… any man I kiss. Do you have any idea what… that’s like? You’re hurting me!’

  Throwing the smaller woman onto the sofa she had been sitting on, Cygnus pulled back her fist. ‘I’m going to do more than hurt you,’ she growled. Then she faltered, blinking. ‘What…?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Adrienne said. ‘Really I am. That’s the gas. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for the cure.’

  ‘Gas?’ Cygnus said, almost groaned, as she fell to her knees. Adrienne’s face was blurring.

  ‘Gas,’ Adrienne said, sliding over onto her side. ‘I’m sorry, but they want you… alive…’

  And then there was only darkness.

  ~~~

  June was expecting to find Penny sitting on the sofa watching TV. Instead she found no sign of her anywhere in the apartment, but she did find scraps of fabric, cotton and towelling littered around Penny’s bedroom, and her glasses on the floor. Cygnus’ costume was gone from the place Penny kept it, hidden at the back of her wardrobe.

  Running into the lounge, June called Red, but she had seen no sign of Cygnus.

  ‘She’s vanished,’ June said into the receiver. ‘She changed fast, without undressing. She must have left in a hurry too; her computer’s still on.’

  ‘Can you see what she was reading?’ Red asked.

  ‘The screen saver is password protected. Can you get a message to Twilight? See if she’s seen her?’

  ‘I can. Stay there in case Penny comes back. I’ll tell Twilight to meet us at your place. I’ll be there in an hour.’

  ‘Okay,’ June said. Then she put down the receiver and curled up on the sofa, her knees tucked under her chin.

  ~~~

  Andrea’s brow furrowed. ‘I haven’t seen her since yesterday. You don’t suppose she could have found something suggesting Zephyr’s death wasn’t natural?’

  ‘I don’t see how,’ Red replied. She was sitting on the sofa, holding June against her side. The brunette was looking very worried. ‘Nothing’s come of my attempts. No one knows an Ultra that can cause heart attacks, or none that aren’t locked up in the Fortress. Ghostfire didn’t break them out.’

  ‘The Tonaldos suspected their losses were not the result of bad habits, but none of them seem to have found a suspect…’

  ‘The girl,’ June mumbled.

  ‘Sorry, love?’ Red asked.

  ‘That mobster who died…’

  ‘Briscetto?’

  ‘Him. We saw him the night before, right? He was picking up a street girl.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be the first,’ Andrea commented.

  ‘It was the last. Bobby liked the ladies. A girl like that could have got close…’

  ‘Unless we’ve got a description,’ Red said, ‘that’s a good idea but it doesn’t get us anywhere. Not with finding her, or Penny.’

  Andrea picked up her cowl. ‘I’m going out. If she’s out there hunting, I’ll find her.’

  ~~~

  Kopf looked out through the observation window into the chamber he had constructed to contain Cygnus. Her forearms and shins were encased in reinforced composite shackles, holding her spread-eagled in the centre of the cylindrical room. Her head was rolled forward, her chin resting on her chest; the room was full of the same sedative gas which had incapacitated her in Heartbreaker’s apartment. That had worked well; the dispersal had been quick and efficient. Kopf allowed himself a smile at his own skill, and went back to examining the output of his instruments.

  ‘Why is she not naked?’ Ghostfire asked from behind him.

  Kopf rolled his eyes. ‘Nudity was not required for my experiments.’

  Ghostfire gave a mirthless laugh. ‘You’re getting old, Professor.’

  ‘At ninety-one, most people would have said I was old. There is no “getting” involved.’ He looked younger. While the UID had classified him as an N-class, a normal with considerable skills, he clearly had some slight mutation or adaptation which made aging easier on him.

  ‘I meant mentally. A woman like that, you want to see naked.’

  ‘I have never had your predilection for the ladies, my friend, though I find this one fascinating. Even asleep her power readings are extraordinary. I am initiating a full scan, but I believe we will have to wake her before I can get more detail.’

  ‘You think those bonds will hold her?’

  ‘No, but if she puts too much stress on them they activate a Neurotronic field which will disable her. Her strength will be no more than a woman of her size.’

  Ghostfire nodded, even if the old man could not see him. ‘Your tests are non-destructive?’

  ‘I have no plans to do anything that will kill her. There may be pain…’

  ‘When you’re finished, put her in a collar and send her to my rooms.’

  ‘Of course,’ Kopf replied. He had expected that; his protégé was nothing if not predictable when it came to attractive women.

  11th December.

  ‘We were expecting Penny back today,’ Mister Leighton said, his gaze on June.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ June decided that keeping the worry off her face was not the best idea. ‘She’s missing, sir. She vanished yesterday. I’m not sure where she is. The death of her friend… She was really upset, but I never thought…’

  ‘Have the police been notified? She could get herself into trouble.’

  ‘There are people out looking for her, sir,’ June replied. ‘The best.’

  ~~~

  The costume never felt the same as it had when she was active. Sure, people still called her the Red Huntress, and she still had the physique to pull off the skimpy outfit. The days when she could leap from rooftop to rooftop with the grace of a cat were gone, however. She was Red, but not really the Huntress.

  Still, with Twilight searching at night, someone needed to cover the day shift, and Red was putting on the costume again to handle it, with a little help anyway. Dom was just as keen to find Cygnus so she was going to lend a hand.

  She was heading out of the club when she spotted Dannon and Bryant walking toward her. Neither of them looked happy, which put a frown on Red’s masked face.

  ‘You don’t wear that much these days,’ Dannon said as they closed the distance.

  ‘I’m looking for Cygnus,’ Red replied. ‘This makes it semi-official. I’m still registered.’

  ‘I know, but…’

  Red looked at him, then at Bryant who was avoiding her eyes. ‘Out with it, Special Agent.’

  ‘Someone came forward this morning,’ Dannon said. ‘A witness who claims Cygnus killed Zephyr, and then came after her.’

  ‘Ridiculous,’ Red told him without a pause.

  ‘Unfortunately it’s not,’ Bryant replied. ‘The girl’s apartment has been trashed, and the chemical analysis of Zephyr’s blood shows high levels of potassium. That can…’

  ‘Induce heart failure,’ Red said, ‘but you’ve only this girl’s testimony to indicate Cygnus did it?’

  ‘So far. We’ve got people searching security tapes, but right now the fact that Cygnus is missing is not looking good for her.’

  ‘I assume you don’t know where she is?’ Dannon asked.

  ‘If I did, I wouldn’t be dressed like this and going out to find her,’ Red replied.

  ~~~

  Herman Kopf stood before a hologram of Cygnus’ stretched-out form, his gaze scanning over it while his fingers stroked at his chin. Behind him one of his zombies stood, waiting patiently as they always did, to be of service. The only service Kopf required was a silent sounding board.

  ‘The energy signature is not normal,’ he mused aloud. ‘The UID figured that out. We were lucky to get our hands on her before Project Jekyll. Yes…’

  His fingers shifted over keys and the patterns on the hologram changed. To Kopf it seemed as though the energy w
as originating from a core location somewhere in the figure’s chest. He narrowed the scan…

  ‘Now this, I believe, is something the agents would be most interested in, and I doubt they have discovered.’

  ‘And that is?’ It was Ghostfire’s voice; he had been listening in on the intercom, Kopf assumed.

  ‘Our subject’s energy originates in the chest.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Ultrahumans channel cosmic energy through the mind, the brain. This scan should show the highest concentration coming from the head. Instead there is a core of energy in the upper torso.’

  ‘And what does that mean?’

  ‘This I do not yet know. Patience, my friend. Perhaps she possesses some new organ which concentrates cosmic energy. I will run a full MRI scan. Let us see what lies under that skin you find so attractive.’

  ~~~

  Red winced as she sank into the hot tub in her apartments. It was there precisely because it helped her back, and today it was needed, along with her strongest painkillers. Even the sight of a lithe young woman in a skintight, black bodysuit was not enough to make her feel better.

  ‘The UID will be looking for you,’ she said as Twilight moved to the side of the tub and sat down. ‘Dannon and Bryant. They say they’ve got someone accusing Cygnus of killing Bobby.’

  ‘I’m busy,’ Twilight replied. ‘Their fantasies can wait until I’ve found her.’

  Red nodded. ‘I checked out the first five properties on your list. I’m not built for raiding labs and distribution warehouses, but I took photographs and sent them to the cops. No sign of Cygnus, but we’re hurting Ghostfire some more. You’re sure it’s him?’

  ‘Aren’t you?’

  ‘There’s Conrad…’

  ‘He shoots to kill. We’d have found a body. Besides, he’s probably working for Ghostfire too.’

  ‘Probably. You’ll continue down the list?’

  ‘Yeah. She may be being held somewhere else, somewhere not on that list, but it’s all we’ve got.’ She looked at the woman lying in the tub. Red’s face was tight with pain. ‘Thanks for doing this. You’re retired for a reason, you didn’t have to…’