Author: Niall Teasdale
Date: 2014-06-02 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Superheroes; Fantasy; Science Fiction; Urban Fantasy; Lesbian; Lgbt; Erotica; Romance; Action; Zombies
Description: Penny Worthington was a very ordinary girl in a city where people did extraordinary things. Since the fifties the Ultrahumans have been making waves on both sides of the law, and Penny has watched from the side lines since she was a child. She has always been happy with that; Penny is the ugly duckling who never quite managed to turn into a swan. Then, one Christmas, Penny is given all she could dream of: beauty, power, the ability to go out and right the wrongs she sees all around her. She’s an Ultrahuman, the swan she always could have been. But in Millennium City, where ugly is always just
Publisher: Smashwords Edition

Ugly

An Ultrahuman Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2014 Niall Teasdale

Amazon Kindle Edition

Contents

Part One: Cygnus Rising

Part Two: Twilight

Part Three: Fire, Light, and Bullets

Part Four: For Ever

Part Five: Falling

Part Six: The New Protector of New Millennium

Epilogue

Part One: Cygnus Rising

New Millennium City, MD, 19th December 2012.

Ultranova flew past the office window, his signature white cape streaming behind him, arms outstretched in a power-pose which suggested he was on his way to some crime in progress. Penny caught a brief glimpse of his short, blonde hair and chiselled features as he rocketed by, gave a sigh, adjusted her glasses, and went back to eating her baloney on rye.

A lot of women entertained dreams of spending a night with the flying hero. He was known for his roguish charm, his way with the ladies, and his habit of dating some of the most beautiful women in the city. Penny did not waste her time with thoughts of rapture between the sheets with New Millennium City’s most famous Ultra; the man was simply not going to be interested in her, end of story.

‘Did you see him?’ Penny looked up to see June standing over her clutching a stack of reports.

‘I saw him,’ she replied, smiling.

‘Dreamy,’ June said, dreamily. June was the kind of woman Ultranova would be interested in. Tall, stacked, model-attractive, slim in the waist and with shapely, wide hips, she had a mass of long, black hair and gorgeous blue eyes. Even in December June had a tan, and no tan lines either. She was working in the office while she organised her modelling career, and Penny had no doubt that June would make it either. There had already been a few jobs and the feedback had been good. The money kept the pretty PA in designer clothes.

‘I prefer dreams I can have some chance of realising,’ Penny stated. ‘I’m quite happy with Sean. I thought your dreams were set on that Russian Ultra anyway. What’s her name?’

‘Svetilo. Yeah, she’s dreamier. But I’ll make an exception to my female-only diet for Ultranova. Aside from anything else, being seen with him would be a good career move.’

‘That’s cold, girl.’

June wrinkled her nose. ‘No colder than him. Everyone thinks it’s cute that he picks up women, sweeps them off their feet…’

‘Literally.’

June giggled. ‘Literally. Then he’s on to the next one the following day. If he didn’t have powers the press would be all over behaviour like that. If he was a woman they’d be calling him a slut.’

‘Yeah… You didn’t come down here just to chat about him, did you?’

‘Oh, no. Mister Leighton wants these typed up by end of day.’ June put the reports down in Penny’s in-tray. ‘Sorry.’

Penny shrugged. ‘This is the crap I get paid for.’

June sagged a little and frowned at her. ‘You are far too nice for your own good, Pen.’

‘I know. See you later.’

Giving a nod, June turned and walked out, her hips swinging as she went. She was, of course, right and Penny should have been annoyed that June, a less skilled secretary than Penny, was on her way up to Leighton’s office while she was stuck down here typing and answering phones. The excuse was that Penny had a lovely telephone voice. Actually, she had a lovely voice, full stop, but that was the only lovely thing about her and the misogynistic bastards on the fifth floor liked their personal assistants to be easy on the eye. It should have made Penny sick; she knew it annoyed the Hell out of June, even if the would-be model used it to get a better job. Penny was used to it. She ignored the inequality just as she was ignored. That was how she was.

~~~

The apartment Penny shared with June, in a building above an acupuncture clinic in Friendship, was just about big enough for the two of them. They had a bedroom each, and there was a kitchen which had the great advantage that you could reach everything in it while standing in one spot. The bathroom was similarly compact, and the lounge was just about big enough for the sofa and TV. On the other hand it was a new-build, it had a balcony outside the lounge, and the rent was easy enough to cover with both of them working.

And they liked it there. The neighbours were nice, even if they described the two girls as ‘that odd couple in number six.’ The local crime rate was fairly low, largely thanks to the Walter Knights, a group of low-powered Ultra martial artists, named for the street the apartment was on, who worked closely with the local precinct. They also got a discount at the acupuncture place, though Penny had tried it once and vowed never to do it again. It was nice and quiet, and the O, New Millennium’s monorail, was not too far away.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to come with?’ June asked, again, as she bounced through the lounge wearing only a pair of black lace boy-shorts.

Penny grinned at her. ‘Me at a club?’

‘Why not? You should get out of this place more often.’

‘I’ll be out Friday night.’

‘Sure. At the office Christmas party. Lots of drunk executives trying to grope the secretaries. All the faces you see every day. You need to see some new faces, girl.’

‘I’m happy with seeing Sean’s face.’

June paused. ‘You… just be careful with that man. He’s only after one thing.’

‘God I hope so.’

The raven-haired girl looked as though she was about to say something else, but she just turned and stepped through into her room. Her voice carried through the open door. ‘So what are you going to do with yourself?’

‘There’s a documentary on the latest research into Ultrahuman origins on Discovery followed by another on exoplanet discovery, and then Ultra! is showing an omnibus of the last three episodes of True Power.’

June giggled. ‘Boobs and superpowers. That stuff’ll have you coming over to my side, y’know?’

‘In your dreams.’

Walking out into the lounge in a black mini-dress and carrying a pair of outrageously high-heeled slingbacks, June gave her a grin. ‘Yes, and you know it.’

They had played the game since moving in together two years earlier. June was technically not a lesbian; she dated men, sometimes. She tended to not have serious relationships because she was focussed on her career, but the few people she had let into her life for longer than a couple of days were women. Despite the disparity in their looks and Penny’s firmly heterosexual leanings, June continued to make passes at her housemate and what stopped Penny getting irritated about it was that her friend seemed genuine about it.

‘Anyway, Sally’s banging Red Hunter this season. I’m more likely to get urges to go give Sean a treat. Go out, have a good time, leave me to my cable.’

June slipped her shoes on and grabbed her coat. There was snow on the ground outside and her dress was not exactly warm. Then she let out a little gasp, as though she had forgotten something, rushed back, and kissed Penny on the cheek. Then she dashed for the door, giggling.

Penny shook her head and changed the channel on the TV. June’s attraction to her was a mystery rather like the origin of the Ultras. Ultrahumans had begun appearing in the fifties with no explanation, and had remained unexplainable despite a lot of study and all the advances in science since then. June seemed determined to turn their relationship into something more, and no advancement in science was going to explain that either. Penny was short, had almost no chest or waist, a round, slightly pudgy face, and short, brown hair which defied brushing. She had rather nice blue eyes, but they were too close together and she always looked like she was squinting. Her mother had read her The Ugly Duckling a lot when she was a kid and Penny had entertained hopes of a last-minute reprieve from mediocrity, but she had never turned into a swan. Oh well…

Pouring herself a slightly more generous glass of wine, since it was almost Christmas and all, Penny settled back to watch her shows.

21st December.

It was six-thirty and the party had been in full swing for an hour. Penny was waiting patiently at the printer four floors below it while the last few pages of a sixty page report for Sean emerged at what seemed like an unusually slow pace. Well, Sean would be grateful.

Looking forward to a few drinks and maybe a fumbled kiss or two, Penny collected the papers into a folder, dropped it, sighed at her own clumsiness, spent five minutes sorting the pages again, and then started for the elevator to the fourth floor where Sean’s office was. Someone had decided that piping Christmas tunes through the elevator’s speakers would be a great idea and it had been irritating Penny since the third. Now she found herself humming along to the vaguely identifiable tune.

The fourth floor was silent aside from a few stray sounds from the party above, which was why she heard the voices as she stepped out of the elevator. They were indistinct, but a man and a woman, and she decided that ‘voices’ was the wrong term as she got closer since the sounds they were making were more grunts and moans.

Penny slowed down as she moved further through the office, her stomach sinking more and more as she went. By the time she got to Sean’s office she was sure that the sounds were coming from there, but she kept telling herself that that did not mean the man was Sean.

The blinds were drawn over the windows, but there was a gap at one side and she could peek through. The woman lying on the office desk with her knees pulled up was largely unidentifiable. She was naked aside from a pair of five-inch high-heels which she still had on. The man was still wearing a shirt, and since all she could really see of him was a pair of thrusting buttocks, that was useful. Penny had bought the shirt two months earlier for Sean’s birthday.

Putting the file down beside the door, Penny turned and walked toward the elevator. Suddenly the party was the last place she wanted to be. Home. She needed to be at home. There was a bottle of wine there and when she had finished drinking it she would feel a lot better. Also she would be unconscious, which would be a plus.

Outside, wrapped in her coat with the cold air biting at her nose, she was thankful for her sensible shoes. Sensible shoes. She had worn sensible, flat shoes to a Christmas party. Okay, so she had worn her shortest skirt and some hold-ups that June had bought her, and a sweater… No, the sweater had not been such a great idea, but it matched the rest of the outfit. It was frumpy. That was what it was, frumpy. No wonder Sean had been banging one of the other girls. It was all her own fault. She had always known he could do better than her, and now she had practically driven him away with her frumpy clothes and…

A sound made her pause and look around. It was a weird keening noise, like something screaming. She was beside a fenced-in park on 17th Street, a block from the monorail, and there was no one around right now. No one was screaming, that was for sure, but the sound was coming from…

She looked up just in time to see what looked like a meteorite, a blazing ball of light coming right at her. She had a fraction of a second to wonder if it would hurt, and then the world exploded around her.

~~~

‘Sean? Have you seen Penny?’

The blonde-haired man turned and looked, upward, at June. His expression shifted to lascivious. ‘No. She left a report outside my office earlier.’

‘Uh-huh. That was while you were banging Tina, right?’

‘What?’ His face straightened like it was on elastic.

‘She’s been bragging. You should have stuck with Pen, at least she’d keep her mouth shut.’ Turning on her booted heel, she strutted away making sure that Sean got a good view of what he was never going to get.

There was no crying Penny in her office, and no sign of Penny’s coat or bag. Yeah, she had seen Sean with Tina and gone home rather than face the humiliation. Knowing Penny she had figured out how to blame herself for Sean’s treachery before she had made it to the O.

‘Not tonight, Pen,’ June muttered. ‘You are not going to spend Christmas moping over that fucker.’

She started for her own office to get her coat. She had had enough of the poisonous bastards of Leighton and Thorpe for one year anyway.

~~~

Penny groaned and opened her eyes. The night seemed brighter around her, though the colours seemed odd, both brighter and somehow more muted. What the Hell had happened? She had left the office because… She was in the park on 17th Street because…

She shook her head and stood up. She was obviously disoriented, because the ground seemed further away than usual. The air was cold on her bare skin. Fuck! She was naked! She was standing naked in the snow and…

Where had the long, white hair come from? And the legs? And the breasts? Her body was not her body, and she was naked in the snow in New Millennium’s business district! There was an iron fence between her and the rest of the world, and she had no clue how she was going to get over that. She spotted her bag lying a couple of yards away and walked over to grab it. The shoulder strap was now two strips of heavy-weave cloth, the middle section having gone missing. Now she looked, she could see other bits of cloth littered around the playground. Shreds of wool and linen, the sole of one shoe. Whatever had happened had reduced her clothing and even the strap of her bag to scraps.

She walked over to the fence with its high, iron spikes, though it looked shorter now. She had to be close to six feet in height, she would be eyeball to eyeball with June, but that was not getting her over the top and she could hear voices coming down the street. She had to get out of here and home, somehow. The voices were getting louder.

Panicking, she tried jumping, and apparently that was a good idea. She went up and kept on going up, vanishing into the black sky with her bag clutched firmly in her hands. Okay, so she was clear of the park. Which way was Friendship?

22nd December.

June opened the apartment door and stepped through, reaching for the light switch. She had expected the lights to be on, and Penny to be sitting in front of the TV, or lying in bed. Had something happened to her on the way home? That would be just perfect. She would personally nail Sean’s hide to…

‘Don’t turn the lights on.’

The voice came from the sofa, and it was Penny’s voice, but all June could see was a shadowy shape sitting there in the darkness.

June pushed the door closed. ‘Oh Pen… I know what Sean did. I’m sorry. I tried to tell you, sort of. He had a bet with Walter Winscott that he wouldn’t stick with you for three months, but he blew it. He’s been sleeping with two other…’ She shook her head; that was not helping. ‘You can’t let him spoil your Christmas…’

‘Oh, that’s what happened,’ Penny said, her voice distant. ‘Right, I remember.’

June frowned. What had happened to the little brunette? Had she been attacked? Or was it shock? The discovery had blanked her memory. Okay, so Sean’s betrayal was likely to have been a shock, but not that bad.

‘Pen? You’re scaring your housemate.’

‘Sorry. Something happened. I was coming home and something happened.’

June walked around the sofa. There was something off about the figure sitting there, but she could not quite put her finger on what it was. ‘What happened, Pen?’ June knelt down on the floor. Somehow she felt that Penny wanted some distance between them. She looked at where the shadow’s head was, and that was too high…

Penny’s shadow leaned over and turned on the lamp beside the couch. June let out a gasp and fell over backward, sprawling on the carpet as Penny straightened up and looked back at her timidly.

‘This happened,’ Penny whispered. The figure sitting there was not Penny. Well, it was her, but not the same her. The voice was the same, and the eyes. Now that June looked closely she could see Penny’s blue eyes looking back at her, but it was out of a thin, beautiful face framed by long, platinum blonde hair. The body below it was slim, willowy even, aside from a substantial pair of breasts. There was well-defined muscle, and her legs looked longer than June’s. She was… gorgeous! And naked.

‘H-how?’ June swallowed hard and pulled herself back upright.

Penny shook her head. ‘I remember seeing something. I thought it was a meteor. I thought I was dead… And then…’

‘Oh… You, err, you’re naked.’

Penny managed a timid giggle. ‘You noticed that?’

‘Well… Yes, because… Well, you don’t have any clothes on and… Pen, you’re better looking than me! How did you get home like that? How did you get in here without being seen?!’

‘The balcony.’

‘We’re four storeys up, Pen.’

‘I, uh, I can fly.’

‘You’re an Ultra?!’

‘Keep your voice down,’ Penny hissed. ‘I don’t know. I mean, I guess, but all the studies say it’s most likely genetic and I should have had it emerge before now. And Ultras don’t suddenly change into…’

‘Totally gorgeous super-femmes?’

‘I am not…’

‘Have you even looked at yourself?’

‘Well, no…’

June jumped to her feet, grabbed Penny’s hand and pulled. There was a moment of resistance and then Penny jerked out of the seat. June stopped pulling for a second as she looked at the hovering shape in front of her. ‘You really can fly,’ she said, and then started dragging Penny through the air.

Penny touched down as they entered June’s room, where there was, of course, a full-length mirror. There was also an unmade bed, a table with a sewing machine on it, and three wardrobes. In truth there was not much space for them to be in there together, but June steered Penny in front of the mirror after turning the lights on. Penny looked at herself in the mirror. Her jaw slowly fell open.

‘I, uh, I’m still not prettier than…’

‘Don’t you try to save my pride,’ June said, grinning. ‘With that body I’d be on catwalks in Milan and Paris. I’d… Well, maybe too much breast for catwalks. Maybe. I think they might overlook it. You need acting lessons. Yes, we get you in front of some casting agents and…’

‘June, I don’t want to stay like this. It’s not me. I’m not…’ Penny waved a hand at the image in the mirror. ‘I’m not this.’

‘So, all this time you’ve said you were ugly and everyone ignored you, you actually liked it?’

‘Well…’

‘If you want to change back, change back. Oh! Can you change back?’

‘I don’t know,’ Penny mumbled.

‘Well, you can fly. What else?’

‘I don’t know that either. Uh, oh, I can see in the dark. There’s no colours, but I can see in the pitch black. That’s it so far. I’ve only been like this for a couple of hours.’

‘Oh, yeah. I mean… How would we find out? I mean, how do other Ultras find out what they can do?’

‘There are a couple of government programmes for testing, if you want to go into the police or FBI. The Army has one too. I guess everyone else does it by trial and error.’

‘So… if someone shoots you and you don’t end up dead, then you’re bulletproof.’

‘Basically. It’s not exactly a great way to proceed.’

June ran a hand down Penny’s arm. ‘Your skin hasn’t changed. You always had good skin. I don’t want to see anyone put holes in it.’

‘No, that wouldn’t be my preference, but…’

‘But what?’

‘My parents.’

‘Oh.’ June’s parents were alive and well, and living in Atlanta. Her father was a lawyer, mostly family law. It did not pay as well as criminal cases, but he said he was happier. Penny was an orphan. Her parents had died when they happened to be in a bank in Red Bank which got robbed by an Ultra. One of the bank’s guards had pulled a gun, and the robber had demolished that entire side of the building. They had had to use DNA to identify Penny’s mother and they had buried an empty coffin. Her father was buried in a closed casket because there was not that much left of him after the explosion.

Penny, of course, did not hate Ultrahumans because of it. She hated that one man, Thermite, and was maybe a little more vehement in denouncing Ultra criminals than most. There were a few fan clubs devoted to some of the less violent, and more attractive, villains. Penny thought the people who joined them were sick. She was equally forceful about standing up for the Ultras who fought crime. She thought they performed a valuable service.

‘You think you’ve got some kind of duty to use this, if you can?’ June asked.

‘Maybe.’ Penny gave a little shrug. ‘If I’m stuck like this I’ll almost have to. I mean, I’ll have to go to the police and sort out new paperwork. I don’t exactly look like my driver’s licence anymore.’

‘Sleep on it,’ June suggested. ‘Maybe things will look different in the morning.’

~~~

In the morning, things looked exactly the same. Penny was not taking it with her usual stoicism.

‘This is terrible!’ she moaned as she sat in the lounge with her knees pulled up to her chin. ‘None of my clothes fit. I had to sleep naked! I’ve got nothing to wear, and I can’t go out to buy anything, because I haven’t got anything to wear!’

June was not used to being the one keeping a level head, but Penny had been there to keep her steady all the times there had been bumps in her modelling career, so she was going to be there for Penny now. Besides, she had an Ultra in her front room. She handed over a mug of coffee and schooled her features into what she hoped was a calm and practical expression.

‘Well, we’re the same height now. You’re a little narrower in the hips. My clothes should fit you, maybe with a belt. Shoes might be a problem, but I have a couple of pairs of sneakers which should be okay.’

Penny looked up at her with a slightly pleading expression. ‘Really? What about a bra? I mean, I barely needed one before, and now…’

‘You don’t look like you need one now either,’ June replied with a hint of envy, ‘and you certainly don’t need one to slob around the apartment. I’ll get you a T-shirt and some jeans.’ She walked off to her room, flashing Penny an encouraging smile.

‘Thanks, June,’ Penny called after her. ‘You’re being really great about this.’

‘You’re my friend, Pen. You’re still my friend, even if you don’t look the same.’

‘I’m not sure. I feel… different. Not just the body, I feel kind of… kind of flighty. My mind’s going nineteen to the dozen. I want to do something. I don’t know what, just anything. I feel a bit weird. You know, not needing glasses is weird too. I keep wanting to adjust them.’

June emerged from her room carrying a bundle of clothes. ‘Put these on, maybe that’ll make you feel more like you.’

Penny rummaged through until she found a pair of lacy boy-shorts, grimaced, and pulled them on. They felt a little loose, but the main problem was that all of Penny’s underwear, even her two B-cup bras, was sensible, and cotton. June did not have anything in her underwear drawer Penny considered sensible aside from a couple of sports bras. The jeans looked worn, but they were supposed to look like that. They were not as tight in the thigh as they were when June wore them, and the waistband was looser, and they looked a tiny bit short in the leg. June carefully adjusted all her clothes to a perfect fit, so Penny figured her legs were a little longer than June’s. The top was a tight, black, cropped T-shirt; Penny looked down at her bare midriff and then up at June, her eyes narrowing.

‘What?! It’s a shame to cover it all up.’ June grinned. ‘I admit it’s better you’re dressed. It’s certainly less distracting.’

Penny grinned back. ‘Still not into girls. Sorry.’

‘Too much to hope for, I guess. Drink your coffee.’

With at least some of her skin covered up, Penny did feel a little less hyper, and the warm brew felt nice going down. She still felt like she should be doing something, but there was not quite so much urgency, likely because she was warmer.

‘If you were going to, y’know, go out and fight crime,’ June said, ‘how would you go about that?’

‘To do it properly… There’s a police registration procedure. The more you’re willing to tell them, the more semi-official you are. But I think I should learn to fight first. I mean, Dad made me do a little judo, but that’s just sport fighting really.’

‘Okay… The Knights. One of them runs some sort of dojo a few blocks from here. Maybe he can help you.’

‘It’s a plan. I think we’ll wait for the New Year. And to find out whether I’m going to change back. I mean, if I turn back into the ugly duckling then there’s no point.’

‘You were never ugly,’ June snapped.

‘Yeah. I was.’

‘Would you accept “unconventionally beautiful?”’

Penny laughed; she had a beautiful, throaty laugh. ‘No.’

25th December.

June was giggling. She was giggling because she had bought Penny a new, loose-weave, fluffy sweater which had been a little risqué at the time, being quite short, and was now practically indecent. The rule was, if you got clothes, you put them on and, to be fair to June, she had not known Penny’s flesh would be showing through the fluffy wool.

‘It’s not funny, you know,’ Penny stated.

‘It’s a bit funny,’ June countered.

‘No it’s… Okay, it’s a bit funny. But what if I’m really stuck like this?’

‘Then we make the best of it. You’re gorgeous, especially in a tight sweater.’

‘Ha ha.’

‘So we put you in front of some agents, get a set done, you can quit that stupid job and get something that pays real money.’

‘I can’t be a model! If you put me on a catwalk I’ll trip over my own feet!’

‘Sure?’ June replied, her eyebrows rising. ‘You haven’t tripped, or dropped anything, or stubbed your toe on the furniture, or… Well, anyway, you haven’t done a single klutzy thing since you came back Friday night.’ She poked a finger at Penny’s chest. ‘You are elegant.’

‘I’ve never been elegant in my life.’

‘You’ve never been five-eleven either.’

‘Shouldn’t that make me more ungainly?’

‘Well it hasn’t, live with it. I’m telling you, you could make a fortune.’

‘Sure… right… Here, open this one.’ Penny picked up a wrapped package and tossed it to June. They were kneeling on the floor in the lounge, so when June fumbled it, the cylindrical present rolled straight under the sofa. ‘Now who’s the klutz,’ Penny said, giggling.

June started reaching under the sofa to try to find her present. ‘Have you considered the possibility that you can’t throw?’

‘No, I’m elegant, remember? Can’t you find it?’

‘I found it, but I can’t get more than a fingertip to it…’

Penny got to her feet, walked to the side of the sofa, and lifted. ‘There,’ she said. June just sat there, looking up at her. ‘What?’

‘Pen…’ June nodded at the couch.

‘What?’

‘Since when could you lift the sofa?’

‘Oh. I just… I didn’t think about it. I just wanted your present out of there.’

June pulled her present clear of the sofa and Penny lowered the furniture back into place. ‘So,’ June said as she started to tear open the paper, ‘you’re strong too.’

Penny sat back down, frowning. ‘Apparently I’m stronger, and that was easy, but we don’t know how strong.’

‘Yeah, but that should be easy to find out. We can just go to a gym and we can see how much you can lift.’ She pulled a bottle of perfume from the cardboard tube and smiled. ‘This stuff is expensive. You shouldn’t have.’

‘One extravagant present is allowed,’ Penny replied. ‘It’s in the housemate rulebook.’

‘There’s a rulebook?’

‘You don’t have a copy? I’ll get you one for next Christmas.’

~~~

Penny was half-stretched out on the sofa, her eyes on the screen in front of her where True Powers was playing. June had bought her the boxed set of the entire first three seasons and they had put it on for want of something better to watch live. They were already into season two and ex-porn star Madeleine Joy was busy hamming it up in a nearly transparent white gown as the White Priestess. The producers had decided that T&A got good ratings. It was late and almost all the channels were running sappy Christmas films. Given Penny’s current condition, this seemed like an appropriate choice anyway.

June was lying with her head on Penny’s hip, hence Penny’s semi-reclined position. On a periodic basis the brunette would move to take a drink of wine, but otherwise she seemed happy to lie there and watch a programme she had seen at least twice before. They were both at least half-cut. This was their third bottle of wine and Penny was pretty sure it would have to be the last given that her vision was starting to swim.

That might have been why the, rather nice, stroking sensation on her stomach took a while to impinge upon her senses. Her eyes drifted closed for a second or two, maybe longer. It felt nice. What was it? A hand, yes? Fingers absently trailing over…

She stiffened. ‘June…?’

‘Mm-uh-huh?’

‘Uh… still not into girls.’

‘I know you’re oh shit!’ June jerked upright, her hand slipping out from under Penny’s sweater. A second later, the tall brunette was sitting at the far end of the sofa looking horrified. ‘I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking. I must be drunker than I thought. I’d never…’

Penny swung her legs around and sat up. ‘Hey, it’s okay. Nothing happened. It was kind of nice, just…’

‘You’re not into girls. I’m sorry. I was comfortable and you’re gorgeous, and… it’s been a while…’

Penny giggled; she could not really help herself. ‘Sorry. It’s been longer for me. I wish I could help.’

‘God, so do I!’ June burst into a fit of giggles. When they subsided she added, ‘Maybe I should go to bed.’

‘Aww, don’t let that spoil it. We’re almost at the end of season two.’ Penny shuffled down the sofa and looped an arm around June’s waist. ‘Just friends hugging, okay?’

June nodded quickly and put her arm around Penny’s shoulders. ‘I can manage that.’

‘Have some more wine. It’s Christmas, we should have a hangover tomorrow.’

‘Oh… I think that’s already a given.’

26th December.

‘You don’t even have a headache,’ June moaned.

‘I do,’ Penny replied as she busied herself with making breakfast, ‘I just don’t seem to be too bothered by it.’

‘I guess we can add a high pain threshold to the list then. I think my brain has collapsed into a black hole.’

‘That seems exceptionally unlikely, given you aren’t sucking the rest of the world into a singularity.’

‘You’re using long words,’ June moaned, ‘like “you” for example.’

Penny giggled. ‘I’ll try to keep it to monosyllables. Maybe we should go out for a walk after breakfast. Y’know? Get some fresh air.’

‘You think you should? Go out, I mean. If someone sees you with me…’

Penny handed over a mug of coffee. ‘Yeah… I had thought of that. We should go somewhere where they don’t know us. North Beach. We can walk along the sand.’

‘How are we going to get there, exactly?’

Penny grinned at her. June did not entirely like that grin.

~~~

The landing was not exactly perfect, but Penny managed to get down without dumping June, or herself, in the sand. June was giggling like an idiot the whole time. The giggling had been a little maniacal at various points in the flight, but Penny had had no trouble carrying her friend.

‘I need to work on the landings a little,’ Penny said as she set June down. ‘I’m not sure those heels are really suitable for sand.’

‘I like heels,’ June replied. ‘Where are we anyway?’

‘Uh, well, North Beach. Meadow Lane is over the rise. I figured it should be quiet here. How’s your head?’

June giggled again. ‘Cold.’

‘Come on, we can walk it off.’

They set off down the beach together, and it took about a hundred yards before June stopped and pulled her shoes off.

‘Don’t say anything,’ June said.

‘You’ll get cold feet,’ Penny replied.

‘It’ll be even warmer when we get home then.’ June started off again, Penny keeping pace easily, which was a novel experience. ‘This was a good idea,’ June added. ‘I do feel better, and we hardly ever do stuff together. Outside the apartment anyway.’

‘I suppose we don’t. I’ve always thought that was why we work, as housemates. I mean, we’re different. We don’t step on each other’s toes. We have different interests. The biggest thing we share is the office.’

‘And that’s mostly bitching about the people there.’

There was a giggle. ‘I don’t bitch.’

‘No. No you don’t. You should, but you don’t. If you are stuck like that, I bet you get promoted inside of a week.’

‘That’s before you get me on a catwalk?’

‘I was thinking more like glamour. We’ll get you in swimsuits, on Sports Illustrated.’

Penny felt her cheeks heating. ‘I am not going to have my pictures taken half-naked.’

‘Why not? You’re a goddess. I’m not talking Playboy here.’

‘I’m not used to… to showing my body off. I’ve never had much of one to show off and just because I have doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly have the desire to. You’ve been planning your career since… High School?’

‘Senior year,’ June agreed. ‘I wasn’t always a show-off, y’know? I was a straight-A student. I didn’t have a boyfriend until after my SATs. Didn’t sleep with anyone until I moved here.’

‘Really?’

‘Uh-huh. I wasn’t, like, saving myself or anything. I was busy. What about you?’

Penny’s cheeks felt suddenly a lot hotter, despite the chill air. ‘I, uh… Well, I was seventeen and Daniel McClusky said he wanted to… I couldn’t believe it…’

‘Didn’t go well?’ June’s tone was sympathetic.

‘Total disaster. He was after another girl the next day. Sean was the first guy I’ve dated since, and look how well that’s gone.’

‘You could have any man you want now.’

‘I don’t think this has happened to me so that I can finally have satisfying sex, June.’

‘Huh. You could enjoy the fringe benefits though.’ They both giggled, and then June added, ‘You’re talking like this wasn’t just some sort of weird accident.’

‘I don’t think it was. I feel like… like I’m supposed to do something. It doesn’t just feel like I want to do something, it feels like I need to.’

‘Y-you think it’s affected your mind?’

Penny thought about it. She could hear the concern in June’s voice, and wanted to reassure her, but she also did not want to lie. ‘It has. I said I felt different. I feel like… like I should be doing something. Anything! I want to know things. I guess I’ve always wanted to know stuff, that’s why I watch documentaries. This is like that, but more, except I don’t want to sit still. I want to be out there, finding stuff out, and fixing it.’

‘Oh. Well that doesn’t sound too bad.’

‘I’m not going to go super-villain on you.’

‘Didn’t think you would. Okay, then we should do something.’

‘Like what?’

‘First step: shopping.’

‘Shopping?’ Penny asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘Yeah, if we’re going to go to a club for New Year, you’ll need something sexy to wear.’

Penny gave a short laugh. ‘Me? In a club?’ There was a tiny pause and then she added, ‘Okay.’

31st December.

The weird thing, as far as Penny was concerned, was that she did not feel uncomfortable in the dress they had eventually bought for her. It was tight and short, and sparkling red except for the mesh sides, and the halter top which crossed over her chest was giving her rather more cleavage than she was used to. It exposed far too much flesh for her normal comfort zone, but she was more uncomfortable about not being uncomfortable than she was about the outfit.

June had said it was down to not being herself. Literally. Penny was not herself so she could be outrageous and there would be no comeback. It had sounded like a reasonable sort of assertion. It was like going on holiday where no one knew you, and going crazy because no one knew what you were usually like. Penny was having a holiday from being Penny.

The club June had decided upon was called Huntress’ Den, because it belonged to a retired Ultra, the Red Huntress. Rumour had it that the True Powers people had asked her before creating a character called ‘Red Hunter’ for the show. She still ran the place, and appeared there most nights. Other Ultras went there on occasion since they knew the owner would not get worried about them being there. That meant that if someone twigged that Penny was one, no one would kick them out. She was also pretty certain they were not going to run into anyone they knew.

There were two bouncers on the door, both in pristine suits, one with the exaggerated muscle of at least a low-level Ultra, and they were turning people away in a manner that suggested getting in was not going to be easy. The big one took one look at Penny and June, and opened the rope in front of him without a word.

‘That was you,’ June commented as they passed through the foyer.

‘Huh?’

‘The bouncer. He let us in because of you. I could see it in his eyes. I probably could have got us in, but not with just a look.’

‘Uh…’ Further conversation became unviable as they entered the main floor and the throbbing beat of the music hit them. The light was dim, with a lot of red in it, but Penny’s new eyes took it all in their stride and she could see as well as in daylight, even if the colours looked odd. Everything had a grayscale overlay which brightened the light, but tended to wash the colour out.

June mimed drinking at Penny and then headed through the crowd to the bar. Penny followed, squeezing past men and women in expensive, often revealing, clothing. What she was not quite ready for was her reaction to these people. They were attractive, often very attractive, and now so was she, and she wanted to flirt. She had never had a desire to flirt with anyone before, as far as she could remember. She wanted to be noticed, talked to, appreciated… Flustered, she hurried after June and waited while her friend bought drinks for them.

‘You’re new. I haven’t seen you around before.’ The voice was not loud and when Penny turned her head she found herself face to face with an attractive, blonde-haired woman who was aging exceptionally gracefully. She looked to be in her late thirties, except for a few lines around the eyes which suggested greater age. Penny recognised her from documentaries; the Red Huntress had decided to pay the new girl a visit.

‘I… You wouldn’t have,’ Penny replied.

The blonde’s eyes flicked toward June, who was still facing the bar. ‘Does your friend know?’

‘She’s the only person who does. Until now.’

‘Bring her then. We need to talk. Just a chat. I like to know who’s in my club.’

June chose that moment to turn around, her hands full of wine glasses. She blinked a couple of times and then her jaw dropped open. The Huntress gave her a smile and waved for them to follow her.

‘What does she want?’ June hissed in Penny’s ear.

‘To talk,’ Penny replied.

‘This should be interesting.’

The Red Huntress had an office at the back of the club, through a door marked ‘Employees Only’ and down a short corridor which served to dull the noise. The room was less office and more home-away-from-home, as far as Penny could tell. There was a sofa as well as a large desk. An intricately carved longbow hung on the wall behind the desk, the owner’s signature weapon from her active days. She waved at the seats in front of her desk as she walked around to sit down behind it.

‘I’m sure you’re wondering how I knew,’ the blonde Ultra said. ‘I can smell Ultrahumans from a hundred yards, but you’ve got a scent… It’s hard to describe, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever met before.’

‘Oh,’ Penny replied, taking a gulp of wine from her glass. ‘I only… Uh, I’m not sure how to describe it, but this is all new to me. It happened just before Christmas.’

‘Ah. So you’ve probably not registered, or really found out what you can do?’ Penny shook her head in reply. ‘You don’t really seem the type to start robbing banks.’

‘She isn’t,’ June stated flatly.

The Huntress nodded. ‘Don’t suppose you’ve come up with a name yet either. You’re going to need one if you’re planning to use all that power.’

‘I… do,’ Penny replied, ‘but I don’t really know how much…’

‘You’re powerful,’ the Huntress interrupted. ‘I can tell that much. Maybe in potential rather than actual power at the moment, but you smell of a lot of power. That’s why I got you in here. Had to be sure you weren’t going to be trouble.’

‘We just came to have some fun at New Year,’ June said.

The Huntress grinned. ‘Far be it from me to deny you that. No conspicuous use of powers. That’s the only rule.’ Her gaze shifted to sweep over June, taking in the short, leather skirt and the black, cropped T-shirt with V-shaped mesh insert which showed off a lot of cleavage. ‘Maybe I’ll see you later.’

June smiled back. ‘Okay,’ she said.

~~~

It was almost midnight. There was a general atmosphere of anticipation which Penny could sense even through the slight alcohol haze she had developed. She could also sense the hand gently stroking her thigh and was doing nothing to discourage the young man whose hand it was. She considered that the height of impropriety, and she was loving it.

Her companion was no older than she was. Maybe a little; no more than twenty-five, she was sure of that. He was handsome, ruggedly so, with carefully tousled, black hair and blue eyes you could drown in. He worked out, possibly a little too much, but Penny was not worried about that right now. She was far more interested in the way his hand was moving and the way his eyes were watching her.

They had been chatting vaguely for thirty minutes after bumping into each other on the dance floor. Not literally. June had been right: Penny was elegant. June had nodded encouragingly when Penny had led him to a table to sit down, though Penny did not really feel like she needed the push. She was feeling hyper again, wound up, impulsive, and Jon was currently holding her attention with his stroking hand and his steamy eyes.

He leaned toward her. His breath was hot against her ear. ‘You’re incredible.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Maybe we could go back to my place after…’

Words came into her head and she said them before she could change her mind. ‘Why wait?’ She could not believe she had said it, but she had and she could not take it back now. ‘Maybe there’s somewhere we could go…?’

‘It’s almost midnight,’ he said, though he was definitely not saying no.

‘You can think of a better way to see in the New Year?’

He took her hand and stood up, leading the way toward the rear of the club as though he was afraid she would change her mind. He found a door and pushed it open; she saw a male symbol on the door suggesting this was the men’s toilets, but everyone was out in the club; the room was empty. A second or two later they were in one of the cubicles; she was pressed up against one of the walls, and his tongue was in her mouth.

She felt his hands pulling at the hem of her dress, while her own were at work on the belt of his designer slacks. His pants were definitely a little tighter than they should have been. She giggled softly as he pushed her thong down her thighs, pulled one sandaled leg from them as they fell around her ankles and put one foot up on the toilet seat. It was hardly a romantic setting, but she was not interested in romance. She wanted him in her, and he obliged as soon as he was able, pushing deep and then pausing at her gasp.

Their eyes locked for a second. Her hips shifted and he let out a groan. ‘Do it,’ she whispered.

His hips began to work against hers. She could feel every inch of him sliding within her and her head rolled back against the cubicle wall. She became dimly aware of the chanting from the club.

‘Ten…’ So close.

‘Nine… eight…’ It had been so long and this body seemed so responsive.

‘Seven… six… five…’ She could feel energy swelling within her, and it seemed as though he could feel it too.

‘Four… three…’ His thrusts grew faster. She could feel that energy she was exuding powering him onward.

‘Two… one…’ The cheers were drowned out by the rushing sound in her ears and she was lost to the sensations coursing through her body.

What a way to see in the New Year indeed…

1st January 2013.

Penny slipped into the apartment through the window from the balcony, alone. Somewhere over in Uptown the Red Huntress was making sure that June celebrated the turn of another year in a manner similar to the way Penny had done.

She headed for the shower. She could still feel her midnight activities on her inner thighs and, while she did not regret anything, she did want the evidence to be less sticky. Starting the water running, she discarded her clothes and climbed into the tub, pulling the curtain around her. The water felt good. Being clean felt better.

Dry and warm, and feeling satisfied in a way she could not recall ever having felt before, she padded through into June’s room and looked at herself in the mirror there. Okay, so she did look amazing, and she could have any man she wanted. She was hardly a skilled lover, but Jon seemed to have gone away happy. The energy within her had had something to do with it, she was sure of that.

‘But,’ she said to her reflection, ‘you have to go. I’m pretty sure you can go too, and come back when I need you. What do I have to do? Is there a magic word? No, that’s silly. I think…’

She closed her eyes and concentrated, willing herself to change back into the Penny she usually was. There was a tingling sensation in her fingers and toes, which seemed encouraging, and she concentrated harder. The tingling spread, enveloping her body and becoming almost uncomfortable. There was a rushing sound in her ears and then…

Penny opened her eyes and looked at the blurred image in the mirror. She could not entirely see herself, but that in itself suggested it had worked. Where had she left her glasses?

It took five minutes of searching and one stubbed toe before she located the offending eyewear, and then she was back in front of the mirror. June had been right: her skin and eyes were the same, but the rest of her was back to the boyish, slightly chubby, Penny. She looked at the body she had always been resigned to and smiled. Okay, so she was the ugly duckling again and not the swan, but she was almost positive she could change back and this was the perfect disguise. No one was going to believe that Penny was the elegant, beautiful… She frowned and started for her own room. She was going to need a name.

Dressed in the oversized T-shirt and flannelette pants she wore to bed normally, she curled up on the sofa and put the TV on. There was still a buzz in her head from the alcohol and the sex, but she would find something to watch and try to come up with a name for her alternate persona. Her swan form. That made her giggle. Maybe some more wine was in order.

~~~

June arrived back at the apartment just before midday with a dreamy smile on her face. She looked vaguely confused for a second when she saw Penny curled on the sofa looking happy.

‘You’re back to normal,’ June said, stating the obvious.

‘Uh-huh. In a bit we can see whether I can turn back. For now I’m happy being normal me. I take it you had a good night?’

June fell onto the couch, beaming. ‘Oh God yes! She’s amazing! We were up until sunrise and she gave me a fantastic wake-up call.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Where were you at midnight? I looked for you…’

Penny felt her cheeks flaring hot. ‘I was in the men’s restroom, pinned up against a cubicle wall.’ Now that she was Penny again, and not drunk, the whole experience seemed a little sordid.

June’s eyes widened. ‘Penny Worthington! You didn’t!’

‘I so did.’ Penny broke into a fit of giggles at the look on June’s face.

‘Well fuck me sideways. You don’t believe in doing things by halves. Did you even get his name?’

‘Jon. Don’t know the rest. He didn’t get mine.’ She paused, one hand lifting to touch a reddened cheek. ‘Kind of slutty, really, but it felt like… I just wanted to and I’ve never been the kind of girl who could…’

‘I think, as long as you’re not planning to make a habit of it, you’re allowed to go crazy once.’

‘Well, I don’t plan to. On the other hand I was getting kind of fixated. I think the other me might be a bit of a letch. I’ll have to watch that. Maybe it’ll be less pronounced when I’m used to it.’ She grinned. ‘So the Red Huntress is into girls. There were rumours…’

June grinned back. ‘She’s into girls.’ She shuddered. ‘She’s so into girls.’

‘I guess we both had a good evening then,’ Penny said, smiling happily.

~~~

‘So what’s with the ratty T-shirt and panties?’ June was watching Penny from the doorway of her bedroom. Penny had requested that she keep a safe distance and given that they did not know what might happen, June was happy to oblige.

‘Last time my clothes got turned into scraps and the strap on my bag was obliterated,’ Penny replied. ‘I want to know if that happens every time.’

‘Good idea. You can’t go around wearing a costume under your clothes if it’s going to disintegrate when you change.’

Penny giggled. ‘I wasn’t planning to anyway, but I do want to know if I need to strip before changing.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Here goes…’ She closed her eyes and concentrated.

To June it seemed as though nothing was happening. Penny was just standing there with a constipated look on her face. No changes, no flashes of light, no… There was an odd sort of buzzing noise and Penny’s features seemed to blur. Her legs stretched suddenly, pulling out like taffy. Her breasts swelled under the T-shirt as her body began to lengthen. The buzzing grew louder and was joined by a sudden burst of sound like ripping fabric, and Penny’s clothes were floating to the carpet in fragments.

Penny opened her eyes, blinking at June. ‘It worked.’

‘Uh-huh, and you did end up naked again.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t apologise. After last night your boobs are less distracting than they were.’

Penny giggled again and picked up the wrap she had bought along with the dress for New Year. Short and silky, it fitted her new persona as well as her new body. ‘So, it takes a few seconds, but I can swap between the two without too much difficulty. So I guess I have a choice to make.’

‘Do good or do nothing?’

‘Basically. Not every Ultra goes out and fights crime. Some of them, especially the less powerful ones, lead normal lives.’

June stepped aside as Penny walked out of the room. There was a noticeable swing to the woman’s hips which was not there when she was in her normal form. Watching the hem of the wrap twitching from side to side, June swallowed and said, ‘But you said you had this… urge to do something.’

‘And I didn’t when I was me, and now it’s back again.’ Settling onto the couch with her legs crossed in front of her, Penny turned the TV on and found the Discovery Channel.

‘Then unless you’re going to stay as Penny, I think you’re going to have to learn how to be a proper Ultra.’

‘Well I could. Stay as the old me, I mean. I don’t have to be this.’

‘Maybe you should try it for a while. A few days at least. See how that works out before you decide.’

‘Good plan. It’s back to work tomorrow anyway. I’ll give it until Saturday and see how things are going then.’

June grinned. ‘That sounds like a plan. What are you going to do about Sean?’

‘Nothing,’ Penny said, her tone bland. ‘Major.’

2nd January.

‘Uh… Penny… hi.’

Penny looked up at the doorway of the office they kept her in to answer the phones. Sean was standing there, all carefully groomed, blonde hair and immaculate suit. He was an accountant, like many of the people at Leighton and Thorpe, but he was one of the ones who actually went out to visit clients, hence the suit. Penny said nothing, just looked at him and smiled. The sight of him made her want to throw something and there was an odd whispering sound in her ears, but she was determined not to show how much he had hurt her.

‘I… missed you at the party,’ he said to break the silence.

‘I didn’t miss you,’ Penny replied, still smiling, ‘and you didn’t seem to be missing Tina. Hitting with every stroke, I’d say.’

‘Uh… right.’ He looked decidedly uncomfortable, which suited Penny just fine.

‘Don’t worry about it, Sean. I don’t mind. I got very expertly laid a couple of days ago so I don’t really need you anymore.’

‘You’re dumping me?’ Sean said, his eyes widening. ‘You are dumping me?’

‘Let’s call it an amicable separation.’

She saw his fists clench, and then he turned and left without a word. Penny grinned at the space left by his departure. And then she heard something, like a voice in the distance behind her. She turned her head to look, but there was nothing there but the wall of her office.

~~~

‘Sean’s been telling people he broke up with you,’ June said as they walked toward the subway.

‘I kind of expected that,’ Penny replied.

‘Supposedly you confessed to sleeping with someone else over the holiday.’

‘I suppose I did. Confess, I mean.’

‘Very honest of you.’

Penny giggled. ‘I was rubbing his nose in it, actually.’

June returned the giggle. ‘Everyone knows about Tina, so most of the girls aren’t buying his story. They are a bit surprised at your reaction though.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah. You’re taking it too calmly. I think they’re worried you might go all Bunny Boiler on him.’

‘Haven’t they been paying attention? I take everything calmly.’ Her head snapped around at a voice from behind her, but there was no one there. Again.

‘You okay?’

‘Yeah. I’m not sure. Probably. I keep hearing voices.’

‘Are they telling you to cook family pets?’

‘They aren’t telling me anything. I hear what sounds like a voice, but I can’t really hear it, y’know?’

‘Not really, but… You don’t think it’s something to do with…?’

‘If it was, wouldn’t I have been hearing it all week?’

June shrugged. ‘We don’t really know enough about it. Maybe there’s some of it that hangs around even when you’re you.’

‘If it does, it would have been nice if it’d fixed my eyesight.’

~~~

‘Ow! Damn!’ Penny lifted her thumb to her mouth and sucked. ‘Also,’ she mumbled around her thumb, ‘it’d have been nice if it’d fixed my ham-fistedness.’

‘Cut yourself?’ June asked, heading for the drawer where they kept the band aids. Penny cut herself with a kitchen knife, on average, about once a week.

‘Uh-huh. Maybe I should shift when I’m home. We’d save a fortune on medical products.’ She held out her bleeding thumb so that June could wrap a blue sticking plaster over the wound.

‘That looks nasty. It’s gonna sting for a bit.’

Penny gave a timid smile and went back to chopping the carrots. She would have to remember to wash them again before cooking them. She sighed and cursed her luck and…

The sudden flurry of voices seemed to come from all around her. They were clearer, but she still could not understand the nonsense they seemed to be speaking. Her head jerked around, but there was no source for the sounds, nothing to see anywhere until June grabbed her shoulders and the whispering stopped.

‘Pen? Are you okay? Did you hear me?’

‘More of the voices,’ Penny replied, her voice trembling. ‘Louder. I could hear words, but not in any language I’ve ever heard before.’

‘That’s… a little worrying.’

Penny gave her friend a timid smile. ‘I’ll worry when they start telling me to murder you in your sleep.’

‘Maybe you should let me finish the cooking.’

‘It’s my turn,’ Penny replied, frowning.

‘It won’t kill me, and you’re learning to be you again.’

Pouting, Penny handed over the knife and went to sit down on the sofa. There was nothing much to do until True Powers was on in a couple of hours, but June was right. If she was going to have some sort of panic attack when cutting vegetables, then maybe sitting down was a good idea.

When June walked over to sit beside her, Penny was peeling the band aid off her thumb.

June frowned at her. ‘That is not going to heal if you play with it.’

Ignoring her, Penny licked at where she had been cut and rubbed at it, frowned, and held her hand out to show June. ‘It stopped stinging,’ she said.

‘Oh,’ June stated flatly. There was no wound, just a slight reddening of the skin, and that was fading. ‘You heal fast. Not super-fast maybe, but faster than normal.’

‘Well that settles that. Some of the other me leaks over.’ She frowned. ‘I stubbed my toe the other night and I didn’t really think about it, but that stopped throbbing pretty quickly.’

‘Well,’ June said, ‘given how accident-prone you are, that’s a really useful thing to have carry over.’

Penny grinned. ‘I wonder if it’s faster when I’m changed.’ She started to get up.

‘Oh no. You said you’d stay like that until Saturday.’

‘Okay. Saturday I’ll cut my finger and see if it heals faster.’

June groaned. ‘This is going to end in tears. I can tell.’

5th January.

Penny walked out of her bedroom, tying the belt of her wrap closed, with a sense of relief. She was back as Penny the swan. The desire to go out and right wrongs was back, but at least she was moderately sure the voices would be gone. Stray sounds and random whispers had plagued her all week. An evening without something alien whispering in her ear would be quite pleasant.

‘You’re going to go through with this then?’ June asked from the kitchen. She was holding up a kitchen knife.

‘You’re the one holding the knife,’ Penny commented. ‘I’m just happy there isn’t anyone talking to me except you.’ Nevertheless, she held out her hand for the knife.

June handed it over, swallowed, and watched as Penny slid the edge of it over her thumb. ‘Uh… isn’t there supposed to be blood?’

Penny looked at her thumb and frowned. There was no sign of a wound. She tried again, pressing harder. She could feel the knife pressing against her skin, and there was a white depression line in its wake. It faded quickly. Her frown deepening, she stepped over to the counter, put her hand on the chopping block, and brought the point of the knife down on the back of her hand.

‘No!’ June shrieked.

‘Not even a bruise,’ Penny said.

‘You almost gave me a fucking heart attack!’

‘Sorry.’ Penny looked at her friend and started giggling.

‘It’s not funny,’ June grumbled.

‘It’s a bit funny. Anyway, that settles it. I’m at least knifeproof. I’d better start doing something with this.’

‘It could still be dangerous. Criminals use guns.’

‘I’ll worry about that when I have to face one, which will be after I’ve learned to fight, which could take months.’ June was still looking worried. ‘I’ll need a costume…’

‘Oh right, so you’re going to go out putting your life at risk and you want me to design a costume for you?’

‘Uh-huh.’

June grinned. ‘Okay.’

~~~

‘No.’ It was a rather blunt refusal and Penny had not been expecting it at all.

‘I… I don’t understand,’ she said.

David Chou stood with her at the rear of his dojo, a stern look on his face. Behind Penny a dozen or so young men in street clothes were going through various sparring exercises. Chou’s attention was on them, not Penny.

‘I will not train you in the martial arts,’ Chou said. ‘Is that clear enough for you?’

‘But… why?’

‘Women have no business in this line of work, Miss… whatever your name is. I teach you, you go out and get yourself killed, and I feel responsible. Go home and leave the crime fighting to those with the talent for it.’

Penny looked at him for a second or two. She could tell he was not going to change his mind. To him, she was of no interest. She was a pretty little girl with pretentions of being a hero.

‘I honestly didn’t think anyone had such a medieval attitude to women these days, Mister Chou,’ she said, ‘but if that’s what you believe then I’ll find someone who doesn’t live in ancient China.’

‘You do that,’ he replied flatly. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I have men to train.’

Annoyed, Penny turned and headed for the door. Where was she going to find someone to teach her if the Knights would not?

~~~

Penny felt more uncomfortable walking into the Huntress’ Den than the first time. She was wearing the same dress, because she only had one suitable outfit for clubbing, in either form. That made her feel self-conscious, even if June said no one was going to remember. They were also there to ask a favour of the Huntress herself, so it was not exactly a social visit. June was treating it as such, and Penny suspected she was hoping for a replay of New Year. Well if that was all that happened, it would still be a better result than the dojo.

It almost seemed as though the club’s owner had been expecting them. She intercepted them as they walked toward the bar, just giving June a slight smile and a twitch of the eyes toward the rear of the room. They followed her to her office without a word being said.

As soon as the door was closed behind Penny, the Huntress turned on her booted heel, lifted up onto her toes and kissed June. Not knowing where to look, and not seeing an immediate end to the kiss, Penny just stood there, dumbfounded. When the blonde-haired heroine broke away June was panting.

The Huntress glanced at Penny. ‘Sorry. My back’s playing up and the endorphins are a Godsend.’ She grinned. ‘Besides, your friend is worth kissing.’

‘Uh… No need to apologise. I don’t think of her that way, but I can understand the attraction.’

‘I assume that you didn’t come tonight to watch me seduce June?’

‘We’ve a favour to ask,’ June said.

The Huntress strutted around her desk and sat down, lifting her heels up to rest on the edge of the dark wooden surface. She waved to the other two seats. ‘Ask away.’

June sat down first. ‘P… Oh… We don’t have a name for her.’

‘Let’s just call her Penny, shall we? Everyone’s called me “Red” since I was a kid, but it’s Regina if you’re feeling formal. I think there’s no secret about that these days.’ Penny did recall that her real name was Regina Jacoby. ‘I took the liberty of doing a little research, since I rather enjoyed your company, June, and you were hanging around with a mysterious, new Ultra. I have no idea how Penny Worthington has become the woman sitting there…’

‘That makes three of us,’ Penny put in.

Red smiled. ‘Whatever the case, I came to the conclusion that it was likely that the two were the same person. I won’t be mentioning it to anyone else, but you might wish to be careful about it.’

‘Yeah,’ June said, ‘especially since Pen wants to learn to do the whole crime fighting thing.’

‘I need to learn how to fight,’ Penny said. ‘I’m strong, damage-resistant, I can see in the dark, and I can fly. And it’s more like I need to do it than I want to.’

Red looked at her for a long second. ‘You’re sure about this? You understand the risks?’

‘I… think I do.’

‘You know what happened to me, I assume. Most people don’t know the details.’

‘I know you were injured in a drug lab. Whatever happened stopped your career.’

Red nodded. ‘I’d followed some leads, looking into a new designer cocaine variant. I found the production lab and I was about to go in and take the place out. Something hit me from behind. An energy weapon of some sort, or so I was told. It took me three months before I could walk again. The blast fused two of the vertebrae in my spine. I suffer from chronic pain that comes and goes, but what it really did was blow my confidence. I started second-guessing myself and that’s the kind of thing that gets you killed.’

Penny gave a nod. She had never been the most confident person and even in her new body she did not feel like that had changed. But… ‘I think I have to at least try. If… Well, if I’m no good at it then I guess I’d have to stop, hopefully before I get badly hurt. But I have to try.’

‘All right. We’ll go back to my place tonight. In the morning I’ll take you to see a friend of mine. If you can persuade him to train you… Well, let’s say he’s uniquely qualified to teach someone with your talents.’

~~~

‘Oh wow…’ Penny whispered, her eyes on the huge canvas mounted over the fake fireplace in Red’s apartment. They had not had to go far; the apartment was at the top of the building above the club. Now they were standing in the lounge, a room which owed much to the Art Deco movement, looking up at Red, in costume, as she had been six years earlier. The subject of the picture was still downstairs.

‘That’s what I said,’ June commented. ‘She looks amazing, doesn’t she?’

The canvas was at least eight feet high and showed Red holding her longbow before her, an arrow with red fletching crossed over it. Her face was partially obscured by a red, half-face mask. It did a reasonable job of concealing her identity, unless you knew her. The wavy cap of blonde hair had not changed much it seemed. Her costume had always been sexy, a high-hipped one-piece with high points over the breasts and split low between them in burned orange and red, with silver metalwork wiring it all together. There were matching bracers and thigh-high boots with five-inch heels. She really did look amazing.

‘Mind you,’ June added, ‘you should see the ones she has in her bedroom…’

‘I think,’ Red said, emerging from the elevator, ‘that Penny might be less appreciative than you of those photographs.’

‘Oh… Well yes, I suppose she wouldn’t have quite my outlook on them.’

‘I’m missing something,’ Penny said, eyeing the two of them.

‘You remember that charity calendar they did about ten years ago?’ June asked. ‘Well she has her photoset up in the bedroom.’

‘Wasn’t that a nude calendar?’

‘All very tasteful,’ Red said, a slight smile playing over her lips. ‘They made half a million dollars for children’s charities off that calendar. Ironic, if you think about it.’

Penny giggled. ‘My Dad bought a copy of that calendar. My mother let him off because it was for charity. I don’t think she was entirely convinced though.’

‘I don’t really need to be reminded of how old I am, young lady.’ Red was grinning anyway. ‘Now, it’s getting early and if I’m to enjoy the rest of the evening we should retire.’

‘Uh, yeah,’ Penny said, ‘about that…’

‘I do have more than one bedroom in this place, Penny.’ Her smile turned mischievous. ‘Though if you’d like to join us…’

6th January.

‘You look a little bleary eyed,’ Red commented as they drove down south toward North Beach.

‘Had trouble getting to sleep,’ Penny replied.

‘So did I,’ June countered, though she was smiling a lot as she said it.

‘I know. That’s why I had trouble getting to sleep. You know, we could have stopped off and got some better clothes for meeting a martial arts master.’

‘No,’ Red replied. ‘Bobby has an eye for the ladies. I don’t think he’ll take you on simply because he likes the look of you, but it won’t be a hindrance.’

‘Oh… right. You know I make a really terrible vamp.’

‘That dress should be vamp enough. Now, Bobby’s naturalised, like me…’

‘You’re not American?’ Penny asked, surprised.

‘Ah, so some of my secrets remain to be uncovered then. I was born in England. Bobby is Brazilian, or was. He grew up on the streets of São Paulo, never had that good an education, but he learned to fight. When he also learned to fly he adapted his fighting style, Capoeira, into what he calls Capoaira. Not entirely original, but it gets the point over. Capoeira is an acrobatic martial art, Capoaira is an aerobatic one.’

‘It’s going to take months!’ Penny moaned.

‘I shot my first arrow when I was ten,’ Red told her. ‘It missed. If you’re going to make this work, some patience would be a good idea.’

~~~

Whoever Bobby was, his home was partially hidden in the woods on the south-west end of North Beach. It looked, to Penny’s mind, like an odd sort of architectural design. Actually, it looked a lot like a three-tier wedding cake with windows in it. The middle section was higher than the other two floors and had no windows at all, which only made the place look odder.

There was a large, sliding door on the ground floor, and Red went straight to it, pulled it open, and walked inside.

‘He knows we’re here,’ she commented as they entered an entrance lobby shaped like a wedge with the point cut off. ‘He’s got every way in monitored some way or other. Being an ex-active doesn’t mean your old enemies don’t stop trying to kill you.’

‘There’s a plus,’ June said. ‘What about you?’

‘The club’s secure, and that car we came in? Armoured glass, Kevlar panels throughout.’ She carried on walking, through the door into the central part of the house, and stopped in a circular room on the other side. Then she raised her voice. ‘Bobby? Get your bony ass down here. You’ve got guests.’

‘I know.’ They all looked up at the sound of the voice. The room had no ceiling; above them was a wide hole which, presumably, was the way up to the next level. ‘And three lovelier guests I cannot imagine, but one of them wants me to teach her my art, no?’ He spoke English with an accent, something like Spanish, Penny thought.

‘Yes, sir,’ Penny called back. ‘That would be me.’

‘Then a test, gatinha, come up and meet me.’

Red turned and looked at Penny. ‘Looks like you’re on your own. He has all the more public rooms down here, there are no stairs or ladders up, and we can’t fly.’

Penny frowned. ‘No… If this is a test, then I should ace it.’ Stepping between Red and June, she wrapped her arms around their waists and said, ‘Hold on tight, I’ve never tried this before.’ Both non-flyers looped their arms around her and Penny looked upward, willing herself to rise. She was slower than normal; carrying June had not slowed her down, but two women in her arms was apparently enough to make things harder. Still, a couple of seconds later she was touching down on the floor above.

And it was huge. The entire floor was devoted to probably the oddest dojo Penny had ever heard of. There were mats on the floor and a weight training area, but there were also hoops and poles strung from wires attached to the ceiling. Red had said this ‘Capoaira’ was an aerobatic martial art; presumably that was an aerial obstacle course.

Standing in the middle of the mats in a T-shirt and jeans was a slim, muscular man with jet-black hair and slightly olive skin. Good-looking, but not really handsome. The knife scar on his left cheek marred rather than improved. He was clapping.

‘Bem feito, gatinha. I see you have strength as well as the power of flight. I am Bobby Lee, a name you have probably never heard. Perhaps you recognise Zephyr instead.’

‘I…’ Penny frowned, the name seemed familiar. ‘Yes, I remember an Ultra named Zephyr. You haven’t been active in a while.’

‘I can fly, but I have no other powers. I took to training others to do what would surely get me killed. Utilising flight as part of your fighting skills requires techniques not taught by anyone else. This is why Red has brought you to me, but the question is, “why should I agree to teach you?”’

‘I can’t really give you a good reason…’

‘That’s not exactly selling yourself, gatinha.’

‘I’ve nothing to sell. I learned a little judo when I was younger. I was never that good, but I guess it proves I can be taught. I’ve got the strength, and the flying, and I seem to be at least knife-resistant so I probably can’t hurt myself too badly while training. I want to be trained because I think I’ll be better able to do some good if I can actually defend myself.’

Bobby nodded. ‘Let me see what I have to work with. Follow me… if you can.’

He lifted upward in a gust of wind, as though the air itself was gathering to lift him, flying up toward the aerial obstacle course he had built. Penny looked after him before bending down to take her sandals off.

‘This is so not a dress to be doing this in,’ she muttered.

‘Don’t keep him waiting,’ Red suggested.

Penny gritted her teeth and launched herself upward. Bobby, who had been hanging in the air above them, turned and jetted off toward the nearest hoop. Penny followed, but he did not make it easy for her, darting from one hoop to the next, pulling tight turns around hanging poles, and the backwash from the wind driving him made life harder. After five minutes of missing turns and bumping into hoops, Penny’s temper was starting to boil. She dropped to the deck and walked over to where June and Red were waiting.

‘Okay, okay. I suck at this,’ Penny said as she started putting her sandals back on. ‘I’ll go back home and… and become a model.’

Her long, blonde hair was thrown around by the wind as Bobby landed behind her. ‘A noble goal, gatinha, and one I would not discourage you from, but you had me as soon as you landed on the deck. I merely wanted to see how long it would be before you gave up.’

Penny glowered at him. ‘Thanks,’ she said flatly.

He grinned back. ‘Come downstairs with me and we will discuss a training schedule.’ He lifted back into the air and swept toward the hole in the floor. ‘Oh, you get to bring Red and your beautiful friend. Much as I’d love one of them in my arms, I don’t have that kind of strength.’

‘You’re forgetting, Bobby,’ Red called after him, ‘we both prefer women’s arms around us anyway.’

‘I was not forgetting. Pobre de mim.’

~~~

‘You’ve got a martial arts teacher,’ June said, ‘and I seem to have a semi-attached girlfriend. That’s not bad going for the first week of a new year.’

Penny grinned at her as she chopped the vegetables for dinner. ‘You think you and Red are going to be a serious thing?’

‘I’m not absolutely sure yet, but she invited me to go to the club again on Friday. She said I made her feel young. She said, and I can’t believe she said it, that it was nice to know an old woman like her could still attract a “young beauty” like me.’

‘Well there must be fifteen years between you.’

‘A little more. She’s forty-one, but does she look it?’

‘No, not really. Except her eyes, maybe. Her eyes are… experienced. She’s seen a lot.’

June nodded, her expression turning sad. ‘I think it’s her back. It bothers her more than she lets on, I think, and it hurts. I think that makes her feel old more than anything, but she’s a tiger in bed.’

‘I don’t really need to know that.’

‘Bobby wants in your panties.’

‘I don’t need to know that either. You think?’

‘It wasn’t obvious? I mean, who wouldn’t, but he definitely does.’

‘I wouldn’t say no if he asked.’

‘He’ll ask. Might take a little while though.’

‘He did seem to be being very gentlemanly. I don’t think he’s the kind to assume.’

‘No,’ June agreed, ‘he’ll drop a few hints and see how you take them, and then sweep you off to his love nest in the sky.’ She grinned. ‘Top floor of his house anyway.’

Penny giggled. ‘I can cope with that. But what does “gatinha” mean anyway?’

1st March.

‘I’m not sure what’s up with you, Penny,’ Mister Leighton said as she stood before his desk. ‘Lately you’ve been tired, distracted, really not your usual self.’

Penny looked at her feet. She could hear the whispering growing louder and was trying to ignore it. ‘I’m sorry, sir.’

‘This isn’t anything to do with Sean Truscott is it?’

‘No, sir…’

‘People think I don’t know what’s going on in my company, but I’ve heard the whispers. I know he dumped you…’

Penny looked up. ‘I dumped him, Mister Leighton. I caught him… with Tina Abbot before Christmas. He’s been telling everyone he dumped me to save face.’

Leighton smiled. ‘And you haven’t felt it necessary to disabuse anyone of the fact?’

‘Why bother, sir? The girls all know what really happened, and the men didn’t really care about me before. I don’t really care what they think.’

‘That’s your problem, Penny. You need to take care of yourself better. Now, what’s bothering you? Something is distracting you from your work.’

‘I…’ She had worked out that stress tended to make the voices worse, and right now they were getting loud enough that hearing Leighton was getting difficult. ‘I’ve been getting headaches a lot recently,’ she forced out. ‘Quite bad ones.’

‘Have you seen a doctor?’ There was actually concern in his voice, but she should have expected it. Leighton ran his company in a ‘family firm’ sort of way.

‘I’m seeing… a specialist.’

‘Good. I hope they can do something for you.’

‘Yes, sir. I’m sure he can.’

~~~

‘I’m still not sure how this qualifies as training,’ Penny commented as she followed Bobby through the crowd in the Huntress’ Den.

He did not answer her immediately, instead leading the way to the side of the dance floor where he stopped, located a table, and sat down. Penny frowned, and took another of the seats, close enough that they could chat.

‘First,’ Bobby said, ‘all work and no play will make us both cranky. Second, Red has been nagging me to get out of the house more since I took you on.’

‘Well, my boss did say I was looking tired… So we’re on a date?’

‘It would increase my reputation considerably if people thought so, gatinha. However, we are also here to observe and, perhaps, practise.’

‘Observe what? People getting drunk?’

‘The dancing, gatinha, the dancing. Capoeira was developed from dancing. Many martial arts have close associations with dancing. The Indian Kalaripayit employs similar movements to temple dancing. Watch the dancers, how they move, how they use their bodies.’

Penny watched, though she was not entirely sure what she was supposed to learn from a group of Friday night club dancers. There were the couples, dancing closer together than the singles in groups. There were the men trying too hard to impress their latest potential conquest. There were the bored women ignoring the men who wanted to make them into conquests. And there were a few who seemed to know what they were doing. Some were dancing very close, bodies shifting against their partners as though they had some inner sense of where they should be and when. Some just moved more gracefully. Penny picked them out and watched them, wondering whether she would ever be able to move like that.

‘Has he fed you the line about watching dancers use their bodies?’

Penny blinked and looked up to see Red standing at their table. June was beside her, grinning. The brunette’s outfits for visiting the Den had been growing more adventurous over the last several weeks; tonight’s featured a pink fishnet top with black tape criss-crossed over her nipples beneath it.

‘It is not,’ Bobby countered, ‘a line. Senhorita June, you once again make me wish your tastes in partner were different.’

June favoured him with a smile and a blush. ‘Thank you, Bobby. I try to please.’

‘You succeed.’

‘Hands off, Don Juan,’ Red said, grinning to show she did not really mean it.

‘My hands are not involved. Would that they were. However,’ he turned to look at Penny, ‘has our little exercise taught you anything, gatinha?’

‘Uh… there’s a lot of bad dancers around,’ Penny told him. ‘And there are some who seem to be a lot better at it.’

‘In what way?’

‘They… They seem to judge their moves against their partners. Like they’re feeling what’s happening more than watching.’

‘Very good. This is what you must learn. The grace of movement will, I think, come naturally, but you must also learn to anticipate the movements of your partner, your opponent. Feel them out and understand how they will move.’

‘Knowing your enemy is half the battle won,’ Red commented.

‘This we will work on,’ Bobby agreed. ‘But later, when they play the slow dances.’

Penny’s eyebrows went up. She glanced at June, and got a knowing grin in reply.

~~~

Penny was having a little trouble concentrating on moving her body in the required, rhythmic manner. That was mostly because Bobby’s muscular body was pressed up against hers in what she had decided was definitely a sensual way. She could not recall anyone ever dancing that way with her before, and if they had then her new body was responding to it in a way her old one had not.

Her skin felt hot, her palms were starting to sweat, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Bobby did not, it seemed, need superpowers to turn her into a teenager on a prom date.

And Bobby just kept smiling at her. She was sure her cheeks were glowing red every time he looked at her.

‘Relax,’ he said, his voice a whisper in her ear. His breath on her neck was not relaxing. ‘Listen to the music. Let your body move with it.’

Well, that might help. Penny closed her eyes and listened. She was not exactly sure how you moved with the music, so she just let herself follow Bobby as he moved smoothly around the floor. Though the lack of visual stimulus meant that…

‘Let yourself feel my body against yours,’ Bobby said softly.

…she was really feeling his body move against hers. It was like having sex in public! He shifted again, his hips brushing hers and… Well, at least she was having the same effect on him, but…

The song came to an end and Penny found herself standing at the bar.

‘A drink, perhaps?’ Red suggested. The woman was grinning far too knowingly.

‘Sure,’ Penny said. ‘Something with ice. A lot of ice.’

2nd March.

‘I can’t believe he didn’t ask you back to his place after that dance,’ June said as she settled down beside a bespectacled Penny.

‘I’m starting to think my other self isn’t as seductive as we think she is,’ Penny replied.

‘She is.’

‘Then kindly explain why you rolled in at two in the afternoon after a night of constant bonking, while I did not.’

June frowned. ‘Well, you’re seeing him this afternoon, right?’

‘Day off. He said I needed a break. Mister Leighton said I was looking tired, and I have been working pretty hard… I’m getting an early night.’

‘Bobby said you needed a break?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Hmm… When you were dancing, he was pretty close, right?’

‘Oh God yes,’ Penny moaned.

‘Was he hard?’

‘June!’

‘Well? Was he?’

‘Yes,’ Penny squeaked.

‘I think he needs a break from trying not to take you to bed. He’s a gentleman. A horny one, but still. Can’t be easy keeping all that testosterone in check.’

‘Right,’ Penny said. ‘Sure.’

‘You, Penny Worthington, need more self-confidence. You’re hot, in either form, and don’t you forget it.’

Well, it was nice of her to say so, but maybe June needed therapy for this strange delusion. Considering calling a psychoanalyst, Penny turned on the TV to watch True Powers.

5th March.

‘And I need these notes entered into the system by the end of today.’

Penny looked up at the pile of random papers with handwriting on them, which looked like a chicken had crawled across the page, and then up at James Thorpe, the other senior partner. She nodded. ‘Of course, Mister Thorpe.’

Thorpe gave her what could only be described as an icy stare, turned on his heel, and walked out. He was not exactly the perfect boss, and certainly did not view the business in any ‘family’ way. He did not give Penny work often, but when he did he was usually demanding something that was difficult, if not impossible. It was after three. It might take her two hours just to puzzle out his handwriting, never mind typing it up. She would be late for practice with Bobby and…

The voices in her mind were suddenly loud, insistent, intense. She jammed her eyes closed, her hands tensing as she fought to push the sounds away. They were louder than she had ever heard them and she thought she could almost understand…

And then they were gone and she was looking at the notes she had scattered across her desk. ‘Damn,’ she muttered, starting to sort them back into order. At least Thorpe numbered his pages. She looked at the page she was holding in her right hand. Page nine, a note made at a meeting in North Beach, according to the heading. It was just an ordinary note, something about money transfers. The odd thing was the little doodle in the corner of the page, which looked like a badly drawn eagle, its wings pinned out to the sides by a pair of arrows. Weird. Also disgusting.

Frowning, Penny got to her feet, went to the door, and locked it. Then she began to take off her clothes. Other Penny could type faster than Normal Penny, and she would not be inclined to panic attacks or randomly scattering the pages again. She just had to hope no one else wanted to visit her.

~~~

‘Pen?’ Thankfully it was June’s voice on the other side of the door. ‘Why’s the door locked? Have you got a man in there?’

Penny rushed over, unlocked the door, and dragged June inside before she could say another word. She turned the lock again immediately. ‘Hush. No, I haven’t got a man in here.’

‘No, but you’re naked.’

‘Well I don’t have clothes here that fit, do I?’

‘Okay, yes, but that doesn’t explain why you’re… that shape.’

‘I needed the extra typing speed. I’m thirty or so words a minute faster like this and I don’t need my glasses.’

‘Oh… Well, are you about done? It’s time to go home.’

‘Just about. Last page. Here,’ Penny handed June page nine, ‘what d’you make of that?’

June looked at the page, her face screwing up into a grimace. ‘Eww! It’s like… It’s like a totally twisted version of the National Emblem. You know how there’s a bunch of arrows in one claw?’

‘They’re Thorpe’s notes.’

‘Why can’t he use a tablet like everyone else? And why would he draw that?’

Penny shrugged, sitting down to finish her typing. ‘I’ve got no idea. To either question.’

9th March.

Penny ducked low under Bobby’s kick, which unfortunately left her open for the knee strike which slammed right into her face sending her flying backward and onto the floor. He was on her in a second, straddling her hips, and pinning her wrists with his hands.

‘You’re getting much better,’ he said, grinning, ‘but you’ve got to plan ahead. Ducking makes your head vulnerable to low strikes. Now… I have you exactly where I want you.’

Penny looked up at him. He was bare-chested, his skin bearing a sheen of sweat from their practice bouts. The weight of him over her pelvis felt far too good, but…

‘That would be true,’ she said, ‘if I wasn’t a lot stronger than you.’ Clenching her fists, she pushed upward, putting all the force she could into lifting his weight. It was easy, almost too easy; he really was no match for her in sheer power. It was his skill that let him beat her time after time, and when he let himself get into a grappling situation, he lost that advantage.

Wind whipped at her hair and he lifted off her, swinging up and away before she could take advantage of his position. ‘You really are coming along well,’ he laughed. ‘Three weeks ago it would not have occurred to you to simply push.’

Penny climbed to her feet and rose smoothly into the air until she was at his level. ‘Thanks. I have a good teacher. It’s not strictly your style, but you said to use whatever advantage I had.’

‘It is my style, gatinha. I teach that there is no such thing as a fair fight. Now, obstacle course. Go!’

She bolted off toward the first hoop. She was getting better at his course though she was not sure whether that was skill or familiarity. Her combat skills were growing too, though she had noticed Bobby frown a few times when they fought, as though something he had noticed concerned him. He had said nothing, and she seemed to be progressing, so she had ignored it for now.

‘Concentrate,’ he ordered as she clipped a hoop. ‘Let yourself flow around the obstacles, but set your mind to the task, not to other things.’

How he knew she was thinking about her performance she had no idea, but she blotted that from her mind and concentrated on the intricate dance her body was performing. She did not miss another turn.

As she finished and landed smoothly on the mats he said, ‘Very good. I think that is enough for today. Take a shower, gatinha. You’ve earned it.’

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.’

‘Oh,’ June said, frowning. ‘Well that makes me feel safer in bed.’

‘You could always move in with me,’ Bobby suggested, his grin broad.

‘Stick to blondes, Bobby,’ Red suggested. ‘The Tonaldos do run pretty much everything in the north. They got kicked out of Uptown and Downtown by an as yet unidentified group, though rumour has it that they’re Russian. Friendship still seems to be disputed, and the Tonaldos don’t seem to be the major drug suppliers.’

‘Soviet?’ Penny asked. ‘Or escapees?’

‘Unclear,’ Bobby replied. ‘It’s possible that the SOP has sent infiltration agents. Possible, but unlikely. They don’t like sending agents out of direct supervision for too long unless they’re heavily indoctrinated, and we would have heard of someone that high ranking.’

‘I think I missed something,’ June said. ‘The SOP?’

‘The Superhuman Orientation Programme,’ Penny supplied, demonstrating her knowledge. ‘We tend to call it the Superhuman Induction Programme. The Russian works either way, apparently. They find Ultras within the Soviet Union, then they, uh, train them.’

‘For train,’ Red said, ‘read brainwash. Though some of them are really that fanatical about serving the cause of global communism. The ones who get away tend to go to Europe, but some come here.’

‘Like Svetilo,’ June said, her voice dreamy.

‘Should I be worried about competition?’ Red asked, one eyebrow rising.

‘No. An Ultra in the bed is worth two in the bush.’

‘Hmm… Svetilo does come to the Den once in a while. I’ll introduce you.’ June’s eyes widened, but Red just kept on going. ‘Whoever these newcomers are, they’re powerful. They have at least some Ultras in their ranks. No one has identified them or linked any specific Ultrahumans to them, but their main target at the moment seems to be the Tonaldos. There have been a number of deaths among the higher-ups in that syndicate.’

‘Briscetto,’ Penny said.

‘Is the latest. David Tonaldo has lost four Enforcers in the last year, one of them his youngest brother.’

‘Word is he’s offering a cool one million for information leading to the demise of his rival,’ Bobby stated.

‘And no one has a clue who this criminal mastermind is?’ Penny asked.

‘Clues, sure, and they’ve all led to people who turned out to be pawns or minor agents. I was looking into one of those leads when I had my little accident. It was a good lead too.’

‘Maybe too good,’ Penny suggested. Red looked at her, an eyebrow raised. ‘Well, you said the others led to people, minor players, but people. Yours didn’t. Maybe you got too close.’

‘Maybe. I think there’s more than one person behind this, and I think they’re Ultras with a lot of power, and a lot of backing. Like I said, you stick to the minor league stuff until you’ve more experience under your belt.’

June giggled. ‘None of my current costume ideas have belts.’

31st August.

‘Are you serious?’ Penny asked. ‘There is no way I am going out in public in that.’

June just grinned at her, still holding up the garment she had designed. ‘Why not? You’ve got the body for it, when you’re in your other body anyway.’

Penny took the one-piece from June and turned it around to look at it. ‘What’s it made of? It’s like… rubber, but not.’

‘It’s a synthetic polymer a bit like latex, but far tougher. It’ll resist flame and it flexes rather than tears. The metal framework is there to keep it rigid, the material sticks to skin so it won’t slip.’

Frowning, Penny pressed a finger against the rubber skin. ‘It’s very thin. It’s not even entirely opaque!’

‘It’s opaque enough, and it’s a little translucent because it’s thin. It’s lightweight and you’ll be able to move as though you weren’t wearing anything.’

‘Yeah…’ The suit was very high-hipped and thong-backed. The white plastic was stretched over three frames of silver metal, and the uppermost would bring it to high points over her breasts and leave a deep V of bare flesh between them. It looked like June had taken inspiration from Red’s old costume. ‘That’s because I won’t be wearing anything. And high-heeled boots?’

The boots were thigh-high, with five-inch heels, and also in white. Despite being new, they looked very flexible, but still… high-heels? June held one up, still grinning. ‘I talked to Bobby and Red about it. You’ve got preternatural balance and flight. When you’re actually on your feet, you’ll be fine in heels. Try it on.’

Dropping the suit onto June’s bed, Penny slipped off her robe and concentrated. She was getting faster with practice, down to about five seconds now. She opened her eyes, found that she could look June straight in the eyes now, grinned, and reached for the suit. It clung a little going up her legs, more over her stomach, but once in place it was not going to go anywhere. The boots slid on easily and zipped up tight; they were not going to slip either.

Penny examined herself in the mirror, checking out the incredibly low front and her hip bones poking out from under the leg line. She did, indeed, look great in it, but… ‘Nowhere to put equipment.’

‘Such as?’

‘Uh, well, Red says I should use zip-ties to secure prisoners…’

‘Check the boots.’

Bending her leg, Penny looked under the leading edge of the right boot, and found a set of thin pockets, each loaded with thin plastic ties. ‘You thought of everything.’

‘I do try. Now all you need is a name.’

Penny smiled. ‘Oh, I’ve got one. I came up with it last night while I was looking at the stars.’

‘Really? So what is it?’

7th September.

The place you went to register as an active Ultra was the headquarters of the New Millennium Police Department, but the people who did the registering were Feds. Specifically, agents of the Ultrahuman Investigation Division, the UID, handled registration and had done since the passing of the Special Policing Act of 1993. So when Penny walked into the lobby, dressed in a long, white leather coat, and asked for registration, she was pointed at a room to the side and told to wait.

The room was pretty bare and larger than she had expected. At one end there was a table with a chair on either side of it. At the other was a white wall with height bars across it and a large camera facing it. Penny sat down, crossed her legs, and waited.

The door opened after about five minutes and a harried-looking man in a dark suit with a red tie walked in. He was kind of good-looking, or he would have been if he was not scowling. His hair was very short and very black; his eyes were blue and annoyed. He dropped a folder onto the table and looked at Penny.

‘I’m Special Agent Dannon,’ he said. ‘I’ll be handling your registration.’

‘Good morning, Special Agent,’ Penny replied, putting a hint of a purr in her voice.

He blinked at her and then frowned as he sat down. This one was distinctly hard to impress. He opened the file and took a pen from his inside breast pocket. ‘I assume you’re not giving full disclosure?’ he asked.

‘That’s right.’

He gave a grunt. ‘In that case… Alias?’

Penny smiled. ‘I’m Cygnus,’ she said. The Ugly Duckling had finally become the Swan.

Part Two: Twilight

New Millennium City, MD, 7th September 2013.

‘Cygnus?’ Dannon said. ‘Like the constellation?’

‘That’s right,’ Penny said, feeling a little deflated. The cop did not seem to be really taking this with the sense of grandeur she felt it needed.

Dannon noted down the name in the little boxes on the form, in block capitals. ‘Primary power?’

‘Uh, I’m strong.’

Dannon looked at her. ‘Really. How strong?’

‘Uh, well I can bench press about sixteen-hundred pounds.’

‘Right…’

‘I’ve never really pushed it.’

‘That’s just a bench press.’

‘Uh-huh. I know I can stop a knife too. Maybe more, but again I’ve never pushed it.’

‘I see.’ Dannon frowned and then started making notes.

‘And I can fly. Not, like, supersonic, but at a reasonable speed.’

‘Okay… You’re a little old for a mutant…’

Penny ignored the term; as far as she knew, ‘mutant’ was not the sanctioned term for someone who developed their powers naturally, even if it was the common name. It still had a hint of insult about it; some mutants considered it akin to referring an African-American by ‘the N-word’ and considering that Dannon was an African-American Penny thought he should know better.

‘I was… Well, I think I was hit by a meteorite.’

‘Huh,’ he grunted. She watched as he filled in some boxes next to the word ‘Classification’: A3.

‘Magnitude three?’ Penny asked.

‘Magnitudes are subjective. Sixteen-hundred pounds, plus damage resistance, plus flight… feels like a three to me.’

‘Oh. I always thought it was a bit more… scientific.’

‘They keep trying to come up with some way of instrumenting it, but so far they’ve got nothing that really works. Anything else? For the notes.’

‘I can see in the dark.’

‘Right…’ He noted that down as well.

‘And I seem to heal fast if I do get hurt.’

‘You said you hadn’t pushed that knifeproofing.’

‘No, but I don’t always look like this. I shapeshift.’

Dannon scribbled down notes. Penny saw ‘weaker alternate form with some powers’ going down.

‘Anything else?’ he asked.

‘Uh… Not that I can really think of.’

Sighing, Dannon levered himself up off his seat. ‘All right, we just need some pictures. In costume. You did bring your costume? You’re not going out in a white leather coat?’ He turned his back and began to set the camera.

‘No, I have it on,’ Penny replied. She took a deep breath and stood up, unbuttoning the coat, slipping it from her shoulders, and dropping it onto the chair. Then she walked past him to stand in front of the wall. When she turned around, Dannon was staring at her, a mildly dopy expression on his face. ‘This is okay, right?’

‘Uh… sure. It’s fine. I need front and back shots, and stand up straight… please.’

Penny put her ankles together, pulled herself up straight, and pushed her chest out. ‘Like this?’ she asked.

Dannon swallowed, hard. ‘Uh… Yeah. That’ll do… fine.’

~~~

Penny was acting like a giddy schoolgirl. It was, June thought, incredibly cute in a stunningly beautiful woman dressed in a barely-there superhero costume.

‘I can’t believe I’ve got this,’ Penny gushed, her eyes fixed on the small, plastic card which a machine at the police offices had spat out. It had her picture on it, cropped to head and shoulders, her alias, classification, and her official identification number: MD00055.

‘Well, you have,’ June said, grinning. ‘What now?’

‘Uh… Well, I guess I go out and fight crime.’

‘Don’t you need, like, a patrol area or something?’

Penny frowned. ‘Stop putting practicalities in the way of my enthusiasm. I suppose I should come up with an area to look over. I’ll talk it over with Bobby tonight.’

‘Still seeing him today then?’

‘Uh-huh. We’re celebrating.’

June grinned. ‘He hasn’t seen you in costume yet, has he?’

Penny’s returned grin was positively evil. ‘No, and if the Fed who registered me is anything to go by, Bobby should blow a fuse.’

~~~

‘Mãe de Deus. Eu tenho morrido e ido para o céu.’

Penny had no idea what the Portuguese meant, but the look on Bobby’s face was enough to suggest that it was at least meant to be complimentary.

‘You like?’ she asked, turning on her heels to give him the full effect.

‘I think that the criminals will be lining up to be arrested by you, gatinha.’

Penny giggled and strutted toward him. His throat bobbed and his eyes remained wide. ‘As long as they’re orderly about it,’ she said. ‘But before we get down to… recreation, have you any ideas where I should go to find this queue of bad guys?’

Bobby got up from the sofa he was sitting on and stepped forward to meet her. His arms slid around her waist, hands sliding over the bare skin of her buttocks as he pulled her against him. ‘A patrol area?’ he asked, his voice soft and breathy.

‘Yeah.’ The word came out as more of a moan than she had intended. Maybe the shop talk could be pillow talk…

‘Start with southern Friendship,’ he said. His fingers traced over her skin, sending shivers through her body, and it was hard to concentrate, but she tried. ‘You want to stay away from the Knights’ home turf. Down there you will find muggers, purse snatchers, drug peddlers. Start small, remember.’

‘Uh-huh…’ She was not too sure about remembering her name, but sure.

‘The docks and Churchton will not be so nice, but try there if Friendship is quiet.’ He leaned forward as her head rolled back. His lips touched her throat. She moaned. ‘Those should be good places to start.’ His fingers slid under the thong back of her suit and she gasped. ‘Tell me, how flexible is this?’

‘W-why?’

‘I wonder if we can work around it…’

~~~

David Tonaldo lived in an Art Deco apartment building in Uptown. He owned the building, together with several others in the near area, and he and his family occupied the top three floors. His home was well decorated, richly furnished, and very secure. Tonaldo saw to it that only people he had vetted thoroughly became residents on the lower floors, and you could only get to his three floors via an elevator which required a key.

From the rooftop of the building across from it on Warren Street, you could occasionally see him, or one of his extended family, through the windows. The glass was armoured. It would take explosives, or maybe an M80, to get through them, so Tonaldo did not worry about snipers. Tonight he could be seen entertaining guests: a Congressman, a film starlet. Tonaldo maintained his empire through influence as much as force. When the night was over, Tonaldo would have a political ally, the starlet would have an important friend, and the Congressman would have a night to remember and not tell his wife about.

Twilight lowered her binoculars, a look of disgust on her masked face. She was not entirely sure why she tormented herself like this. Getting to Tonaldo was going to be a long process and she had barely begun. If it was as simple as walking in and killing the man… If David Tonaldo died there would just be another to take his place. The entire organisation had to be dismantled.

When the weather turned cold and dismal, and the night was especially dark, Twilight considered the fact that she was not up to the task. If she was honest with herself, she knew she was not. On those bleak nights she hoped that she had done enough by the time they caught up with her to come to David’s personal attention. He was a vicious, evil, son-of-a-bitch, but he was old school. He would have her shot, quick and clean. Her body would never be found. Twilight had heard stories about some of the things his Enforcers did to troublesome girls…

Shaking away the mild despair that had crept over her, the girl in the black catsuit turned toward the south. There was always someone doing something stupid in Friendship Park. She would go down there and beat up a purse snatcher. That always cheered her up.

8th September.

Friendship Park. Penny tended to avoid it in her normal persona, especially at night. To Cygnus it was a place to start looking for trouble. The crime rate there was lower than popular conception had it, but it was a big, open area with plenty of places people could hide. It made it perfect for muggers and purse snatchers, and that made it a perfect place for Cygnus to put her lessons into practice for the first time.

For Trudy Wallace, twenty-something bank clerk on a weekend break from a small town in Idaho no one would ever think twice about, even when driving through it, Friendship Park was a beauty spot in the midst of the big, bright city. She had heard that it was dangerous after dark, but she was on holiday and… Well, what the Hell? She had a can of pepper spray in her bag. If some mugger decided to attack her he would find out that you didn’t mess with a girl from Hudd Valley!

So when a man wearing a balaclava mask holding a small, silver revolver jumped out in front of her, she was both shocked and at a bit of a loss. She had not expected a gun. Which, if she had thought about it, she should have, given that this was America.

‘Okay, lady, give me the bag and any jewellery, and you get to walk away.’

Trudy was about to say something when another voice cut in. ‘I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, y’know?’ A figure dropped down between, floating lazily to the ground in high-heeled, thigh-high boots and a one-piece suit that Trudy would not have been seen dead in.

The mugger’s reaction was not exactly what Penny had expected. Immediate surrender, a show of force before capitulation, possibly drooling, these had been considered. Instead he said, ‘Fuck, it’s a freak!’ and fired at her. The bullet hit her right bicep and turned into a copper-jacketed pancake.

Penny blinked at him. ‘Was that really necessary?’ she asked.

‘The fuck!’ The mugger pulled frantically on the trigger. Bullets flew through the air, but only one of them actually hit. It slammed into Penny’s stomach, an inch above the pubic bone, flattened, and fell to the ground.

‘That,’ Penny growled, ‘was just, plain, rude.’ She stepped forward, her right arm moving back and then forward again, straight into the mugger’s stomach. He doubled over her arm with a sound like someone had managed to push all of the air out of his lungs, which was more or less what had happened. The gun fell from his hand onto the dirt of the path. Grabbing him by the collar, Penny brought her knee up into his face, and that was all she wrote.

Kneeling beside the fallen thug, Penny checked his pulse. She was still not used to her strength, or what it would do to a normal person. Bobby had been left gasping a couple of times when they were sparring. The mugger was still alive. Nodding, Penny got to her feet and looked over at Trudy, who was standing there with wide eyes, shaking on her feet.

‘Are you okay? He didn’t hit you, did he?’

Trudy just stared at her.

‘Uh… Sprecken dee Englishky? Can… you… understand… me?’

Trudy nodded, slowly.

‘Well, the cops probably heard those shots, so they should be along soon. I doubt he’ll wake up before then, so I’ll just…’

‘Don’t leave me!’ Trudy shrieked as she saw where the sentence was going. She rushed forward, grabbing hold of Penny with both arms and hanging on.

‘Uh…’ Managing to untangle her arms enough to pat Trudy on the back, Penny was a little nonplussed as to what she should do with a distraught mugging victim. ‘Uh, I guess I won’t then. There there, you’re safe now.’ When were the damn police going to get there?

~~~

Twilight allowed herself a small smile. The tall blonde in the Victoria’s Secret outfit looked distinctly uncomfortable with a civilian clinging to her like an octopus with mommy issues. The blonde was new; Twilight could not recall having seen her before anyway. From the punch Twilight had seen, she had more power than skill, and the outfit was… What was it with pretty Ultras and skimpy costumes? Still, if you had it, and she clearly had it, and you were apparently bulletproof, why not flaunt it?

The sound of radio chatter in her ear told her that the cops would be there in a few seconds. No need to intervene to save a fellow Ultra from an overactive fan. Turning, Twilight moved off through the bushes, keeping to the shadows and moving in silence. No one was going to notice her.

~~~

Something moving in the undergrowth caught Penny’s eye and she turned her head to look. She doubted anyone else would have seen the slim figure moving away, but the darkness was nothing to Penny.

A woman, probably a few inches shorter than Cygnus, and a couple taller than Penny. The outfit looked to be all black, a full bodysuit, and a mask which covered her hair and eyes. There was something on her back. A sword?

She was probably another Ultra. Or maybe one of the unpowered people who felt they should use their skills to fight crime. Penny had never previously understood the latter. Ultras had abilities which gave them a significant edge, especially when their opponents also had powers. Some of the N-class types, the unpowered, would take on real Ultras. Maybe having a sword would make a difference under those circumstances.

Whatever, her dark watcher was leaving and, from the sounds of running feet, the police were arriving.

‘Uh, Miss? The police are here. You can, uh, let go now,’ Penny suggested.

Trudy just held on tighter.

Well, maybe the cops could get a crowbar or something…

~~~

‘Some of them get like that,’ Sergeant Briggs said. ‘It’s worse when they’re from some Podunk town in the middle of nowhere. The shock tends to make them clingy.’

‘I’m glad there’s a precinct right on the edge of the park,’ Penny said. ‘I mean, I’m strong, but I don’t think I could have got her off me without hurting her. She’ll be okay, right?’

‘She’ll be fine. We’ve got a counsellor coming in to talk to her.’ He stopped, looking around at the silent room. ‘Maybe we should get her to talk to this lot too. I think they were all bottle fed.’ A dozen police officers suddenly rediscovered the paperwork they had been working on before Penny walked in with Briggs.

‘Maybe I should go,’ Penny suggested, ‘before I disrupt your work any more than I have.’

‘We’ve had worse disruptions. A couple of years ago Ultranova was fighting Tower Block up and down the park. Blasted right through the squad room.’

Penny grinned at him. ‘I remember seeing that on the news. Oh, do you happen to know an Ultra that works this area? A girl, black catsuit and a sword?’

‘Sounds like that Twilight chick,’ one of the nearby officers supplied.

Briggs gave a grunt. ‘She’s a quiet one. We don’t see her much, but she drops off goons with their wrists tied together every so often. You’ve seen her?’

‘Tonight. I think she’d have been the one Trudy was glued to if I hadn’t got there first.’

Briggs gave her an odd sort of look. ‘No. Believe me, she wouldn’t.’

9th September.

There was a moment when Twilight was not in the room at the top of an apartment block on Cooper Street West, and then she was there, her eyes scanning her surroundings carefully, just in case. She had done her best to ensure that her apartment was secure and that her identity remained a secret, but still she checked whenever she came home.

There was, as usual, nothing wrong. She pulled the Velcro holding her holster to her thigh free and removed the belt with its numerous pouches. Her Glock 20 was removed from the holster, stripped of its magazine, and the safety was checked. Next came the harness over her back and chest which held her sword in place. Finally she freed and removed her mask.

She shook her head and ruffled out the mop of black hair which had been hidden beneath the fabric. Maybe a shower before bed. It was two in the morning and she would need to be up at eight, but she had trained herself to operate on less sleep than the standard eight hours. This would be pushing it…

Sitting down, she pulled her boots off, slowly. They were built to be tight, ballistic cloth under a PVC-like plastic, like the suit and gloves. The body armour would stop a knife, even a bullet if she was lucky, though that tended to hurt like Hell. Twilight had trained to avoid getting hit by any of them; the suit was insurance.

She pulled off her gloves and unzipped the front of the suit. The zip went down a long way because she had adapted it from some sort of kinky PVC catsuit. She had thought about sewing it up a bit, but it was easier to get in and out of the thing with the long zip. She peeled herself out of the tight garment, and got up to slide it down her long legs.

Twilight sighed, closed her eyes for a second, and became Andrea Morgan. The shop she worked at was only half a mile away; she could get up a little later.

~~~

Going back to work after a night spent flying the skies of the city hunting for criminals was something of a let-down. Penny had soared through the sky and swooped down to stop a mugging, and the woman she had protected had been so grateful it was embarrassing. The thrill of it had been amazing and she knew she had bored June half to death with it for far too long before going to bed.

Now she was back in the same old office, answering the same calls from unappreciative idiots who had forgotten some vital this or that, and talking to useless men who thought that accounting was the most important thing in the world. She wanted to grab them by the lapels and yell at them.

Instead she sat calmly at her desk and transcribed notes from a meeting Thorpe had attended and, as usual, scribbled down things he wanted recorded in spidery handwriting. At least she had more time to go over them this time, and there were less of them. It had to have been something important; Thorpe normally batched his notes up for transcription. Penny thought he did it just to annoy her. He never gave them to his own PA, a vapid platinum blonde named Kylie. This special torture was reserved for Penny.

About midway through the transcript she got to the attendees and sighed. Those would have to be listed at the top, of course. Why he could not manage to order his notes logically she could never fathom. Returning to the top of the document, she started listing names and one of them almost immediately stood out: J. Tonaldo.

The Tonaldos ran crime in the north of the city, that was what Red and Bobby had said. What was he doing in a meeting with Thorpe? Well, they had to have legitimate businesses as well as criminal enterprises. How else did you explain your income to the IRS?

She flicked over what she had already transcribed. Normally the contents of the notes went through her without registering and this time had been no exception. It was a new account, a company called DeWitt Imports. Penny had never heard of them, but that was hardly a surprise. Leighton and Thorpe had got the auditing contract after the previous auditors had had their licence pulled. According to the notes, Thorpe had met with the board, which meant that a Tonaldo sat on the board of one of their clients.

Well, nothing to be done about it now, even if something needed doing. She would take a look at the company listing at home.

~~~

Radium Comics only survived because it catered to a very exclusive clientele: the hard-core comic book buyer. Oh, there were the current issues at the front to keep the kids happy should any of them enter, but the real shop was at the back where you could get just about every comic ever printed, if you had the money to do it. In some cases that was a lot of money.

The owner, Roger Wentworth Peters, was a laidback sort of man, the result of taking way too many drugs in the eighties when he had been a member of a punk band named ‘Nuclear Winter.’ Andrea had listened to one of their albums once and given up after two tracks. The comics he had scripted and inked in the nineties were a little too drug-addled for her tastes as well, but they proved he was a talented man.

Roger liked his employees, all two of them, to dress appropriately. That meant something vaguely clichéd in the way of punk or Goth, or similar. So Andrea came to work in too much make-up and a lot of black. She liked the black, but not the make-up, even though she was quite skilled at applying it. Roger picked his employees primarily based on whether he fancied them, even though he never actually propositioned any of them. His view on the matter was that attractive staff persuaded nerds to part with money more easily than unattractive staff did. Andrea had to admit that his strategy worked better than she thought it should.

‘Hey, Andrea.’ That was Zoe, the blonde in the slashed T-shirt and jeans who was Roger’s other employee. Andrea looked up from filing some new buys on the racks and raised an eyebrow. Zoe was used to her colleague being less than talkative. ‘Want to go out on Friday?’

‘It’s Monday and you’re planning Friday night already?’ Andrea replied. She had a soft, husky sort of voice which she had been told was pleasant to listen to and rather sexy. That was just as well; she had spent enough time cultivating it.

‘Well yeah. I wanted to go to the Huntress’ Den and…’

‘You know they’ll let me in because I’ve been there before.’

Zoe giggled. ‘Uh-huh.’

Andrea looked back down at the books. It was true that she had not had a night out in a couple of months. She knew she was obsessed about nailing the Tonaldos, and knowing that she made sure she did not spend every waking moment plotting against them. She was due for a night where she did not strap on her sword…

‘Okay,’ Andrea said.

Zoe gave a little ‘squee’ of delight and bounced off to see whether their lone customer needed help. It was nice to know she was actually not as much of a ditz as she generally made herself sound.

~~~

Penny sat at her computer, checking for information on DeWitt Imports. What she found was boring.

DeWitt Imports had been founded by an Edward DeWitt, who was dead, and was now run by a board of directors none of whom had their names listed on the company’s decidedly basic website. There were a few contact numbers, mainly for those wanting to ship something in or out of the country. They advertised an ability to ship very large consignments anywhere in the world.

The company listing was a little more informative in that it listed a John Tonaldo as one of the executive board members, but not much else was forthcoming. The company was publicly traded and apparently doing fairly well given the stock price, though there had been a dip when their previous auditor had been hauled over the coals.

‘DeWitt?’ June said from behind her. ‘Why are you looking them up?’

‘Oh, Thorpe had me transcribing notes about a meeting he had with their board. One of the people there was John Tonaldo.’

‘As in the mob family?’

‘Uh-huh. Not that that means DeWitt is dirty.’

‘No…’ June’s brow furrowed. ‘I heard Mister Leighton arguing with Thorpe about them though. Their last auditor lost their licence over irregularities in the DeWitt audit. I think Mister Leighton didn’t want to take them on.’

‘Huh. I’ll ask Red about John Tonaldo on Friday.’

‘You’re coming to the club then? I thought you might be out sweeping the streets.’

Penny smiled. ‘All patrol and no play makes Cygnus a dull Ultra.’

11th September.

Penny had more or less given up on the evening. There had been a purse snatcher in the park, though the victim was a local and there had been no hugging, or even thanks, this time. She had swung north over Downtown and seen nothing of interest. She suspected she was missing things she could help with, but she had to keep practising to get better, right? She was, however, getting despondent and decided to swing out over the docks quickly before heading home. The flying practice was a good idea if nothing else.

She was looping over the south edge of Deale Harbour when she spotted something on one of the rooftops below her. There was a figure down there, hidden in the dark and the shadows. Whoever it was was moving across the roof in a suspicious manner, and that was about the most interesting thing Penny had seen all night. Swinging around, she lost height quickly and came in low, skimming the edge of the wall as she swept in toward her target.

Ten yards out she recognised the slim figure with the sword fixed to her back, pulled up sharply, and landed on the roof’s tarred surface as lightly as she could. Twilight turned, pulling a large automatic pistol from her thigh in one, fluid motion. Penny put up her hands placatingly as the barrel aimed at her head.

Twilight relaxed visibly and dropped her aim. ‘Oh, it’s you. Get down before they see you.’ Her voice was low and Penny frowned, but she also did as requested and moved toward the black-clad woman in a crouch.

‘They?’

Twilight holstered her pistol and picked up a pair of solid-looking binoculars. Placing them to her eyes, she looked down toward the loading bay area below them. ‘Them,’ she said.

Penny peered over the edge and found herself watching a number of men moving crates from a truck into one of the warehouse buildings. It seemed a little late to be moving cargo. ‘Drugs?’

‘Maybe. The crates are labelled with DeWitt’s logo…’

‘DeWitt?’

‘Heard of them? They ship various things for the Tonaldos. Drugs mostly, slaves…’

‘Slaves!’

‘Keep your voice down,’ Twilight hissed. ‘You think every girl in a brothel is there by choice? They bring them in from Europe, Asia. Lot of Soviet Bloc citizens want to get out and once they’re here the Tonaldos can do pretty much whatever they want with them. You really are new at this.’

‘Well… yes.’

‘But you’ve heard of DeWitt?’

‘I… came across them. John Tonaldo’s on their board. What are you planning?’

The offer of help was implicit. Twilight looked around at the bimbo in the swimsuit. ‘I work alone.’

Penny frowned at her. ‘There’s a lot of men down there. I bet they’re armed. I’m strong, I fly, I’m bulletproof…’

‘I saw, that was a thirty-eight, a Chief’s Special. They’ve got MAC-Tens, fully automatic.’

‘And you’ve got a sword.’

Penny could tell she had made a point because Twilight changed the subject. ‘I don’t know there’s anything wrong with that shipment.’

‘Except it’s kind of late for moving boxes.’

‘Yes.’

‘So, you’re sneaky and I’m bulletproof. I’ll create a distraction, you find out what’s in the boxes.’

‘You’re certainly distracting. Did you pick that costume to make sure you’d stand out? It just about glows.’

‘I didn’t design it. I’d probably have gone for something more subtle. Maybe, I don’t know, a PVC catsuit?’

Twilight grunted a response. ‘Okay, go distract them… Uh, what do I call you?’

‘Cygnus.’

‘Right. I’m Twilight.’

Penny lifted off from the roof, pushing back from the edge. ‘I know. See you later.’

She swept back, circling around the building and then back in from the side. She had seen around ten men from the rooftop. There could have been more, but not many. None of them had had visible weapons, but she was going to take Twilight’s word on them having some. If they were just unloading machine parts, then surely they were not going to need guns. That had to indicate something was going on.

Dropping to the tarmac beside one of the trucks, she put on her best smile and walked around into full view. ‘Hey guys. Hope you’re getting paid overtime for this. I mean, it’s after midnight and…’

The response tended to indicate the men were up to no good. ‘Freak! Get her!’ was followed almost immediately by weapons being pulled from under coats. Penny lifted quickly into the air, twisting around in one of the moves Bobby had shown her, her boot swinging around to hit one of the soon-to-be gunmen. She clocked him in the side of the head, and he went down like a sack of bricks.

‘You sure you want to do that?’ Penny yelled. It came out as a bit of a roar, actually. She almost impressed herself.

Apparently she did not impress the criminals; they opened fire. She was going to have to work on that. Right now she was more concerned with dodging. There was a real need for dodging. Not that it was working as well as she might have hoped. She felt bullets hitting home as she wheeled in the sky, but the firing was wild as they tried to follow her flying in loops above the loading dock. None of them were paying attention to the crates. Penny spotted Twilight with a crowbar beside one of them, though how the girl had got down from the roof that fast was beyond her. Some sort of super ninja acrobatic trick maybe.

It took all of three seconds before the firing stopped. Penny had no clue why until she wheeled around and saw ten men changing the magazines on their guns. They had been firing a lot of ammo, very fast. She banked, swung down, and ploughed through the crowd. There were three of them in the way and she barely felt the impacts, but when she turned around again two of them were down and the third was reeling on his feet.

The firing started again, along with cries of pain and the sudden cutting off of streams of bullets. Penny twisted in the air to see that Twilight had joined the fray. She was swinging a pair of what Penny took to be expanding batons, and using them with an expert precision and speed which Penny found amazing. She had taken down three of the goons before the others even noticed there were two Ultras for them to deal with, and by then they had exhausted their ammunition supply. Three of the remaining four dropped their guns, two pulling knives, and went for Twilight.

The last was struggling to get a new mag in his Ingram. Penny swooped down, grabbed him under the arms, and hefted him into the nearest packing crate. There was a loud crash and the sound of metal skittering across tarmac. Penny turned…

And there was Twilight standing over the fallen men, pressing the ends of her batons against a crate to close them.

‘Oh,’ Penny said. ‘You hardly left me any.’

‘Six to four, it’s not a bad split.’

‘Huh.’ Penny glanced at the broken crate. ‘They’re shipping rifles?!’ There were several of them scattered around, and Penny had no idea what they were.

‘Caseless ammunition rifles,’ Twilight told her. ‘They’re a WTC design. Austrian, I think. Electronic ignition, high impact, high accuracy. Those aren’t what bothers me.’

‘Then…?’

Twilight waved for her to follow and led her to the crate she had opened. Penny looked in to see several tubular launchers and matching rocket grenades.

‘These are Soviet. Armour-piercing explosive rounds,’ Twilight said. ‘The Tonaldos don’t deal weapons domestically, so they wanted these for themselves.’

‘What would they want with grenade launchers? No, wait… I was told that some group from the south side was trying to move in on their territory.’

Twilight nodded. ‘For a rookie you’re well informed. I’d heard the same thing. Looks like David Tonaldo’s taking it seriously.’

‘Yeah,’ Penny agreed, frowning, ‘seriously enough to go to war.’

‘He’s not a very nice person. Ruthless, manipulative… Look, the cops are on their way. You can have the collar. I’ve got things to do.’

Penny looked around at the fallen bodies. ‘Why not share it? We make a good team.’

‘I work alone,’ Twilight stated flatly.

Penny turned around to argue, but Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

13th September.

‘John Tonaldo?’ Red looked at Penny with narrowed eyes. ‘What do you want with that creep?’

‘Well, nothing,’ Penny replied. ‘He’s just come up in a couple of conversations recently.’

‘He’s on the board of a company our employer is doing the books for,’ June said. ‘If it’s dirty…’

‘Well,’ Red said, looking reluctant to continue. She sighed. ‘If it was David it could go either way, but John… Whatever this company is, it’s a cover for something.’

‘Yeah, well they were smuggling weapons into Deale Harbour on Wednesday morning,’ Penny said. ‘Me and a girl called Twilight stopped them. Well, mostly she stopped them and I distracted them, but… Well, they were stopped.’

‘Weapons?’

‘Guns, rocket launchers…’

Red frowned. ‘That’s… not good. Twilight… Not sure I’ve heard the name.’

‘She didn’t exactly seem like the type to come to a club,’ Penny replied. ‘Then again, I’m not really the type to come out to a club…’

~~~

Andrea spotted Cygnus sitting at the bar as soon as she walked into the room. For a fraction of a second she thought about turning around and leaving, but that would mean having to come up with an excuse Zoe would believe. ‘I left the gas on,’ was probably not going to cut it. Besides, Cygnus had never seen her face. How was she going to match up the girl in the off-the-shoulder top and the tight jeans with the mop of black hair to the PVC-clad ninja she had met a few days ago?

No. Play it cool, don’t worry. Just a girl out with her friend on a Friday night. She followed Zoe toward the bar to get drinks.

The blonde super-bimbo was sitting with Red and another girl who nature had endowed with breasts to make up for the lack of brains. That was unfair. The rookie was naive and stacked, but she had seemed like she was bright enough. There was enough light behind the brunette’s eyes to suggest she was not that stupid. Andrea decided she was probably just feeling inadequate.

Also slightly less secure. Red looked her way and nodded as she stood behind Zoe waiting for the drinks. Red knew the truth about her. Not exactly who she was, but she knew there was something about her and they had had ‘the talk’ the first time Andrea had come here. The hostess had not asked many questions, just enough to decide Andrea was not going to be a problem. There had been a slight undercurrent of something else as well, but Andrea did not swing that way. From the looks of it, Cygnus’ friend, the brunette, did.

‘You know her?’ Zoe whispered. ‘The Red Huntress?’

‘We talked once.’

‘Oh wow. She’s amazing. Did you ever see that calendar she did? It must be really great talking to an Ultra just… casual like.’

‘Yeah, oh it is… Really special.’

‘I don’t think I’d be able to. I’d go all blabber-mouthed and make a fool of myself.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Sometimes having a secret identity could be hilarious.

~~~

Penny noticed the girl with the black hair nodding toward Red. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar. Very vaguely. Nothing she could put a finger on. Penny figured she was around five-nine; the heels on the white slouch boots were not especially high. The tight jeans and off-the-shoulder, midriff-baring, lacy top showed off a trim, tightly muscled body with long, slim legs. Not that much of a chest, but what was there was firm even without a bra. Her skin was tanned or naturally dusky. The face tended to the triangular; hollowed cheeks and a fairly narrow chin did the most for that impression. Dark brown eyes, a tangled mop of black hair… Maybe ‘tousled’ was a better description. The girl had a wide mouth which made her lips look narrower, but they were quite full. Her nose was fairly long and quite narrow.

No, not ringing bells. ‘You know the brunette?’ Penny asked Red.

‘We talked,’ Red replied, which meant she was an Ultra of some sort. ‘I’d have liked to know her a lot better, but I don’t go where I’m not wanted. Besides, if I’d hooked up with her I might not have met June.’

‘Not been in town long then?’

‘Couldn’t say, but she first came here… about a month before you did. Uh… Andrea. Yeah, that was the name.’

‘She is cute,’ June put in. ‘Kind of serious though, for a Friday night.’

Andrea did look as though she had no real plans to have a good time. Her friend looked like she would make up for both of them, and the whispered conversation suggested they were talking about the little group at the end of the bar.

‘Don’t know the blonde,’ Red said, ‘but she’s a civilian.’

Penny turned away. ‘So it looks like the Tonaldos are setting up a war chest. This gang from the south must be pressing pretty hard.’

Red frowned and then sighed. ‘I’ve still got some contacts I can ask. I’ll see if I can dig anything up. This is not what we suggested you get involved with this soon.’

‘I know, but it kind of fell…’

‘Fell into your lap, yeah. Stick to keeping a lid on things. The Tonaldos are, mostly, a known quantity. No Ultras in their ranks, they don’t like them. This other bunch… Well, they’re an unknown quantity.’

Penny nodded. ‘Thanks for digging for me. I feel like I should go looking for this Twilight. Something about her… I don’t know, but it sort of felt fortuitous that we met. If I find her again, I don’t want to go empty-handed.’

‘I’ll see what I can do. You want to stay here tonight? June is and there’s still the spare room…’

Penny gave her a grin. ‘Thanks. I brought my costume. I thought I’d spend the day overflying the city. I can get a feel for it in daylight and then I’ll be less likely to get lost at night.’

Red gave June a look. ‘She’s not just a pretty face, is she?’

‘No, she’s not,’ June replied, and there was just a hint of something other than pride in her voice which Penny could not quite figure out.

~~~

Penny felt a back against hers and turned to apologise. She had been backing up; her fault. She found herself looking slightly downward into a pair of dark brown eyes.

‘Sorry,’ she said, smiling, ‘my bad. You’re Andrea, right?’

Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s right… Oh, Red Huntress remembered my name?’

Penny nodded. ‘I guess I should introduce myself as Cygnus.’

‘You guess?’

‘It’s kind of new. Not used to it yet. Are you, uh, active?’

Andrea made a show of checking around them, though she was actually pretty sure that Zoe, the only person she did not want hearing the conversation, was in the back. Then she shook her head. There was no point in denying she was an Ultra, not when Cygnus obviously knew, but she could lie about the rest. ‘I don’t have…’ She lifted her hand, wiggling her fingers. ‘Not the kind that’s useful anyway. I know I show up on the Huntress’ radar, or whatever she has, but I’m not that kind of Ultra.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘Unless I’m a late bloomer or something.’

Penny grinned. ‘I was.’ There were generally two ways you could end up exhibiting powers and Penny was of the opinion that she fell into the second. Some people manifested at puberty and as people started wanting powers, more people were doing that. A few even started before then, but only a very few. The X-class Ultras: mutants. The other way was some sort of trauma, which tended to produce powers related to the thing that caused them. Accidentals: A-class like Penny. Penny figured a degree of invulnerability after being hit by a space rock sounded right. Of course the shape-changing did not really fit into that concept, but… Well, every theory had its flaws.

‘I don’t think so’ Andrea replied. ‘I think I’m going to be just a little bit Ultra all my life. Can’t say it bothers me.’

‘Well, nice meeting you.’ Penny turned, starting for the back of the club where the restrooms where.

‘Yeah,’ Andrea said, ‘nice meeting you too.’

14th September.

With the club closing and everyone who remained starting to filter out, Andrea spotted Red and Cygnus, and the brunette, still chatting at the bar. She knew the proprietor lived above her shop, so to speak, and it looked like all three would be staying the night. Not that she was going to judge. She was of the firm opinion that what you got up to in your off time was no one’s concern but your own, unless it hurt someone else, but she had not taken Cygnus for the type.

Zoe had picked up a guy about ten years older than she was and it looked a lot like Andrea would be going home alone. Not that that bothered her. She considered, briefly, going home and getting changed. When the sun rose it would be Saturday and she did not need to get up early. Roger did not like his weekends cluttered with work so Radium Comics did not open on Saturdays. However, she had had a couple of drinks. She was by no means drunk, but there would be some slight impairment. She was not going to go out actively looking for trouble.

She grinned slightly. Maybe she would get lucky and someone would try to mug her on the way home.

~~~

The air over Tracy’s Landing, commonly referred to as Uptown, was clear. There was little cloud on the autumnal day, and the only air traffic was a couple of helicopters, the odd Ultra, and Penny. She hung in the air above Carfax Avenue, high enough that she was little more than a white dot to the people below.

Of course, that made the people below into ants. On a Saturday morning the streets below were full of shoppers and tourists, probably mostly the former. Uptown was noted for shops, clubs, and restaurants. There were some large hotels, but at this time of year, neither summer nor Christmas, the tourists were fewer in number.

She turned and flew south toward Downtown. From here it was difficult to tell the difference. Both areas were built within the last twenty or thirty years, and both had been designed by people wanting to make a name for themselves. Downtown was the business district, the ‘New Wall Street’ in the eyes of many, and it had more offices than shops, but it still looked the same.

It was a little depressing. She had come from a small sort of town and here she was hanging above… It was just so urban. The buildings were vast!
Huge towers of glass and steel, and all she could really see was blue and grey. Down at ground level she was used to it, sort of. And Friendship was not the prettiest part of the city, but it seemed to have more colour. Up here…

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Penny twisted in the air and her heart jumped into her throat. Hovering behind her, large as life, and twice as glaring in the bright sunlight, was Ultranova. He was not looking at the city.

‘It’s, uh…’ Up close, and she had never seen him this close before, he was not quite as good-looking as his reputation suggested; certainly not unattractive, far from it, but no better to look at than Bobby. There was a lot more muscle on his frame, showed off perfectly by the skintight suit he wore, and the suit suggested he was better endowed. Embarrassingly, it also suggested he was enjoying the view rather a lot and Penny fixed her eyes firmly on his face. That was solid, strong, but softer than she had expected. His blonde hair, ruffled by the wind, was fairly short. She knew he avoided expensive hairdressers precisely because the wind reduced even the best cuts to ‘tousled’ in seconds when you were flying. He had a slightly Roman nose, a full mouth, and blue eyes. The eyes were nice, in a slightly cold way.

‘New Millennium City,’ he proclaimed, spreading his arms, ‘the finest city in the world. Where paupers can become kings.’ His arms dropped suddenly and he floated closer, right arm extending. ‘My apologies, I should introduce myself. I am Ultranova.’

Penny giggled and took his hand to shake. ‘I, uh, know,’ she replied and then her eyes widened as he swept her hand up to his lips. Well, he was charming…

‘I suppose you do, but I find myself at something of a loss. I feel sure I would remember anyone so beautiful if I had met them before…’

On the other hand, he was trying too hard. ‘I’m Cygnus, and we’ve never met.’ She gave a gentle pull on her hand since he did not seem to feel like letting it go. ‘I’m new and I usually work at night.’

‘Night,’ he replied, smiling, ‘is for more pleasurable pursuits.’

Okay, trying way too hard. The need to tell the greatest hero in the state to cool his heels was, thankfully, averted by the sound of sirens drifting up from below. Penny spotted the car, something small and fast, being pursued down 12th Avenue by two police cruisers, and then she saw Ultranova flying past her as he headed toward it. Well she was not going to leave him to work alone; maybe she could help.

Swinging around she dived after him.

~~~

Inside the car, three men in full face masks were having the time of their lives.

‘We got, three, maybe four million here,’ the one in the back said, the grin evident in his voice. ‘All in negotiable, untraceable, bearer bonds. We’re made.’

‘Soon as we lose these cops, yeah,’ the driver replied, his attention split between his mirrors and the road ahead of him. He was acutely aware that one slip at this point would end it, but he was still thinking up ways to spend half a million bucks.

‘We’re made all right,’ the third said, his voice suddenly pouring water on the enthusiasm. ‘Capes.’

‘Who is it?’ the driver asked, not wanting to look away from his driving.

‘Looks like Ultranova and… some stripper.’

‘Well forget the bitch, shoot him.’

‘He’s bulletproof!’

‘I know. We just have to keep him off us until we can get to the rendezvous. Then it’s clean sailing. Shoot at him!’

The passengers both opened windows, leaned out, and opened up with their Uzis.

~~~

Penny was a little surprised to discover that she was catching up. She was actually faster than Ultranova. Who knew? Then the lead started flying.

She twisted right, but quickly realised that the thugs in the sports car were far more concerned with the powerhouse that was Ultranova than they were with the slight girl in the brief costume. As she watched, he fired back, a beam of incandescent light lancing toward the car and just missing. Tarmac exploded behind the car forcing a cruiser to swerve violently. This was going to become dangerous.

‘Keep them busy,’ Penny yelled toward the hero. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

She thought she heard him yell something as she dived toward the traffic, but she was too busy wondering whether she could really pull this off to listen. Swinging around she came up behind the cruisers and closed in on the sports car. If they had been on an open road she figured they might have been able to outrun her, but here, in traffic, their speed was limited and she was closing the gap. The car jinked left into oncoming traffic, swinging right onto 10th Street and she moved, grabbing the edges of the roof over the driver and passenger, and then pulling upward.

It was more than she had ever even tried to lift before and the pull on her arms felt like it was going to yank them out of their sockets… And then there was the sound of an over-revving engine and she was applying the brakes as she held the car in the air twenty feet above the traffic streaming along below.

Bullets pancaked against her skin and she looked around at the man sitting in the passenger-side window trying to kill her. ‘Aww, give it up, would you? It’s a new suit and you’re never going to hurt me with that thing. Even if you do, the best you’ll get is spinal damage when I drop you.’

The hooded gunman sagged over the roof of the car. ‘Fuck,’ he muttered, ‘crime of the decade and we’re stopped by a stripper.’

Penny considered a bad case of fumble-fingers for a second and then started lowering the car toward the spot where the two cruisers had pulled to the side of the road beside the plaza on the corner. Cops with pistols and shotguns were looking up at her, mildly confused expressions on their faces. Other cars had stopped and there was a crowd gathering, and some of them had cameras and notepads. There were two helicopters swinging around overhead, one of them bearing the recognisable logo of ACPN, the American Crime Prevention Network. They had probably been following the car chase, but she had no idea how the other press people had got there so fast.

‘Where do you want them?’ Penny called down to the cops. The cops looked at each other. ‘I don’t want to hurry you or anything, but this thing is kind of heavy.’

A minute later the cops were surrounding the vehicle and disarming the crooks while Penny floated to the ground to the click of camera shutters. She blinked as she was instantly surrounded by men and women clutching notepads and pocket recording devices.

‘That was amazing, Miss…?’

‘You saved a lot of people today.’

‘You’re new to the hero scene, aren’t you?’

‘That outfit is to die for! Did you design it yourself?’

‘Could we get some pictures…?’

‘Cygnus,’ she said, answering the only question she could immediately hear over the throng. ‘I’m Cygnus.’

‘We haven’t seen you in the skies before.’

‘No, I just got my registration last week and I normally work nights. I just happened to be passing with…’ She looked around, but there was no sign of Ultranova. Letting her take all the credit, well that was nice of him. ‘I was just flying past and I heard the sirens… And a friend of mine designed the costume for me.’ She flicked her hair back over her shoulders and spread her arms, and the sound of cameras was almost deafening.

‘So you’re obviously strong, and bulletproof, and you fly…’

Penny grinned at the woman who had asked the implied question. ‘That about covers it, as far as I know. I do seem to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, but I’m not sure that’s a power. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to check whether the police need anything from me and then I should be going.’

‘Have you anything to say to the people of New Millennium?’ someone tried, going for one last quote.

Penny smiled. ‘Me? No, I’m just doing what I’m supposed to. If you can help you’re supposed to, right?’ Turning, she headed off toward the police cars.

~~~

Andrea sat cross-legged on the floor of her apartment, carefully cleaning her sword. It was old, very old. Someone had made it for a samurai with peculiar, but exquisite, tastes over seven hundred years ago. The blade was straight, double-edged, and used the Soshu Kitae, or Seven Layers, method. A double-edged katana was unheard of; even the ninja had used single-edged swords. Why it had been made and by whom was not known, but there were very few swordsmiths who worked steel that way. It had a name, Yōgo-sha, which she had been told meant ‘Defender.’ It was, if anything was, her prized possession and she took exceptionally good care of it.

Her attention was drawn to the small TV which was on primarily to provide background noise. ACPN was also an adequate method of keeping track of the big crime going on in the city. They usually just reported without adding spin. Right now they were showing footage from a car chase which had started somewhere in north Downtown and now, it seemed, come to an end.

Andrea watched as Cygnus lowered the escape car into a ring of waiting policemen. The girl was certainly strong, and Uzi rounds had a heavier impact than the Ingram bullets. It was impressive. The little press show afterward was just not Twilight’s style, but Andrea had to admit that the blonde came off well, and she looked a bit embarrassed at the attention. Not necessarily a glory hound. Thinking about it, she had wanted them to share the joy at the warehouse. Okay, so Andrea would let the bimboid off this one; it looked like she had been ambushed.

Looking down, Andrea went back to her work.

~~~

The helicopter flew in low dropping to a landing pad on the eastern edge of Andrews Air Force Base. There it disgorged two men in dark suits and sunglasses. One of them carried a large video camera.

They went straight to an unmarked, unremarkable door in one of the nearby structures, opened it, and went inside. It let them onto a short corridor with a pair of elevator doors at the end. Again, nothing remarkable until the doors closed and a panel opened to reveal an iris scanner. Both of them placed their eye in front of it before the car began to move, downward.

Around five storeys down it stopped and the door opened, and the men were faced with two guards armed with assault rifles. Showing their identification got them past that roadblock, and then it was on down the corridor to an office with no identification on it where a tall, slim man, in a dark suit, was waiting for their report.

‘The readings were… particularly strange,’ one of the two men said.

‘Explain strange,’ the man behind the desk requested.

‘She was classed as an A-three, but the power level readings were way too high for that magnitude.’

‘And,’ the second man said, ‘the frequency distribution was all wrong. She’s not a normal Ultra.’

The man behind the desk raised an eyebrow. ‘Exactly what would you call a “normal” Ultra?’

~~~

‘A car!’ June exclaimed, her eyes, once again, on the playback on ACPN. ‘You lifted a fucking car!’

‘I know. I was there.’ Penny was amused, and a little horrified. New Ultras were not that common and tended to make the news. New Ultras that looked like she did… The segment was playing on every hourly news update, with some seriously loving shots of her behind in the costume. And then there was June…

‘And you look awesome in the costume. I mean, every man in the city is going to be flooding their lounge with drool. Most of the women too.’

‘I don’t really think…’

‘Trust me. I bet Bobby’s seen it. I bet he rips your clothes off as soon as you get there.’

‘June!’

‘What? I want to. If he doesn’t I’ll…’ She stopped suddenly and turned around, starting for her room.

Penny frowned at her back. ‘June?’

‘Nothing,’ the brunette replied. ‘I’ll be back… in a second. Yeah, just a second.’

Penny shook her head as June retreated into her room and closed the door. Her housemate was getting distinctly odd lately. Well, it was almost time to go see whether Bobby did rip her clothes off anyway.

~~~

He did not, not immediately anyway.

‘You’ve been making a name for yourself, gatinha,’ Bobby said as she walked into the lounge. ‘Barely a week under your belt and you’re appearing every hour on the television.’

‘I just happened to be there,’ Penny said, ‘and Ultranova was just going to cause more problems if he kept shooting at them, and they were a real safety hazard…’

‘Oh, so you’ve met the great heartbreaker?’

‘He didn’t seem that great.’

Bobby’s lips curled upward slightly. ‘Many a young Ultra has fallen into his bed and found him looking for a new conquest in the morning.’

‘Well, not me. He was trying too hard to be charming. Besides, I’ve got someone else who’s handsome, charming, and probably far better in the sack.’

‘Gatinha! You wound me. Who is this pretender? I will fight him to the death!’

Penny prowled across the carpet, grinning. ‘You know damn well who he is. But if he doesn’t get his act together soon I’m going to start to wonder.’

Reaching up, he pulled her into his lap, his hands stroking over the bare skin of her behind. ‘That,’ he said, ‘we cannot have.’

~~~

Professor Herman Kopf worked calmly and collectedly at his chemistry bench while the voice ranted on through the loudspeakers mounted around the laboratory. His benefactor and student was prone to ranting, especially when things went wrong.

‘Two million dollars! Two million! And some beanpole in a swimsuit blows it all out of the water!’

‘Two million was the upper estimate,’ Kopf pointed out. His accent was German, but was not too thick. He had not been in Germany in a long while and rarely spoke his native tongue.

‘Two million!’ The voice was generally not concerned with small things like reality. ‘I want to know who she is.’

‘Of course.’

‘I want to know who she is, where she works, who her friends are, what her bra size is, and how often she takes a dump!’

Kopf siphoned off some of the liquid he was working on into a syringe and injected it into a white rat. ‘The last one may take more time. I will initiate surveillance.’ The rat gave a squeak and died. Shrugging, Kopf dropped the body into a container marked ‘Biological Waste’ and turned to a computer he was using to do molecular modelling. ‘In the police report on the warehouse arrests she mentioned the Twilight girl. They may be working together.’

There was a grunt. ‘Surveillance only then. That one is useful.’

16th September.

June opened the door to find a woman in a wide-brimmed hat and a long, red coat standing there. The hat brim lifted and June’s eyes widened.

‘Well,’ Red said, ‘invite me in.’

‘Of course!’ June stepped back to allow the Huntress into their apartment. She was rather glad she had tidied up a little earlier in the evening. ‘I wasn’t expecting…’

Red took her hat off, dropping it onto the small kitchen counter at the back of the room. ‘I know, but I managed to get something for Penny, about this brewing gang war. I decided that waiting until Friday was too long. Especially since she’s becoming famous.’

June giggled. ‘You saw that then?’

‘How could I miss it? It was quite a trick and she pulled it off nicely. The press call afterwards was handled well too.’

‘She looked stunning, didn’t she?’

‘Yes, and that will go down well, but she played it with humility.’

‘Well, she’s out on patrol,’ June said as she watched Red unbuttoning her coat. ‘She won’t be back for a couple of hours.’

Red’s coat slipped to the floor, revealing Red, and a pair of heels. ‘Yes,’ she said, smiling, ‘I rather thought that might be the case.’

17th September.

The light in the lounge was dim, but it was on, so Penny figured that June was still up. She slipped in through the balcony window, closed it behind her, turned around, and came to a grinding halt. Her housemate and her friend were lying on the sofa, intertwined and naked. She felt her cheeks reddening and considered making a bolt for her room.

‘At least you didn’t actually catch us at it,’ Red commented in a low voice.

‘Uh… no,’ Penny replied.

June said, ‘Whu nu hu mu?’ Then she opened her eyes and let out a squeak. ‘Penny! You’re back early!’

‘No, dear,’ Red told her. ‘You fell asleep.’

‘You should’ve woken me,’ June grumbled. At least she was blushing too.

Red untangled herself and sat up, apparently unabashed at being nude in front of Penny. Penny would have liked more abashment, if that was a word. She would look it up later. ‘You,’ the Huntress said, pointing at Penny, ‘should consider alternative security arrangements.’

Since the woman obviously wanted to talk, Penny moved into the room and curled herself onto the floor, crossing her long legs in front of her. ‘Uh…?’ As one, Red and June dragged their eyes away from Penny’s legs, which just made her cheeks redder.

‘Change somewhere else. Someone could track you here. You’ve got your face on TV. The reaction’s been good, but I’ve already had a reporter or two sniffing around for information on Cygnus. If someone sees you coming in that window, your cover is blown.’

Penny nodded. ‘I can’t put June in danger. I’ll work something out.’ She glanced at June who was sitting there with an arm over her breasts and her legs crossed, which was insane given that they had both seen each other naked before. June had never seemed bothered in the past.

‘All right,’ Red went on. ‘I got some info back on this gang war, and it couldn’t wait so I came over.’

‘Could have sent it through UltraNet.’

Red grinned. ‘I could, but I had ulterior motives.’ June’s blush deepened. ‘It seems someone has decided to step things up on both sides. The Tonaldos have been recruiting soldiers. The other side has contracted someone to off David Tonaldo. As things stand, his brother, Jonny, would likely take control and, frankly, that would probably make things a lot worse.’

‘I heard he was sadistic.’

‘A mild understatement. He’s neither as bright nor as restrained as David. Things will heat up fast, and chances are that half the syndicate would defect. Jonny’s not well liked and he has no ability to lead his men. The other side would win, real fast, and the whole of the city would be under their thumb.’

‘We still have no idea who this “other side” is?’

Red shook her head. ‘No one knows, or no one’s talking.’

‘What about the assassin?’

‘There I had more luck, though it’s not exactly lucky. The guy’s nickname is “Your Name Here.” He leaves a calling card, a bullet inscribed with the victim’s name. He’s a sniper and a very good one. No one knows who he really is, but we know he’s meticulous. He’ll be planning his hit already. You’re probably going to need help if you’re going to nail him before he gets Tonaldo.’

Penny nodded. ‘I know someone who might be willing to lend a hand, if I can find her.’

Red gave a little shrug. ‘UltraNet is your friend.’

~~~

Andrea did not entirely trust UltraNet. A secure, virtual network hidden under the multiple internets of the world, it was operated by the Union of Ultrahumans with the cooperation of various government agencies. Doctor Ultimate had designed the protocols and she was quite sure that cracking it from the outside was probably impossible, but there had been a few cases of bad guys posing as legitimate members to work on it from the inside, and if those were detected you could bet there were others which were not. It did, however, provide a useful source of information, so she continued to use it; one check per day, just in case there was anything useful on it.

She never got personal messages. It was possible to look people up on the system; there was a mechanism in there for hosting small information pages, even for blogging your activities, though Twilight’s page was the bare minimum and blogging…? Yeah, right. So someone had looked her up and sent her a message. Who the Hell would…?

The answer came just before curiosity got her to the inbox and she considered not bothering with it. On the other hand, she did not think Cygnus would have gone to this much trouble to contact her for no reason and she had seemed oddly well informed. She clicked through and opened the message.

We need to talk. Family business. Pick a place. Cygnus.

Family business? The Tonaldos, of course. The girl had a touch of stealth in her soul at least and she did not seem to entirely trust the network either. It sounded dodgy, but if there was a chance that she had something on the mobsters…

Andrea began typing a reply.

19th September.

There was a chill wind blowing in off the bay as Penny stood on top of the Fairhaven Plaza and waited. Twilight had said nine and it was quarter past already, and the only reason Penny was still there was that she suspected the black-clad girl was the suspicious type. Yeah, get her there early, make sure she was alone. Maybe a test of patience…

‘Look, I want to get something clear before we get down to business.’ Penny turned on her heel to see the slim form of Twilight standing behind her. How did she do that? In heels! ‘I am not into girls.’

Penny grinned, nonplussed. ‘Okay… Neither am I, but okay.’

Twilight chewed on her lip for a second. The thought had occurred to her that morning that perhaps Cygnus had personal reasons for wanting to meet. After all, Andrea had seen her with Red and the brunette, and it had seemed like they were all staying the night. Maybe Cygnus wanted a girlfriend.

‘Okay… What’s this “family business” you’ve got to discuss?’

‘Are we okay doing this up here?’

‘Anyone gets close, we can see them.’

‘Parabolic microphones? Long lenses?’

Twilight allowed herself a slight smile. ‘Considering all that TV time you were getting, I never figured you for the paranoid type.’

‘You saw that, huh?’

‘Pretty sure everyone in the city saw it, maybe the country.’

‘They kind of ambushed me. I wasn’t even supposed to be doing anything. I was out getting an idea of what the city looks like from high up and…’

‘Sirens, gunfire, you figured you’d better do something about it.’

‘Uh, yeah.’

‘We’re kind of different. I’ve stopped a few drug store robberies on the fly. Mostly I plan things very carefully.’

‘Like at the warehouse.’

‘Yeah, well, I had help. What’s going on?’

‘Like we figured from the guns, there’s a war heating up between the Tonaldos and this other gang.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

‘Someone’s been hired to assassinate David Tonaldo. A sniper. They call him Your Name Here. I guess all the good names really have gone.’

‘Never heard of him, but if he’s actually a good assassin…’ Twilight frowned, though it was a little difficult to tell under the mask. ‘If David goes then John will probably grab control. David wants his son, David Junior, to take the reins, but he’s resisting. Jonny will use that and…’

‘That would be bad. Yeah, Red thought the same.’

‘You and her…’ Twilight stopped herself. Occasionally she confused Andrea and herself. ‘You seem to have an in with the Huntress. That where you’re getting your info?’

‘Yeah. That why you thought I was a lesbian?’

Twilight coughed. ‘She’s got a reputation. Okay, so what do you want to do about this assassin?’

‘Uh… stop him?’

‘Huh… Well, if you can pick up a car, it should be easy. Come on, I want to show you something.’ Twilight walked toward Penny, looking resigned, but expectant.

‘Sorry?’

Twilight unhooked her sword from her back. ‘It’s going to take ages to get there if I have to walk. You fly us there, I’ll navigate.’

Penny frowned, but she stepped forward as Twilight turned her back, wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist, and took off. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Uptown. Warren and twenty-first.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘You’re really not gay?’

‘No!’ Penny grinned. ‘Though… Hot young girl in my arms, her dressed all in PVC…’

‘That’s not funny.’

~~~

‘What am I looking at?’ Penny asked. She was ducked down behind the low wall which ran around the building they were on. Opposite was an apartment building with fairly large, open windows on the upper floors.

Twilight handed her a pair of binoculars. ‘Second window from the right, top floor. That’s David Tonaldo.’

He looked the part. Thin, slightly haggard face with a Roman nose and a full head of black hair, greying at the temples. He was slim, and did not look very fit, but the pin-stripe suit he was still wearing at almost midnight fitted him well. Expensive tailoring could do that for you.

‘Doesn’t look like he’s heard about the hit,’ Penny said. ‘He seems pretty… nonchalant.’

Twilight sat with her back against the wall, her sword resting in her lap. ‘You’d be nonchalant if you were sitting behind an inch of hardened, armoured glass. Two windows over Jonny’s taking a meeting.’

Penny swung the binoculars over. ‘Shit!’ She almost dropped the binoculars in her haste to get them away from her eyes.

‘Yeah, he’s a real charmer.’

Swallowing, Penny lifted the glasses again. John was ‘taking a meeting’ with a woman, only she did not look especially happy about it. He had her chained to a bed, spread-eagled and naked, a ball gag filling her mouth. There were red lines on the skin of her chest and they had probably been made by the long, curved dagger that John was holding.

She could see the resemblance between the brothers, just about. John was more filled out, heavier, definitely more thickly muscled. There was no grey in his hair and his face was fuller, but the nose was the same. He was not wearing a pin-striped suit. He was not wearing much of anything.

‘D-does he do this kind of thing often?’ Penny asked.

‘Maybe once a month. He picks the whore on their payroll making the least cash. If they’re lucky, they walk out with scars.’

‘And no one stops him! I mean, all it’d take is a video camera.’

Twilight grunted. ‘You’d think. They got him on film a couple of years ago. Got the girl to testify. When it came to court, the defence brought up her line of work and stated that she had agreed to the gig, and been well paid for it. Jonny got a hundred hours of community service for procuring a prostitute, and the girl wound up in Chesapeake Bay.’

‘Shit,’ Penny mumbled, scanning across the windows. There was one with the curtains drawn. ‘What goes on in that one that they don’t want people to find out about?’ she mused.

‘That’s Lena’s room,’ Twilight replied. ‘David’s daughter. She prefers keeping her private life private.’

‘Oh. We still don’t know whether they know about the assassin.’

‘No… I might be able to find out.’

‘How?’

‘Let’s just say that Red Huntress isn’t the only one with contacts.’

Penny smiled at the smaller girl. ‘Does this mean we’re working together?’

‘Yeah… We’re working together. I’ll get back to you when I know more.’

‘Need a lift somewhere?’

Twilight got to her feet, all lithe grace, cat-like almost. ‘No, thanks, I’ve had enough girly hugging for one night.’

‘I’ve got a boyfriend, y’know?’ Penny told her. ‘Really, not into girls.’

Twilight gave her a grin as she stepped behind the structure that housed the stairs up to the roof. ‘Later,’ she said.

Frowning, Penny got to her feet and hurried after her, but the ninja had done her stuff again. She was nowhere to be seen.

~~~

Andrea stood under the shower in her apartment, letting the water run through her hair and wondering what she was doing.

First there was Cygnus. How the Hell had Twilight ended up working with someone almost as unsubtle as Ultranova the Flying Flash Bulb? Okay, so the girl could be sneakier than she seemed at first glance, and she did make up for a few things that Twilight lacked… Actually, maybe teaming up with Cygnus was not such a bad move. She could see the tactical advantages. Hell, if all she did was hide behind the blonde when the bullets flew it was something.

The Tonaldo thing was harder to come to terms with. She wanted to bring them down, and this other gang clearly wanted to do the same. She wanted David Tonaldo dead, and yet she was trying to stop an assassin from killing him. Let this freak do the job, watch the family crumble, and then she would be free of the suit, and the mask…

No, she knew why she was doing that too. It had to be her who sank the Tonaldos. She had to be the one who watched David squirming on the end of her sword before finally expiring. There was no way she was going to let someone else decapitate the family and rob her of her revenge.

Turning the water off, she climbed out of the tub and towelled herself off before heading into the lounge. There she found a little princess phone she kept in one of the drawers of the desk she used for her computer, and checked the charge and the messages. There was one message from a couple of days earlier and she gave a bleak little smile before punching the button to dial the number it had come from. It answered after two rings.

‘Hey, yeah I’m available this weekend… Tomorrow? Sure. Around eight…? Seven, okay. Should I bring an overnight bag?’ She listened to the reply and then said, ‘Okay, see you then.’ Then she disconnected and threw the phone back into the drawer.

20th September.

Penny had decided that she would patrol instead of going to the Den this week. She had decided to fly over Uptown on her patrol area as well. Okay, so it was unlikely that the assassin would try for Tonaldo at home, but maybe she could spot him making observations. The guy was going to do that, right?

After stopping two muggings, thankfully without any clinging victims, what Penny got was a conundrum, and something of a surprise.

She was overflying the Tonaldo apartments when she spotted a taxi pulling up outside it and a young woman stepping out. She was not absolutely sure, but the hair and general body type were right. What was Andrea doing walking into the building?

~~~

There were new guards on the fourth floor. Andrea walked to the end of the corridor where the elevator up was and had to be checked over by two men who seemed to be taking far too much enjoyment out of their job. Usually it was just a quick pat down, but these guys went through her bag, used a portable metal detector on her, and then insisted on a pat down.

One of them was getting seriously enthusiastic when she said, ‘Does Mister Tonaldo know you’re feeling up his daughter’s guests?’ That cut his ardour considerably and the other man escorted her up to the top floor.

David was walking past the doors as she stepped out of the elevator and she stopped in her tracks. For a brief second she was worried that her disgust and hatred would show on her face. It was not like she had not been this close to him before, but you could never tell…

‘Andrea, right?’ he asked, pausing.

‘Yes, sir, Mister Tonaldo.’

‘You’re here for Lena?’ His accent was pure Brooklyn, despite the name. The Tonaldos had been in America for generations.

‘That’s right, sir.’

‘Staying the night?’

Andrea nodded, not quite trusting her voice to answer him the right way.

‘Come see me in the morning. I’ll have something extra for you.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Andrea said, and then she hurried away when the old man moved on. She slipped her coat off before she got to the rooms Lena spent most of her time in. Beneath was a short, very short, pin-striped black dress with a heart-shaped cut-out at the front and an oval at the back. It showed a lot of flesh, the lower slopes of her breasts, but especially her long legs. Lena had a particular fondness for those.

She knocked twice on the door, heard an answer from inside, and went in. There was the lounge with its expensive furniture and Lena sitting on the sofa, a glass of white wine in her hand and nothing but a G-string on her body. She was a blonde, a natural one as her mother had been, and blue eyed, small with a generous pair of breasts with sensitive nipples which she liked having sucked. Andrea knew that because she had been fucking her for the last seven months.

Lena bounced to her feet, and her breasts kept moving after she stopped. ‘Andrea! I’m so glad you could make it. I’ve missed you so much.’ Her smile blanked almost instantly and she pointed at the small table beside the door. ‘Your envelope is on there, as usual.’

Andrea did not look. Instead she stepped forward, hips swaying as she prowled closer to the blonde. ‘Let’s not worry about that right now,’ she purred. Her hands caught Lena’s waist, slid back and down to cup her ass, and then she was pulling their hips together. Lena let out a whimper, cut off as their lips met.

~~~

‘There’s a lot of new security,’ Andrea said softly.

Lena was snuggled against her side, basking in the afterglow of an hour of sex. There would be more later. Andrea kept Lena coming back for more by making sure she gave value for money.

‘Poppa’s worried,’ Lena said. ‘He won’t tell me, of course, but I’ve heard the odd rumour. Someone’s trying to kill him.’

Andrea kissed her brow. ‘I thought that was an occupational hazard.’

Lena giggled. ‘No one has the guts to kill Poppa. Anyway, this is different. Some aborto assassin.’ Andrea kept her muscles from tensing by force of will. Italian had some particularly offensive slang for Ultras. ‘A gunman of some sort,’ Lena went on, ‘so there’s the metal detectors and the searches. It’s stupid. It’d be suicide trying to get him in here.’

‘Better safe than sorry though, right?’

‘I guess. He’s still going to that charity ball next week.’

‘The children’s charity?’

‘Inner city kids getting a new start, or something like that. I think it’s called “Nuovo Inizio” actually. That’s new start, but in Italian. Kind of ironic considering that Poppa sells them drugs.’

Andrea felt her jaw muscles tense and covered her feelings by stroking a thumb over Lena’s right nipple. Lena let out a moan. ‘Enough talk,’ Andrea whispered. ‘I don’t think you screamed loud enough last time. I think you might be going off me.’

‘No!’ Lena whimpered, and Andrea stroked her thumb across the rapidly swelling flesh again. ‘I’ll try harder. To show you I’m not.’

Andrea’s thumb and forefinger closed around Lena’s nipple, tightening slowly. ‘Yes, you will.’

21st September.

David Tonaldo sat behind the huge oak desk in his office and watched as Andrea crossed the thick carpet toward him. He looked relaxed, at ease with the threat hanging over him. There was an envelope on his desk, thicker than the one she already had in her bag.

‘Andrea Morgan, right?’ he asked. He was smiling slightly. Not a full-on smile, but it showed in his eyes as well as his mouth.

‘That’s right, sir.’

‘I met your brother once. He was family, y’know?’

Andrea felt the knot in her stomach tightening and fought to keep it off her face. ‘I’m sure he appreciated being thought of that way, sir.’

‘His loss was… unfortunate.’ He slid the envelope toward her. ‘This is for you, though. You keep my daughter very happy. I’m glad we’ve got another Morgan carrying on the family tradition.’

‘Thank you, sir.’ She took another step forward and reached for the money.

‘You understand… no one outside our family is to know that Lena… what she prefers to do with her time.’

Andrea looked up into his eyes. The smile was gone, replaced by ice. No, no one was to know that Lena was a ‘rug muncher.’ That was why Poppa paid for the most expensive whores he could get to attend to her, and why he vetted every last one of them before they were allowed in.

‘I understood that when I first came here, sir. I’d never betray Lena like that.’

Tonaldo nodded, taking his fingers off the envelope and sitting back. The smile had returned, a notch brighter than before. ‘Good girl. You’re her favourite. Keep it up and there’ll be more like that.’

Tucking the money away in her bag, Andrea returned his smile. ‘Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.’ She turned and walked away from him. She needed, more than anything, to be out of here and home. Then she could stand under the shower for an hour and hope she felt clean afterwards.

24th September.

Twilight looked uncomfortable standing in Red’s office. Red sat behind her desk with June sitting meekly beside her. The brunette had more or less insisted on coming along and Twilight was not sure why, but she was not questioning it. Cygnus stood there with Twilight, in audience before the senior heroine in the room.

‘I did some research,’ Twilight said. ‘The ball is being held on a boat, a luxury yacht belonging to Andrew Donovan, Ultranova. The plan is to cruise out from Pier Eleven…’

‘Take a slow cruise out into the bay,’ Red continued, ‘around Poplar Island, and then back. I’ve got an invite. I wasn’t planning on going since Fridays are generally pretty busy.’

‘Huh, well it seems like the only time the assassin can hit Tonaldo is on that boat. He’s the kind who likes a challenge. He’ll take him in the bay, somehow. My guess is he’ll shoot from Poplar Island.’

Red nodded. ‘That’s where I would shoot from.’ She looked upward at the longbow mounted on the wall above her. ‘Of course, he’s got a lot more range he can work with.’

‘My research says he likes an AWM long-range sniper rifle,’ Twilight agreed. ‘He could hit someone on the boat just about anywhere along the route.’

‘Well yeah,’ Penny interjected, ‘but Tonaldo’s not stupid. Your Name won’t want a window in the way at that kind of range. He’ll want to hit Tonaldo in the open and it’d be kind of stupid to go out in the open.’

‘Yeah, he’ll need an accomplice,’ Twilight agreed. ‘There’s gotta be someone on the boat working with him. Someone to lead Tonaldo outside and spot for him.’

Red sighed. ‘All right. June, come here after work tomorrow, we’re going shopping.’

‘We are?’ June replied, blinking.

‘If you’re going to a fancy ball, you need a fancy ball gown. I suggest you trail the boat, Cygnus…’

‘Wait,’ Penny said, ‘you’re taking June along on this?’

‘Two pairs of eyes are better than one. We can keep watch, spot if Tonaldo is doing anything stupid. She won’t be in any danger. I don’t plan to be either.’

‘Okay, so I tail the boat and run interference if needed,’ Penny said, not sounding entirely convinced.

‘And I’ll be on Poplar Island,’ Twilight said. ‘If I’m lucky I’ll spot the sniper before he takes a shot.’

27th September.

Red had, in fact, bought two gowns. June felt a little like an appendage as she walked about the huge yacht moored at Pier Eleven wearing a figure-hugging, quite sheer, silky dress which showed a lot of cleavage and was split to the hip on the right side. It was black; Red’s matched perfectly, but it was red, of course. June was following along meekly, though she had to admit the appreciative looks she had got from Red earlier, and the ones she was getting now from a number of the men already on the boat, were not unwelcome.

‘Red, long time, no see.’

June looked around to see a man standing a few feet away. He was tall, well-built with a wind-swept mass of blonde hair. She did not immediately recognise him without the white costume.

‘Andrew,’ Red said. She was smiling, but there was a slightly wary tone in her voice. ‘This is June, my partner.’

Andrew Donavan, Ultranova, affected a hurt expression. ‘How is it that you manage to get all the most beautiful ones to yourself?’

‘I actually stay with them longer than five minutes. It’s a nice boat you have here.’

He smiled. ‘It is glorious, isn’t it? Please, make yourselves at home.’ He leaned toward June and the smile became more mischievous. ‘If you’d like a tour of my private quarters, don’t hesitate to ask.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind, sir,’ June replied before following Red toward the large, rear cabin. She waited until they were out of earshot before saying, ‘Partner?’

‘He’d have been after you all night if I hadn’t staked a claim,’ Red replied. She glanced back at June, a smile playing over her lips. ‘Besides, we’ve been seeing each other for long enough. You don’t mind do you?’

‘I didn’t think you thought of me quite that way.’

‘I’d ask you to move in with me, but Penny needs you. There’s Tonaldo.’ She nodded toward a man and woman standing together near one of the two bars occupying the rear corners of the room.

‘Is that his wife?’ June asked. She was still a little flustered over the whole ‘partner’ thing. ‘She looks… young.’

‘His daughter, Lena. She doesn’t leave their building much. This must be quite the treat for her. We need to keep an eye on both of them. If they split, you take the girl.’

‘Okay. You going to call Penny?’

The ship’s horns sounded outside and the engine vibration in the hull increased. ‘Yes,’ Red said. ‘It’s show time.’

~~~

‘They’re underway,’ Penny said, keeping her voice low. They had landed on the north side of the island since Twilight was pretty sure that Your Name Here would be to the south.

‘Okay,’ Twilight said. ‘You head out and shadow the yacht. I’ll see if I can spot our sniper.’

Penny gave a nod and lifted a couple of feet into the air. Then she stopped and looked back. ‘You be careful. This guy is a professional.’

Twilight looked up at her, dark eyes cool, almost cold. ‘So am I,’ she said. Then she turned and loped away.

Penny watched her go for a few seconds and then twisted in the air, heading off toward Deale Harbour and the yacht.

~~~

June knew she had been spotted, so she just kept on walking toward Lena who was standing at one of the rails on the starboard side. The petite blonde watched her coming, a smile on her lips, but something else in her eyes. June was not good enough at reading people to know what it was. Suspicion? No… Longing?

‘You’ve been following me,’ Lena said as June walked up and leaned on the railing beside her.

‘Prettiest ass on the boat,’ June replied.

Lena’s blush was obvious. ‘I’ll accept third. I saw you with Red Huntress earlier. Those gowns don’t leave much to the imagination. Poppa would never let me wear anything like that.’

June took her time looking over Lena’s body. The dress she was wearing was tightly fitted, corseted, and white. It pushed her large breasts up and forward, and she was not going to be doing any dancing in the pencil skirt that ran down to her ankles.

‘He let you out in that.’

Lena’s blush had got deeper. And she turned, looking outward in case her father walked past. ‘You’re flirting with me.’

‘Well… Red’s not handy to flirt with.’

‘Poppa doesn’t like me… talking to girls. No one’s even supposed to know I like to.’

June raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s kind of an old-fashioned point of view.’

‘Poppa’s on old-school family man.’

‘Family? As in…’

Lena gave a bleak smile. ‘I’m Lena Tonaldo. My father’s David Tonaldo. Bet I’ve scared you off now.’

June turned, looking out over the water. A flicker of white just above the water’s surface, which could have been a cresting wave, told her that Penny was out there. ‘Nope,’ she said. ‘I’ve got angels watching over me. Takes more than a mob boss to scare me off.’

~~~

Twilight crouched on the sea wall around the eastern edge of the island, scanning the darkened area around her. There was a half-moon, enough for her to see fairly well. She had exceptional night vision, one of the reasons she had selected her name: she worked well in the twilight.

None of that was helping so far. She had expected to see something by now. The island was pretty flat with few places to hide. South and east there were trees that could provide cover and that seemed the most likely location to shoot from now she was here. Her opponent was a sniper, trained in camouflage techniques. He could have been good enough to hide somewhere more open, but it seemed unlikely.

She looked out toward the yacht, clearly visible on the water. It was lit up like a Christmas tree. Even from where she was, without binoculars, she could see figures on the decks. He had to be shooting from here, but where was he?

The trees seemed likely, but there was a jetty jutting out from the shore with a large, flat, concrete area on its southern end. She could check that out and then try for the woods. If he was in the trees finding him before he fired was going to be enormously difficult…

~~~

Tonaldo had not noticed that Red was trailing him wherever he went. She had made a career of remaining unobserved by people, even wearing a ridiculous costume. Moving through the crowd with practised ease, never seeming to look at where the mobster was, she kept track of him as he chatted with the rich and famous.

She spotted one woman just before Tonaldo did. A woman with a tousled mop of ash-blonde hair and a figure like an animated sex doll. She was dressed in a deeply plunging mini-dress, which showed off both incredible breasts and almost unnaturally long legs, and she just had to look at Tonaldo, one eyebrow slightly raised and a smile on her lips, to have him following her toward one of the doors.

Something about her seemed familiar, but Red could not quite figure out what it was. Whatever, she was leading the target outside. Red lifted her bracelet to her lips and spoke into the concealed microphone it held. ‘It’s going down soon.’

~~~

Getting to the platform was easy. Twilight crouched on one corner, eyes moving slowly over the surface. There was no one here, but somehow… Something felt out of place and she could not quite see anything that went with the feeling. The sniper was here. She could sense it.

Now all she had to do was see it.

~~~

Lena’s face went pale and she turned to face June. ‘Poppa,’ she whispered.

June could see the man walking out onto the deck through one of the other doors. It looked to her as though he was following a woman: young, incredibly voluptuous, and barely dressed. As she watched, the woman came to a stop, leaning against the railing a bare ten yards away from where June was standing. Tonaldo stopped beside her and said something. The woman turned. Whatever she said back was inaudible, but it made the man smile.

June saw Red moving up from behind Tonaldo. Her expression was worried.

Then there was the voice in their ears. Twilight’s snapped statement. ‘He fired!’

And then there was the flash of white, the glow of lights reflecting off Cygnus’ suit as she burst upward and into the air beside Tonaldo and the woman. There was a loud thud and suddenly the white-clad heroine was spinning out of the air and onto the deck, colliding with the mobster as she fell.

~~~

Twilight pulled her pistol from its holster on her right thigh and pumped out three rounds at the indistinct shape where the sound had come from. She heard the scream of pain, and knew she had hit something with at least one of the 10mm bullets.

‘Give it up now,’ she snapped.

She had not really expected him to comply, and she was right. He rolled, the odd, grey, unreflective fabric he had built his hide from was flung aside as he twisted and pointed a pistol in her direction. She registered a SIG-Sauer, a P226, and that his right arm was not moving just before he fired. He was dazed, barely aiming, and the shots went wild. She fired back, one square in the torso, the second in his left leg. His pistol swung toward her again, and she prepared to fire once more, but then, with a shudder, he collapsed.

Keeping him covered, Twilight stepped closer and kicked the pistol away before checking his pulse. He was alive. Frowning, she unzipped the fatigues he was wearing to check the chest wound.

‘Huh,’ she muttered as she found the ballistic jacket under his suit. Then she activated her radio. ‘Twilight here. He’s down.’

~~~

David Tonaldo was about to yell something unpleasant at the woman who had collided with him when the sound of the shot rang out over the water. It was followed by a barrage of further, quieter, detonations and the sound of running feet as both Red and June, and then Lena, charged toward him as fast as their heeled shoes would carry them.

Penny climbed to her feet, rubbing at the back of her thigh. ‘That’s going to leave a bruise,’ she muttered.

‘What the Hell is going on?!’ Tonaldo snapped.

‘Cygnus here just saved your life,’ Red replied. She looked at Penny. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Cosmetic damage at worst,’ Penny relied. ‘My partner’s got the sniper, Mister Tonaldo. You’re quite safe now. Perhaps you should get inside, however. We can handle things from here.’

The mobster frowned. ‘Your partner?’

‘Twilight,’ Penny told him, lifting into the air. ‘I’m going to go check on her now. Someone sent a world-class assassin after you. I want to make sure she didn’t get hurt saving your butt.’ Twisting in the air, she flew off toward Poplar Island.

A crowd was starting to form around them, including a scowling Andrew Donovan who pushed through the onlookers to stand beside Red. ‘What happened?’ he asked, barely contained anger in his voice.

‘Someone tried to shoot Mister Tonaldo,’ Red replied. ‘Everything’s under control.’

The tall hero’s gaze followed the retreating white shape. ‘Cygnus?’

‘Yes. She’s good at being where she needs to be. Come on, let’s get inside, Tonaldo.’ She walked past him to where June was standing and held out an arm, her eyes scanning the crowd.

‘The woman Tonaldo followed,’ June said quietly, ‘I can’t see her.’

‘No. Whoever she was, she’s good at vanishing when she needs to.’ Louder she added, ‘Perhaps we should head back to port, Andrew. I’d imagine the police will be waiting for us.’

~~~

The bullet was resting beside Your Name’s customised rifle. Twilight picked it up, turning it in her fingers. The inscription carved into the bullet was very carefully and neatly done, but it would make the round unstable in flight, useless as a weapon. She placed it back down where she had found it just as Cygnus came in to land on the jetty.

‘You okay?’ Penny asked.

‘I’m fine,’ Twilight replied flatly. ‘Caught him by surprise. He didn’t get a bullet near me. Tonaldo?’

‘Unhurt. Ungrateful.’

Twilight swallowed and walked past Penny to stand on the edge of the pier. ‘You expected a bouquet of roses? The man’s slime, a total bastard. We saved a man who’s killed… too many people.’

‘To stop a war which could have cost a lot more lives.’

‘Don’t kid yourself. They’ll get their war. We may have delayed it, we might have reduced the body count, but we haven’t stopped them from trying to kill each other.’

Penny stepped up beside her. ‘Then we work together and take both sides down.’

Twilight snapped a look at her. ‘Us? Working together?’

‘We did it well enough tonight, didn’t we? I’m not talking about patrolling together, just… We share information, go after big targets together. I’m the muscle, you’re the stealth. We’ve both got talents the other lacks, right?’

‘I work…’

‘Alone? Except you didn’t tonight so you can obviously do it, and we got the job done. We captured an assassin who no one else has been able to even identify. I’m a total rookie and… look, no offence, but you’re younger than me, you can’t have been doing this that long. Together we’re damn good.’

Twilight was silent. Andrea knew her more flamboyant colleague was right, but Twilight worked alone. She had been doing it for almost a year… That was another thing Cygnus was right about; Twilight did not have much more experience than Cygnus, though Andrea had started training earlier from the looks of it. With all that training, Cygnus still had better contacts. She was more social and that had advantages. Aside from anything else, it would give Twilight the chance to remain in the background.

‘All right. We give it six months and see how we’re doing. Two things, though. I’m your partner, not your friend. Don’t start wanting to hang out on the weekends and host sleepovers.’

‘I’ve never done a sleepover in my life. What’s the other thing?’

‘You take all the glory. I work better if no one knows what I can do, or what I look like.’

‘But…?’

‘People aren’t so keen on sneaks with weapons anyway. If we win, I’ll do a press conference, okay?’

‘Okay… I guess I can live with that.’ Penny turned at the sound of a helicopter. ‘Cops are coming. Going to help me…’ Something made her look back as she said it. She frowned. Twilight was gone, just like that. No sound, no movement. She was just not there anymore.

Sighing, Penny turned back toward the oncoming aircraft. ‘I guess not.’

28th September.

The voice was in the room this time, but its owner was still not visible. It did mean he was louder. ‘A total failure! Not only is Tonaldo alive, not only is Your Name Here in custody, but this… whore gets her name all over the news again.’

‘We will need to take care of the sniper,’ Kopf said, ignoring the raging figure in his midst. ‘He may be able to give some clues regarding his employer.’

‘I’ve already made arrangements. Now you deal with Cygnus. I want her humiliated, thoroughly, before she’s killed.’

‘I have also made arrangements. However, she is proving most difficult to track. I believe that a trap may be more effective. I… will put some time toward planning something suitable.’

‘Good. Ghostfire cannot wait to see her put in her place.’

Part Three: Fire, Light, and Bullets

The Fortress, nr Roswell, NM, 8th October 2013.

The walls were a foot thick, the doors a dense, laminated construct of steel and plastic. There were no windows and the only light came from electroluminescent panels in the ceiling. Anyone who found themselves in a cell in the Fortress was supposed to stay there.

There were electronic locks which were engineered to be unpickable, and surveillance everywhere which covered even normally invisible spectra. The outer wall was six-feet thick, and there was a half-mile of minefield between the outer patrol road and the perimeter laser fence. Every cell was covered by a Neurotronic inhibitor field which stopped Ultras from using their powers.

In short, the Fortress was the only prison in the United States designed specifically to hold Ultrahumans convicted of a crime. In Europe and Australia they dropped them into deep mines, in the Soviet Union they sent them off to gulags in Siberia, but America had gone for the technological solution. It always sounded good on paper.

The problem was the bleeding-edge technology required to run the place. ‘Experimental’ was the name of the game, and that kind of thing went wrong once in a while. The real problems happened, however, when something went wrong and no one noticed.

On the 8th of October, 2013, guards entered one cell to discover that the Neurotronic field had been inactive for several days. The occupant of the cell was called Barry Travis and he had been convicted of multiple murders, but had never been viewed as a significant threat since he could, if required, be taken down by normal weapons. He had the power to create, and resist, enormous amounts of heat, and that was how he had, over the course of several days, made the concrete in the walls brittle enough to smash through, but using his bare hands to do so would likely have hurt. That was why he incinerated five guards and set three other prisoners free to help with his escape.

The report went out through UID channels at midday that Barry Travis, aka Thermite, had escaped the Fortress.

New Millennium City, MD, 11th October 2013.

June had come up with a way for Penny to patrol and then turn up at the Huntress’ Den for some relaxation afterward. The bouncers seemed to appreciate her turning up at the door in her costume with a wrap-around skirt over it and Red had said her outfit was suitable. As she walked through the clubbers the expected looks of general attraction sometimes came with added recognition. She was starting to get a reputation with people in the city.

The bar was crowded, but she found Red and June where she expected them to be, near the end, and apparently they had a visitor. The woman they were talking to was six feet in height, easily, with a distinctly womanly figure. Wide hips and a narrow waist were evident from the back view Penny was getting, as was the cap of blonde hair with a hint of red in the crown. She was dressed in a black leather corset and skirt, and laced and buckled thigh-high boots with six-inch heels.

June spotted Penny walking toward them and her eyes lit up. She waved her friend over hurriedly, and the woman turned to look at the newcomer. The front was more womanly than the back, featuring an incredible pair of breasts barely contained within the corset, which came with mesh inserts to show off more flesh. The woman’s face was strong. She had a firm jaw and sunken cheeks, and blue eyes which almost seemed to glow. And the reason for June’s enthusiasm was suddenly obvious as Penny recognised her.

‘Ah,’ Red said. ‘Cygnus, I don’t think you’ve met Dominika Zuyev, Svetilo. Dom, this is Cygnus, one of the city’s newest heroes.’

‘I have heard of this one,’ Svetilo said. She had a Russian accent, fairly thick. ‘One’ came out as ‘von.’ She stepped forward and offered her hand. ‘The pictures on ACPN do not do you justice. We should get you some publicity stills.’

Penny laughed, but June was nodding quite seriously. ‘That’s not a bad idea. You could do with a good picture for UltraNet, and there’s the public-facing network to think of. You’re going to have fans soon.’

‘Assuming you don’t have them already,’ Svetilo said. ‘The coverage of your exploit with the escape car was… very exciting.’

‘Well… I just…’

‘Flew in after a speeding car, grabbed it while they shot at you, and then lifted it off the ground. That would be impressive for me.’ She lifted her right arm and flexed the muscles; they were impressive. ‘You are such a slight thing, slender, delicate.’ The grin she gave Penny was… predatory.

Red had apparently noticed it too. ‘Down, Dom. Cygnus has a boyfriend. You remember Zephyr?’

‘Ah yes, so you are the one who has been keeping Bobby happy recently.’

‘Uh, I guess,’ Penny replied. ‘You and he…?’

‘He taught me a few wrestling moves, yes.’

‘Dom’s staying over tonight,’ June stated, rather enthusiastically. ‘She wants to discuss my modelling career… uh, and stuff.’

Penny raised an eyebrow as Red handed her a glass of wine. The Huntress was smirking. ‘And stuff,’ Penny said. ‘Right.’ The blonde ex-Russian did have a modelling career of her own. She had a hero career as well, though she mainly operated on a call-out basis. The emergency services knew that if they needed a super-strong Ultra, she was available, and a lot of her reputation came from rescue work. That and appearing on the cover of a number of popular men’s lifestyle magazines.

‘Yes,’ Red said, grinning, ‘stuff. Dom and I are all about the stuff. You’re welcome to stay as well. We won’t be using the spare room.’

~~~

Penny sat in front of a laptop Red had put in the spare room without comment before heading off to where June and Svetilo were still sitting in the lounge. Penny had not been sure why until the noises had started and she had realised that she was not going to be getting to sleep too soon.

She had not had a chance to do much more than glance at UltraNet since the business with Tonaldo. There had been no messages from Twilight, but now that she checked her inbox she saw that she did have messages. The system filtered external mail, mail sent by people who were not members, into a ‘Fan Mail’ folder which seemed a little broad. Penny made a note to see whether she could change the filtering rules and opened the folder.

It was something of a mixed bag. There were several messages which basically seemed to be asking whether she was single. A larger proportion were more basic fan messages, congratulating her on the apprehension of the bank robbers and usually stating that she was their new favourite hero. There were also a couple of messages which went into some length about how the author would like to entertain her. She stopped reading the second of those halfway through because between that and the noises from the lounge she was starting to wonder whether she should have taken Svetilo up on the obvious offer.

She flicked over to the alert channels. Some news would take her mind off the wriggling sensation between her legs. It worked when she got to a report from Oklahoma City about a bank robbery in which three people had been burned alive and seventeen more injured. Police had identified the perpetrator as Thermite.

12th October.

‘What happened?’ June said as she walked into the apartment and slumped onto the sofa beside Penny. ‘We missed you when we got up.’

‘And when was that? You look like you got about three hours’ sleep.’

‘Uh… two.’

‘Hey! Are those burn marks on your chest?!’ There was panic in Penny’s voice as she pushed her glasses up her nose to examine the blotches and trails of red skin, and June failed to notice only because she was blushing.

‘No! It’s… Well, not exactly burns. Red has these candles…’

‘Hot wax? You let her drop hot wax on your chest?’

‘I was tied to the bed at the time. Look, what I choose to do in bed with two dominant women is none of your concern, okay?’

Penny looked down. ‘Sorry… But is that lack of sleep talking or did you not really enjoy it and you’re covering?’

This time it was June who looked down. ‘We… went a little past my comfort zone. But Red saw it and slowed it down.’ The last was added a little too quickly.

‘Good. I mean, me and Bobby play with handcuffs sometimes, but…’

‘Well I don’t think that’ll happen again soon. Dom prefers blondes.’

‘Swell,’ Penny grumbled. ‘That makes me feel so much better.’

June looked at her and frowned. ‘Is it my lack of sleep, or did you not get much rest last night either?’

‘Thermite’s out,’ Penny replied flatly.

‘What?! He was in the Fortress. How…?’

‘Doesn’t really matter how. He killed nine people getting out of New Mexico, three more hitting a bank in Oklahoma City.’

‘Shit,’ June breathed. ‘You’re not thinking of going after him?’

‘Yeah, I thought about it, but I don’t know where he is and the UID is better equipped to try to track him.’ She turned to look into June’s eyes. ‘But if that bastard comes here, I’m going to take his head off.’

~~~

‘Thermite? I’ve heard of him, of course, but I never crossed paths with him.’ Bobby tightened his arm around Penny’s shoulders. She had been a little wilder than usual when she had turned up that afternoon, and now she was more subdued, snuggling against him like a lost child looking for warmth.

‘He’s a monster. Sadistic, likes pushing people around and hurting them. What he most likes is setting fire to things. He sets mundane fires. He was convicted of arson first. They didn’t even realise he was an Ultra until he broke out of the local prison. Killed twenty-five people that time. He can generate huge amounts of heat over a large area when he wants. He basically incinerated them.’

‘This does not explain your… rather personal interest in him.’

Penny was silent for a few seconds. Bobby knew enough not to push it. If she wanted to tell him, and he was sure she did, she would do so in her own time.

‘September sixteenth, twenty-oh-nine. I got a phone call from the Monmouth County Sheriff’s office. Thermite had tried to rob a bank the day before, in Red Bank. I was born there. Lived there until I was eighteen, and then I got a job here. I hadn’t seen my parents in two months and this guy was calling me to tell me that I was never going to see them again.’

Her voice broke up on the last word. Bobby pulled her tighter against him and she clung to him for a few seconds before relaxing. ‘I haven’t exactly got over it, y’know? But the pain’s duller now, when it comes. A hero caught him about two weeks after… Anyway, they put him in the Fortress, but he got out and he’s starting up where he left off.’

‘He may not come to this city,’ Bobby said. ‘Has he ever been here before?’

‘Not that I know of. He was caught in Newark. It’s just… If he comes here I’m going to find him. I have to.’

Bobby nodded. ‘Tomorrow we will practise your evasion techniques. Tonight we will take a light meal, because I think you are not especially hungry, and then we will test the limits of your tolerance for pleasure.’ She opened her mouth to say something and he placed a finger over her lips. ‘Tonight we will take your mind off this subject and you will sleep, safe, in my arms. Tomorrow we will worry about this incendiário bastardo.’

Penny looked up at him. ‘Okay,’ she mumbled around his finger.

15th October.

There had been no more news of Thermite on UltraNet or in the press, but there was another doodle in the corner of one of Mister Thorpe’s notes.

It took Penny a while to make any sense of it. Thorpe was not exactly an accomplished artist and his drawing style was cartoonish. He likely drew the little pictures in bits and pieces while making other notes; they had something of a stop-start feel about them.

She thought he had been drawing a ghost. The bed sheet sort rather than something like Casper. She finally decided that it was raising ghostly arms toward the viewer in what was meant to be a scary fashion, but just confused the image. But then, for some reason, he had added flames, or a flame-like, leafy motif, over the thing’s head. A burning ghost? It sounded kind of teenage, punk, rock ’n’ roll; flaming zombies with machine guns sprang to mind. Burning ghost, fire spirit, salamander…

Her head darted around at the first whisper and she quickly put the page down and pushed away from her desk. She was not having a repeat of the last note-scattering incident. But it was almost as if the voices knew she was ready for them and decided not to pester her if they could not scare her half to death. There were another few half-heard sounds and then nothing.

Frowning, Penny went back to work transcribing Thorpe’s notes. Another meeting in North Beach, another weird drawing. You had to wonder what was up with that.

~~~

‘You wanted to meet?’ Twilight asked as she stepped out from behind an air-conditioning duct. ‘You have something on Tonaldo?’

Penny shook her head, frowning a little. Twilight was sneaky, but Penny could see in the dark and the black-clad girl had still managed to sneak up on her. ‘I wanted to ask a favour. Sort of a favour.’

Twilight raised an eyebrow. ‘Go on.’

‘I don’t suppose you saw something on UltraNet about that bank robbery in Oklahoma City?’

‘Three dead. A recent escapee from the Fortress named Thermite was responsible.’

‘Yeah. I think he’s coming here and I want him.’

Brown eyes regarded her for a second. ‘You have reason to think he’s coming to New Millennium? I mean, he’s heading the right way, but he could go anywhere from Oklahoma. He’s into fire, maybe he’d like Florida.’

‘It’s a hunch. I’m not asking that you help me nail him, just keep your eyes and ears open. If you find anything, let me know.’

‘You really want this guy,’ Twilight said, more a statement than a question.

‘He…’ Penny stopped. Did she trust this girl with personal information? She knew next to nothing about her. Then again, trust had to start somewhere. ‘He killed my parents. I didn’t have powers when that happened. Now I do.’

‘All right.’ The reply came quickly, without a second’s thought. ‘If I hear anything, I’ll contact you, and I’ll help take him down if I can.’

‘You don’t need…’

‘I’ll help. You’re my partner and this is personal. Besides, the freak’s dangerous as Hell and if he comes here he could burn the city down. If you find him first, drop me a message.’ She gave Penny an appraising look and then said, ‘There’s a drug shipment coming in tomorrow night. Fancy taking out some frustration on some of Tonaldo’s people?’

Penny grinned. ‘Sounds like just the party I’d love to crash. Where and when?’

16th October.

The docks were pretty quiet. Nothing had come in or out for over an hour and the area around Pier Six was more or less deserted. Penny had seen a homeless person wandering past the perimeter fence. Pier Six was large, handling containers, and the staff had left hours ago.

‘Are you sure about this?’ she whispered to the woman lying beside her on the, rather cold, rooftop of the container building at the end of the pier.

‘My information’s good,’ Twilight replied. ‘They’ll be here.’

Almost on cue, there was the sound of engines and a large, black SUV pulled through the gates followed by a van. Both came to a stop near the water and a squad of six swarmed out of the car, all of them armed with sub-machine guns.

‘Okay, so that looks hopeful,’ Penny admitted. ‘Still no boat.’

Twilight lifted her binoculars from scanning the men on the ground and looked out into the bay. ‘There,’ she said. ‘It’s got a black hull. Some sort of powerboat.’

Penny looked out, her night vision easily picking up the slight wake from the slowly moving vessel and then the craft itself. ‘Got it. Do we have a plan?’

‘Normally I wait for them to load the van, knock the men out, and call the cops. But I’ve got you here so maybe we should just pick the van up and take it to the local station.’

‘I’m not that strong,’ Penny replied, and then noticed Twilight was grinning. ‘Okay, so same as usual, but you don’t have to do it alone?’

‘Pretty much. You go in and draw their fire, like before. I’ll hit them from behind. Pull them away from the van, and I’ll make sure it’s not going anywhere.’

‘And the boat?’

‘Not our main concern once the drugs are on land.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ll need a minute to circle around. Say when.’

It took the men twenty minutes to lug the contents of the speedboat to the van and they looked nervous the whole time, as though they were expecting to be jumped by someone. Penny took off and looped back along the long building they were on as what looked like the last load was being carried up.

She swung around toward the rear of the van and came in at top speed, spreading her arms wide as she streaked in, low to the ground, and clotheslined two men carrying boxes before pulling upward into the sky. The gunmen were not even vaguely prepared for that and by the time they began firing she was a hundred yards away and their shots were wildly off target.

‘You guys really need a new line of work,’ she yelled as she looped up, let herself stall, and fell back into a power dive. The motion gave her a chance to look at the van. No one was paying attention to it or the dark figure at the rear punching out its tyres with her sword.

There was a roar of powerful engines from the water. Someone had got the bright idea that leaving the scene would be good for their health. Penny ignored it; Twilight was right, the drugs were the important thing. She swooped down, ignoring the sting of a bullet against her right shoulder, and slammed into one of the gunmen, carrying him half a dozen yards across the yard before dropping him against a container.

She pulled a tight turn in mid-air, just like on the obstacle course in Bobby’s house, and started back. She saw Twilight then, twin batons in hand, striking down one of the gunmen. One of the others heard his fellow’s gun hit the ground and started to turn, but the girl was like a predator on speed; one baton pushed the sub-gun aside while the second slammed into her victim’s solar plexus.

Penny swept through grabbing a man in each arm and flying them out and up over the water before dropping them. She knew that left one and hoped Twilight could take him without her help, because at the speed she was going it would take her a couple of valuable seconds to get back. She turned…

There was a cloud of smoke where she had last seen Twilight. The man was unloading his sub-machine gun into it in what Penny would classify as panicked fire. It was also useless since Twilight was standing behind him, her pose relaxed as she waited for him to empty his weapon. As the smoke cleared and he realised he was shooting at nothing, she stepped forward and smacked him across the back of the head with one of her batons. His gun clattered to the floor, followed by his body. Twilight turned him over as Penny flew down, and began going through his pockets.

‘What? We robbing them now?’ Penny asked.

‘I want a cell phone to call the cops,’ Twilight replied.

Penny’s eyebrows went up. ‘All those pouches on your belt and no cell phone?’

‘Yeah, but…’ She found what she was looking for and dialled 911. ‘Poetic justice. Yes, this is Twilight, registration MD-triple-zero-five-two. I’ve got a drug shipment and some thugs on the waterfront at Pier Six. The container yard… That’s right. Thanks.’ She dropped the phone onto the thug’s chest. ‘Happier with your share of the goons?’

‘Three each. I should check on the ones I dumped in the harbour, but how did you get behind that guy? I mean, the smoke I get, but you had to move like lightning to get behind him that fast.’

Twilight glanced at her. ‘Trade secret. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.’

‘Right.’ Turning, Penny flew off to pull the two men out of the water. Twilight had given no indication she had any actual powers, just skills. The smoke bomb made sense, but there was something more about her than a well-trained, sneaky gadget-user. The trust, it seemed, was not running quite that deep yet.

17th October.

Penny’s smartphone buzzed at her twenty minutes before home time. A message had come in for Cygnus. There was no content, but she knew it meant that UltraNet had flagged something for her attention. She had found the alert feature and used it to tag reports matching several different criteria. Knowing she had to wait until she got home to check was, however, annoying.

June picked up on it on the O. ‘What’s got you so impatient to be home?’ she asked. ‘You’re looking far more wired than usual.’

‘I got an alert through about something,’ Penny replied. ‘I won’t know what until we get there.’

‘You think it’s him?’

‘Maybe.’

It seemed to take far longer than usual to get home. Then Penny’s computer seemed to be taking its own sweet time booting up. By the time it had and she had loaded the UltraNet software, there were two items for her attention. She hit the news button first.

The report which her search had flagged was a hotel fire in Morgantown, West Virginia. Two people dead, one fireman injured trying to put the flames out. There was also one resident missing and his description matched that of Thermite.

‘Morgantown,’ June said, watching over her shoulder. ‘That’s definitely closer.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Penny replied. She clicked through to the private message box. There was something there from Twilight.

I assume you’ve seen the report from Morgantown. Looks like you were right about him heading for the big city lights. I’ll keep a lookout. T.

‘And it looks like your mysterious friend is going to help,’ June added.

‘She’s an odd one, but… It was kind of like she understood where I was coming from.’

‘Losing someone isn’t an uncommon reason for becoming a hero.’

‘That’s not really why I did.’

‘No, not exactly, but it has to be part of it.’

Penny closed down the program. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘It’s part of it.’

18th October.

Andrea unclasped the scarf she was using as a skirt and let it drop to the floor. Her corset still did a reasonable job of covering her, but Lena’s eyes roved appreciatively up her long legs, past the narrowed waist to the up-thrust breasts.

‘That’s quite the outfit,’ Lena said, her voice throaty.

In truth, a lot of the money Andrea earned from these visits went on buying clothes to visit Lena in. The corset had cost a fair amount, but it did fit well and the effect it was having seemed to be worth it.

‘You said you wanted something… assertive,’ Andrea said. Bending down she pulled a riding crop from her bag and slapped it against her thigh. ‘So I’m being assertive. On your knees, bitch.’

‘Oh God,’ Lena groaned.

Andrea kept her face straight, took two rapid steps forward, grabbed Lena’s hair and pulled her off her seat and onto her knees. ‘I said, on your knees. If I have to tell you twice again, you won’t be sitting down for a week.’

Lena let out another groan. ‘Yes, Mistress.’

‘Much better,’ Andrea said. She twisted her fingers in the mass of blonde hair at the back of Lena’s neck and pulled, stretching Lena’s neck so that she was looking up. ‘Keep that up and I’ll make you feel very good.’

~~~

Cygnus was on patrol over the city, sweeping over Friendship Park, her eyes scanning the shadows, which were not shadows to her, for any signs of people in trouble. A few people spotted the white shape above them and waved, receiving a wave back when she saw them.

Cygnus was looking for people in trouble, and Penny was on the lookout for the man who killed her parents.

Morgantown was five or six hours away by car. It was quite possible that Thermite had made it as far as New Millennium by now. Quite possible, but she had no idea how he was travelling or the route he had taken. He could be anywhere. He could have gone anywhere and stopped off on the way.

Still, the alternative was not looking. She could wait for him to kill someone else and then try to track him. Cygnus would not stand for that and Penny was not going to either.

~~~

‘Poppa’s really pissed off,’ Lena said, her voice quiet. ‘It’s crazy around here at the moment. I was surprised they let you up here. Pleasantly surprised.’

‘What’s got him so angry?’ Andrea asked. Her thumb grazed over Lena’s right nipple as she said it. The blonde’s arms were still cuffed behind her back, not that she would have resisted anyway.

‘L-like I said, it’s crazy. That hero who saved his butt a couple of weeks ago, Cygnus? She busted up some shipment Poppa had coming in. Her and another girl, uh, Twilight. Second deal they’ve screwed in a few weeks. Poppa wants them dead. And that’s after they saved him from a bullet in the head.’

‘It’s just business,’ Andrea replied, continuing her stroking.

‘I wish he was in another line of business.’

‘If he was, we’d probably never have met.’

‘I h-hadn’t th-thought of that. Are you going to l-let me out of these c-cuffs?’

Reaching behind her, Andrea picked up a strap-on harness. ‘Do you really want me to?’

The only reply was a whimper, but it was a good answer.

19th October.

‘No sign of your incendiary friend,’ Twilight said, ‘but we have another problem.’

Penny crossed her arms under her ample chest. ‘Right now, my only concern is Thermite.’

‘It won’t be if David Tonaldo puts a bullet in your eye.’

‘We saved him.’

‘And then we bust up his drug shipment. He’s gunning for both of us.’

Getting dead before she got to nail Thermite was not going to help. Penny scowled. ‘Serious threat?’

‘They don’t trust Ultras. Won’t use them. But we know he was trying to get heavy weapons and he may have got some from another source.’ Twilight gave a shrug. ‘I guess it’s more of a problem for me, as far as a physical threat goes, but you’re a lot more visible.’

‘I guess I’d better watch my back. Aside from anything else, I don’t want civilians hurt while they’re trying to get to me.’ She fixed her gaze on Twilight. ‘You be careful too. I don’t want to have to take Tonaldo down to avenge your death. I’d rather you were there to see it.’

There was a look of surprise in Twilight’s brown eyes. ‘You’d actually do that? Hunt him down to avenge me?’

Penny nodded. ‘Aside from the fact that getting rid of that lot would be a good thing… Well, we have an odd sort of partnership, but you’re my partner. You’re helping me with Thermite. That means a lot to me. I’d finish what you started if you couldn’t.’

There was silence as the black-clad girl looked at the white-clad one. Twilight was used to being alone, doing things alone, not trusting anyone. Yet she was working with Cygnus, bright, highly visible, everything Twilight was not, and so much a complement, and someone who had trusted her to help find the man who had killed her parents.

‘You know my classification, right?’ Twilight said.

‘You’re an N-one, aren’t you?’

‘That’s what it says on UltraNet.’ Twilight paused and then blurted out, ‘I lied. Kept something back when I registered.’

Penny looked at her, eyebrows raised, and said nothing. She could see this was not easy.

‘You asked how I got behind that guy. Well…’

Penny blinked. There had been no light, no sound. There was a weird sense of movement, of shrinking away into the shadows, but Twilight was no longer standing in front of her. Slowly, she turned around.

‘I can teleport,’ Twilight said, almost timidly. ‘It’s got its limitations. I need to have a deep shadow, or darkness, but I can hop from place to place just like that.’

‘Wow,’ Penny breathed, a smile slowly forming.

‘You’re the only person who knows. The only one aside from me.’

‘Our secret,’ Penny said. ‘That’s… I mean I think flying is fantastic, but teleportation… Wow.’

‘It’s not that amazing. I’m pretty much limited to what I can carry easily. I can only go where I can see, or where I’ve been before, and there has to be shadow. I can do it fast, even use it in combat, but that can be dangerous so I only do that in an emergency and I’m not fast enough to dodge attacks or anything.’

‘You are belittling a fucking awesome power,’ Penny stated. ‘You can teleport!’

Twilight grinned. ‘I guess it is kind of amazing,’ she allowed.

‘Too right. And thank you for trusting me.’

Twilight gave a shrug. ‘Like you said, we’re partners.’

20th October.

The man with the straggly black hair looked distinctly out of place in the front room of the expensive North Beach villa. He was dressed in a camouflage jacket over prison overalls, and looked like he had spent more than one night sleeping in the open and had not seen a bath in a week. And he seemed to be talking to himself.

‘I generally like to see who I’m doing business with,’ Thermite said.

‘Get comfortable with disappointment,’ a voice said from somewhere in front of him. ‘My name is Ghostfire. That is all you need to know about me.’

‘Ghostfire. I like it. You broke me out. What do you want?’

There was a throaty laugh and a file lifted from a table and was tossed into Thermite’s lap. He opened it, taking out a picture.

‘I want you to do what you do best, burn things. Buildings, people, especially the one in that picture. She’s a hero, a new one. Draw her out and fry her. You’ll find information on her known powers in there.’

‘That’s it? Kill one scrawny little girl and my debt’s paid?’

‘That’s all. But she’s tough, don’t take her for granted.’

Thermite raised a free hand, cupping it, and a ball of shifting, writhing flame appeared between his fingers. ‘No one survives what I’ll do to her,’ he said, his eyes on the flames, reflecting their glow as he smiled.

23rd October.

Penny turned north from the park, as she usually did when there was not much happening. She had noticed something of a decline in the muggings and purse snatches since she had started running that patrol. Her northerly wanderings were becoming more frequent and wider ranging. She found herself flying over Uptown more often, despite the fact that the Tonaldos were gunning for her.

So far there had been no signs of assassins or Thermite. As far as the mob killers were concerned, she was happy, if a little annoyed that they were taking their sweet time to try something. Thermite was a different matter. She was starting to wonder whether she had been wrong. Maybe he was not coming to New Millennium. Maybe he had gone elsewhere, where the hero contingent was weaker. Maybe…

The sound of sirens reached her ears as she flew over Avenue N and 5th Street in Churchton. She looked right and saw it: three or four blocks away flames were rising into the air and smoke was billowing into the night sky. Banking hard, she poured on the power.

There were already three fire trucks outside the apartment building on 9th Street. Firemen were rolling out hoses. One team was already playing a jet over the front of the building, but the fire had a good hold. Penny dropped down beside someone who looked like he was in charge just as a car with blue flashing lights came to a screeching halt nearby.

The man who stepped out of it was dressed in a stylised version of an old, heavy-duty fireman’s coat and a helmet, all in bright yellow. If that had not been enough to tell Penny who he was, he gave her a quick glance with eyes which seemed to burn with inner flames before looking toward the building. He was well known to most of the residents of New Millennium; an ex-fireman who had exhibited powers after being trapped in a burning building. They called him Fire Bug, but unlike Thermite, he specialised in putting fires out.

He strode forward with a grim look on his face before Penny had said anything to anyone.

‘Lieutenant, what’s the situation?’

The man Penny had figured was in charge seemed to be. He turned and responded immediately. ‘Andy, good to have you here. Looks like it started in the basement. Ground floor is gone. We’re pretty sure we have people trapped on the upper levels.’

Fire Bug scanned the structure and Penny followed suit. The bottom floor might have been in flames, but it looked like the rest of the building was trying to catch up really fast. If there were people in the apartments then they were in real danger.

‘It’s Cygnus, right?’

Penny looked down; Fire Bug was talking to her. ‘That’s right. I don’t know if I can help, but…’

‘I saw that trick you did with the car,’ he replied. ‘You’re strong and you can fly. I can push the flames back, but we’ve probably lost the stairs up.’

Penny gave a nod. ‘So I fly us in and you clear us a path.’

‘May be some doors to break down too. Don’t go anywhere until I say so, understood?’

‘You’re the boss. I’m still pretty new to this.’

There was a thump from behind them and they both turned to see a tall, buxom woman in a short, black dress and heels grinning at them. ‘Good evening,’ Svetilo said. ‘Long time no see, Fire Bug. Now you have two big, strong women to watch your back.’

‘Must be my lucky day,’ Fire Bug replied. ‘Okay, Cygnus carries me up. We’re going in through that window on the right side. Svetilo, take it out and then pull back until we’re sure it’s clear.’

The blonde Russian lifted back into the air, still grinning. ‘Your wish is my command.’ She raised her hand as soon as she was level with the floor and a bolt of white light shot from her palm, and the window exploded apart as though hit by a hammer. Flames immediately began to lick around the frame.

‘Damn,’ Fire Bug muttered, ‘it’s higher than they thought. Okay, Dom, take out the other windows on that floor and then tell them to get the hoses in there. Cygnus, take us in nice and easy. Give me a little time to deaden the flames. Then stick close to me. We’ll go room by room.’

Penny gave a nod and moved them toward the window. The flames slid back as they approached, as though something was telling them to die away, which was what was happening. Control of fire had to be a useful talent for a fireman. She let Fire Bug down onto the window ledge and then followed him in. There was smouldering furniture in the room, and the carpet had definitely seen better days, but there were no people.

‘Floor’s sound,’ Fire Bug commented. ‘I don’t see how the fire got up here…’

Penny pointed down the short corridor which led from the lounge they were in to the door. Except that the door was gone, and the frame and the carpet in the hallway were furiously alight.

‘I’m thinking someone blew the door in and used some sort of accelerant on the hall carpet,’ she said.

His burning eyes regarded her, narrowing. ‘Do you know something I don’t?’

‘Know? No, I don’t. But Thermite escaped from the Fortress recently…’

‘I saw that on UltraNet. I tend to take note of active arsonists.’

‘I think he’s in the city, and this is just his style.’

‘Shit! He’s just what we need.’ His gaze flicked to the window as Svetilo swept in, landing lightly on the carpet beside Penny. ‘All right, let’s get moving.’ He reached into his coat and pulled out a pair of smoke masks. ‘You may want these. I can kill the fire, but the smoke is another matter.’

Penny took one of the masks and started to put it on. ‘What about you?’

‘My lungs filter it out, another adaptation.’ Turning, he started down the corridor to the hall, the flames dying away as he went.

~~~

The van had signs on the side stating that it belonged to ‘Bugstomp Exterminators Inc.’ which Twilight really doubted given that it was almost ten-thirty and it was still parked up outside a jewellery shop in Fairhaven. She had been watching the van from the rooftop opposite for fifteen minutes and had seen it shift a couple of times; there were people inside. What she had not figured out yet was what they were up to.

Apparently someone else had noticed the truck, however. A squad car rolled down the street, sliding to a stop ten yards behind the rear door. Twilight frowned as the two officers climbed out, one of them pulling a shotgun out after him. Either the van was something entirely innocent, or this was likely to turn ugly. Crouching down, she concentrated for a second, vanishing from her perch, and reappearing on the road just in front of the van.

One of the two policemen banged on the rear door of the van with his baton. ‘NMCPD, anyone in there?’ he called out. There was silence for a reply. He tried again. ‘Little late to be killing pests, isn’t it?’

Twilight slipped silently down the pavement side of the van. She could hear something moving in there, and she guessed that the cops could too. They did not like being ignored.

‘We know there’s someone in there. Open up or we bust in.’

The doors flew open and three men burst out, each armed with an assault rifle. The policeman with the shotgun had more presence of mind than his colleague; he fired immediately and one of the mobsters was slammed back against the rear of the van. Two rifles opened up on automatic and there was a scream…

And Twilight was in motion. When it was just her, or even her and Cygnus, she was prepared to risk going into action with her batons. This was different; there were normals in danger, even if they were cops. Her sword lashed out, carving into a gunman’s bicep, all the way to the bone. His rifle dropped as she wheeled past him and smashed the hilt of her sword into his jaw.

One of the cops was down. She could not see blood. If he was wearing a jacket and they had gone for centre mass then maybe he would live, but he was going to be bruised to fuck. The one with the shotgun had made it to the cover of their vehicle, but the second gunman was aiming…

Twilight snapped a kick at the man’s thigh and he screamed. There was a reason they were called stiletto heels. Her sword flashed out, slashing his jacket and scraping over a mesh layer beneath it. The goons were wearing bulletproof jackets as well, which meant the third gunman she had assumed was down might not be. Her eyes flicked toward the back of the van to check as she kicked at her second target’s face. She took in the rifleman, still down, and a fourth man moving forward. She saw the broad, maniacal grin, the hugely muscled body, and the M60 machine gun he was swinging around to aim at her.

‘Get down!’ she screamed, hoping the cop would listen. Then she dropped and rolled under the van as heavy calibre bullets began to flow out of the rear of the vehicle like water. The police cruiser’s siren gave a valiant burp before dying plaintively and the big man dropped out of the back of the truck, turning to look under it. There was no sign of Twilight there, so he turned again and laid down more lead in the direction of the cowering cop.

Taking two steps forward, the big machine gun still firing, he hosed over the car a couple of times, and then he seemed to notice the first officer, still lying on the sidewalk where he had fallen. ‘You die, pig,’ he growled as he lined up the muzzle of the gun.

Twilight leapt from the roof of the van, diving through the air with her sword in her hand. At the last instant, she swept the blade in an arc, landed on the paving stones beside the fallen cop, and turned, aiming the point of her blade at the gunman’s face. His grin stayed in place, even as his body began to topple and his head peeled off at the neck.

~~~

They found three children trapped in a bedroom on the fourth floor. They were the first people they had located, and they were too scared to be relieved at the sight of the three heroes who smashed through the door.

‘It’s okay,’ Penny said, crouching by the bed all three were cowering on. ‘We’ll get you out. Where’s your Mom?’

‘Working,’ the eldest, a girl, replied. ‘She’s working. I’m supposed to be in charge, but I didn’t know what to do and…’

‘Well, we’re here now.’

‘You two get them out,’ Fire Bug said. ‘Svetilo, blow the window. I’ll make sure you’ve got space to come back in. There might be more.’

‘Benny and his grandma are next door,’ the girl said, pointing at a wall. ‘His grandma’s in a wheelchair…’

‘Okay, get them out and come back in through there, I’ll go around the inside.’

There was the sound of shattering glass, and then Svetilo scooped the middle child, a boy, up from the bed. ‘Come little ones. We’re going flying. Won’t that be fun?’ She glanced at Penny. ‘You can manage the girls?’

‘Easily,’ Penny replied, holding out her arms. She suddenly had a three-year-old clinging to her neck and she giggled. The elder girl was a little more sedate about it, but soon they were flying out through the broken window, over the building, and down to the medics waiting below.

It took a little help from Svetilo to get the youngest child from around Penny’s neck, and then they were climbing back into the sky.

‘Do I call you Dom or Svetilo?’ Penny asked as they crossed the roof.

‘You noticed Andy uses both?’ the Russian replied. ‘It’s courteous to use the codename in front of civilians, unless you know the Ultra does not mind. Andy does not. He is not that fond of his codename.’ She dropped into the alley behind the building and aimed a blast of light at the window they were going in through. Then she gave Penny a grin. ‘You can call me Dom any time you like.’

Penny recalled what June had said about the Russian woman preferring blondes. Was Svetilo actually hitting on her in the middle of a fire? Shaking her head, she swept down into the lounge of yet another low-rent apartment, pushing the thought aside, especially since she was a little alarmed to discover that she did not really mind…

Fire Bug was kneeling beside a frail-looking woman in a wheelchair. There was a boy of about fourteen standing beside them trying his hardest not to look scared, and managing it a lot better as two attractive women flew in to land beside them.

The fireman looked up at them. ‘Margaret here has been very helpful,’ he said. ‘She says there’s an old couple in the top corner apartment, at the back. They may be stuck. I did a quick sweep of this floor from the hall and I couldn’t see anyone else…’

‘You can see through walls?’ Penny asked.

‘I can see through walls,’ he replied. ‘As long as they aren’t too thick, and the ones here are cardboard. You two get Margaret and Sam out, then head up to the roof. You can go in through the roof access, and I’ll make sure it’s clear after I’ve checked the floor.’ His lips quirked. ‘Okay, Sam, which of the pretty ladies would you like to carry you out?’

Sam stared wide-eyed at the two women, and then pointed to Svetilo. She grinned broadly at him, lifted him into her arms, and started for the window.

‘He’s taking after his grandfather, that one,’ Margaret said as Penny and Fire Bug helped her out of her chair. ‘Always was fond of a big bust.’ Now that she mentioned it, Margaret was probably pushing eighty, but she had once had a very respectable bosom herself.

‘Svetilo certainly has that in spades,’ Penny said, grinning. ‘Now, don’t worry. I may look slim, but I’m very strong.’

‘Oh, my dear, I’m a bag of bones these days. Besides, I saw you lifting a car on the news. I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

~~~

There were two more cruisers at the scene, an ME’s wagon, and a black sedan which Penny knew had Kevlar plates in the bodywork because the UID tended to go places where bulletproofing was advisable. She sat with her behind on the bonnet of the latter vehicle while one of the agents, a woman she did not know, talked to the cops and the second, who she did know, interviewed her.

‘It’s probably open and shut,’ Agent Dannon said as he watched her cleaning blood off her sword. ‘The machine gun is likely enough to write this off as justifiable, but…’

‘There are formalities to go through,’ Twilight finished for him. ‘I know. One of the reasons I don’t use lethal force much is the paperwork.’

He flashed her a smile. He was an odd one. She knew he had a personal dislike of Ultras, though she had never found out why. It was a strange trait in someone who spent a lot of his time dealing with Ultrahumans, but then again he normally dealt with the bad ones so maybe a little hatred was warranted.

On the other hand, he seemed to like Twilight. It was not entirely unreciprocated, if she were honest. Andrea certainly liked him. He was big, strong, and he had a nice smile. Andrea had allowed herself a little fantasy of lying in his arms. They looked like the kind of arms that you could feel safe and warm lying in. Twilight could not afford the luxury.

Either way, she had concluded that his intolerance did not extend to normals who fought crime, just to people with powers. That was not an entirely attractive trait, but she could understand it. He thought she was a normal human with a sword, a gun, and a bag of tricks, so she was okay in his eyes. If he knew the truth…

‘You know,’ he said, ‘the heavy weaponry seems a little excessive for a jewellery heist.’

‘That thought had occurred to me, yes.’

‘There’s a rumour that David Tonaldo has put fifteen thousand on your head.’

‘I didn’t know the bounty had gone that high.’

He did not fail to notice the implied point: she knew the Tonaldo family were gunning for her. ‘You’re hanging around with that Cygnus woman now, right? It’s twenty for her.’

Twilight raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m insulted. I’ve been treading on his toes for way longer than she has.’

‘Yeah, well you killed one of his senior lieutenants tonight. Maybe he’ll up your price.’ He frowned. ‘What are you doing with that… woman anyway?’

‘Cygnus? We bonded over a weapon shipment Tonaldo was moving in. We actually make a good team, even if I’d never have thought it.’ Her eyes narrowed a little. She had an unaccountable urge to defend her partner. ‘Look, I know you don’t like Ultras. Don’t know why, and I don’t need to know why, but she’s one of the good ones. She’s new, a bit naive, still learning the ropes. She’s flashy, I’ll give you that, but she’s no publicity hound. She could be making a fortune letting people take pictures of her, or starring in movies, but she’s out there saving people from muggers. Don’t be so hard on her.’

There was a slight flare of anger in his eyes, and then he calmed just as quickly. ‘Maybe. She’s over in Churchton right now with Fire Bug and Svetilo pulling people out of a burning building. That’s where we’re going next. Not really our business, but we’ve been asked to make a showing.’

‘Burning building?’ Twilight said, pushing to her feet. ‘I don’t suppose you could give me a lift?’

~~~

Svetilo yanked the rooftop door off its frame and both of the women could feel the heat pouring through immediately.

‘Chyort!’ Svetilo exclaimed. Penny was not sure what it meant, but it seemed appropriate.

Well it was hot, but Fire Bug was standing there in the stairwell and there were no actual flames to be seen.

‘These are supposed to be fire stairs,’ he said. ‘Someone made sure they’re more like a chimney. We need to get these people out, now.’

Penny stepped forward and, for a second it seemed like the heat would be too much. Then, suddenly, it was not so bad, as though her body had adjusted to the temperature. They went down a floor and out onto the, significantly cooler, landing, and Fire Bug pointed to a door which Svetilo ploughed through as though it was paper.

‘The heat in there is going to light up the whole building soon,’ the fireman commented as they moved in, watched by an old couple who looked more shocked at their arrival than at the impending doom. ‘We need these two out, then… Svetilo, I need you to pull one of the long hoses up so we can pump water in at the top and cool it off.’

‘Cool would be good,’ the Russian grumbled.

‘And me?’ Penny asked.

‘We’re going in the bottom. We need to find the seat of the fire.’ He turned his attention to the two residents. ‘Margaret from the floor below said we’d probably find you here. These ladies are going to get you out. Then we’ll see if we can stop the fire.’

‘You’ll be lucky, son,’ the old man said. ‘Twenty years on the ladders and I never seen anything as fast as this.’ He coughed out a laugh. ‘Always thought a fire’d get me…’

Penny lifted him into her arms as Svetilo blew the window out. ‘Not today, sir,’ Penny said. ‘Not while we’re here.’ Lifting off, she headed for the open sky.

~~~

Twilight, Dannon, and his colleague, who had introduced herself as Special Agent Heather Bryant, stepped out of the sedan to see Svetilo airlifting two firemen and a hose up the side of the building.

They spotted Cygnus easily; that costume really did stand out though it looked rather more smudged than usual. Good thing it also looked like it would wash easily. Fire Bug was with her, along with a couple of firemen. She was standing there meekly as the men discussed something and she gave them a quick smile as they approached, stepping away from the group to meet them.

‘Special Agent Dannon,’ she said, nodding to the man. ‘Twilight, what are you doing here? And with UID agents?’

‘The Tonaldos set a trap for me, or us,’ Twilight replied. ‘A couple of cops sprang it. One’s in the hospital.’

‘And Twilight left one of the goons in a body bag,’ Dannon said, ‘which is why we were there. This is Special Agent Bryant, by the way. We were asked to come here after that and your partner felt a need to check on you.’

Penny gave Twilight another smile, this one a little more timid. ‘Thanks, but he’s not here. Pretty sure it was him, but he’s gone.’ She frowned. ‘Which isn’t like him. He usually wants to see the flames.’

‘What’s happening?’ Twilight asked.

Penny looked up at the roof. ‘We got everyone out. Svetilo’s helping to get a hose in through the roof access. The stairwell is an inferno and if there’s any hope of saving the building they need to get that cooled down. Fire Bug wants to go in and find out where it started. He thinks it’ll be easier to put it out if we know where it’s coming from. He wants me to go in with him.’

‘Okay,’ Twilight said, ‘count me in.’

‘But…’

‘This suit’s fire resistant. I’ll need one of those smoke masks.’ She looked around as Fire Bug approached. ‘Where are we going?’

The fireman raised an eyebrow, and then reached into his coat for another mask. ‘We figure it started in the basement. They’re not stopping it spraying the ground floor, so something’s feeding it from below. If we, well, if I can kill that they might stand a fighting chance.’

‘Better get going then,’ Twilight suggested.

They walked into the burning building in a bell of smoky, rank air. The fire retreated in front of them and, at first, it did not spring back behind. As they went deeper, however, the heat in the building began setting light to the walls and carpet behind them once Fire Bug’s influence was removed.

‘When did you catch my crazy?’ Penny asked quietly as they followed behind the fireman.

‘You’re my partner, remember. If this is some sort of trap, I might be able to help. Plus, I know a bit about chemicals and explosives. I may be able to help a little when we get down there.’

‘Well, thanks. The Tonaldos are serious about killing us then?’

‘Fifteen thousand dollar bounty on me, twenty on you.’

‘Really? I’d have put more on you.’

‘That’s what I said, and thanks for agreeing.’

Fire Bug came to a stop in front of a metal door. He put out a hand and then pulled it back quickly. ‘This isn’t going to be good. Okay. You two stand back as far as you can. I’ll kick it open. There may be a backdraft, but I can take it.’

Penny turned her back to the door, moved as far as she could within the ring of free space they had, and then put herself between Twilight and the door. ‘I may not be fireproof,’ she said, ‘but I’m more so than you.’

‘Not arguing,’ Twilight replied, closing her eyes.

There were a couple of loud thuds and then a wash of heat, but, as far as Penny could tell, no flames. The two women looked around to see Fire Bug standing in the space beside the door, smoke rising gently from his coat.

‘We’re going to need to be careful,’ he said as they stepped closer. ‘The fire probably ate a lot of the oxygen down there. If you start finding it hard to breathe, tell me.’

Behind the broken door, stairs led down into the basement. Fire Bug produced a heavy torch to find the way, though Penny could see fine without it; what she saw was blackened brickwork. The fire had been intense down here and with more oxygen it was trying to reassert itself.

The room at the bottom had been worse than gutted. There was a large boiler in one corner, which had presumably supplied hot water to the building until it had been reduced to copper slag. Charred wooden beams held the ceiling up. Above them the floorboards were pitch black and Penny was amazed that they were still even partially intact. The entire room creaked as they walked into it and looked around.

Twilight scuffed her heel on the concrete floor and left a deep gash in it. The aggregate had been reduced to crumbling powder by the heat. Penny’s eyes flicked around the room, taking in their surroundings, the smells, the sounds, and…

‘He used an accelerant. Not just petrol, something heavier. Coated the walls and floor with it. Then he set it ablaze with one of his heat blasts. It burned so fiercely… But someone saw him.’ She turned, moving to a corner of the room. There was a pile of blackened material there, misshapen and almost impossible to identify until you made out the shape of a bone sticking up. ‘The building super, maybe…’

‘Where are you getting this from?’ Twilight asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Penny replied. ‘I can just… It’s like I can see it all happening. He roasted the room. He wanted it to burn hot even though he planned to use the stairwell at the other end to do most of the work. He wanted it to burn so that…’

Her eyes widened and she darted into the middle of the room just as the main support beam sagged and started to give. Reaching up, she caught the crumbling wood in both hands and pushed upward. The ceiling groaned alarmingly, and then settled.

‘A trap,’ Fire Bug said. ‘He wanted someone to come down here and get caught under the falling ceiling.’

‘I’ve got it,’ Penny said. ‘You two get out and I’ll follow.’

‘Not a chance. As soon as you let go that’s coming down on your head, and if I leave this place is going to turn into a fair imitation of Hell. We need to brace that beam, but we can’t get out…’

‘I can,’ Twilight said, starting for the door.

‘You’ll roast!’ the fireman said. ‘That suit won’t stop the fire getting to you.’

She looked back at him. ‘I can get out. Hold on in there, partner. Be back as soon as I can.’ Then she stepped out of the door and turned up the stairs.

‘She’s crazy,’ Fire Bug said to Penny.

‘She can do it,’ Penny replied through gritted teeth. ‘I know something about her you don’t.’

~~~

‘How long’ve they been in there?’ Dannon asked.

‘Five, six minutes,’ Bryant replied.

‘I don’t like it. Why’d she have to go in there?’

‘Twilight?’

‘Yes! Fire Bug I can understand, and Cygnus is strong and bulletproof. Twilight’s got that suit between her and the fire.’

‘And Fire Bug. She’ll be fine.’ Bryant was smirking behind her colleague. ‘If I didn’t know better I’d say you’ve a bit of a thing for her.’

‘Yeah, right. With that mask of hers all you can see are her eyes and jaw.’

‘It’s a good jaw, and her ass looks sweet in that tight…’

‘There!’ Dannon snapped, as much to stop the line of questioning as because something had moved amid the smoke pouring out of the building’s front door. A second later Twilight ran out, heading straight for the agent and the lieutenant standing beside them.

‘We need to get a jack in there,’ she said as soon as she had pulled her smoke mask off. ‘In the basement. Thermite set it up to collapse. Cygnus is holding the bloody ceiling up! You’ll need to supress the fire to get down there, but you’ve got to get down there or they’re both dead.’

The lieutenant scowled at the building. ‘We can probably get in, but the jacks are heavy. It’ll take time…’

‘Nyet.’ Svetilo dropped to the road beside them. ‘It will not. So long as your men can keep me soaked, that is. I can carry the jack and my shield should keep me safe enough if they can stop the heat becoming too much.’

‘You might need to make a dash down the stairs,’ Twilight told her. ‘I don’t know if they can get enough water flow down there.’

‘That’s insane,’ Dannon commented.

‘Volunteering for the SOP super-soldier project was insane,’ Svetilo replied. ‘This… This is just a little crazy. Where is this jack?’

~~~

‘How are you holding up?’ Fire Bug asked, his eyes on the beam over Penny’s head.

‘I think I’m an inch shorter, and my hands are a little burned.’ She gave him a grin. ‘I think I’m going to be feeling this one for the next week.’

‘Huh. It could take them a while to get down here. Are you sure you can hold it?’

‘So far, yes. If I feel it slipping then you make a run for the door, okay?’

‘Not a chance…’

‘I might survive this coming down on me. You haven’t a hope in Hell. If I say so, you run. No arguments.’

‘Mind if I argue until it comes to that?’

‘Don’t make me laugh.’

He grinned at her. ‘I can’t believe someone who looks like you is holding a building up.’

‘It’s not the whole building. I don’t think I could do the whole building.’

‘Luckily, you won’t have to, khoroshen’kaya.’ A cloud of steam rushed into the cellar, resolving after a second into Svetilo, her dress clinging to her body and her hair a matted, frizzy mess, but she was holding a huge metal contraption which looked like it might be some sort of lifting gear.

‘That’s a good look for you,’ Penny said, ‘and I’m not just saying that because you’re about to save my butt.’

‘Your butt is far too sexy to let it get burned and crushed.’ The Russian put the jack down beside Penny and turned to Fire Bug. ‘I am hoping that you know how this thing works because I have no idea.’

‘We need to get it under the beam, in front of Cygnus if possible. Think you can hold that and step back a little?’

‘Maybe if Dom helps me brace it…’ Penny replied.

Grinning, Svetilo pushed the jack into place in front of Penny, and then reached up to help brace the beam. Penny could see the field of energy the Russian used as protection shimmering as the heat from the charred wood hit it. Penny stepped back a little, and Svetilo nudged the jack forward with one leg until Fire Bug nodded and opened the valve on the attached compressed air cylinder. The jack rose slowly, settled between their hands, and then took the strain allowing the women to let go.

‘I’m going to suggest we get the fuck out of here, right now,’ Fire Bug said after locking the jack in place.

‘These are wise words,’ Svetilo stated. ‘I believe we should follow them.’

Penny looked down at her scorched, red palms. ‘No arguments here. This is so going to sting for a while.’

24th October.

Penny sat on the back step of an ambulance while a paramedic fussed over her hands and Twilight and Svetilo scowled at the paramedic. The probability was that the burns would be healed before morning, but Penny did not feel like declining the first aid and whatever the young man was putting on her skin was taking the sting out.

‘I may have to upgrade your magnitude rating.’ Penny glanced around to see that Dannon had walked over and was actually smiling at her, even if it looked like it was costing him. ‘Magnitude three doesn’t seem to cover holding up an apartment building for ten minutes.’

‘It wasn’t the whole building,’ Penny mumbled.

‘It was enough of the building,’ Svetilo said.

Dannon sighed. ‘You did good. Fire Bug said you told him he was to leave if you couldn’t hold it. You saved two people by thinking fast and being prepared to die if you had to, and you got burned doing it.’

‘They saved me right back,’ Penny replied.

‘Christ, girl,’ Twilight snapped, ‘take the compliment. It’s probably hurting his teeth to give it.’

Dannon coughed. ‘Yeah, well, you could’ve died in there and you didn’t, and you saved people. Well done.’

‘Thank you, Special Agent,’ Penny replied, giving him a grin.

As Dannon walked away, Penny’s face straightened. He was right: she could have died under a falling, burning building and no one would tell June what had happened, or Bobby. They would hear about it on the news. Nothing but an impersonal report of another hero dying in the line of duty…

‘I need to get home,’ she said. ‘Twilight… I need to meet you somewhere tomorrow. I’ll send you a message, okay?’

‘Sure,’ Twilight replied, frowning under her mask.

Nodding, Penny got to her feet and pushed upward, climbing rapidly into the night sky.

~~~

The sting in her palms was worse as Penny than it had been as Cygnus, and she was glad when she got in through the apartment door. She would change back to go to bed or she would never get to sleep.

June was grabbing her around the waist and hugging her before she could do anything more than drop the bag she carried her costume in, however.

‘I saw on the news,’ the brunette said, her tone worried. ‘Are you okay? They said you’d been trapped…’

‘I’m fine aside from some tender hands. They hurt less when I’m Cygnus. If you put me down, I’ll change.’

‘Oh God, yes, sorry.’ June set her back down and backed away.

Penny gave her a grin. ‘No need to be sorry. Not like you knew. Are you okay to stay up for another half hour? I want to talk to you about something.’

‘Of course,’ June replied as Penny started for her room. ‘That sounds serious.’

‘It is, kind of.’

Back in her alternate form and clothed in her wrap, Penny sat on the sofa beside June and took a deep breath. ‘Okay, I’m not badly hurt… but I could have been. It kind of made it sink in. What I’m doing is dangerous and if anything happens to me, I’d rather you didn’t find out from the TV.’

‘Nothing’s going to happen to you,’ June replied automatically.

‘It might. So… I’m going to tell Twilight who I am. I’ll tell her to contact you and Bobby if… whatever happens happens.’

‘Are you sure? I mean, you hardly know her…’

‘I trust her. She trusted me with something important to her and… Well, this is important to me.’

‘Okay… It would be better to hear it from someone I know, a little anyway. If you’re absolutely sure…’

‘Yeah,’ Penny said, ‘I am.’

~~~

An enormous man with huge, monstrous, bulging muscles and skin which shimmered like glossy metal was lifting crates and carrying them across the laboratory. Kopf watched him carefully.

‘Be careful with those, Thog,’ Kopf said, again. ‘Delicate, remember.’

Thog grunted. ‘Delicate,’ he agreed in a voice full of gravel. He was strong, but not bright.

‘Keeping your pet in line, Professor?’ The voice came from nowhere, as usual. Kopf stopped himself looking around for the source and continued to watch Thog.

‘He is not a pet. He is my greatest success in the activation of the super gene.’ He knew that it did not impress Ghostfire in the least, but then Ghostfire was a philistine. ‘We have received the report on last night’s fire from our agent.’

‘And?’

‘Both Cygnus and Twilight were there, as well as Fire Bug and Svetilo. As requested, he concentrated primarily on Cygnus. I am still analysing the readings he obtained, but he reports that she will be a challenge. Thermite managed to trap her under a falling ceiling which she held up until it could be braced.’

‘Impressive,’ Ghostfire replied sourly.

‘Indeed. My early findings on her power readings suggest something strange about her. We may wish to capture rather than kill.’

‘Our agent is not going to like that.’ The unspoken statement was that Ghostfire preferred elimination as well.

‘I will continue investigating. Intelligence suggests that the Tonaldos have obtained a Night Lance.’

Ghostfire’s laugh was malicious. ‘You may have to make do with scraping up tissue samples.’

~~~

Twilight slipped through the skylight of the disused warehouse in Deale Harbour, her eyes scanning the space below her which had once been the office. There was a portable camping light set up in the room below giving enough light to create some deep shadows, but she could neither see nor hear anyone. Her hand hovered over the butt of her pistol as she moved into the light.

‘Cygnus?’ She did not raise her voice. If the woman was there, she was fairly sure she was not far away, and she was right.

‘I’m here.’ The voice came from a shadow in the corner of the room where a desk blocked the light quite effectively. ‘I’m sort of here. There’s something I want to show you. Something I need to trust you with and I don’t want you to freak.’

‘Well… You better show me then, because this is freaking me out just a little.’

‘Okay…’

Twilight watched as a short, slightly dumpy woman wearing glasses and a hugely oversized T-shirt walked out of the shadow and into the light. The eyes were the same, and the skin tone. The face was rounder, though the eyebrows arched the same way, but over eyes that were a little too close together. This woman had a broader, flatter nose, practically no muscle definition in the legs, which were proportionally shorter, and then there was the chest, of course. Cygnus had large, firm breasts and this woman… did not.

‘I’m Penny,’ Penny said. ‘This is what I look like when I’m not Cygnus. This is… the real me.’

‘That’s… a helluva disguise. Why am I seeing this?’

‘Because… Because I could have died last night. I realised there are some people I didn’t want finding out about that on ACPN.’ She turned to a bag which was sitting on the desk and pulled out an envelope. ‘There are two addresses in this. If you’re willing, I’d like you to take it and, if I end up on a slab, you tell the people in here what happened.’

‘If I’m willing?’

‘It’s a lot to ask. You trusted me with your talent, and I’m trusting you to tell my friends if I die. I’m basically telling you who I am.’ She waved the envelope. ‘They know, and Red does, but no one else.’

Twilight looked at her. ‘Just… give me a second.’ She turned away, looking down at the dusty floor.

Twilight had never thought about what would happen if the Tonaldos nailed her rather than the other way around. It was not going to happen. Andrea had always pushed the thought aside and let Twilight’s attitude deal with it. It was easier that way, but now, here, in a dark warehouse where a woman she hardly knew was offering such a huge secret to her for that very reason, it was hard to be Twilight.

Turning around, Andrea reached up and pulled off her mask, ruffling her mass of black hair out and looking a little sheepishly at Penny. ‘We’ve met,’ she said.

‘Andrea,’ Penny said, ‘but you didn’t need to…’

‘I’ll get you an envelope too. My parents live in Boston. They don’t know I do this. If I get killed they aren’t even going to hear about it on the news and… Well… Yeah. Uh, what’s with the T-shirt?’

Penny accepted the change of subject. ‘I thought you might need some convincing.’ She took off her glasses and put them beside her bag with the envelope. Turning back, she closed her eyes and willed the change.

A few seconds later there was the now familiar buzzing noise and Andrea yelled, ‘Holy shit!’

Penny opened her eyes and grinned. ‘And now I can see you properly, and fly, and…’

‘And you’re naked,’ Andrea pointed out.

‘Oh, sorry.’ Grabbing her costume from her bag, Penny started to get dressed. ‘I keep trying to find something that doesn’t get shredded when I shift. I was kind of hoping a big, baggy shirt would work. It must be an energy release rather than just the change in volume.’ With her suit on, she looked around at Andrea. ‘There’s one thing… I saw you going into that building the Tonaldos live in, as Andrea…’

Andrea grunted and scowled. ‘Yeah… My informant in the family? The one I get my information from? It’s Lena Tonaldo.’

‘The daughter?’

Andrea nodded. ‘You remember you asked what went on in there that they didn’t want people seeing? Well, there is something. Lena’s a lesbian. David doesn’t want anyone knowing his daughter’s into girls, so she isn’t allowed out much and he hires in prostitutes to keep her happy.’

‘You moonlight as a lesbian prostitute to get information on them?’ Penny, or Cygnus, or both, looked shocked. ‘You said you weren’t into girls.’

‘I’m also a pretty good actress. Besides, it’s not actually that terrible… Some nights I actually enjoy it.’

Penny wondered who she was trying to convince. ‘Andrea, what did they do that you’re willing to do that to get inside information?’

Andrea sagged visibly and walked over to the desk, sitting on the edge of it. It creaked alarmingly, but held her weight. ‘My brother was a bit of an idiot, but he was my brother, y’know?’

Penny gave a little shrug. ‘Only child.’

‘Well… He was a few years older than me. When I got bullied at school, he got in trouble defending me. He taught me how to punch someone in the guts when hair-pulling was acceptable behaviour. He was my big brother and I adored him. Then, when he was eighteen, he left and came to New Millennium. He wrote a couple of times. I got the feeling things were going badly. Next thing we get is a visit from the local Sherriff. Andy had been killed attempting to rob a bank in Downtown.’

‘Oh.’ Penny reached out a hand, hesitated, and then placed it on Andrea’s shoulder. The memory of her own visit from the police was all too clear in her mind.

‘No one wanted me to find out what had happened, but I did. He had got in with the Tonaldos. The bank job was a bunch of minor leaguers trying to show they could do their part. Someone ratted on them and they acted like amateurs when Ultranova showed up to stop them. They shot at him, he fired back. You’ve seen that light blast of his. They didn’t even find Andy’s body, just some ID. I mean, how amateur is that? Taking your wallet with you on a heist. I can’t really blame Ultranova, but I can’t like the guy either. But the Tonaldos? They got my brother killed and I’m going to make damn sure they pay for it.’

‘We will,’ Penny told her. ‘I promise. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll help take them down.’

‘Thanks. That does actually mean a lot.’ She chuckled. ‘I said I wasn’t up for this girly sharing crap and here I am, spilling my guts.’

‘Next we’ll be going to the Den for drinks,’ Penny replied, grinning back.

‘After we’ve nailed Thermite. I think that’s worth celebrating.’

Penny’s grin broadened. ‘You’re on.’

25th October.

Someone had not got the memo about muggings in Friendship Park. Either that or the fool had noted that Cygnus was seen in the Huntress’ Den on Friday nights and thought she would be there on this one.

He had a knife, which placed him into the ‘no threat at all’ category, and suggested that he was definitely not a Tonaldo goon trying to trap her. No, this was a thug with a desire to steal wallets, and he had decided to pick on a middle-aged couple walking along Lake Path. He was not expecting resistance and, when he saw Cygnus drop to the ground a couple of yards from him, his eyes widened and he bolted in the opposite direction.

Penny sighed and prepared to give chase, but it was really not his night. Svetilo landed in front of him, reached out as he almost ran into her, and just pushed. He was probably lucky that Penny caught him or his landing would have been a lot more painful.

‘I hope you do not mind me butting in,’ the tall Russian said as Penny zip-tied the mugger’s wrists behind his back.

‘Saved me flying after him,’ Penny replied. ‘Thanks. I didn’t think you did patrols.’

‘I do not. I was looking for you.’

‘You were?’ The model was dressed in a very short, red dress, cut low at the front, and high-heeled sandals; not exactly hunting clothes, but then she had helped at a fire in similar clothes.

‘I wanted to talk. My apartment is not far…’

Talk… sure. She wanted to talk. Penny considered saying no immediately. Thermite was out there and she needed to find him, but Andrea’s words about Lena were playing through her head: It’s not that terrible. Some nights I even enjoy it…

‘Let me drop this guy off at the local precinct,’ Penny said.

‘Of course,’ Svetilo replied, her smile broadening.

~~~

Lena let out a gasp and fell back onto the bed, breathing hard. ‘God but I miss this when you can’t visit,’ she gasped out. As her breathing steadied she added, ‘I wish I could have you here all the time.’

Andrea crawled up to lie beside her, putting an arm out to let the blonde snuggle. ‘You know I have other… friends I have to visit.’

‘You mean clients.’ There was a sour note in Lena’s voice.

‘All right, clients, but that’s not how I think of you.’ It was not a lie, exactly. There were no others and Lena was less a client and more an informant.

‘You don’t?’

‘No. Sometimes the money is icing. If your father wants to pay me to enjoy myself then who am I to decline? Do you think I’d stay all night if I didn’t enjoy your company?’ Which was, Andrea realised, also not a lie. ‘Anyway, your father would never allow it.’

Lena gave a grunt of displeasure. ‘He’s getting even more paranoid. I heard he’s bought a fucking missile!’

‘You’re kidding!’

‘Nope. A missile. Some sort of Ultra-seeking missile. I mean, how insane is that?’

Pushing aside her disquiet, Andrea diverted the subject. Keeping Lena unaware that she was being quietly pumped for information meant not appearing interested in the information she got. ‘Crazy… You know, the other reason for not moving in is I don’t want you taking me for granted. Familiarity breeds contempt. I want you begging for it.’

Lena looked up at her, eyes a little wide. ‘I will, you know? Beg. I’ll get down on my knees and beg you to make love to me if you want me to.’

‘Maybe next time,’ Andrea whispered.

~~~

Svetilo’s apartment was actually not that close; all the way across Downtown to Grant where some of the highest-priced apartments in the city were located. They landed on the balcony outside and Svetilo pressed her thumb to a panel by the window to unlock it.

‘That,’ Penny said, ‘is a clever idea.’

‘When people know your identity, some security is in order. Come in, “take the weight off,” as you say. Glass of wine?’

‘Sure, why not?’

Svetilo followed her through and slid the window closed. Penny heard the locks re-engage behind her and decided not to worry about that right now. She was sure she knew where the evening was heading. June would be with Red tonight so she would not miss Penny staying out. One little fling could not hurt…

‘I thought Russians drank vodka,’ Penny said as she took a seat. The room was big and open. There were two large, comfortable sofas, one facing a huge wall-mounted screen. Light came from three standard lamps which gave soft, moody lighting. Svetilo was getting the wine from a small kitchen area at the back and there were a couple of doors off the lounge which likely led to bedrooms.

‘We do, but I want you to be able to walk and talk.’ Penny giggled as the Russian handed her a glass and then sat down, not too close. ‘I have not asked: your hands are better?’

Holding up a hand, palm facing Svetilo, Penny said, ‘I heal faster than normal. Maybe two, three times faster.’

‘A useful talent in our line of work.’

‘Uh-huh, but you didn’t get me up here to drink wine and discuss my healing.’

‘No. I have a job coming up. A shoot in Miami. One week in a warmer climate. Bikinis, lingerie, some not-quite-nudes, nothing overly risqué. I am going to invite June to come as we need some more girls and I think it would be a big stepping stone for her.’

‘Okay. Yes, I’m sure she’ll jump at it… but shouldn’t you be telling her this?’

‘I would also like it if you were to come.’

‘What?!’ Penny gave her a confused grin. ‘I’m not a model.’

‘You have the looks. I would not ask, but the shoot is for a calendar. The profits are to go to charity. It will be good publicity, and for a good cause. The more famous bodies we can get on it, the better.’ She grinned. ‘I would ask your friend, Twilight? I think she is too protective of her identity, however.’

‘Not really her scene. She doesn’t court public opinion. Neither do I, to be honest, but I recognise that it’s useful… You know what, I’ll ask her. She might surprise me. And I’d need to arrange holiday. I have a day job. Since it’s a charity thing… I’ll do it if June will.’

‘Otlichno!’ Svetilo raised her glass in salute. ‘It will be fun, I promise.’ She took a drink of wine and Penny followed suit, grinning.

‘You know, I thought you got me up here with ulterior motives, not to discuss modelling jobs.’

The Russian’s eyes brightened noticeably as she leaned closer. Her hand found Penny’s thigh, and slid up to her hip where her fingers circled. ‘I did have ulterior motive, but I wanted business out of the way first.’

Penny’s breathing quickened. Svetilo’s glowing eyes were inches from hers and she could feel the woman’s breath on her face. She licked her lips, waiting for the kiss she knew was coming…

The window exploded inward and Penny heard someone yell something in a language she did not understand. The voice sounded metallic and, as Svetilo twisted away to face the attacker, Penny saw a large, robotic figure standing in the shattered remains of the window. There was a bullet-shaped head, an armoured body, all of it painted red with a yellow hammer and sickle design stencilled on the chest. There seemed to be gun barrels mounted over the forearms and one of them flared with light. Penny felt something akin to ants crawling over her skin, and Svetilo let out a shriek. Penny glanced at her and could not immediately figure out what was wrong. Then she noticed that the Russian’s eyes were just blue; the glow had gone.

More Russian burst from the speakers on the robot. No, Penny decided this was likely a man in a suit, and he was raising his arms to fire again. She dived across Svetilo, fairly sure that their attacker had somehow neutralised the woman’s powers. Bullets ploughed into Penny’s back, a couple of them hard enough to leave bruises. As the impacts stopped to allow the man to take stock, she turned and threw her, now empty, wine glass at him and, to her surprise, a pulse of energy leapt from her palm. It hit his right shoulder and appeared to surprise him as much as it had her, but it did nothing to the suit or the man within it.

He raised his arms again, but now he was concentrating on Penny, and she was moving. Balling her fist, she leapt forward and let out a scream as she swung at him. There was an almighty clang as her fist slammed into his chest plate, leaving a dent in the surface, and he staggered back onto the balcony, falling against the railing where he flopped about like a clockwork toy. Penny stepped closer, raising her fist again, but he seemed to be down.

‘Who the Hell is this?’ she called back into the room.

Svetilo appeared beside her, still looking weak. ‘Pulya. He works for the SOP. They must have caught American spy to have him come here. They will not risk armour if they cannot get it back.’ Her accent was thicker when she was distracted. ‘They give you new toy, Alexander. This power draining is new, yes?’

‘Da!’ he snapped, his right arm rising to aim at her.

Penny’s boot lashed out, hitting his arm at the elbow joint. There was a shriek of electronically distorted pain as the arm broke like a twig, and then silence.

‘Alexander never did know when to give up,’ Svetilo said, her breathing sounding laboured.

‘He didn’t hit you, did he?’ Penny asked quickly.

‘No. That is not the way I wanted to have you lying over me tonight, but it was most effective. I will call UID. Watch him in case he comes round.’

Penny glared down at the fallen would-be assassin and gave his armoured boot a kick. It did not look like she was getting laid tonight after all. ‘Should’ve broken your damn neck,’ she muttered. ‘Russian prick.’

26th October.

‘Okay,’ June said as she examined the damage to Penny’s costume, ‘I can fix this. It’s not too bad and the material is designed to reknit…’

‘Good,’ Penny said, adding a sigh of relief for good measure and adjusting her glasses to see what June was doing better. ‘He was using armour-piercing bullets, would you believe?’

‘And your skin still stopped them?’

‘Uh-huh. Stressed the suit fabric though.’

‘So I see.’ June took a gun-like tool from her sewing kit, pinched one of the small holes closed, and began moving the wide muzzle over the plastic. ‘The question is: what were you doing in Dom’s apartment when this guy attacked her?’

Penny had rehearsed this one a couple of times in her head and hoped the answer was going to come out sounding confident and casual. ‘I was discussing a job, actually.’ She was not sure she had managed confident or casual, but June decided to bite.

‘A job?’

‘I should probably let her tell you, but she’s going to invite you to do a calendar shoot with her in Miami. And it’s a charity thing, and she wants me to do it too. And I said I would, if you would.’

June let go of the pinch, her head darting around to look at Penny. The plastic was closed, but looked kind of wrinkled. June continued running the gun over it and Penny saw the fabric relaxing back into shape.

‘A Miami calendar shoot with Dom?’ June said.

‘Bikinis, lingerie, and some tasteful nudes she said. A week’s shooting.’

‘That would… I mean a prestigious photo shoot like that with Dom…’

‘And maybe some more big names.’

‘Like Cygnus? You know she’s trying to get into your panties, right?’

‘That thought had occurred to me, yes. We can protect each other’s virtue.’

June turned back to the suit. Happy with the first repair, she pinched the next hole shut and started working on it. ‘Dom likes riding crops, it’s not your virtue I’m worried about, it’s your ass.’

~~~

‘A week in Miami with Dom?’ Bobby said, one eyebrow rising.

‘Uh-huh, for a charity calendar.’

He smirked, stepped forward, and swept her legs. She landed on her back with a thud. ‘Get used to that position. Legs a little wider maybe.’

She swung her legs out wider, twisted, applied a little upward force, and did a semi-aerobatic Arab spring back onto her feet.

‘Like that, yes,’ Bobby said, grinning.

‘You don’t sound like you’d mind that much if I did go to bed with her.’

‘I am not possessive, gatinha.’ He moved in, feinted right, and then was not too surprised when she blocked his kick on the right side. He was a little more surprised when her counter actually caught him on the side, forcing him to roll away from her. ‘You are getting much better at this. You did not hit this Pulya like that, did you?’

‘Uh, no.’

‘Then why do you hold back with me?’

‘Bobby, I put a dent in his chest plate when I hit him. I shattered his arm, through armour, in five places, with a kick. I am not going hit you full power. Ever.’

‘That, gatinha, is the lesson I hoped you learned from your little encounter with Pulya.’ He darted in, throwing quick jabs at her face. ‘You have great power.’ Pressing forward, he threw a punch at her chest and then drove a knee into her stomach as she blocked it. His elbow swung at her jaw, but she pushed out, planting her hands on his chest and tossing him ten feet across the room. He landed on his feet, a gust of wind stabilising him. His eyes flicked over her, watching her stance. ‘You must never lose your temper with a normal and strike them too hard.’

Penny grinned at him. ‘Yeah. Believe me, the dent taught me that one.’

27th October.

‘A missile?’ Penny said, not quite believing what she was hearing.

‘That’s what Lena told me while you were entertaining Svetilo,’ Twilight replied.

‘I wasn’t entertaining…’

Twilight held up a hand. ‘What you do to get laid isn’t my concern. I was getting busy with a gangster’s daughter to find out about this. I did some research and there’s something called a Night Lance. Morgan-Gorman makes them. It’s an autonomous, self-guiding missile, with radar, signal homing, and something that lets it lock onto Ultras. They can fire it from a man-portable, reusable launcher, which means they can use it anywhere.’

‘And you think it’s meant for me?’

Twilight shrugged. ‘They don’t need a high explosive warhead to kill me.’

Penny grunted. ‘What kind of load do they carry?’

‘There’s a non-lethal warhead. The UID uses it for captures. Explodes into some sort of sticky netting. I doubt they got one with that. The two most probable are a basic high explosive, and a self-forging projectile system. That last one’s meant to punch through tank armour.’

‘But they’d need a direct hit?’

‘Uh-huh. The missile’s way faster than you, but it probably has less manoeuvrability, and you can go a lot slower than it can.’

‘Outfly the thing?’

‘I think, if it comes to it, that’s your best bet.’

Penny blanched. ‘I hope Bobby’s lessons are paying off then.’

29th October.

There were sirens again and Penny’s heart sank. It was fairly early, just before eight, and she had not expected to see much. Instead there were police cars, ambulances, and fire engines heading down Uptown’s 10th Street. She diverted her course over the buildings, located the cars already at the site, and flew in.

There was no sign of a fire, but Svetilo was already there, talking to a uniformed officer and Special Agent Dannon. There was a cordon of cars surrounding the entrance to a shopping mall. Penny had never been in the thing as the prices were sky high and everything had some designer’s name on it. If she remembered right, there was even a designer hero costume shop in there.

Penny dropped to the ground beside the little group, nodding to Svetilo and Dannon. ‘When I heard the sirens I thought Thermite was up to his tricks again…’

‘And you are right,’ Svetilo said, ‘except that he has added some hostage-taking to his usual résumé.’

Penny frowned. ‘Not entirely new. He’s held hostages before. He pulled a bank job in Red Bank, New Jersey, and took hostages when the police surrounded the building.’

The lieutenant standing with them looked at her. ‘Did he get away?’

‘They caught him, eventually. That was after he incinerated the hostages and most of the bank.’ There was a bleak look on her face as she said it. ‘He’s going to kill those people.’

‘He’ll have some sort of escape plan…’

‘Don’t count on it. He likes burning things. What was he doing in there anyway?’

‘Information is,’ Dannon said, ‘that he marched up to the second floor and into UltraStyle demanding they fit him with a new suit.’

‘He’s blasted the elevator and the staircases are on fire,’ the lieutenant continued. ‘The interior is open, he’s got a clear view of the entrance. We can’t get anyone in there without him turning them to ash. We don’t even have good intelligence on how he’s set up.’

‘What we need,’ Svetilo said, ‘is a stealth specialist. Someone like…’

‘Me?’ Twilight suggested, walking up from behind Penny.

‘I am starting to think we should get to know each other better, Twilight,’ Svetilo said, grinning broadly. ‘You don’t happen to be a blonde, do you?’

Twilight gave her a look. ‘Can I get in through the roof?’

‘Fire sensors say the stairwells are burning,’ Dannon supplied.

‘In that case I’m going to need a distraction.’

‘I can do that,’ Penny stated flatly. She turned and started for the door of the mall. ‘You said it was open in there, right? Let’s see if he’s any good at hitting a moving target.’

‘Are you nuts?!’ Dannon asked.

‘I thought we’d established that, Special Agent,’ Penny replied as Twilight fell into step beside her. Penny glanced at her partner. ‘His blasts cover a wide area, but they’ve got lousy range. He probably can’t hit with full force at the door if he’s near the back, but it’ll still give you crispy edges if you’re caught in it, so move fast.’

‘I can move faster than you, if I have to,’ Twilight replied.

‘I know. I’m just saying… Be careful. I want Thermite, but I’m not willing to lose you to get him.’

Twilight flashed her a grin. ‘Aww, I didn’t know you cared. Just keep him off me for a second. That’s enough.’

Penny stopped at the door. The glass was shattered and the metalwork of the frame was blackened and half-melted. Worse, a few yards inside were two bodies, or the twisted, charred remains of two bodies. They were holding guns in semi-skeletal hands.

‘Ready?’ Penny growled, lifting into the air.

‘I’ll be in right on your tail.’

Penny powered forward, accelerating into the building. There was a portico with a couple of kiosks lining it, and then she was into a wide plaza that went up four storeys to a glass ceiling. The ground level had had seating until Thermite had tossed a couple of heat blasts down from…

She spotted a man on the first balcony at the back with dark, unkempt hair. He was dressed in prison overalls and a camouflage coat. The visit to UltraStyle seemed like a good idea, given his current look. Penny guessed she had around twenty-five yards to turn in, and Thermite was a psychopath, not a soldier. Somewhere in his back brain, he had seen her enter the room, but his conscious mind had not received the message. She pulled up, swinging past the balcony for a closer look.

Twilight slipped into the building behind Cygnus, dropping to a crouch to look up at the far end. She spotted Thermite, knew he had barely taken in her partner’s passage into the room yet, never mind seeing the slim, black-clad figure in the shadows of the portico behind her. He was on the second level and there were two floors above him. Her eyes flicked to the left, checking the balcony on the third floor. Teleporting was a matter of simple will; she wished to be elsewhere and she moved. The difficult bit was the mental gymnastics she went through to work out how her body should move in space-time to get to where she wanted. She had never really understood how it worked; it was just some sort of special extra sense that let her do it, and now it worked perfectly. She breathed out on the ground floor and in on the third-storey landing.

Penny swung past Thermite, maybe five yards away, and scanned the balcony and the shop front behind it. He had set up in front of UltraStyle; convenient for him. She spotted two people kneeling in the doorway, their hands tied behind their backs; someone else was just about visible inside the shop. Most of the view was obscured by four manikins dressed in the latest heroic outfit styles. Part of Penny’s brain noted that her own costume seemed to be fairly à la mode; brief and high-hipped featured on one of the female dummies.

She turned, swinging around to face the door as she prepared to make her exit. Twilight was moving along the balcony above Thermite, heading for the front. It was definitely time to leave. Tightening her turn, she poured on the power and headed for the door.

Twilight got about two-thirds of the way down the balcony and paused to check the situation below. Cygnus was leaving, but it looked like Thermite’s brain had caught up with his eyes. He raised his hand and a bolt of red-orange light flared from his palm, missing Cygnus by a mile and slamming into the balcony across from Twilight. The effect was still dramatic. Glass exploded, and concrete glowed an incandescent shade of red. The dummies in the windows of two shops were reduced to molten pools of burning plastic in a second. Swallowing hard, Twilight continued moving.

Penny felt the backwash of the explosion above and ahead of her, and poured on the power. She was out and banking up and left before he had a chance to try again. Turning, she swept back to street level, landing beside Dannon and Svetilo.

‘He’s a floor up,’ she said, ‘at the back, right outside UltraStyle. He’s got two hostages in the doorway, at least one more in the shop. Oh, and he’s a lousy shot.’

Dannon was holding a radio and it spoke with Twilight’s voice. ‘He doesn’t need to be a good one. If that was a long-range hit, and weaker, I don’t want to see what it does at full power. I’ll be in position in another couple of seconds. I’ll talk then.’

‘Do we know how many hostages he has?’ Penny asked.

‘No,’ Dannon replied, glancing around as the lieutenant returned from wherever he had been.

‘No, we don’t,’ the policeman agreed. ‘He let a lot of people just run out, but we don’t know how many he pushed into the shop. I doubt there were many customers in UltraStyle itself, though they do sell fancy-dress versions of famous costumes for normals.’

‘I can confirm six,’ Twilight said over the radio. ‘Thermite’s looking pissed off. He’s waving a pistol around and screaming obscenities. It’s a Desert Eagle, one of the big ones, fifty calibre.’ There was a pause where they could hear ranting in the background and then, ‘He’s yelling down. He wants to make demands.’

Scowling and looking nervous, the lieutenant turned and headed for the door.

‘What are our options?’ Penny asked. ‘Can we get in some way? The roof was glass.’

‘Too risky,’ Svetilo said. ‘You might be able to get to him before he could launch one of those blasts, but you would get one shot, and then be ploughing into the balcony. If he was still standing, he would kill you, and the hostages.’

‘Svetilo’s right,’ Twilight said. ‘You’re fast enough, but hitting him where he is is asking a lot at that speed. Wait until we find out what his demands are. The lieutenant is calling up to him now…’

They waited for what seemed like an age, but was probably only fifteen seconds. Then they heard Twilight again. ‘Shit… He says he has eight hostages, which he could have. He says he’ll let them all go if Cygnus will take their place.’

Penny gave a nod. ‘Okay,’ she said.

‘Net! He’ll kill you!’ Svetilo exclaimed.

‘He’ll try. Look, we need to get in, we need the hostages out. I can get to him a lot faster, and more safely, if I’m in there with him. I can act as decoy for Twilight to blindside him. This is the only way to go where we avoid more casualties.’

‘It is not…’

‘She’s right,’ Dannon said, his expression one of annoyance. ‘I don’t like this. Why does he want you of all people? This stinks.’

‘Maybe the Tonaldos are paying him,’ Penny suggested. ‘It doesn’t really matter right now. We need to get those people out.’

‘You heard what he wants?’ the lieutenant asked as he returned.

‘Uh-huh,’ Penny replied. ‘Get your people ready to receive the hostages. I’m going in.’ She looked around at Svetilo. ‘No argument.’

Svetilo scowled at her. ‘It is supposed to be Russians who are stubborn.’

~~~

Penny floated into the mall at a much slower pace than before. If Thermite had been contracted to kill her, he might just try it as she came in. Then he could keep his hostages, job done, and bargain for his freedom. She was banking on him wanting her close up. He would want to see her burn for one thing, and there was his lousy aim.

‘Here’s how we do this.’ She looked up to see the bedraggled psychopath looking down from the balcony, a huge, chrome-plated pistol in his hand. ‘You land over there…’ He waved toward his left with the gun. ‘I got a fire ladder here that these pricks can climb down. When they get to the door, you come to me. You try an’ run, I turn you into smoke.’

Not replying, Penny slid herself sideways and upward, over the balustrade and down onto the balcony. She figured she was about fifteen yards from Thermite, but she would have to round a corner to get to him. From her current location she could see him and the front door.

‘All right,’ Thermite said, his tone pleased. ‘You lot, move it. Get out of here before I change my mind and singe your tails on the way out.’

Someone, a man, ran to the balustrade with some sort of emergency ladder which was fixed in place and dropped, and then it seemed to take forever for the eight people to climb down. The man who had deployed the ladder was the first down, and then waited at the bottom to steady it for the others. He was the last out and he glanced up at Penny with a thankful, worried expression before turning and running toward the exit.

As he crossed the threshold, Penny walked around the balcony to the front of UltraStyle. Thermite backed away a few steps as she approached, waving with his gun to indicate that she should go inside. There was little light in there; the fires had taken out the power and the only illumination came down through the roof of the main plaza.

‘Why did you ask for me?’ she asked as she approached him.

‘You’ve been on the news,’ he replied. ‘The bimbo in the swimsuit. I saw you come in earlier, knew you were here.’

‘No other reason? I caught your attention?’

‘Something like that. Get inside, bitch.’

Penny bit back a reply and turned, walking in through the open door. She just had time to register the dozen people kneeling on the floor at the back of the shop before he shot her in the back. She felt the sting of the large projectile landing between her shoulder blades, took a step forward, and then turned, glaring at him.

‘You lying bastard!’ she yelled. ‘You’ve got more hostages!’

‘Yeah,’ Thermite replied, grinning at her. ‘I lied. Lied about why you’re here too. Someone wants you dead. Don’t know why he wants you dead. Don’t care.’ He pushed his pistol into his pocket and raised his hand. ‘I owe him and this clears the debt.’

Penny glared at him. The shouting had not really been for his benefit and now she needed to delay him as long as possible. There was no way she was going to get to him in time if she moved now, but she had backup.

‘Do you remember Red Bank?’ she asked. ‘Little town in New Jersey. You robbed a bank there.’

‘Red Bank… Yeah, I remember the heat, an’ the burning bodies.’

‘Two of them were my parents.’

‘You should thank me then. You’ll be seeing them again real soon.’

He straightened his arm, preparing to launch a blast at her. Penny tensed, waiting to feel the heat envelop her. And then the point of a sword emerged from the front of Thermite’s chest. He looked down at it, his arm dropping to his side.

‘Not today she isn’t,’ Twilight said from behind him as she yanked her blade free.

Unsupported, Thermite dropped to his knees and then toppled forward, collapsing onto the thickly carpeted floor. Twilight stepped forward and knelt beside him, pressing her fingers to his neck.

‘Is he alive?’ Penny asked, her voice flat.

‘There’s a pulse. I can make there not be…’

Penny’s fists clenched. Her head half-turned, indicating the people behind them. ‘No… No, we aren’t killing him today.’ The look she gave Twilight suggested that the civilians were the only thing stopping her. ‘I’ll get some paramedics and cops up here.’ She started toward the door.

Twilight got to her feet. ‘Take your time,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Maybe he’ll bleed to death before they get here.’

Penny paused, looking down at the man who had killed her parents. ‘I doubt it. He’s a cockroach. Cut his head off and he’ll keep going.’ She looked up into Twilight’s brown eyes. ‘Thanks. I owe you for this one.’

‘No you don’t,’ Twilight replied. ‘We’re partners, remember? Having each other’s backs is what partners do.’

Part Four: For Ever

New Millennium City, MD, 30th October, 2013.

‘They say he’s going to live,’ Jacob Dannon said. ‘His injuries were severe, but they got to him in time. He’s being transported back to the Fortress where he’ll be put in the hospital facility there. When he’s recovered, he’s being transferred to the Pit.’

Penny was not entirely sure whether to be happy Thermite had survived, or angry. She had come to the debriefing at Police HQ partially to support Twilight, though the younger woman seemed to have no need of support. It was also to hear what had happened to the man who had killed her parents.

‘I’m not too familiar with the Fortress,’ she said. ‘The Pit?’

‘Ultra-secure section,’ Twilight stated. ‘It’s a hundred feet under the main buildings.’

Dannon nodded. ‘Escapees are generally put there when we get them back. It’s considered a punishment as well as being far harder to break out of.’

‘How did Thermite get out?’ Penny asked. ‘He’s not exactly the most powerful Ultra in there…’

‘He had help,’ Dannon replied, his expression sour. ‘Doctor Ultimate’s been working on the systems at the Fortress. He found evidence that someone deliberately shut down the Neurotronic field in Thermite’s cell and kept it hidden. Whoever it was also arranged for a couple of other prisoners to escape at the same time. The Freak, Dinah Mite, and a man named Jasper Conrad.’

‘Why them?’ Twilight asked, frowning.

‘The Freak smashed through the weakened walls. He’s still loose, but we’re tracking him. The Union is forming a squad to take him down. Dinah Mite is a low-end Ultra with the power to detonate explosives with her mind. She got them past the mine field, but we grabbed her not far away. Conrad… He’s still in the wind and we’re not sure why he was broken out. He’s not even an Ultra, he was in the Fortress because he’s broken out of Federal prison before. He likes hunting Ultras.’

‘Great. Isn’t the Freak usually held in the Pit?’

‘Yes. There was a malfunction in his cell’s Neurotronic field, detected this time. They moved him upstairs temporarily while it was repaired.’

‘And that was just what someone wanted them to do,’ Penny suggested. ‘No clues as to who did it?’

‘Nothing solid. Thermite let slip one name, but we’ve heard nothing about it. Either of you heard of Ghostfire?’

Penny and Twilight glanced at each other. Twilight shrugged. ‘Not a name I’ve heard before.’

‘No,’ Penny said, ‘me neither. Though…’ She frowned as something tickled at her memory and refused to surface. ‘I feel like I should know it.’

‘If you think of anything,’ Dannon said, ‘let me know. As for you, Twilight, the stabbing is being viewed as necessary. The hostages are saying they’d have been incinerated if you hadn’t stopped that bastard. No further action.’

‘Never doubted it,’ Penny stated, smiling.

Outside, the partners were preparing to go their separate ways when Penny remembered something. ‘Oh… I said I’d ask, and I said you’d say no, but it’s worth a shot…’

Twilight raised an eyebrow. ‘That was saying a lot of nothing.’

‘Huh. Svetilo has got me going down to Miami to do a photo shoot for a charity calendar. It’s for… Actually, she didn’t say what charity it was for before we got attacked, but it’s some charity or other. A week in the sun…’

‘You seriously see me in a bikini?’

‘I think you’d look great in a bikini, but I did say you weren’t likely to say yes.’

‘I’m not quite ready to hand my identity over to every drooling teenager who wants it.’

‘No… That’s what I figured.’

The black-clad girl sagged a little. ‘For charity?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Tell her… Well, I’d be willing to get some pictures taken in costume. Here, not in Miami.’

Penny grinned at her. ‘I’ll tell her. Maybe she’ll go for it.’

~~~

‘You know we’re getting well behind on True Powers,’ June said as she flicked through channels on the TV and Penny got ready to go out.

‘I’m not really getting into the new season,’ Penny replied.

‘Not enough Sally?’

‘Yeah, I think that’s basically it. She drove the show. The other characters are good, but with Sally wandering around trying to find herself…’

‘It’s not the same show, no.’

‘They’re going to turn her evil by the end of the season.’

‘You think? How are you getting that from the few episodes you’ve seen?’ June gave her friend a puzzled look.

Penny shrugged. ‘I guess it’s Cygnus putting the pieces together somehow. Bet you. Evil by the end of the season.’

31st October.

Halloween was not what you would classify as a fun time to be a hero. Every two-bit Ultra with a vaguely scary power was out making a nuisance of themselves. Some of them had come in from other parts of Maryland to scare the folks in the big city. There were normals pretending to be Ultras because that was scarier than normal. Penny was rushing from one scene to the next as fast as she could fly.

There had been someone dressed as a scarecrow throwing pumpkins which exploded into clouds of pepper gas in Friendship Park. She had flattened him with a punch and he had dropped one of his own bombs on his chest and spent the next twenty minutes coughing his lungs up.

Then there had been the rather more effective villain with some sort of terror field around him. He was marching down a street further north scaring kids out trick-or-treating. The cops could not get near him, but Penny could if she closed her eyes and blew in at top speed, catching him a blow on the side of his head. The police were happy; Penny thought she was lucky she hadn’t killed him.

The gang of men in werewolf masks she took considerable pleasure in laying out, but it was while she was doing that that she noticed the two men in suits watching her from a black sedan parked near the spot she was lining up the ‘wolf-men’ beside a couple of uniformed officers.

They possibly thought they were invisible, hidden in the shadows of their car, but she could see them clearly. One black, one white, both clean-shaven and looking like they were going to a business meeting. They had cameras and some other form of instrument with them, and they were watching every move she made.

With the idiots in masks taken care of, Penny flew upward, swung around a building, and then dropped back down to land beside Twilight. Her partner’s eyes remained fixed on the car and its occupants.

‘You saw me then?’ Twilight said.

‘I figured you wanted me to see you. I can see in the dark, but I’m no more perceptive than anyone else.’

‘Yeah, okay. But you also spotted them. Any idea who they are?’

‘I don’t know, but I think they’re UID.’

‘Reasoning?’

‘They don’t look like mobsters, and I’m not aware of anyone else who’s likely to be watching me. Suits, cameras, some sort of expensive gadgetry… Smacks of UID.’

Twilight nodded. ‘Yeah. That’s what I thought. After that trick you did at that fire I wanted to know how you’d arrived at your conclusion. Why are they watching you?’

‘Why are they using some sort of scanning gadget to watch me?’

‘That I don’t know either,’ Twilight said, ‘but I’ll see if I can find out.’

4th November.

Jacob Dannon walked up to the front door of the small house he owned in Friendship, lifted his key to the lock, and stopped. He had no reason to think that anything was wrong, but something felt wrong. Maybe he had seen something, or heard something. Maybe it was just gut instinct, or something imperceptible that was tweaking at his subconscious. Whatever it was, he drew his weapon before turning the key quietly and slipping into the front hall.

He had made it two steps when a light came on in the lounge. Either the intruder was incredibly stupid, or they wanted him to know where they were. Knowing that he should call for backup immediately, he did not and instead swung into the lounge door, the muzzle of his pistol swinging around in its search for a target.

‘Glock twenty-two,’ Twilight said. ‘Nice weapon, though I prefer the twenty myself.’ She was sitting on the chair beneath the standard lamp she had turned on, long legs stretched out in front of her, ankles crossed, and hands clasped in her lap away from the pistol strapped to her right thigh.

Dannon relaxed, and frowned at her, and set the safety on his own Glock before pushing it back into the holster under his armpit. ‘Are you trying to get yourself shot?’ he asked.

‘I’ll assume that was rhetorical. Also odd. I think most people would indignantly ask what I was doing in their home.’

Dannon walked over to sit down on the sofa under the front window. ‘I assume you’ll get to that. I would like to know how you found me.’

‘You’re in the phone book. There aren’t many Jacob Dannons in this area, y’know?’

‘Right…’

Her gaze swept the room. It was not exactly full of furniture: sofa, easy chair, coffee table, a big-screen TV with an entertainment centre under it. There were two pictures on the wall, both family photographs, one of which looked like it had been taken with his parents when he graduated from the Academy. It was clean in the way you got when the occupant was rarely in it.

‘Nice place,’ she said. ‘Tidy.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘All right… Halloween night there were a couple of UID agents tailing Cygnus…?’

‘You know I can’t discuss any ongoing investigations…’

‘So there is an ongoing investigation?’

‘Huh…’ His lips curled into a smile which did not make it as high as his eyes. ‘I can’t discuss that either.’

‘Okay. Can you think of any reason why your people would be investigating her?’

He looked across at her for a second. ‘No, I can’t. We do routine checks on new Ultras now and again. Maybe someone decided to give her the once-over given that she’s hit the news recently.’

Twilight nodded slowly. It made a certain degree of sense, except… ‘They were using some sort of scanner on her. Nothing either of us have seen before.’

‘There’s an experimental gadget Ultimate came up with. It’s supposed to give us a more objective magnitude rating, but it hasn’t been cleared for full deployment yet. It could have been someone field testing one of those.’

‘An Ultra Detector? Something like the thing they put in the Night Lance?’

‘More quantitative, but yes.’

She pulled her legs in and sat up straight, peering across at him intently. ‘That kind of thing could make some people pretty uncomfortable. You know the Tonaldos have got their hands on a Night Lance?’

He frowned. ‘I didn’t.’

She smiled. ‘Time to go hunting,’ she said, rising to her feet and stretching, her arms up over her head, chest pushed out. When she relaxed she was pleased to see his Adam’s apple bobbing. ‘I’ll see myself out.’ Then she walked out of the lounge and turned toward the front door.

There was no sound of it opening or closing, and he got up after a second to follow her. She was gone; there was no sign of her in the hall or on the street outside. It was only then that it occurred to him to ask how she had got in in the first place.

5th November.

After the clamour of Halloween the city had returned to normal fairly quickly. Penny was distinctly happy about that. There were no werewolves or pumpkin-throwing madmen in the park. She scanned the footpaths, intently looking for muggers and finding none, and then gained height before heading north.

Back in history, the fifth of November had been known as Pope Day, and Guy Fawkes Night, and Bonfire Night. It was not really something that was celebrated anymore, not in a couple of centuries, in the US anyway. At first, when Penny spotted the plume to the north of her, she thought someone had decided to launch a rocket anyway. Then the flare of light turned, swinging toward her, and she realised what she was seeing.

~~~

Twilight saw the trail as the Night Lance launched into the sky. She could not see the target, but the launch site was maybe four blocks away. There was a multi-storey car park in that direction and that seemed like a likely place to fire from; it was high, open, and the top floor was probably fairly empty at this time of night.

Somewhere to the south, Cygnus was in the air and the missile was likely homing on her. She was going to have to deal with that and Twilight hoped she had spotted the thing. There was nothing Twilight could do about that, but she could make sure the launcher never got used again. She turned, and stepped into a shadow.

Moving rooftop to rooftop, she bounced herself through nowhere in the direction the Night Lance had come from. Four hops took her to a building on the south-east side of the parking structure. Three men and a van stood on the highest level, stupidly watching the receding missile. She figured they would pack up and leave soon; even Tonaldo’s thugs were likely to have a sense of self-preservation and sticking around for too long was going to get them caught. Of course, they had already stuck around too long…

Twilight pulled her batons from behind her back, flipped them open with her thumbs, and ported into the shadow of their van. They never had a chance. The first of them fell as she whipped a baton across the back of his skull. She twisted and hit a second man in the face before any of them could react to her presence. The third was pulling a pistol. His reactions were better than the others, but he still had to draw his weapon before he used it. She struck his arm and he let out a shriek of pain, cut off as a second blow smashed into his jaw.

She watched him fall, fairly sure she had broken his jaw, and then turned her gaze south toward the missile trail.

~~~

Penny pulled another tight turn and risked a glance back. The missile was trying to keep up with her aerobatics, but it was moving at far higher speed and, as Twilight had suggested, that gave her a slight edge; the thing had a terrible turning circle. It had barrelled toward her from its launch site so fast her first dodge had barely managed it, and it had then had to turn around from halfway to North Beach to come back at her. Now it was going slower, but still at a couple of times her top speed.

On the other hand, she figured it had been trying to get close enough to detonate for fifteen seconds, tops, and it had a minute’s flight time before its engines died. It was getting closer with each pass, and she was going to start getting tired if she pushed herself this hard for too long. Tired meant mistakes. She needed another plan.

The Night Lance was swinging back her way and she glanced around before turning hard and heading east and diving below the building line. With a bit of luck she could break its lock for long enough to pull something crazy off.

Hard right, then left, and then pour on as much power as she could in a straight-line dash. She could see people on the streets looking up as she flew past. Some were panicked, others were smiling, and several were in uniforms and scrubs… That was when she realised she was heading for the hospital on Hopman Street. She pulled a hard left, up two blocks, and then flew upward. As she had guessed, the missile had gone high in an attempt to reacquire its target. It shifted course and dived toward her as she dropped out of sight again, making a hard right.

The thing was still on her tail and gaining fast. Bank left, drop low, turn right. She heard the roar of rocket engines go past and pushed herself harder. Six blocks down it swung back in behind her and she jinked another course correction. And so it went as the Night Lance chased across half the city until she saw no more buildings ahead of her. She pulled up, climbing as hard as she could and heading for open water.

She was not good at distances, but she figured she was above three hundred feet when she saw the Night Lance swinging around toward her from just north of where she had come out. She continued climbing as it accelerated across the space between them. She figured she had all of two seconds before it got to her. As it roared toward her she turned hard, flying straight for the water.

A glance back showed the missile arcing over her to turn. Her luck was holding, it seemed. Now it just had to hold a little longer… It was closing fast. Penny jammed on the power, pushing herself as hard as she could. Perhaps twenty feet from the surface she slowed, swallowing hard. She could almost feel the explosives driving down toward her body. Then she turned and threw herself upward as hard as she could. There was the roar of a rocket engine, a barely audible splash, and then…

Water exploded around her and she felt the buffeting of the shockwave as it passed her along with various bits of hot metal. Penny looked down to see the water receding back into the hole the explosion had made. She hoped the thing had not excavated too much of the seabed, but right now she was more concerned about the person who had fired the missile in the first place.

Turning, she started in the direction the Night Lance had come from.

~~~

‘You didn’t get your ass blown up then?’ Twilight said as Penny landed on the tarmac beside her.

‘I persuaded it to blow up in the bay,’ Penny replied.

‘Huh. That explains why you’re wet.’

Penny allowed herself a giggle. It sounded a little hysterical. ‘You happened to come across these guys?’

‘I was in the neighbourhood and they shouldn’t be playing with toys like this.’ Twilight kicked the bulky launcher tube by her foot. ‘I figure we’ll have cops up here shortly if they saw you coming this way.’

‘Cops, UID, maybe the National Guard…’

Spotlights flooded the scene and Penny let out a wince. Shading her eyes, Twilight said, ‘And the press.’ There was an NMCPD helicopter up there now, but there was also one from ACPN. ‘Time for me to leave.’

‘Oh no. I agreed to take the limelight, but you still have to tell the cops what happened. A little bit of publicity isn’t going to kill you. You said you might let Svetilo use pictures of you.’

‘Damn,’ Twilight muttered. ‘Okay… right… You’re right.’ Her gaze swept the scene and she frowned. ‘Wonder who’s flying the third chopper?’

Penny turned in time to see a sleek, black helicopter turning and heading down the island. Whoever they were, they were not going to stick around, it seemed. The sound of sirens on the ramps below drew her attention away. The ACPN helicopter was landing on one of the upper stages as well. It was time to put a smile on.

~~~

Bryant hefted the missile launcher, shook her head, and handed it over to a crime scene officer who was waiting to stow it in something which looked like a portable gun safe. The agent turned to Twilight who was standing beside her.

‘Special Agent Dannon said you’d told him about a Night Lance the Tonaldo family had got their hands on.’

‘Uh-huh. They don’t like me or Cygnus much.’

‘Apparently not. High-explosive warhead, Ultra-tracking system… It’s a specialist weapon, military. We’ll dig into how they got their hands on one.’ Her gaze moved over to where Cygnus was talking to an ACPN reporter. ‘Your partner seems to like cameras.’

Twilight noted the rebuking tone. ‘Not really, but more than I do. We have a good arrangement: she stops the reporters from bugging me, and drops my name enough that people know I’m not some psycho vigilante.’

‘Maybe the both of you should back off a bit. Someone could have been hurt tonight…’

‘If we ease up, then the Tonaldos of this world win,’ Twilight snapped. ‘Don’t think you’ll tie this to David Tonaldo, or any of his top people. NMCPD has been trying to nail him for a decade and they can’t even get him on tax evasion.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘That said, Cygnus is going to be out of the state next week so things might ease off a little with her out of sight.’

‘What about you?’

Twilight chuckled softly. ‘Me? I’m pretty much always out of sight. They don’t see me unless I want them to.’

8th November.

‘You make sure you watch your back while I’m away,’ Penny told Twilight. They were up on the top of the Americas Trade Center, the centrepiece of Downtown; one hundred and seventeen floors of offices with a three-storey mall at the bottom and an observation deck at the top. When construction had started it had been meant to replace the World Trade Center in the destroyed New York. By the time it was being completed the American Federation treaties were being signed and ‘World Trade’ had become ‘Americas Trade.’ The view from the top of it was quite something.

‘I’ve been watching my own back for longer than you’ve been registered,’ Twilight countered.

‘The Tonaldos weren’t as pissed off with you then. I heard both our bounties are at fifty thousand now.’

‘Huntress?’

‘Zephyr.’

‘Huh. Well, I’d heard the same. You realise he added the extra money because we keep putting his goons behind bars and they’re scared?’

‘Scared can be bad, y’know? They might go for a lot of overkill, and you aren’t bulletproof.’

‘I know. I’m not going to take any unnecessary risks. You shouldn’t either.’

Penny grinned. ‘I’m going to be a thousand miles away.’

‘The Tonaldos run some of their drug shipments through Florida Quays. They have contacts down there. Don’t go assuming no one will try anything. Aside from them, there’s the guy Thermite was working for, this “Ghostfire.” We don’t know he won’t try again.’

‘Oh… Well, Dom will be there…’

‘Oh it’s “Dom” now, is it?’ Twilight was smirking.

Penny ignored her. ‘And she’s got Moon Coyote coming out from California and maybe someone else. There’s security on the shoot, and that got beefed up after Pulya attacked her…’

‘All right, you’ve got things well covered, but don’t just treat it as a holiday. You’re going to be Cygnus for the whole week, no hiding. Watch your back.’

~~~

‘It’s weird,’ Penny said. ‘I hadn’t thought about it, but she’s right. I’m not going to be Penny until we get back. I haven’t been Cygnus that long since I first changed. Maybe not even then.’

Sitting across from her at the dining table in his house, Bobby gave her a smile. ‘Does this bother you?’

‘I… guess not.’

‘Clearly there is something amiss.’

Penny sliced a piece off the perfectly done steak on her plate and put it in her mouth. It gave her a chance to think. Bobby knew that was what she was doing and did not push. He was good like that.

‘I’m a little afraid I’ll like it,’ Penny said eventually.

‘I was unaware that you found it unpleasant. Or are you thinking that you will not wish to return to “plain old Penny,” who, I would remind you, young June loves as much as she does Cygnus?’

‘Cygnus is a hero, and glamorous. She has fans. She’s going to be appearing half-naked on a calendar so she’s going to get more fans. Penny can’t get the time of day from any man who can actually see. Also, Cygnus doesn’t trip over her own feet and she doesn’t hear voices when she’s stressed.’

‘Well,’ Bobby said, ‘I have never seen Penny, but I find it hard to believe that she is the deformed monster you seem to think she is. Setting that aside, you are always Penny, no matter what shape you take. You should remember this.’

‘I’ll try to. Do you want to meet the other me?’

‘That, gatinha, is for you to decide.’

She frowned at him, trying to decide whether he was being magnanimous or just avoiding making a decision. ‘Not tonight,’ she said. ‘Maybe when I get back. One thing I do know is that Cygnus is way better in the sack.’

‘Oh well,’ Bobby replied, smiling, ‘since I will not get to experience her charms for two weeks, I think we will stick with just the one shape tonight.’

‘That’s what I thought too.’

9th November.

The force of twin turbofan engines pressed Penny back into her seat and her hands gripped the arms as though she might fall out of the aircraft. June, sat on the aisle seat beside her, watched with a grin on her face.

As the wheels lifted and Penny’s stomach lurched downward, she let out a squeak. June giggled, which did not help in the least. In fact, Penny did not even start to relax until the engine noise died back and the plane began to level off.

‘Why did we have to fly?’ Penny asked plaintively. She prised her fingers off the armrests, hoping she had not left dents.

‘Because it would take too long to drive,’ June replied, still grinning. ‘I can’t believe you’re afraid of flying. You fly just about every day. You outflew a missile!’ She had not been so sanguine about that event when Penny had got home. In fact she had been horrified, panicked, even though she had seen on the TV that Penny was okay.

‘That’s me flying. Just me, not several hundred tons of metal. I’ve never flown before.’

‘In an aircraft.’

‘In several hundred tons of metal.’

June flew up to Atlanta to see her parents whenever she could. She was practically a seasoned traveller. ‘Look, statistically it’s the safest form of travel. And if, for some reason, this thing fell out of the sky, you could just punch through the side and fly off.’

Penny looked at the little window beside her seat. ‘Somehow the fact that I could punch through the side of this thing is not really a comfort.’

‘Well, it’s only about two and a half hours. I’ll buy you a drink, that’ll ease your nerves.’

‘Yeah,’ Penny said, ‘sure.’

~~~

The fact that telephones worked at cruising altitude came as a surprise, but Penny heard a phone ring and Dom took hers from her little seat-back table and answered it.

‘How does that work?’ Penny whispered to June.

‘There’s a repeater station on the plane, connected to the ground network over the radio. It’s expensive. I never make calls on an aircraft.’

‘I guess for business…’

‘You got her?’ Dom was saying. That was followed by, ‘Uh-huh… Okay… What problem?’ Her tone becoming increasingly unhappy. ‘So we’re not going to know for sure until we see her? Chert! Well, we tell her we’ll organise that first thing.’ She tapped the phone off and put it down with more force than was entirely necessary.

‘Problem?’ June asked.

‘Yes. No. Maybe,’ the Russian replied, frowning. ‘I have had people trying to get someone for the shoot, another Ultra. It is not an easy thing, yes? She is… elusive, but if we can get her then it will mean a big jump in sales, and the cause is one I think she will appreciate. They contacted her, but she says she wants to meet me and the other Ultras before she will agree.’

‘That doesn’t sound like a major problem,’ Penny put in.

‘It throws off the schedule a little. We send the normal girls out with photographer first thing. It means we have less time for Ultra models, but… Cannot be helped.’ She narrowed her eyes a little and peered across the aisle at the two girls. ‘I think we take June to meet her also. You are used to Ultras. More than many, I think. You will make a good impression.’

‘Okay,’ June said, sounding a little perplexed.

‘Who is this woman?’ Penny asked.

‘She is not exactly a woman,’ Dom replied. ‘She is female, very female, but a woman? I am not so sure.’

Penny’s eyes widened. ‘You can’t mean…?’

‘Ever,’ Dom said. ‘We are going to see Ever.’

Miami, FL.

‘You think she means it?’ June asked. ‘Ever? I mean… Ever’s one of the most powerful Ultras on the planet!’

‘I think she means it,’ Penny replied as she unpacked her bag, hanging her clothes in a wardrobe. ‘She told you what the calendar was for, right?’

‘Nature conservancy… Oh, well, yeah, I guess Ever would be up for that.’

According to semi-legend, Ever had been a Ranger working in the Everglades National Park, a very idealistic one. Then she had been murdered by people illegally dumping toxic waste into the waterways, but she had not, exactly, died. There were a few, very powerful Ultras who were more an expression of the will of the people than an individual. They were known as Avatar-class and tended to be enormously powerful. America had had Captain Freedom until he had died in New York bringing down Magmatic. Ever was the only one of that kind who seemed to represent the spirit of a place.

‘Isn’t she supposed to be a little… bad tempered?’ June went on after a second.

‘I saw an interview she did once. She seemed kind of serene, actually. She’s the embodiment of the Everglades. She tends to be kind of fanatical about preserving nature, especially here.’

‘Yeah, but… didn’t she kill some people when she first emerged?’

‘She killed the people who killed her, and it’s supposed to be a really bad idea to hunt for sport in the swamp. But she also helped when that jet crashed in oh-six. The police reports stated that there would have been a lot more people dead if she hadn’t shown up so quickly.’

‘I guess. It’s just a little scary meeting someone with that kind of power.’

‘You’ll be fine. You’re good with people and you’ve been hanging around Red and Bobby for nearly a year.’

A knock on the door stopped the conversation going further. June answered it, and Dom strode in, still dressed in the very un-Dom skirt suit she had worn on the plane.

‘You are settling in?’ the Russian asked, smiling. ‘You do not mind sharing the bed, I hope?’ There was just the one bed in the room the two girls were sharing, but it was king-sized.

‘I think there’s enough room,’ Penny replied. ‘As long as June can keep her hands to herself, of course.’

June’s cheeks coloured. ‘I think we’ll manage.’

‘Good,’ Dom said, grinning broadly. ‘I am going out to the airport to collect Moon Coyote and another young model we have coming out from LA. You have the rest of the day to yourselves, do as you wish. At seven we will all meet in the restaurant for a meal and introductions.’

‘For a model, you seem to be doing a lot of the organising,’ Penny observed.

‘We do this on a low budget to maximise returns for the charity. I volunteered to handle the models, hiring, and making sure they are cared for on the shoot.’

‘Oh, well if you need some secretarial work done,’ June said, grinning, ‘we’re available at no extra charge.’

‘I will keep this in mind,’ Dom replied. She turned and opened the door. ‘Enjoy your afternoon, tomorrow the work begins.’

~~~

The hotel they were staying in was not huge, but it was privately owned and on the northern end of Miami Beach. It had a pool, but the sand was a hundred yards away. It also had a spa with saunas and massage tables, and Dom had arranged access for her models.

And that was why, after some persuasion from June, Penny found herself lying on her stomach wearing nothing but a towel draped over her buttocks, while a rather attractive woman named Stefanie, who had very strong hands, turned her muscles into soup.

‘I don’t think I can move,’ she drawled, the sound somewhat muffled by the pillow her face was half-pressed into.

‘That’s kind of the idea,’ June mumbled from the table beside hers.

‘I think it’s some sort of super power. It’d be great for incapacitating people.’

‘I think it’s too slow. Just relax.’

‘I am relaxed. If I get more relaxed I’ll fall asleep.’

‘If madam wishes, that won’t be a problem,’ Stefanie put in.

‘I’m enjoying it too much. You have really talented hands.’ As soon as she said it, Penny was wondering what she was thinking, but Stefanie seemed unfazed.

‘Madam has exceptionally fine muscle tone. It’s always a pleasure to work on a body like yours.’

Penny was really not used to flirting and, taken at face value, the statement was just a compliment on a body which was, after all, enhanced by whatever power drove Ultrahumans. It was just that Cygnus was a far more libidinous woman than Penny, and she thought it was a come-on.

Stefanie’s hands lifted from Penny’s back and the masseuse said, ‘If madam would turn over when she is ready? I’ll work on your front next.’

Penny swallowed. Cygnus really wanted Stefanie to work on her front.

~~~

‘Stefanie was after giving you more than a rub down,’ June stated, her lips curled into a mischievous smirk.

Stretched out on a bench in the women’s sauna with her eyes closed, Penny could not really tell whether she was blushing. She also could not see the smirk, but she could hear it. If the smirk had not been there, Penny might have gone for embarrassed surprise, but since June was being mean…

‘I wasn’t entirely sure about that until she started working on my thighs. I think I was actually vibrating.’

‘That’s mean. I want to make your thighs vibrate.’

‘We’ll be in bed together tonight…’

There was a fraction of a second of silence while June tried to work out whether she was being serious or not. Then, ‘Don’t tease me like that.’

‘You’re pouting, aren’t you?’

‘Yes I am.’

Penny gave a weary-sounding giggle and turned to lie flat on the bench, one arm over her eyes.

‘Cygnus would take you to bed,’ Penny said after a minute of silence.

‘What?!’

‘Penny’s straight… I think Cygnus will take it where she finds it. That joke about you keeping your hands to yourself? It applies to me too.’

‘Uh… Well…’

‘You’ve got Red, I’ve got Bobby, and we’re friends. Do you really want to change that? It could complicate things. A lot.’

‘I… You’re right. It would get very complicated. I think I’d rather have you as a friend than worry over what might happen if it became something else.’

‘Exactly.’

Penny was not quite certain that June sighed; it might have been the steam hissing in the pipes. She decided it was best to think it was.

~~~

Not knowing what to wear for the first meeting of the shoot, and knowing that it was more of a meet-and-greet than a staff meeting, Penny and June went for mini-dresses and heels. They were in good company. Dom had finally given in to the warm, humid atmosphere of southern Florida in November, and was back in a strapless, very short dress and high-heeled slingbacks. Everyone else was similarly dressed, aside from the photographer; he was in shorts.

Penny took stock as she walked across the restaurant floor toward the table Dom had arranged for the group. There were six girls at the table she did not recognise, as well as the lone man. Dom had all the bases covered, it seemed: blondes, brunettes, redheads, buxom, small, wide hips, and narrow ones. One of the women had to be Susan, the make-up artist, though they all looked attractive enough to be models.

One of them was almost certainly Moon Coyote. She did not quite have the stereotypical Native American feature set, but there was definitely a lot of it there, and her skin was the classic reddish-brown. There were also tattoos on her left arm and chest, quite visible in the pale-cream tank-dress she was wearing. The arm one seemed to have a lot of feathers while the one on her chest looked like a dreamcatcher strung as a necklace.

‘Ah,’ Dom said as they walked up to the table, ‘now we are complete, aside from one other who has yet to confirm…’ She frowned and then smiled again. ‘But we will get to that. Introductions!’

There were names; Penny hoped she would be able to match them with the faces in the morning. Susan the make-up girl, who was also handling costumes and dropping Dom’s name a lot to get permissions for sites to shoot in, was one of the blondes. She was attractive, but not as secure about herself as the other girls seemed to be. Well, less and more; Susan was not the kind of girl who took off her clothes and posed in front of a camera, but she also did not obsess about calorie intake and carbohydrates. The photographer was Jon, without an ‘h’; he made a point of that. He was pretty rather than handsome, young and cute rather than manly. If he was gay he was catering to the stereotypes too much, but he seemed too enamoured of Dom’s breasts for that. Moon Coyote told everyone to call her ‘Moon.’ She had given up her real name, she said, and ‘Moon’ was not a bad name anyway.

Penny was introduced as Cygnus. Three of the girls had flown down with them from New Millennium, though one, Hanna, was from DC. They all recognised her from ACPN or other news channels. Shona, the girl from Los Angeles, recognised Cygnus from a cable show she watched on Ultrahuman fashion.

‘June designed my costume,’ Penny said. ‘She’s to blame.’ Which got some giggles.

The chatter over dinner was mostly about modelling, which left Penny and Moon a bit out of things. Dom had selected models who were building their careers, so there were a lot of questions for the more senior woman to answer. She admitted up front that the reason for picking unknowns was financial; the more costs they could trim, the more money they could eventually hand over to charity. That it gave young models a chance to appear on a, hopefully, popular calendar and so get them more jobs was a plus.

‘Tomorrow,’ Dom said as the coffee was served, ‘we start work. Susan and Jon will be taking most of you out to start getting solo shots done. All of you will have at least one solo picture published, so we will need to do a lot of shooting to find just the right one. Later in the week, we will set up some pairs, perhaps a group one. We will see how that goes.’

‘You won’t be with us?’ Hanna asked. She was the least confident of the group.

‘I’ll be going out with Moon, Cygnus, and June to meet our other model. Hopefully we can persuade her that the cause is a good one.’

‘Just try not to make her angry,’ Susan put in. She was a local girl and had been doing most of the work in trying to persuade Ever to join the team. ‘Seriously, you don’t ever want to see her when she’s pissed off.’

New Millennium City, MD.

‘I’m glad you like the dress,’ Andrea purred.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ Lena replied.

Technically, the garment had been classed as a slip, but given the circumstances it counted as a dress. Black, very stretchy, strapless, with lace cups. Andrea had been a little embarrassed buying it, especially since the saleswoman had made some comment about her boyfriend being a lucky guy. The point was that Lena was enjoying pawing her through the thin fabric.

‘The guy on the door downstairs enjoyed it too,’ Andrea added.

Lena grunted disapproval. ‘I’d mention that to Poppa, but then the guy might end up in the bay with his throat slit.’ Her hands worked the skirt up a couple of inches. Her fingers brushed the bare skin of Andrea’s behind.

‘Seems like the security is a little less heavy-handed. Just more groping.’

‘Poppa’s backed off the Cygnus woman,’ Lena replied. Her fingers starting to tease. ‘He’s just worried about Twilight sneaking in here.’ Andrea squirmed as Lena found a sensitive spot. Lena giggled. ‘There’s some guy out there hunting Cygnus. The guards say he’s killed Ultras before.’

Andrea focussed on what the fingers were doing to avoid tensing. Someone was hunting Cygnus, someone who had killed Ultras in the past, and she was out of town and probably not being as careful as she should be.

‘If you don’t get serious with those fingers soon, I’ll pout.’

Lena giggled again. ‘Don’t take the dress off; you look really sexy in it.’

‘Your wish is my command,’ Andrea replied. ‘All night.’

10th November.

Andrea opened her eyes and found herself looking at a mass of blonde hair. She was spooned against Lena’s naked back, in her big bed, and, for just a second, it felt remarkably good. The mobster’s daughter was warm, her skin was smooth, and she had genuine affection for the woman in bed with her. Andrea did not have anyone else in her life who actually felt that way about her…

But it was a lie, and she knew it. She would leave this place feeling disgusted with herself, go home and shower until she felt less dirty, and then plot ways of killing Lena’s father. In a way, Andrea hoped that Lena never discovered that she was Twilight; the girl had not asked to be the daughter of the man Andrea blamed for her brother’s death, and the betrayal would hurt. Maybe it would hurt more than just Lena.

Pushing the thought aside, Andrea turned from Lena’s back and sat up on the edge of the bed. Her slip was now a belt, but she was still wearing it, as requested. She pulled it up over her breasts and then stood to shimmy it back over her hips. There was a stirring behind her.

‘You’re going?’ Lena’s voice was sleepy, and plaintive.

‘I have to,’ Andrea replied, not turning around.

‘You could stay for breakfast…’

‘I can’t. Sorry.’ Fixing her face into a smile, she turned and kneeled on the edge of the bed to give Lena a kiss. It turned deeper than she had intended, lingering until Andrea pulled away, unaccountably embarrassed. ‘I… really need to go.’ Turning, she started for the bedroom door.

‘I’ll call you,’ Lena said; it was her way of not saying goodbye.

‘Please,’ Andrea replied. It was crazy, but she wanted that. In Lena’s room, where she had to be on her guard against giving herself away and she made love to a woman to get information, she felt more like Andrea than she ever did outside. Outside, Twilight was always there to push her onward.

I’m really messed up, she thought as she found her shoes and coat.

Miami, FL.

Penny’s eyes fluttered open and she found herself looking at a mass of black hair. Sometime in the night she had ended up curled up against June’s back, cuddled against her as Bobby did to Penny some nights. There was a flicker of panic which subsided quickly. It was not like they were having sex; cuddling was okay, right? Friends could cuddle.

After a few seconds, however, Penny decided that proprieties should be observed and rolled onto her back.

‘I was enjoying that,’ June mumbled. ‘It’s not like we’re naked.’

That was true; they were both in cropped tops and panties having decided that nude was not a great way to proceed. It was not as much fabric as Penny had thought, when it came down to it.

‘Yeah, well… It’s time to get up.’

‘We’ve got an hour before breakfast.’

‘Oh… If I turn back I’ll… change things. I’m going to take a shower.’

‘Okay. Wake me when you come out if I nod off again.’

‘Sure.’ Penny slipped out from under the covers and padded around the carpet toward the bathroom.

‘This is going to be harder than I thought,’ June mumbled just before Penny opened the door.

Pausing with her hand on the handle, Penny tried to think of an answer and finally decided there was not really a good one. She carried on going as though she had not heard her friend.

The Everglades.

Moon Coyote checked the GPS device she was using to navigate, looked down, and then pointed toward a small, wooden building perched on an island in the swamp.

‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘Down there.’

Dom checked where she was pointing and then started down. Moon was in her arms as they flew over the Everglades. Behind and slightly above, Penny was carrying June, and she followed Dom downward toward the small jetty beside the hut.

‘This is where we’re meeting her?’ June asked once all four of them were on the deck.

‘According to this,’ Moon replied, waving her GPS.

‘She can’t leave the Everglades for too long,’ Dom said, ‘finds it uncomfortable when she does, and we are trying to persuade her, so we meet her where she says.’

Penny walked up to the hut, knocked on the door and got no answer, and then tried the door, finding it unlocked. Inside were a couple of straight-backed wooden chairs, a small table against one wall, a cupboard, and no sign of anyone.

‘Well,’ she told the others, ‘she’s not here yet.’

Dom looked up, checking the position of the sun. ‘I think we’re a little early…’

There was a sound: a rippling of water, or a rustling of leaves. It became more pronounced, like a sudden rush of waves, and they all turned toward the end of the jetty in time to see Ever emerging from the shallow water as though she were growing out of the mud beneath.

She was, for want of a better word, beautiful; Penny could definitely see why Dom wanted her on the calendar. Her body was slim and long in the leg and she had very full, very pert breasts, but the first thing you noticed about her was her skin. It was green, the verdant green of healthy plant life. Her eyes were blank, green orbs, adding an exotic touch of unreality to her. Her hair, which was straight and fell to her waist, was a luscious blue-green colour, paler at the crown. And she was quite naked.

Ever stepped up onto the wooden deck, her eyes scanning over the four women. There was no animosity there, but there was no real pleasure in seeing them either.

‘You are a little early,’ Ever said, her voice soft and sultry, ‘but I was watching the hut. I don’t keep time by watches and humans aren’t used to working from the sun and moon.’

‘Ever,’ Dom said, stepping forward and smiling. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am…’

‘Dominika Zuyev,’ Ever interrupted. ‘Your associate mentioned your name and I asked one of the Rangers about you. He showed me your picture on a magazine.’ She had a distant sort of tone, a little like she was above everything and everyone, or her mind was elsewhere.

‘Right. You asked to meet me and the other Ultras on the project. This is Moon Coyote…’

Ever bowed her head to the Native American. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t got on so well with the local Seminole since they began their gambling activities. Too much business, not enough nature.’

‘I’m Cahuilla,’ Moon replied, ‘though I try to be a representative of all our tribes as much as possible.’

‘And this is Cygnus,’ Dom went on. ‘She’s quite a new Ultra, but she’s been making a name for herself in New Millennium.’

‘And she is very attractive,’ Ever said, smiling for the first time, ‘which cannot hurt sales.’

‘Not at all.’

Penny blushed. ‘No more attractive than you, Ever.’

Ever lifted a hand, looking at her long, green fingers. ‘Many prefer their women to be pink, or at least a shade normally found in humans.’

‘I doubt that’ll be a problem for our market,’ Dom replied. ‘We also brought along June here. She’s not an Ultra, but she’s a friend of Cygnus’ and I wanted you to meet one of our normal models.’

‘Pleased to meet you, ma’am,’ June said, looking a little awed. If Penny were honest, she was feeling a little awed herself.

‘Ma’am?’ Ever said, the smile becoming a grin. ‘I don’t think I’m that old yet. Go in. I keep this place in case I have to meet people from outside. Most of them come by boat…’

‘Most probably can’t fly,’ Penny replied. As she turned toward the door again, it opened on its own. She glanced back at Ever and noted the mischievous quirk which had crept over her grin; among Ever’s extensive list of powers was the control of plants and wood.

There were not enough chairs, but Ever settled herself on the floor as soon as she was inside, so Penny did the same. Moon actually looked more comfortable cross-legged on the floorboards, which left Dom and June to sit on the seats mainly because it would have looked rude not to use them.

‘Susan tells me that you are aiming to raise money for various ecological projects,’ Ever said, getting straight down to business.

That was Dom’s domain. ‘Susan came up with the idea. There are four conservation projects in the Glades, and two around Chesapeake Bay which I thought deserved some extra funding.’

The green woman nodded. ‘Susan told me of the four here. I’m aware of them. I approve. Your two… are outside of my domain. I am inclined to participate, but I am unused to posing for photographs.’

‘Well, neither am I,’ Moon told her. ‘I agreed to this because, well, it’s a good cause and my fee is going to a project I have helping young Cahuilla get to college.’

‘And I’ve never done this before,’ Penny added. ‘June’s the one with the modelling career planned out. No one’s even mentioned being paid, but I think I’d have to find a charity to give the money to anyway.’

‘I’m the one with the experience,’ Dom said. ‘All of the models are new to the business, or not in it. The aim is to give the girls a good start as well as make some money.’

Ever looked between them. ‘Would I need to wear those pointless bits of cloth? I’m not very fond of clothing.’

Dom grinned; she had her final model, and she knew it. ‘If we put you in anything, we’ll take pains to ensure it’s all natural fibres, but we can work with nude. It’s not going to be that sort of calendar, but it’s just a matter of pose. Jon is very good at getting just the kind of angle and position we need. Just enough flesh on show, not too much.’

Ever shrugged. ‘I’ll never understand what humans have against their own bodies.’

Penny frowned. ‘As I understand it, you were human once.’

‘I remember fragments of Perpetua Donnelly. Her feelings and morals are distant memories, though her ideals were close to mine. I’m more… elemental. I’m closer to the plants and animals of the swamp than I am to her.’ Ever gave a small smile. ‘I think she would have loved it. I understand the ecology of this place the way she strived to. Oh, I can’t really spend too much time on Miami Beach…’

‘Not a problem,’ Dom replied. ‘It’s for nature, we’d like to do some shooting around here, if you’re okay with that?’

‘I know some very beautiful spots.’

Dom nodded. ‘I was hoping you did, but I think… Perhaps we could use this cabin. We can get one of the blondes on the jetty in a pair of Daisy Dukes with a fishing pole.’

Ever laughed. ‘I will do my best to keep the insects at bay.’

Miami, FL.

Penny touched down beside the hotel’s pool and put June carefully down on her feet. The heat in the city, even on the ocean coastline, was oppressive, even if the humidity had dropped a little.

‘That went well, I thought,’ June said. Her gaze swept the poolside, scanning over the bodies doing their best to cook themselves. ‘I think a bikini is in order. I’m going to work on my tan while I can.’

‘Probably a good idea,’ Penny agreed, but something did not feel right. There was something…

She turned her head and spotted the man sitting beside the bar. He was tall, heavily built, huge even, with short-cropped, blonde hair and, she thought, blue eyes. His jaw was solid, his lips thin, and those blue eyes were watching her. Of course, there were several people around the pool watching the arrival of the Ultras and June, but this one seemed more intent, even sitting there in a pair of swimming trunks. Despite his age, which had to be over fifty, he looked pretty good in a pair of Speedos.

‘Yeah,’ Penny continued. ‘I’ll join you. Have to try on that bikini sometime.’

New Millennium City, MD.

Jacob Dannon opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his bedroom. Something had woken him and he was not sure what. He kept his room dark; he liked a real blackout to fall asleep in, but it did mean that seeing anything that might be there was almost impossible.

His gaze shifted toward the foot of the bed. The shadows there seemed darker, or was it something dark standing… No, crouching on the rail… It moved.

‘Oof!’ Dannon said as Twilight landed on him. Her legs straddled his hips, her arms rested on his chest. Her breath was on his face and, this close, he could see the grin on her lips.

‘Evening, Special Agent,’ she purred.

‘You really… have to stop doing this,’ Dannon grunted in reply. ‘How did you get in anyway?’

‘I have my ways. You said there were four people who broke out of the Fortress. One of them was some sort of Ultra hunter.’

‘Jasper Conrad. Jasper Philip Conrad the Third, actually. Austrian. He used to hunt big game in Africa, illegally for the most part, but he decided that wasn’t a big enough challenge. Went mercenary. Fought in Bosnia when that went up, tried his luck in South America against the Amazon Queen’s forces. Now he hunts Ultras.’ The lithe young woman lying atop him shifted slightly and he swallowed.

‘I think he’s hunting Cygnus. I heard David Tonaldo’s rescinded her bounty because someone who’s good at killing Ultras is after her. Is he?’

‘After her, or good at killing Ultras?’

‘Either.’

‘We’ve no idea where he is so I can’t speak for the former. He has a dozen confirmed kills to his name. One was a magnitude four.’

‘Thanks. You might want to inform your Miami office that he could be down there. Otherwise, I think he’ll be around New Millennium.’

‘I’ll do that. You know, you could have just come to the office.’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’ She shifted her hips and grinned. ‘You seem to be enjoying a more personal service as well.’

‘This could be considered sexual harassment.’

‘We wouldn’t want that…’ She rolled off him, falling off the side of the bed in a fluid movement that left him blinking. There was no sound of her hitting the floor.

Reaching out, he turned on the bedside lamp, and then looked down. There was no sign of her, not even under the bed. Dannon rolled onto his back again and sighed. ‘There is no way I’m getting back to sleep now.’

Miami, FL.

There was a message from Twilight waiting for her when Penny signed into UltraNet. Her phone had chirped an alert when she turned it on, and she had frowned and unpacked her laptop. June had grumbled about her bringing work on her working vacation, but if something had pinged then it was probably urgent. Seeing that it was from Twilight, Penny figured it was very urgent since her shadowy partner did not send messages otherwise.

It was a very short message. Jasper Conrad. T.

Frowning, Penny did a search on the name and got an UltraNet profile from the criminal section. There was a picture, and she felt a chill run down her spine when she saw it. Blonde, blue-eyed, lantern-jawed, and he had been sitting beside the pool at her hotel the day before. The report stated that he had been incarcerated for the murder of an Ultra named Violet, based out of Chicago. Despite the unassuming name, Violet had been a skilled huntress of criminals. Conrad had put two bullets in her chest from five thousand yards. The fact that he was in Miami and Twilight had dropped his name suggested he was hunting Cygnus.

Penny picked up the room’s phone and punched in a number. A second or two later, it was answered and she said, ‘Dom, I think we may have a problem.’

~~~

‘Are you sure it’s safe to be standing around in the open?’ June asked, keeping her voice down so that none of the others present heard her.

Penny adjusted the cups on her bikini bra, again, frowning at the little triangles of fabric. ‘His MO is to watch, learn your behaviour, and then ambush,’ she replied. ‘That’s why he was here. Dom says the UID are keeping an eye out for him. All the local Ultras are as well. It’s probably too hot for him right now, so he’ll likely stay hidden. I don’t think this is the right size.’

June gave her a glower. ‘You’re being far too blasé about this, and no, it’s two sizes too small. It makes your tits look bigger.’

‘You don’t think they look big enough?’

‘It’s a trick of the trade. You should be watching Sharon for tips on how to pose, not worrying over your costume.’

Sharon was a buxom young blonde who was currently being photographed by Jon. They were up on a rooftop overlooking the ocean, so the backdrop was fairly pretty, but also did not detract from the model. That was what Jon had said anyway. Penny turned her attention to the ongoing shoot, but she was really not that clear on why one pose was better than another. They all seemed to revolve around pushing your chest out in one way or another. There was the curve of the back, and the placing of one leg forward.

‘I’m not sure I’m ever going to get this,’ Penny admitted. ‘I don’t really think I’m cut out for doing this professionally.’

‘Wait and see what the pictures come out like,’ June suggested, ‘and try not to look too vacant.’

‘Sharon looks kind of vacant.’

‘Sharon is kind of vacant,’ June said, keeping her voice down again, ‘but you’re an Ultra. Try for determined, or intense, or… or imagine Bobby’s standing beside Jon’s shoulder and you want him to jump your bones right this minute.’

‘June!’

‘What? It’s all about attitude. Your thoughts come out in the picture, really. I’ll be imagining Red’s standing there.’

‘I think that’s enough,’ Jon said, getting up from where he had been kneeling and walking over to a small table to swap the memory card on his camera. ‘June, you’re up.’

June began walking toward the lounger Sharon had been using. Each step put more swing in her hips as she got into character. Penny watched her, taking in as much detail as she could. It seemed like her friend was right: it was all about the attitude. Jon seemed to be giving her a little less instruction than he had Sharon: ‘turn here,’ ‘look left,’ ‘perfect…’

Penny moved to a position just behind Jon’s left shoulder to watch. The photographer did not seem to mind. June did not seem to mind either; her gaze shifted to look at Penny, which was not enough away from the lens to spoil the shots. Penny swallowed; June’s eyes were positively smouldering. Her lips parted, she reached up and pushed her hair up and back, the action pushing her chest out. If June was imagining Red standing there then… Well that was fine, but Penny got the impression that June was posing for her, not the Huntress. There was a look in her eyes, an aching longing for something just beyond her reach…

‘I think that’ll do,’ Jon said suddenly. Penny shook her head, wondering how long he had been snapping pictures, or rather how long she had been staring at June. ‘I’m not sure how many of those we’ll be able to use,’ the photographer added. ‘We don’t want men stalking you after seeing them, but they were excellent.’ He looked over his shoulder at Penny. ‘Think you can do something like that?’

‘No, but I can try.’

‘If you can do half as well we’ll have some good shots.’

‘Right.’ Penny’s legs felt oddly rubbery as she swapped places with June. Going to bed tonight was going to be extra tough.

New Millennium City, MD.

‘There’s something that would probably increase sales,’ Roger Peters said from his place beside the cash register at the back of the store.

Andrea looked over at him. He was reading a newspaper, somewhere around page five. ‘What’s that, Roger?’

‘That Russian Ultra, Svetilo, has organised some calendar shoot in Miami.’

‘I heard about that, so?’

‘She’s got that new girl, Cygnus, doing it. Now, if we could get her in here signing a few comics, we could have queues out the door.’

In truth, queues out the door would not have taken much; Radium Comics was not a large shop. ‘I think she works nights,’ Andrea replied. ‘Probably has a day job. The only time she’s been seen in daylight was on a Saturday. You’d have to open out of normal hours.’

Peters folded his newspaper. ‘It might be worth it. Things have been a little tight recently.’

‘Oh…’ Andrea bit her lip, wondering whether she should say what was springing to mind. Cygnus already knew who she was, but was this giving away a little too much? ‘She goes to the Huntress’ Den on a Friday night fairly often. I… I suppose I could ask her if I saw her there.’

Peters looked at her, his eyes narrowing. ‘Think she would?’

‘I have no idea. The little bits of interview I’ve seen… she’s no publicity hound, but she might take the opportunity to meet people and promote that calendar.’

‘Okay… I don’t really think I should be asking you to do this, but… if you see her…’

‘No harm in asking,’ Andrea suggested. ‘Just so long as this isn’t just to get a close-up look at a tall blonde in a next-to-nothing costume.’

Peters hand clutched at his chest melodramatically. ‘Andrea, you wound me.’

Andrea turned back to her inventory taking with a grin on her lips. ‘Sure. Right…’

Miami, FL.

Dom was going over the stills taken over the last two days, flicking through them rapidly on a tablet computer, when Penny and June joined the others for dinner. Every so often she would pause, examining a frame more closely, and then move on.

‘We have some excellent shots here, girls,’ the Russian said. She turned her gaze to June. ‘You in particular, June, have a knack for this kind of shoot, I think. If someone looked at me the way you looked into the camera, I should be a puddle on the floor.’ Dom’s eyes flicked to Penny; Jon had been talking.

‘Tomorrow,’ Dom went on, ‘we will give some of you a rest day. Shona, June, and Cygnus will be going out to the Everglades with me. Everyone else can work on their tans. Susan will be calling you in to check the fits on some lingerie we want to use for interior shots.’

‘You want me in a swamp?’ Shona asked.

‘Oh yes. We have something special which your physique is perfectly suited to. And you will get to meet Ever who will make sure neither mosquitos nor alligators try to take a bite out of you.’

‘Well, that’s a comfort.’

~~~

Penny found herself lingering in the bathroom. She took extra time to brush her teeth, and then found herself staring at her reflection in the mirror for a long time. She knew she was putting off climbing into bed with June; she knew it, and Cygnus wanted her to get over it. Cygnus wanted her to walk in there and seduce her friend. June was Penny’s friend; Cygnus wanted a lover. What made it really hard was that Penny knew that June wanted the same.

‘Fuck you,’ Penny whispered to the mirror, ‘cuddling is all you’re going to get.’

Turning, she marched into the bedroom and around the bed. She slipped in under the covers without saying anything and turned on her side, facing away from June. There was a slight pause and then June shifted over, curling up behind Penny’s… no, against Cygnus’ back.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ June whispered.

‘No… of course not.’ Reaching out, Penny turned off the lights and there was silence for a minute or two.

‘June?’ Penny said, her voice soft.

‘Uh-huh?’

‘When you were up on the roof doing all that smouldering at the camera…’

‘Yeah?’

‘You were imagining that Red was there, right?’

There was a tiny pause, barely perceptible, but definitely there. ‘Yeah. Of course I was.’

Penny closed her eyes. ‘Okay,’ she said, accepting the lie. ‘Night, June.’

‘Night, Pen.’

New Millennium City, MD, 11th November.

Twilight watched men carrying boxes down out of a disused shop in Churchton. The north end of the district had been one of the earliest parts of the city to be built; there had been a need for housing for construction workers and, even more than the rest of the area, this part had fallen into disrepair once Friendship had been built. The buildings were, for the most part, tall and bleak; urban sprawl at its worst with many an unused commercial enterprise.

The thought occurred that she had not taken down a group like this without Cygnus in a while. With the brightly dressed, bulletproof flyer around life got easier. She was going to have to do this the hard way, but it was how she had worked for a year before they had teamed up.

Turning, she stepped into one shadow and instantly stepped out of the shadow of the van they were loading. The driver was waiting impatiently in the cab for the others to finish. He did not see her, even when she stepped up to the side of the open cab and smacked one of her batons over the back of his head.

Slipping silently to the rear of the van, she glanced out toward the shop. There were no lights visible through the open door. They were working from the dim light managing to get in from the street light. She waited until the four loaders were either at the van or walking to it, and then she shadow-stepped into the building.

The place was coated in dust, aside from the places on the floor and shop counter where boxes had been sitting. Moving quickly, Twilight grabbed a box and ducked behind the counter with it. It was heavy, despite being only about eighteen inches wide by ten high. A small knife taken from her belt slit the tape holding the box closed and she opened it up. Bank notes looked up at her. They looked real, but why would someone be moving boxes of money at two in the morning if they were not bogus? Why hide them in an old newsagent’s shop? She sniffed; the smell of fresh ink was, perhaps, a little too strong.

‘Hey, weren’t there ten boxes left?’ The voice came from the other side of the counter. Someone in the group was more observant than the usual for Tonaldo goons.

‘You sure?’ a second voice said. ‘Remember what happened when you tried t’ do your own taxes?’

‘I can count to fucking ten. Boss’ll have our balls if we lose one.’

Twilight reached to her belt, pressing a catch which dropped a pair of smoke pellets into her palm. It was time to move. Her arm swung around in an arc, tossing the two small spheres upward where they hit the ceiling. There were two loud cracks and the room filled with smoke. Of course, that left Twilight blind as well, but she did not need to stay there. She vanished, reappearing beside the van and moving into immediate action.

Bank notes exploded around her as she kicked through a box into the man carrying it. Her arm arced around to bring her baton into violent contact with a second thug’s jaw. Her second baton appeared and she stepped between the men, whipping the twin sticks into her victims’ skulls, and they went down just as the two in the shop staggered out, coughing and spluttering, and waving pistols.

Now she dived backward, into the shadows in the back of the van. She heard the two men as she came at them from inside the shop.

‘There was someone there!’ That was the observant one.

‘I didn’t’ see anyone.’

‘There was! I think it was…’

He cut off with a yelp as she snapped her batons into their forearms. Automatics clattered across the sidewalk. She ducked under a wild swing and slammed her elbow into her attacker’s guts, winding him. There was pain in her back as Mister Observant landed a punch; she ignored it, swinging around to lash a baton into his face. Turning again, she drove her knee up into a face which was begging for it, and then turned to face the last man standing, even if it was more like reeling.

‘You… you’re that Twilight. Mister Tonaldo’ll pay a lot for your head.’

‘You won’t be collecting.’ Snap kick to the knee. She felt his kneecap give and heard the scream of pain, and cut it off by smashing the butt of a baton into the side of his head.

Then she listened. No sirens, no sounds at all. There were still people living around here, but none of them was going to call the cops when a fight started in the street. There were fake bank notes scattered all over the road. If anyone noticed they would come running, she was pretty sure of that.

Checking the pockets of her last victim, she found his phone and dialled 911. Technically, this was a borderline emergency, but if the police did not get there fast enough they would need riot teams.

The Everglades, FL.

‘Did you happen to see the news today?’ Dom asked as they watched Jon snapping pictures of Shona. The blonde was sitting on a wooden chair on the jetty beside Ever’s hut, dressed in a tiny bikini bra and a pair of ragged, blue-jean shorts, pretending to fish in the swamp. Ever was standing nearby, watching the proceedings with a grin on her face, and ensuring that none of the wildlife disturbed them.

‘No,’ Penny replied.

‘Your friend Twilight made the front page of the Millennial Times without you. Captured a cool million in counterfeit twenties in northern Churchton.’

Penny grinned. ‘Good for her.’

‘Someone actually got a picture and a couple of words out of her.’

‘Oh, she won’t like that.’

‘The words were printable. Perhaps some of your media savvy is wearing off on her.’

‘Huh. What is it you’re planning to do with me today?’

Dom seemed to consider for a moment. ‘Once we have some shots of Ever on her own, I want to do some group shots. You and Ever, you and June, all three of you. There is a pool of fairly clear water on the island behind the hut. Ever says it is waist deep and quite safe. We will get some nude shots in that, see which comes out best.’

‘Nude?’ Penny almost squeaked.

‘This will not be a problem, I hope? No one will see anything too intimate.’

Naked in a pool of water with June, or Ever for that matter? Yes of course it would be a problem. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m just not…’

‘You fly around New Millennium City in a semi-translucent costume which covers barely anything,’ Dom said, smiling. ‘Do not tell me you are modest. You have exceptional body, yes? You have nothing to be ashamed of.’

Penny had spent years being ashamed… No, that was wrong. Penny had never been ashamed of her body; she had just spent a long time thinking of it in negative terms. Now she was Cygnus, and she was fucking stunning! Damn right she had nothing to be ashamed of. Cygnus was not ashamed of anything! It was time to be Cygnus.

~~~

‘You seem… different,’ June commented. They were both up to their waists in water, hair slicked back, and naked. June was speaking sotto voce since Jon was busy snapping photographs.

‘I do?’ Cygnus replied.

‘Uh-huh. For starters, we’re breast-to-breast, buck naked, and you seem to be enjoying yourself.’

‘I’m being Cygnus. Cygnus thinks you’re hot and doesn’t have any problems with showing off.’

‘You’re talking like she’s a different person.’

‘Turn a little toward me, girls,’ Jon suggested. ‘Cygnus, if you keep your right arm roughly where it is… Yes, that’s perfect. No nipples.’

‘Well… isn’t she?’ Cygnus continued. ‘Penny is a doormat. She’s got no self-confidence. She’s…’

‘Got more humility?’

‘She’s got a lot to be humble about.’ Cygnus’ fingers stroked over June’s ass beneath the water. ‘And she’d never touch you like this.’

‘What happened to destroying our friendship?’

‘I’ll probably start worrying about that again when the camera’s off me.’

‘Then Penny comes back?’

Cygnus’ fingers shifted and June let out a tiny gasp just as Jon hit the shutter release. ‘Perfect, June!’ the photographer said.

‘Probably,’ Cygnus said.

~~~

Dom and Jon had decided on something a little different for Ever and Cygnus. They had the two girls lying on the jetty, Cygnus against Ever’s green back, limbs and hair providing suitable censorship.

‘You are,’ Ever said softly, ‘more like me than Svetilo.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Cygnus replied.

‘The power Ultras wield comes from an energy… outside of normal understanding.’

‘Oh… Well, yes. The scientists call it “cosmic energy.”’

‘The weapons people have created to disable Ultras negate their ability to use or direct this energy, but they do not work on me. My power comes from the swamp, from nature. Whether it is a different energy, or a different way of accessing the same energy, it is not the same.’

‘Okay.’ The girls moved as one, angling more toward the camera. Ever shifted her leg to ensure coverage below the waist and Cygnus found herself with an armful of green breasts.

‘You feel more like me than Svetilo does,’ Ever said.

Cygnus grinned, and then straightened her face quickly. ‘I’m no nature spirit, Ever.’

‘No, obviously, but you have tremendous power, and it flows… from within.’

Red had said she smelled different… And the device Pulya had used to negate Dom’s powers had done nothing to Cygnus… Maybe she was different somehow. If she was, how could she find out? And did she really want to know?

~~~

‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ Ever asked as she mock-frolicked with June and Cygnus in the pool.

‘Uh… not sure,’ June replied.

‘What are we doing tomorrow, Dom?’ Cygnus asked in a louder voice. She had her back to Jon and the camera was not going to notice her speaking.

‘You three have the day off.’ the Russian replied. ‘It’s time I got in front of the camera or we will have no pictures of me for the calendar.’

‘Would you like a tour of my swamp?’ Ever said. ‘I can show you it as no one else can.’

‘I’m game,’ June replied.

‘Sure,’ Cygnus agreed. ‘We get to take a boat, right?’

Ever grinned, and splashed Cygnus with water. ‘Unless you want to carry both of us, yes.’

‘Yes!’ Jon exclaimed. ‘That’s what this needs. More of that, ladies.’

June and Ever looked at each other, and giggled, turning toward Cygnus.

‘Oh no,’ Cygnus said, ‘no ganging…’ Then the water hit her.

New Millennium City, MD.

David Tonaldo turned the device he had been given over in his hands. It looked like a medical inhaler, complete with an unmarked container of something inserted in the top. It was unmarked, because the something it contained was not any form of medication.

‘How many doses in this thing?’ he asked.

The man in the sharp suit with the immaculately cut blonde hair smiled at him. ‘Three, Mister Tonaldo.’

‘And what, exactly, does it do?’

‘Makes you feel like God.’

Tonaldo looked up at him. His name was Hernando Vasquez and he belonged to a small criminal organisation which wanted to be bigger, hailing from Brazil, or what was left of it after the Amazon Queen had claimed her share. Tonaldo had already decided he did not like the man, but the new drug he was selling could, potentially, be a lucrative proposition.

‘I should consider a less blasphemous choice of words, young man.’

Vasquez coughed. ‘You feel incredible, powerful. They say it’s like being an Ultra, except that you do not end up with powers, just a powerful desire to feel like that again.’

‘And what if you’re a real Ultra?’

‘We tried it on one. It was… explosive.’

Tonaldo frowned. ‘In what way?’

‘He exploded,’ Vasquez replied. ‘We have heard of a couple of other Ultras using it. One is in a coma, the other… her mind is gone. She sits in a hospital, staring at the wall. Has to be fed baby food.’

Tonaldo nodded. He had little love for Ultras, very little love at all. It sounded perfect. ‘We would need volume, and bulk rates. We would sell low to begin. This is something our customers would need to be hooked on, and then we can up the price.’

Vasquez’s smile faded. ‘Excelsior is not cheap to produce, and our operation cannot make large amounts yet.’

Tonaldo tossed the inhaler back to Vasquez and turned toward the door. ‘Then you come back to me when you can give me what I want.’

~~~

Twilight watched the meeting through binoculars from the rooftop opposite the hotel. It did not seem to have gone especially well for either side, but if Tonaldo was willing to leave the security of his apartments for a meeting, she wanted to know what it was about.

The tanned blonde in the expensive suit was an unknown. Twilight hated unknowns. Unknowns were likely to upset plans. It looked as though he had been trying to sell something. The man had the look of a South American used car salesman about him. Putting down her binoculars, she took out the small camera she carried around with her. Then she thought better of it; the camera was more useful for photographing documents than taking pictures at long range. This was going to call for an alternate strategy.

Hunkering down for a wait, Twilight lifted her binoculars and began her stakeout.

Miami, FL.

‘So am I talking to Cygnus, or Penny?’ June asked. She was standing in the doorway of the bathroom watching the tall blonde brush her teeth.

There was spitting and then a mumbled, ‘Both?’ Bending, she cupped a handful of water into her mouth, rinsed, spat again, and turned around. ‘Can’t I be both?’

‘Not sure. Penny doesn’t tease me like Cygnus does.’

Penny held up her hands, grinning. ‘No teasing, unless it gets better shots, and there are no cameras around.’ She paused. ‘At least I hope there are no cameras around.’

June shook her head, returning the grin. ‘I don’t think there are. Dom had the rooms swept by security. You got your shirt wet.’

Cygnus looked down at her chest and the water stain on the front of the camisole she was wearing. ‘I did… damn. Oh well…’ And she pulled her top off without a thought. ‘Come on, bed time. We’re going out early with Ever, remember?’

June’s brow wrinkled. She was no longer sure who the woman she was about to get into bed with thought she was, or even if it stayed constant for longer than two minutes. Whatever, she was fairly sure the ‘no teasing’ promise was not going to be kept.

New Millennium City, MD.

The car salesman was on the move. Twilight watched as he left the room, noted the black town car pulling up at the front of the hotel, and waited until she saw him appear before making her own move.

Appearing beside the car, she waited for him to step into the back with the courtesy light illuminating his features, and then straightening, snapping a quick picture before vanishing back into the shadows.

She had her picture, so leaving was an option, but he was going somewhere and it might be worth her while tailing him. The car pulled away and she considered for a second before shadow-stepping down the street to a new vantage point. The hotel was in the north of Uptown, and the salesman was heading south. Tonaldo had been risking his safety coming here, but a swanky hotel was not the best place to mount a sudden assassination attempt. The further south the salesman went, the more he moved away from Tonaldo’s zone of influence. Twilight frowned, and then ported down the street to follow.

The journey ended at a newly built, unoccupied apartment block on the western edge of Friendship. The city was expanding; not quickly, but a little more enthusiastically than some of the outlying towns wished. The building was one of several in this area which had been constructed in the last year. New Millennium was the new New York, with the dubious advantage of being closer to the national capital. People tended to dislike business and government being too close together, and now they were physically closer than ever.

There seemed to be no guards, even mundane ones from some company. There were flashes of light on the second storey, which suggested that there were people in there. Spotting what looked like an empty corridor on the floor above, she side-stepped through a shadow and then headed back toward the fire stairs at the back. One floor down, and she was just about to open the door when she heard the voices.

‘Room two-oh-four… Should be here.’

‘That’s the fire door, idiot. It’s this way.’

‘Why does this one want to meet here?’

‘Doesn’t matter. He wants to meet here so… What the fuck’s that?!’

‘That, gentlemen, is an example of what will happen to you if you cross me.’

The first two voices had Spanish or Portuguese accents, the third was American and oddly familiar. No one she could really place, but it was as if she had heard it before.

‘Where are you?’ the salesman asked. ‘Why can’t I see you?’

‘No one sees Ghostfire,’ the third voice said. ‘Enter the apartment. We will talk inside.’

There was the sound of a door opening and then closing. The voices were muted to nothing. Ghostfire? The mysterious backer of Thermite’s breakout. Apparently, from what she had heard, he was capable of invisibility. Twilight opened the fire door and peeked out.

There was… something standing in front of one of the doors on the corridor. At ten yards Twilight could smell it: rotting flesh and chemicals. The figure looked like a zombie, complete with pale, cadaverous skin; there were a few magicians who claimed it was possible to reanimate the dead, but this thing did not look like it had been brought back by magic, whatever magic was. She could see metal around the base of its skull, even an antenna mounted over one ear. This… creature was the result of some sort of sick, perverted science.

It was also in the way, but the antenna suggested it was in contact with Ghostfire or one of his people. The room had to have a fire escape… Turning, she slipped into the shadows, emerging outside and looking for a balcony or fire escape. It did not take long, but it was long enough that things seemed to have gone fairly sour already.

‘You’re telling me,’ Ghostfire was saying as she landed on the balcony outside the apartment’s window, ‘that your… Excelsior destroys Ultras? That you want to sell me, an Ultra, a drug which causes mental collapse or death?’

‘Uh, well, you don’t sell it to Ultras…’

‘It’s a vapour, is it not? Imagine the potential. Weaponised, you have the first anti-Ultra gas, and it even pacifies normals. I should kill both of you! Instead… If I ever see or hear of you attempting to trade this poison in New Millennium, you’ll end up like the door guard.’ There was a pause and then a scream, almost a wail; someone was terrified. ‘Are we quite clear?’

‘Yes!’ The salesman’s voice, so it was the other one who was still screaming. ‘Yes, sir. We will leave in the morning.’

Twilight turned and stepped into shadow. She would talk to Dannon about this. If someone was trying to sell some sort of poisonous drug, it was probably more than a local matter, and she could tell him about Ghostfire at the same time.

~~~

‘They were running so fast they didn’t even think of the fact that I was still holding their sample,’ Ghostfire said as he dropped the inhaler onto Kopf’s bench.

‘I don’t expect they will be back for it,’ Kopf replied, ignoring it for now. He was in the middle of a delicate distillation.

‘I want to know how it works, what it does, and how to counter it. It could make a very effective weapon, but not if I’m going to die from it.’

‘I will begin work in the morning.’

There was silence for a second. Kopf did not expect it to last; his protégé liked the sound of his own voice, especially when he had done something he wished to crow about.

‘What is so important that you can’t spare me a moment’s attention?’

‘The temperature of the flask must be kept within a very tight band, otherwise the distillate will be of insufficient purity and I will have another failure.’

‘Have you ever considered the possibility that it isn’t possible to give someone powers?’

‘Yes,’ Kopf replied. ‘In fact, I think it likely that a full manifestation of the gene will do nothing more than make it more likely that powers can develop in an individual under the correct circumstances.’

‘Then… why keep trying?’

‘I am a scientist,’ Kopf stated, his accent thickening. ‘I will give up when I have exhausted all possible ways of achieving my goal.’ His thin lips curled slightly. ‘That, and because I enjoy hearing the test subjects scream.’

The Everglades, FL, 12th November.

The boat had a shallow draught, screened water-jet engines, no cabin to speak of, and a flat forward deck which June was lying on wearing denim shorts over a bikini. Ever and Cygnus were in the back, and it was the latter who was driving. Ever did not get on well with machines.

‘Technology makes me uncomfortable,’ Ever was saying as they cruised at a fairly leisurely pace through the waterways. ‘Anything unnatural makes me uncomfortable, actually.’

‘Is that why Dom said she would make sure you wore natural fibres if they put you in anything?’ Cygnus asked.

‘Yes. Synthetic fibres interfere with my powers, as well as making me itch.’

‘What about rubber?’ June put in, her voice a little drowsy.

‘Natural latex is fine, synthetic is not. I prefer wearing nothing, however, and latex clothing is particularly constricting. The animals I care for don’t need clothes, I don’t need additional protection from the weather, I don’t see why I should indulge this odd prurience humans have for their bodies.’

‘There’s a historic and cultural aspect to it,’ June said. ‘It’s not just that Americans are prudes, it’s that they’ve had hundreds of years of cultural conditioning to the effect that sex is bad, and nudity is sex. Also, outdoors isn’t air conditioned.’

‘She walks around our apartment half-naked a lot,’ Penny said. Then she frowned slightly. ‘Not so much recently, but still…’

Ever smiled. ‘There is another, more practical, reason for my lack of clothing. When I step through the ground, I can’t take anything with me. If I did wear clothes I’d lose them fairly quickly.’

‘Oh, so that’s how you just appear out of the water.’

‘Yes. As long as I’m touching the soil, I can drop into it and emerge… more or less anywhere within the Everglades. I can see anywhere within them too. It lets me keep an eye on things since I can’t be everywhere at once.’

‘Useful,’ Cygnus commented.

‘This is idyllic,’ June said. ‘I mean, I never thought I’d say that about a swamp, but it’s really lovely. Perfect weather, it’s quiet…’

A loud crack echoed past them as though someone had heard her and decided to disturb the mood. Ever’s head went up and her eyes lost focus as she projected her senses out in the direction the sound had come from.

‘Did that sound like…?’ June began.

‘A gunshot,’ Cygnus finished. Her eyes scanned ahead for a waterway heading in the right direction, though she was unsure she could navigate without Ever’s help.

Ever blinked. ‘Continue ahead for half a mile and then turn left.’ There was a cold, angry edge to her voice. ‘Someone has killed an alligator. I was unable to find them before they hid.’

‘You don’t like hunters much, do you?’ Cygnus said.

‘Hunting for food, even for skins if done in moderation, I have no problem with. Animals kill for food, or in self-defence. Humans are animals with a greater brain capacity, I cannot deny them something I would accept from an alligator. Those who hunt for sport… Animals don’t murder for the pleasure of it.’

‘Can’t understand it myself,’ Cygnus replied.

June sat up and crawled across the deck as the boat picked up its pace. When she reached the cockpit she looked at Ever. ‘What are you going to do if you find him?’ Everyone had heard stories about Ever’s first year and how she had terrorised sport hunters in the Glades.

‘I used to sink them up to their necks in the mud at the bottom of a river,’ Ever replied. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.’

‘I’ve heard you set a monster of some sort loose on them a few times.’

Ever smiled, if rather maliciously. ‘A monster of sorts, yes. That is reserved for when I am especially angered. These days I generally leave them wrapped up in tall grass and call the Rangers.’

They twisted and turned through smaller and smaller rivers for around twenty minutes before they found the dead reptile, half-hauled out on a mud bank. Ever was over the side before they reached it, but she did not sink. Moving quickly, she ran ahead of the boat, across the surface of the water, to guide them in.

‘How did she do that?’ June asked, sotto voce.

‘No idea,’ Cygnus replied. ‘Though I think she has some control over the water in the Glades.’

‘What doesn’t she have control over?’

‘Hunters, apparently.’

With their boat pulled up onto the bank, Ever turned to the corpse. ‘Let’s see what we have,’ she said, starting toward the animal.

June turned to look, took two paces forward, and stopped. ‘Oh God… I can’t…’

Ever looked back at her. ‘Stay with the boat, June. This is… particularly unpleasant.’

Swallowing back bile, Cygnus steeled herself and walked alongside Ever to the gator’s body. The reason that June had stopped was that it was just a body. The head had been blown apart, almost destroyed by something impacting it on the left side, just behind the eye. The right side was just gone, ripped open and scattered across the mud.

‘This is not normal,’ Ever commented, her tone calmer than Cygnus had expected it to be.

‘Uh… no, it’s… it’s horrible.’

‘I refer to the extreme damage. Someone used a very large-calibre weapon and destroyed the skull. That is the part most hunters wish to keep.’

‘Oh.’ Something about that pulled at a memory, but it refused to surface. The shot had come from the left… She peered out across the scrub and mud in that direction, but there was no way she was going to be able to spot a hunter… A hunter with a big rifle… ‘Fuck! Get down, it’s a…’

It felt a bit like someone had rammed a red hot poker into her stomach very hard. She staggered back, clutching at her abdomen to the left of her navel and, for a second or so, she was not really sure what had happened. She heard June screaming, and Ever shouting something. The green woman grabbed her and tackled her to the floor, and then began dragging her toward the boat.

Cygnus’ head cleared and she turned over, grabbed Ever, and powered across the short distance to where June was waiting, low to the ground. Then she grabbed the front of June’s shorts and yanked her down behind the hull.

‘Conrad,’ Cygnus said. ‘It’s Conrad. He set a trap. He hunts Ultras, and with that gun…’ She took her hand away from her stomach and looked down at the wound. ‘Shit! I guess we know I can be wounded.’

‘Oh shit!’ June squeaked. ‘Oh shit, oh shit! We have to get you to a hospital.’

‘Yeah,’ Cygnus grumbled. ‘Damn bullet’s still in there. I’m alive. I don’t think I’m even badly hurt. Not too badly anyway. Another shot like that…’

Ever’s eyes were unfocussed again as she stared off in the direction Conrad had fired from. ‘I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he’s vanished. Is this man an Ultra?’

‘A normal, but an exceptional stalker.’

Looking back down, Ever nodded. ‘He may be waiting for another shot, but we have to risk it. There is a first-aid kit in the cockpit. June, if you would drive. Try to keep low. I’ll try to patch this wound until we can get you somewhere where they can deal with it properly.’

~~~

‘I feel fine, honest,’ Penny said. ‘Now that they’ve taken the bullet out anyway. I’m afraid I won’t be much use for anything other than shots of my back for a while though. Sorry.’

Dom looked at her as though she had gone mad. ‘I’m more concerned that you get better than that we may not be able to use you for shooting for the rest of the week.’

‘Well… I heal fast. They want to keep me in here overnight and check how I’m doing in the morning. Really, it’s not as bad as it looks.’

‘It did look a lot worse when it happened,’ June put in from the chair in the corner she had been sitting in since Penny had been brought back from surgery.

‘Bullet wounds often do,’ Dom replied. ‘The UID took the bullet. They are liaising with Ever to search the swamp, but they think Conrad has probably vacated the area having failed.’

‘I guess we can hope so,’ Penny said. ‘I could do without getting shot again this week.’

New Millennium City, MD.

‘I was surprised to get your message,’ Dannon said. ‘You usually just break into my bedroom.’

Bryant, standing beside him, gave first him and then Twilight a look. ‘Not sure I want to know.’

‘I thought we could keep this relatively official,’ Twilight said, ignoring the other woman.

‘And that’s why we’re meeting in the docks instead of the office?’ Bryant asked.

‘I don’t like offices.’ Twilight produced a smartphone and popped up a picture of the salesman from the night before. ‘Any idea who this is? Sounded foreign, maybe Spanish, or Brazilian.’

Dannon squinted at the picture. Bryant pulled out her own smartphone, tapped it a few times, scanned through something quickly, and then said, ‘Yup, I thought I’d seen him. Hernando Vasquez, Brazilian national. The FBI has him on a watch list and he was flagged coming into the country two days ago. Left today.’

‘This is why I like my partner,’ Dannon commented dryly, ‘she remembers everything.’

Twilight gave them a slight grin. ‘Well, Mister Vasquez met with David Tonaldo, and then with someone calling himself “Ghostfire.” He was trying to sell them a drug, Excelsior. From what I heard, it has some nasty effects on Ultras.’

‘You saw Ghostfire?’ Dannon asked.

‘Well, no. Neither did Vasquez. Guy’s invisible. He’s got some way of terrifying people and… He had this thing with him.’

‘Thing?’

‘Smelled like a corpse, looked like a corpse, but it was walking around and it had a lot of tech built into its skull.’

‘That sounds vaguely familiar,’ Bryant said, frowning. ‘It’ll come to me.’

‘So,’ Dannon said, also frowning. ‘Ghostfire is real, and deals in drugs, which I suppose we knew. Invisibility and some sort of terror… It’s not ringing any bells.’ He glanced at Bryant, who shook her head. ‘He’s stayed off the radar then. I’ll put this Excelsior thing in the file on Vasquez and see if anyone comes up with anything. Oh, did you hear about Cygnus?’

Twilight blinked. ‘What about her?’

‘Conrad took a shot at her while she was out in the Everglades with Ever.’

‘Is she okay?’

‘Apparently it takes more than a six hundred Nitro Express round in the guts to put her down. Doctors say she’ll be fine.’

Twilight frowned. ‘He shot her in the guts?’

‘Yeah, lured them there by shooting an alligator in the head and then…’

‘You don’t think that sounds just a little odd?’ Twilight interrupted.

Miami, FL, 13th November.

‘I don’t think I understand,’ Penny said. ‘The guy shot me, but you don’t think he was trying to kill me?’

The man she was talking to, sitting in the lounge of the hotel, was UID Special Agent Patrick Norris, a senior agent in both rank and age. He was greying around the temples, which added a hint of authority to what he was saying. He nodded, sagely.

‘It fits the facts well. Actually, one of our people in New Millennium was talking to your partner, Twilight, and she suggested it. It makes sense of some peculiarities about the shooting.’

‘Peculiarities?’

‘Conrad usually uses armour-piercing rounds when he knows he’s facing an Ultra who can bounce bullets. We checked the round they dug out of you and it was a standard, jacketed round. He hit you in the stomach when a headshot would have been a more likely kill.’

‘And he’d already shot a gator in the head from the same distance, so he probably could have made it.’ Penny took in a breath and let it out slowly. ‘Okay, if he wasn’t trying to kill me, why shoot me at all?’

‘That we don’t know. I was asked to ask you to let Twilight know how you’re doing, by the way.’

‘I’ll drop her a message.’ Well, it was nice to know the girl was worried enough to ask. ‘Actually, I’m mending pretty quickly. I’m supposed to check in with the hospital tomorrow. They think I might be healed by then.’

‘You get shot with an elephant gun, and you’re fit for work a couple of days later?’

Penny gave him a smile. ‘I’m originally from New Jersey, they make us tough there.’

New Millennium City, MD.

‘I thought you wanted her alive,’ Ghostfire said. ‘So you have Conrad shoot her?’

Kopf looked up from the reports he was reading. ‘We needed to determine the extent of her abilities. Mister Conrad,’ and he nodded toward the tall, blonde man sitting across from him cleaning a large, double-barrelled rifle, ‘managed to penetrate Cygnus’ skin with a known weight of metal, fired at a known range, with known energy. I have the ballistics report so I know the deformation the projectile underwent. I can determine the protective value of her skin, within a factor of five per cent.’

‘And when she’s recovered, we’ll know how fast she heals,’ Conrad added, not looking up from his weapon.

‘We have already established that she does not regenerate exceptionally fast,’ Kopf went on. ‘If she did, she would not be recuperating in her hotel.’

‘Huh,’ Ghostfire grunted. The German scientist and the Austrian hunter got on far too well for his liking. ‘Have you decided how to capture her?’

‘It won’t be difficult,’ Conrad replied. ‘It would be even easier if we had managed to identify her real identity, but she is inexperienced, not likely to see the trap until she is in it. However, some preparatory work is always wise. The death of a friend or lover would disorient her. I believe you want her discredited as well?’

‘I do.’

‘Not my department, but Professor Kopf has had some very promising ideas based on my research.’

Even though they could not see it, Ghostfire smiled. ‘When will we be ready to proceed?’

Miami, FL.

June was all concern as she walked into the hotel room and found Cygnus reading news on her laptop. ‘How are you doing, Pen?’

‘I’m fine,’ Penny replied, turning and giving her friend a broad smile. She pulled up the hem of her camisole. ‘Look, barely a mark left. I’ll be fine by tomorrow. Susan says that if I pass my medical she’s got a bra and thong with my name on it.’

June walked over and ran her fingers over the red patch of skin where the bullet had entered. Cygnus gave a little shiver. The skin was a little distorted, like thin scar tissue, but it had been worse that morning.

‘You had me worried, you know?’ June said, ignoring the shiver.

‘I know, but look, I’m still alive. I feel kind of stupid. I should have guessed it was Conrad. I should have warned Ever.’

‘Ever’s immortal, as far as anyone knows. You can die until proven otherwise.’

‘Well… not this time. Being an active Ultra isn’t particularly safe, June.’

‘I know that. I just don’t want to see it. Which is stupid. I suppose… I suppose having the fact you might get hurt thrown in my face like that…’

Penny stood up and pulled June into a tight hug. ‘I’m fine. I’ve been good all day. I’ve rested and let myself heal properly. I stopped a really huge bullet, which is not something I’d need to do most days. You’re safe, which is the main thing. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you just because you knew me.’

June hugged back. ‘I wasn’t hurt.’ Just from what her friend was saying she knew that she was talking to Penny, just Penny without any of the Cygnus baggage that seemed to come with the body. That, she thought, was a good thing.

14th November.

‘Are you sure a corset is a good idea?’ June asked, watching as Susan struggled to get Cygnus into the black leather garment.

‘Technically,’ Dom replied, ‘it is a waist cincher.’

‘Details, she did get shot a couple of days ago.’

‘They did everything short of cutting me open to check,’ Penny said, ‘and there was no sign of any remaining tissue damage.’ She was bracing herself against a massage table while Susan pulled the laces tighter and showing no sign of discomfort. ‘I’m just not sure I’m cut out for this look. It’s more your style, Dom.’

‘Nonsense,’ the Russian replied. ‘With the boots and your hair in a ponytail, you will look perfect. We shoot beside the pool. You must look most serious, imagine Jon is unfit to lick your boots. He is the worm, yes?’

‘That’s me,’ Jon said from behind them. ‘I’m ready when you are.’

Susan gave up. ‘Dom, if you want this any tighter, you’re going to have to do it. She’s super-strong, for God’s sake!’

Laughing, Dom walked over and took the long laces from Susan.

‘Just don’t break any ribs,’ Penny suggested.

‘I try to only break the small ones,’ Dom replied.

~~~

‘I thought we didn’t have any more time booked in the spa?’ June said as Penny changed into a too-small bikini and found her wrap.

‘Me too, but Dom said to go down there in this and she’s the boss. She wants it done before dinner, so…’

‘Well, ask her what she’s got planned for tomorrow. It’s the last day and I want to know what I should prepare for.’

Pulling on her wrap, Penny nodded, put on her Cygnus attitude, and headed for the door. ‘Will do. See you later.’

In the spa, everything looked as normal. A few guests were in the pool, and the signs on the door of a couple of massage rooms indicated that they were in use. Dom had hired the entire spa to shoot lingerie in, but now it was back to normal and Cygnus had to ask where to find Dom. She was directed to one of the rooms toward the back. The sign on the door said ‘Relaxation Room 2,’ which told her nothing, so she knocked and stepped inside.

Dom was lying in a hot tub in the middle of the tiled floor, looking relaxed. There were two glasses of white wine sitting beside her, one slightly lower than the other. There was, however, no sign of Jon or Susan. Penny decided she had been duped; Cygnus decided she did not care, but should play along.

‘This doesn’t look like a clever idea for a picture,’ Cygnus said as she slipped off her wrap and hung it on a peg beside Dom’s.

‘This,’ the Russian replied, not opening her eyes, ‘is the serious talk in the not serious environment.’

Cygnus slipped into the water, the heat sinking quickly into her skin and the water turning her bikini almost transparent very quickly. ‘That sounds serious.’

‘Dah. Drink, then we talk.’

The wine was a sharp, cold counterpoint to the heat of the pool, the glass was slippery with condensation, and the alcohol seemed to move quickly into Cygnus’ hindbrain. Any residual complaints Penny might have were drowned out entirely.

‘This is your first real brush with death, is it not?’ Dom asked.

‘Well, there was the fire…’

‘But you were not hurt then. This time there was blood. If he had used both barrels, he might have hurt you badly. If he had aimed for the head, he might have killed you.’

‘If you put it like that…’

‘I have become used to this. I do not think that is a good thing. If you had not been there when Pulya attacked me, I might not be here to give you this talk. The SOP has tried more than once to kill me. Twice they have come close. It is not a good way to live.’

‘No… No, I’d imagine that’s stressful at best.’

‘Dah.’ Dom took a pull on her wine glass. ‘You have the way of escaping. I am told that you change shape to become… this.’

‘Yes. It’s useful. I’m someone totally different when I don’t want to be Cygnus.’

‘June, she is worried that you want to be Cygnus full-time. Oh, she says nothing, but I watch her as you pose. She sees you enjoying yourself. You are more confident now than you were last Sunday. You have great gift in being able to put this all aside and be someone normal. Do not cast it aside without thinking of what you lose.’

Cygnus was silent for a few seconds, sipping her wine and feeling her brain loosen as she did so, but Dom deserved something in reply…

‘When I change, my personality shifts a little. I think… I think I have all this power, and without it I’m a bit of a klutz, as graceful as a cow, nothing much to look at… I am more confident as Cygnus, and I’ve spent all week being more or less her. I haven’t been just her since I first changed and didn’t know how to change back. I’ve had the chance to really get into the character. I think that’s what June is seeing. I don’t intend to stay this way full-time. I mean, for starters, can you imagine the paperwork?’

‘I can. You should have seen the paperwork when I defected. You make light, but I am glad to see you are keeping perspective. All this glamour, it can go to your head, make you think everything is… rosy? That is right word?’

‘Seeing things through rose-tinted specs,’ Cygnus said, nodding. ‘Actually, it’s the other me that needs glasses.’

The tall Russian chuckled softly. ‘You make sure June knows you will not be staying tall and beautiful all the time.’ There was a swish of water and suddenly Dom was right in front of Cygnus’ face, arms on either side of her shoulders. ‘Now… Pulya interrupted me in the middle of something.’

Cygnus was about to reply when Dom’s mouth covered hers.

~~~

‘So,’ June said, her voice low, reserved for Penny, ‘Dom got you then?’

Penny flicked a glance at her. ‘How did…?’

‘She’s looking far too smug.’

‘Oh. Her idea for a shoot was apparently a ploy to get me in a hot tub.’

‘Right… So what did you think?’

‘It was… I mean, I enjoyed it, but… There was something missing?’

‘Cock?’ June asked, grinning at the look of outrage she got.

‘Well, maybe,’ Penny replied, relenting on the outrage, ‘but I think it was something else. Lack of connection. She’s hot, sensuous, but I don’t know her that well and we were just doing it for the sex.’

June was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, ‘So what are we doing tomorrow?’

‘Oops… Forgot to ask.’

New Millennium City, MD, 15th November.

Red stepped out of her private elevator and stopped, standing in the darkness of her apartment, silently waiting. Her nose twitched as a scent caught her attention.

‘You’re going to have to explain to me how you got past my security, young lady,’ she said, starting off across the floor into the lounge.

A light came on beside the couch. ‘Sorry, but I didn’t know how else to contact you,’ Twilight said. ‘I can’t exactly walk into the club dressed like this.’

‘You could have come as Andrea.’ Red tapped her nose. ‘I knew when you turned up in costume. There are some masking techniques I could let you in on if you want to avoid that in the future.’

Twilight reached up and pulled off her mask to reveal the frowning face beneath. ‘You didn’t say anything.’

‘Not my secret to reveal. Does Cygnus know?’

‘Yes, and I know who she is. It was just in case something happens.’

‘Good.’ Red sat down in a chair more or less facing her guest. ‘I’m guessing that’s not what you came here to discuss.’

‘I caught wind of a new drug, something called “Excelsior,” being produced by a Brazilian group. Their salesman, a guy named Hernando Vasquez, was here trying to sell it to the Tonaldos and Ghostfire’s bunch. I was wondering whether you’d heard anything about it.’

Red frowned for a second. ‘It’s not ringing any bells. I can ask around. Anything special about it?’

‘It kills Ultras.’

‘I’ll definitely look into it. However, there is another person you should try. Do you know where Zephyr lives?’

The Everglades, FL.

Jon was a little nervous of the three, very large, male alligators he was currently taking pictures of, but they were behaving themselves. In fact, they were doing whatever Ever asked them to do, which was currently posing with her for photographs. Dom had had a burst of inspiration in the night, and it also gave them a perfect way to say their farewells to the spirit of the Everglades.

‘Your healing capability is nothing like mine,’ Ever commented as she coaxed a gator into showing more teeth, ‘but it is quite remarkable for a human.’

Cygnus grinned. ‘I’m not exactly human. Not in the traditional sense.’

‘That’s great,’ Jon said, eyeing the alligator dubiously, ‘but there’s still a little too much nipple showing.’

‘Here, let me,’ Cygnus offered, stepping forward and adjusting blue-green hair strands until the offending darker flesh was obscured.

‘This will have to be the last one,’ Ever stated as Jon took several shots. ‘My friends are becoming bored. They really have no idea what we’re doing and I’m afraid ecology is not a concept they can grasp.’

‘Well, I think we’re done,’ Jon said, ‘and I’m not going to keep them longer than we need to.’

Ever climbed to her feet, patted each of the reptiles, smiling as she did so, and then sent them on their way.

‘You are leaving tomorrow?’ she asked as the gators slipped into the water with barely a ripple.

‘First thing,’ Dom replied. ‘It’s been a pleasure working with you.’

‘Please, keep me informed of the progress of the project. I must admit, it has been rather pleasant, a change from my normal routine, aside from that hunter. I was unable to find him, I assume you’ll see him again?’

‘Personally,’ June said, ‘I hope not.’

‘But if I do,’ Cygnus said, ‘I’ll give him a punch in the face for you.’

Ever smiled. ‘My dear, he’s male, kick him in the balls instead.’

Part Five: Falling

New Millennium City, MD, 15th November 2013.

To Twilight the house looked like three hat boxes stacked on top of each other, or maybe some sort of weird-ass circular step-pyramid. It was certainly visible, almost glaring. On the other hand, she spotted at least three cameras on the way up the drive which she could have avoided, but it was not like she was trying to sneak up on the place.

She was about to press the bell button beside the door when a voice came from the speaker grill above it. ‘Come in, young lady.’ The accent was similar to Vasquez’s, presumably Brazilian. ‘The door is open.’

Raising an eyebrow, she pushed open the door and walked in, continuing straight ahead because there seemed to be no reason to deviate. The architecture continued to be odd; she passed under a large opening in the ceiling without any stairs, and then into a large, circular area which seemed to function as a lounge.

‘Would you care for a glass of wine?’ The speaker was a handsome, very fit man with a scar on one cheek: Zephyr. ‘If you are looking for Cygnus, she is not back from Miami.’

‘You know who I am?’

‘I recognise your description from what our mutual friend has told me, and Red mentioned that you might drop by.’

Nodding, Twilight walked over to a couch and sat down. ‘I don’t usually drink on duty, but thanks for the offer. Did Red explain why I’d be coming over?’

‘She mentioned a drug and a name. I did some checking. This man, Vasquez, is senior in the Veado Branco cartel. I don’t know them well. They were formed in Salvador after I left São Paulo, but they have made something of a name for themselves with designer drugs. Mostly based on cocaína, but some of a more exotic nature. They have not moved outside South America before. This is a worrying departure from their normal habits.’

Twilight shrugged. ‘Ghostfire ran them out of town. I don’t think they’ll be back soon.’

‘This Ghostfire is something else I am concerned about. The Tonaldos are… I know you wish to bring them down, and I consider that a laudable goal, but they are a known quantity with no desire to bring Ultrahumans into organised crime. Ghostfire is a very different beast. You have seen him, he is no longer just a ghost…’

‘I heard him. He’s invisible.’ Twilight frowned. ‘Something about his voice. I know I’ve heard it before.’

‘I think that looking for this man should take temporary priority over your crusade against the Tonaldo family, if you do not mind an old, inactive Ultra making such a suggestion.’

‘I’ll take it under advisement,’ Twilight replied.

16th November.

‘You know,’ Penny said as she walked into the apartment, ‘a bit of travel is nice, but coming home after is really good.’

June giggled, dumped her suitcase, kicked off her shoes, and dropped onto the sofa. ‘You’re telling me. My only complaint is that we have to go back to work tomorrow.’

‘Huh, yeah. I’m going to get changed.’ Dragging her case, Penny headed off toward her room and June’s heart sank.

Cygnus had become Penny in a restroom at the airport, and had seemed more uncomfortable in her body than usual. She had stumbled twice getting out to the taxi rank, almost as if her normal form was now expecting heeled shoes. She had removed her glasses and cleaned them three times between the airport and their building, and she had grumbled at the number of steps they had to negotiate to get to their floor. And now she was going to change…

Penny emerged from her bedroom, still the same shape, but wearing the wrap she had bought for Cygnus. It was a little longer on her shorter body and it closed properly over her chest, but Penny seemed happy until she saw June’s look of relief.

‘You thought I was going to change into Cygnus?’

‘Well… yes,’ June replied.

Penny walked around the couch and sat down, taking her glasses off before curling up. The lack of corrective lenses made June a little blurry, but at a couple of feet it was not too bad.

‘I spent all week as her, I think that’s enough until tomorrow at least.’ Penny grinned. ‘I should have worn this before though; it feels good against this skin too.’

On impulse, June reached out and stroked her fingers over Penny’s cheek, half expecting a flinch and not getting it. ‘It’s the same, beautiful skin.’

‘I’m not beautiful, June,’ Penny replied softly. ‘Maybe I’m not as ugly as I think, but I’m not beautiful.’

June gave a shrug. She was never going to convince her friend that there was more to beauty than looks. ‘Your skin is, and your eyes. Cygnus can’t improve on those.’

‘Your blurry image suggests you’re wrong, but I’ll accept your point. I’ve got good skin. And I don’t have a moustache, which I think is good.’

June giggled. ‘See? You’re a thing of beauty. Is some of that Cygnus confidence leaking over into Penny?’

‘Maybe a little. Maybe I’m just happy not being her for a while. She’s great, but she’s not really me.’

‘You’re just as good as she is, just… different good.’

It was Penny’s turn to giggle. ‘That was not English. Where did you go to school, girl?’

17th November.

Work, real sitting-behind-a-desk work, seemed more draining than usual after a week of being pampered by Susan. Penny endured. She worked through the pile in her in-tray without outward sign of complaint and, for the first time she could think of, actually contemplated making money as a model, as June had suggested all those months ago.

She doubted that June would have made the same suggestion now, or liked it if Penny had gone ahead with the idea. And, in truth, she had no intention of doing so. For it to work she would have to give up being Penny. Worse, she would have to give up June; it would not be safe for the girl if she was Cygnus’ flatmate.

Busy as she was, she almost missed the doodle on Mister Thorpe’s notes. It was another eagle, this one more like the kind of emblem she had seen in history classes. A Roman standard, or… The Nazis had used similar symbology, or she thought they had.

Almost from habit she snapped a picture of it with her phone and sent it to her UltraNet account, and then she forgot about it as she got on with clearing her work pile.

~~~

‘Excelsior is more dangerous than we could have imagined,’ Kopf stated, his eyes glowing, ‘and more useful.’

Ghostfire’s voice sounded sceptical when he replied. ‘Useful? A drug which can render an Ultra mindless or dead is useful?’

‘In its raw state, no, but dangerous, yes. It acts upon the brain by accelerating communication between the hemispheres. In a normal human this results in the omnipotent feeling the drug induces. Ultras, I have long theorised, already have a stronger inter-hemispheric link. The increase results in mental collapse, or a vast increase in cosmic energy production which causes physical damage when the body is unable to contain it, or…’

‘Or?’ Ghostfire prompted.

‘Or the Ultra may adapt in some way. The genes governing Ultrahuman powers are, essentially, a mechanism allowing some humans to adapt to extreme circumstances. An Ultra taking Excelsior could gain far greater power, but the effect would likely result in mental instability.’

‘Great power, but you go mad. I am failing to see the real upside.’

Kopf smiled. ‘Ah, but I am both a genius, and an expert in the process of Ultrahuman manifestation. I see great potential here. Not, perhaps, to gain greater power permanently, but I may be able to create a version which enhances your existing powers for a short period.’

‘Useful,’ Ghostfire agreed.

~~~

‘I met your friend Zephyr while you were away,’ Twilight said. Once again she was meeting Cygnus at the top of the Trade Center; it was a useful site and the view was good.

‘Oh? How is he? I haven’t seen him for a week.’

‘Seemed okay to me. Handsome guy, you’re a lucky girl.’

Penny smiled. ‘I think so.’

‘I needed his advice on a South American drug dealer. He was helpful. He also suggested we should concentrate on Ghostfire and his crew.’

‘He did? That would mean letting Tonaldo off the hook for a bit, right?’

‘I figure I can still keep an eye on them and we can focus on Ghostfire. Lena’s been bugging me to come around more often. If I give in a little then I can keep up to date while we hunt down Ghostfire. Who, by the way, is invisible.’

‘I guess that explains the “ghost” part of his name.’

‘And why no one seems to know what he looks like. I don’t suppose you’ve got any bright ideas about how to find him?’

‘Nope. I guess we turn our attention to his people, see if anyone working for him knows anything. I’ll ask Red if she knows a good place to start.’

Twilight nodded. ‘It’s a start. Oh… Um, I have a favour to ask.’

‘Shoot,’ Penny replied without a second’s thought.

‘Well, my day job… I work at a comic store, Radium…’

‘I know it.’ Penny gave her a grin. ‘Isn’t an Ultra working in a comic shop kind of weird?’

Twilight shrugged. ‘Pays the bills, or it will if it keeps going, but the owner is a little worried about sales. He thinks an evening where Cygnus turned up to sign comics, maybe promote that calendar you did? That could bring in more casual buyers.’

‘Okay.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Could be fun, and Svetilo would probably like the publicity for the calendar. Maybe she could get some pictures done up to give away, we took some with me in costume.’ There was another grin. ‘It’s a shame Twilight can’t be there.’

‘Huh. I’ll tell him you’re willing and set it up. Thanks. Really. You don’t have to do this.’

‘We’re partners,’ Penny replied. ‘We’re supposed to help each other out.’

20th November.

The man probably weighed as much as Cygnus and Twilight combined. He was suspended six inches above the sidewalk, his legs kicking frantically, and the front of his jacket held firmly in Cygnus’ right fist, at arm’s length. The kicking was getting him nowhere, but it was starting to get annoying.

‘I don’t like drug dealers,’ she pointed out. ‘I especially don’t like drug dealers peddling to kids in Friendship, so here’s the deal. You tell me everything you know about Ghostfire and I’ll hand you over to the cops.’

‘H-how’s that a deal?’ the dealer replied.

‘Well, if you don’t tell me, then I’ll give you to Twilight here so she can ask.’

Twilight smiled at the man, and reached over her shoulder for her sword.

‘Look, I don’t know nothing. No one does. He’s never seen. We get instructions by phone. The goods’re dropped off by couriers. No one knows nothing about him.’

Cygnus gave a disgusted grunt, dropped the man onto the ground where he fell to his knees, and then slammed her knee into his jaw. ‘It’s “I don’t know anything,” moron,’ she told his unconscious body. ‘This is getting us nowhere. We’ve taken twelve drug dealers off the streets in two days, but none of them have ever met Ghostfire. None of them know who he is, or where he hangs out…’

‘On the plus side,’ Twilight told her, ‘we’ve taken twelve drug dealers off the street. The cCrack den in Churchton was particularly satisfying. I think I’ve been missing out concentrating on the Tonaldos.’

‘We need a lead.’

‘I know. We’ll hit more of them tomorrow. If we’re lucky we’ll push Ghostfire into doing something about it. And don’t forget the comic store on Friday.’

‘I haven’t forgotten. I’m picking up two boxes of glossies from Svetilo tomorrow. She’s had them printed with details on the calendar launch.’

Twilight grinned. ‘Great. Roger is going to be stoked.’

22nd November.

Penny landed in a small service alley at the back of the small block of shops carrying two large boxes full of glossy photographs of her. Turning, she spotted a small sign above one of the doors which said ‘Radium Comics. Service Entrance.’ She also spotted Andrea.

It was almost odd seeing the girl in normal clothes, if you counted black jeans and a black, cropped T-shirt bearing the words ‘Radium Comics’ in red letters as normal. Penny was used to the black catsuit, though the shirt was tight enough to suggest the shape of the bra under it so that was not that different. Except that she suspected Twilight did not wear a bra.

Penny shook the deliberation on her partner’s underwear choices out of her head. It was time to be Cygnus.

‘Want me to take one of those?’ Andrea asked, indicating the boxes.

‘They’re heavy.’

‘I’ll just get the door then. I was right, Roger’s stoked, and Zoe’s practically boiling over in anticipation.’ She stopped with her hand on the door handle. ‘Zoe’s the other shop assistant. She’s not quite as dumb as she acts.’

Penny gave her a grin. ‘I’ll try to remember that.’

Roger looked around as soon as the door opened, his eyes widening when he saw Cygnus strutting in, almost as though he had not really expected her to turn up.

‘You’re here! Awesome! Let me take those…’

‘They’re heavy,’ Penny said, but he had already grabbed a box. It dropped several inches as he took the weight.

‘Hey, wow, these things are heavy. And you’re carrying them like…’

‘She can lift cars, Roger,’ Andrea pointed out as she closed the back door.

‘Yeah… yeah, I know that. It’s just… You’re really slight, y’know? Slim, I mean, not all muscle…’ He blushed. ‘I’m yammering… We’ve got you set up on a table beside the counter. Plenty of pens and space for a box of these.’

‘Well, I hope I didn’t over-do the pictures,’ Penny said as she started for the door to the main shop floor.

A head capped with blonde hair poked through; it came with an enormous grin. ‘I don’t think there’s much danger of that,’ Zoe said.

‘I don’t know,’ Roger said, a little disconsolately. ‘I didn’t have much time to advertise…’

‘That’s why I suggested that Andrea post a few things on a few websites… They’re already queued up outside.’

‘Queued?’ Penny asked, blinking.

Zoe giggled. ‘Of course! God, if I looked like you do I’d have them queuing outside my house.’

‘All right then,’ Roger said, trying to put on a business-like demeanour, ‘let’s let them in before we have a riot.’

Penny had just managed to get sat down at the table when the first shopper was in front of her holding out a copy of the Ultranova comic for her to sign.

‘Could you make it out to Mike?’ the young man asked. He looked younger than she was.

‘Sure,’ she replied, making out the inscription.

When she looked up there were a dozen more behind him, all of them wearing cheesy grins.

~~~

‘It’s pretty intense out there,’ Zoe said as she handed Penny a mug of coffee.

‘Uh-huh. I’m not sure my wrist is ever going to be the same again. I’d better not take too long a break either.’

‘You can probably manage fifteen minutes before they start eating each other.’ The blonde giggled and Penny tried to remember what Andrea had said about her not being as dumb as she acted. ‘So… how come you know our Andrea?’

‘Well I don’t know her, exactly. We bump into each other at the Huntress’ Den sometimes. I know Red fairly well, she’s a bit of a mentor, I guess, and a friend of mine is dating her.’

‘Oh.’ Zoe seemed to contemplate that for a second. ‘I guess Andrea’s a perceptive sort of person…’ Penny frowned at her and she went on. ‘She just seems to know you better than that. She’s looking out for you. She knew when to fend off the horde to give you a break, and then she let you lift that second box. I bet Roger would have strained something to pick it up for you.’

No, Zoe was not as ditzy as she made out. ‘She knows what I can do. So does half the city since it was all over the news channels. I think Roger’s just being a gentleman and, let’s face it, I’m hardly a lady dressed like this.’

And like a switch had been flipped, Zoe was all blonde again. ‘Oh God, I’d kill to be able to pull off an outfit like that.’

Penny gave her a smile. ‘I almost died to be able to.’

~~~

‘All right,’ Roger said, heaving a sigh of relief, ‘Andrea, check the stacks in case any of them managed to hide in there.’

Penny laughed. ‘I don’t think they were that bad.’

‘Don’t kid yourself,’ Andrea said as she walked off into the rows of shelves, ‘I just about needed a crowbar to get the last couple out.’

Shaking her head and flexing her right hand, Penny thanked her altered form for its fast healing and looked around at Roger. ‘Think that was a success?’ she asked.

‘I’ll have to completely restock the current issues and we even sold some of the collectors’ issues. Yes, that was a success. If you ever get a comic of your own, you’ll have to come back.’ He looked thoughtful for a second. ‘Maybe with that partner of yours. I know she wears a mask all the time, but people do like the bad girl image. It’s amazing how well that kind of thing sells.’

‘I think it’s the black bodysuit,’ Zoe put in. ‘Sexy and dark.’

‘Twilight…’ Penny began just as Andrea walked back to the counter. ‘She’s a lot more private than I am. She made me agree to handle the press calls when we hooked up.’

‘You never look like you really enjoy them either,’ Andrea said. Her right eyebrow and the corner of her mouth twitched as she said it.

‘Enjoy isn’t a word I’d use. I think Twilight could use a little more publicity, myself. She does good work and deserves more credit for it.’

‘Well if she wants to stick to the shadows, surely that’s her call?’

‘Oh, it is. I just feel like I’m cheating sometimes. I’m the one that gets all the good press when she does half the work.’ Penny glanced at Zoe and Roger, who were watching the exchange like a tennis match. Zoe’s eyebrows were a little raised. ‘But, that’s how she is.’

‘Shame,’ Roger stated. ‘Well, thank you for coming, Cygnus. It’s been a real pleasure meeting you.’

Penny got to her feet and shook his offered hand. ‘Thanks for the chance to let people know about that calendar. It’s for a good cause and I know Svetilo was a little cautious about sales given the short time before Christmas.’

‘You got Ever to do it, didn’t you?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘I think I’ll buy a copy,’ the ex-musician said, grinning broadly.

23rd November.

‘Nice bikini,’ Bobby commented as Cygnus strutted across to the hot tub in his house. ‘One of the ones from the shoot?’

‘Uh-huh.’ She slipped into the pool and the fabric went see-through as soon as the water touched it.

‘They photographed you like that?’

‘I was dry. Most of the time.’

‘Not that I’m complaining.’

Cygnus shifted across the pool, sliding up against him. Bubbles tickled her skin. ‘I’d noticed you weren’t. I missed this.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Svetilo didn’t entertain you?’

‘She entertained, but she didn’t… She made me realise there’s more to this than good sex.’

‘And I provide this “something more,” gatinha?’

‘Yes,’ she said, her voice soft, her lips hovering in front of his. ‘Yes, you do.’

~~~

‘Nice dress,’ Lena commented as Andrea strutted over to the couch. The mobster’s daughter had decided that the sex could wait a little; she wanted company as much as an orgasm.

‘Thanks, I thought so,’ Andrea replied. In truth she had never paid so much for holes in her entire life. The stretchy fabric mini-dress came with holes and slits all over the place. Designer cost money, even when the principal design element had been using as little cloth as possible to cover a body.

Lena might not have wanted sex immediately, but her hand slid over Andrea’s thigh as soon as she sat down. ‘The guards downstairs didn’t bother you tonight?’

‘Nope. They seemed kind of… relaxed, actually.’

‘Poppa’s called off the dogs for a while. Seems Cygnus and Twilight are after the opposition he says he doesn’t have.’

‘That’s got to have him pleased.’ Andrea slipped an arm around Lena’s shoulders, leaned over and kissed the side of her neck.

Lena shivered. ‘He is. I’m just pleased he’s letting you come over more often.’

Andrea flicked the tip of her tongue over Lena’s earlobe. ‘So am I,’ she purred.

‘S-stop that. We’re watching TV and having a drink b-before we do that, remember?’

There was another flick of the tongue. ‘Does that mean I can’t tease you while we watch? You’ve been stroking my thigh all this time.’

‘Nuh-huh,’ Lena replied, grinning. ‘I tease you, you get wound up so much you steam, you don’t get to touch me.’

‘That’s mean,’ Andrea said, grinning, ‘but I like it.’

~~~

‘I could get used to this,’ Cygnus said. She was lying in Bobby’s arms on a mat beside the hot tub and the sex had been everything she had thought was missing with Dom.

‘I’d have thought you were used to it by now,’ Bobby replied.

‘It’s a turn of phrase. Like, “I wish this evening would never end.” Which I could also live with.’

‘But the evening always comes to an end,’ Bobby replied. ‘Everything ends in time, gatinha. We must make the best of what we have while we can.’ His fingers trailed down her stomach and she gasped as his touch made her muscles tremble.

‘How… how d-did you intend to m-make the most of now?’ she stammered.

His fingers moved lower, began a slow rotation. ‘I should have thought, my gatinha, that that much was obvious.’

~~~

‘I think I could get used to this,’ Andrea said. Her dress was now under her armpits and her arms were wrapped around Lena as they lay on the couch in front of the largely forgotten TV.

‘We’ve been doing this long enough I’d have that you’d already be used to it,’ Lena replied. Her voice sounded a little drowsy. Andrea began to circle her right nipple with a finger.

‘I mean you being more assertive. You usually let me take the lead. You often want me to take command.’

‘Poppa says I should learn to put my foot down. Of course, he won’t let me admit I’m a lesbian, but… That’s really distracting, y’know?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘I think he… um… I think he’s worried that if Uncle Jonny takes over… uh… he’ll make trouble for me.’

‘I thought David Junior was going to take over the business?’

‘David’s being really stubborn about not. I don’t blame him.’ Lena was sounding less drowsy, but she was starting to pant instead.

‘Your father’ll be running things for years.’

‘I hope so… oh… I really hope…’ She trailed off into a moan and Andrea got down to the business of keeping her client happy. She wanted her exhausted tonight; Twilight had plans.

24th November.

Lena was asleep, very soundly asleep in fact, when Andrea slipped out of bed and padded into the bathroom. Her bag was waiting for her there, and she slipped a penlight from it before concentrating and sliding through the shadows to the other end of the building where David Senior had his office.

The room was dark. She had waited for silence to descend upon the apartment before making her move. Turning on the light, she walked over to his desk and began to search.

In truth, she was not expecting to find too much. She was expecting locked drawers and everything put away, which was why she had never tried this before. With tools, she might have been able to circumvent the locks, but while any girl might carry a small torch in her bag, lock picks would have raised suspicions.

The desk was big, solid, and old. She thought it might have been oak and she was not entirely surprised to find a .357 Magnum revolver in a holster mounted under it. She slipped it free and found a well-maintained, but old, Smith and Wesson Model 19 Combat. The four-inch barrel reduced muzzle velocity and increased recoil, but Tonaldo was probably not worried about that in the confined space of his office.

What surprised her more was that the drawers were not locked and the first thing she found was a ledger of some sort. Opening it she discovered that it was more like a schedule book, giving dates and places, but nothing about what the meetings actually meant. The meaning was clear enough, though; some of the entries were scored through in red, and most of those were drug shipments Twilight had stopped arriving.

According to the ledger, the family was making hay while the sun shone. There were more shipments planned in the next couple of weeks than was normal. She frowned; was Ghostfire worth letting them get this much merchandise into the city?

Turning out the light, she ported back to the bathroom. She would talk to Cygnus about it on Monday. Maybe they should try to stop at least one or two. That might make Tonaldo think twice about keeping up the catch-up shipments.

25th November.

Alfred Leighton was looking far less happy than he usually did, and while he was inwardly moderately jovial he usually looked fairly dour anyway. June looked up as he walked out of his office, one arm in his coat.

‘June, I need Thorpe’s notes on DeWitt Imports. The man’s come down with a cold so I’m going to have to cover for him.’

‘Penny transcribed them, sir,’ June replied, smiling. ‘I can have them printed in a minute.’ She turned to her computer and tapped through to their document management system.

Leighton sighed. ‘I don’t know what we’d do without her. No one else can understand his scribbles.’

June grinned. ‘And there are those funny little doodles he does…’

‘Doodles?’

‘Yeah. Penny thinks he does them when he’s got nothing to note down. She doesn’t transcribe them, obviously, but…’ June blinked, stopping in mid-sentence as it hit her. The doodles. ‘The notes are coming out on the printer now, sir,’ she said, her fingers continuing to move over the keyboard.

‘I correct my former statement,’ Leighton said as he pulled the papers from the tray. ‘I don’t know what we’d do without Penny, and I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

‘Have a good meeting, sir,’ June said, not looking up as he walked out. She was sure she had found something, and now all she needed to do was find out if it was useful.

~~~

Twilight dropped to the balcony outside Penny and June’s apartment as silently as she could. She had got a message from Cygnus over UltraNet that they needed to meet, and it had to be there. It was an odd request, but it had been marked urgent, so here she was.

She tapped twice on the glass and the window opened. Penny ushered her in. Not Cygnus, but Penny, complete with spectacles. She held the curtain aside to let Twilight through, saying nothing until the window was closed again.

‘Glad you could make it,’ Penny said. ‘You know June, right?’

‘We’ve met,’ Twilight replied, nodding to the slightly nervous-looking brunette sitting bolt-upright on the couch.

‘Well, June’s cracked the case.’

Twilight raised an eyebrow; not an easy thing to spot under the hood, but June could tell she was doing it.

‘I don’t know about…’ June began. ‘I mean, I found… It’s just a list of properties really…’

Twilight unclasped her sword harness and curled up on the floor in front of June. ‘You know, considering you spent a week wearing a smile and some dental floss while some guy snapped your picture, I’d have figured you for more confident.’

‘I don’t do this detective stuff. I could be wrong…’

‘It sounds good to me,’ Penny said, sitting down beside June, ‘but I thought you should hear it and see what you think. You’re more… detectivey than I am.’

‘Okay,’ Twilight said. Then she paused. ‘You haven’t told June who I am, have you?’

‘Of course not,’ Penny replied. ‘She knows you’re my… emergency contact, but your identity, and anything else I know about you, that’s for you to tell.’

Twilight nodded and pulled off her mask. ‘If I ever did need to come tell her you were broken in a gutter somewhere, I’m not going to do it dressed like this. I’m Andrea, pleased to meet you. Now what’s this secret you’ve uncovered?’

‘Okay,’ June said, ‘you know that Cygnus originally came to you with the information about DeWitt Imports? The company we work for took over their account auditing.’ Twilight gave a nod. ‘Well, the partner whose notes she found mention of them in, he leaves these doodles scribbled in the margins sometimes. There have been a couple of weird eagles and then there was this one we couldn’t work out, but it looked like a ghost with fire shooting out of it.’

Andrea looked at Penny. ‘And you didn’t spot that?’

‘I saw the doodle weeks ago, and I didn’t hear the name “Ghostfire” until a while later.’

‘My boss reminded me about the notes today,’ June explained, ‘and I remembered the doodles, and then I made the connection.’

‘You said something about a list of properties?’ Twilight asked.

June picked up a sheet of paper. ‘I checked the account Thorpe was working on when he made those doodles, and it’s mostly about management of various different properties around the city. I know you’ve had no luck with the petty criminals you’ve been taking down. I figure, if this is something to do with Ghostfire…’

‘I suspect it’s a safe bet,’ Andrea stated.

June gave her a timid, slightly proud smile. ‘If it is, then maybe these places are bases of operation.’

Andrea took the sheet and her gaze flicked down it. ‘There’s an outlier, a warehouse at the Solomon Airfield. That place gets used for various private flights, mostly by the rich types out of North Beach.’ She looked up at Penny. ‘We could fly down there tonight and scout the place. If it turns up anything we can try the other addresses.’

‘Okay,’ Penny said, climbing to her feet, ‘I’m up for that.’

~~~

Solomon Airfield was named for Solomon Island Road which provided the land-side access to it. At close to midnight there was not much going on from land or air, aside from the two women who flew in low over the perimeter fence to land beside a well-maintained building which was supposed to be one of Ghostfire’s bases.

‘We really want to get in without them noticing,’ Cygnus said as she set her partner down. ‘I mean, if this is just a legitimate business…’

Twilight reached to her belt and produced a small, rolled-up pouch. ‘I have that covered. Sometimes porting in isn’t possible.’ Crouching beside the nearest door, she unrolled the pouch and set to work with a set of lock picks.

‘So you learned burglary techniques?’

‘I’m a woman of many talents. I’m an ace at indexing comic collections too. Now shut up, this isn’t as easy as they make out in the movies.’

Cygnus paced, supposedly keeping watch, while Twilight worked on the lock, grumbling every so often. Then there was a click and the black-clad heroine said, ‘Two minutes, not exactly my personal best, but not bad.’

‘Alarms?’

‘Nothing I can see.’

‘Well… let me go first. I can see in the dark.’

‘Uh-huh, and if there’s an automated machine-gun turret, you’re bulletproof.’

Cygnus opened the door and poked her head through. ‘Thanks for that.’

There was no hail of bullets. There was not much of anything. Part of the large, open space had been partitioned off into a couple of offices, there were a few crates, and there was a light aircraft. Penny had little clue about planes, but this one seemed to have big fuel tanks set into the wings.

‘I think it’s clear. You want to check out the offices? I’ll take a look around that plane?’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Twilight agreed, taking out her penlight and starting toward the offices.

The plane looked like it was some sort of conversion of a fairly large, twin-prop light aircraft. Cygnus found a plate which said it was made by a company called Beechcraft, which she had never heard of. It looked like someone had stripped out seats to make room for cargo, and installed the underslung fuel tanks after the thing had been shipped. How far could something like that fly? Central America certainly. They had taken a lot of cocaine off the dealers in Friendship.

Floating up to peer in through the cockpit window she noticed a few other modifications which looked like they were not standard fittings. Someone had bolted an additional control panel in beside of the seats. She could see ‘ECM’ printed over a bank of switches. Another section read ‘Flares.’ Definitely not what you would expect to see on a normal civilian aircraft.

When she dropped to the floor again, Twilight was crouched in front of another door, working on the lock. Walking across, Cygnus heard the grumbling and looked down to see the broken pick lying on the ground beside the pouch.

‘This one’s tougher,’ Twilight said, ‘or I got clumsy, but I think I’ve…’ The lock clicked and she straightened up. ‘The other room was being used as a break room, and this one’s locked.’

‘Sounds good,’ Cygnus said, opening the office door and stepping inside.

It was certainly an office. There was a desk, and filing cabinets. A radio sat on a table in one corner. There were no windows, so Twilight closed the door and put the overhead light on as Cygnus began checking the desk drawers.

Only one of the filing cabinets was locked, and that was with a fairly standard lock which took Twilight all of thirty seconds to open with a single pick. She pulled out a drawer and flicked through the contents.

‘I got nothing,’ Cygnus said.

‘I’ve got… shipping manifests. Didn’t one of the dealers say there was a shipment coming in this week?’

‘Uh… Yeah. He was hanging by his ankle over a five-storey drop though. He could have just said it to get me to put him down.’

‘Let’s assume for a second that he was telling the truth. According to this there’s a shipment coming in from Bogotá day after tomorrow. “Agricultural samples.”’

‘They could be agricultural samples.’

‘Yeah, they could. We could come back when they’re supposed to arrive and check.’

‘Hit somewhere else tomorrow, while we wait?’

‘It’s a fairly long list. Might as well keep checking.’

26th November.

The building was marked down on the business records Penny had checked as a photographic development laboratory. That, in itself, had set off alarm bells; Penny was not sure anyone used real film anymore, but she guessed there were still purists. Enough to run a business from? Well, maybe.

There were three doors to the place: the front door, which was a non-starter, the fire door at the back, which Twilight said was certainly alarmed, and a door on the roof. Grumbling all the while about her lost pick, Twilight set to work on the lock of the roof access. The lock gave a click, but she paused, wedging something into the gap between the door and frame before she let Cygnus open the door. Some tape secured the alarm switch in place.

‘Shoddy work,’ Twilight commented as she pulled the door closed again. ‘I shouldn’t have been able to get past that.’

‘I’m glad they got the lowest bidder then.’

‘Huh. Still, keep your eyes open. There could be motion sensors or…’

‘People,’ Cygnus said. ‘I can hear people on the floor below.’

Twilight frowned. ‘At this time of night. Little late to be developing negatives.’

‘Maybe it’s a rush job.’ Cygnus lifted off the floor and floated down the stairs to the next landing where the voices were clearer. Twilight followed, quickly, but silently.

‘Can you make out what they’re saying?’

‘No. Two men discussing something fairly loudly.’

Twilight pressed her ear to the door, but all she could make out were a few words. ‘Merchandise.’ ‘New shipment.’ ‘Processing.’ Cygnus had obviously managed to make out the same words.

‘That sounds… interesting.’

Twilight looked up at her and grinned. ‘I think we should check on the health and safety of the staff, given that they’re working with dangerous chemicals late at night.’ She pushed the door open and a buzzer sounded loudly from just above their heads. The conversation stopped.

‘There goes the element of surprise,’ Cygnus said, pushing forward ahead of her partner. Two .38 slugs met her chest as the door swung open, flattening against her skin.

‘Oh shit, Ultras,’ one of the shooters said. They were men, presumably the ones who had been talking. The one who had spoken was in jeans and a T-shirt, and had long, black hair which straggled around his face. The other wore a suit and looked more like a lawyer, or a mobster, though Cygnus was not sure there was a qualitative difference. She did not pay them as much attention as they deserved, really, since her gaze was immediately drawn to the room behind them.

There were benches, sinks, and people in lab coats. It was what you would expect to find in a laboratory, in fact. She was fairly sure, however, that you did not need the glassware she was seeing to process film. This looked more like distillation equipment and she was not sure whether she was looking at a drug lab or some sort of illegal alcohol-making facility, but she was fairly sure it was not above-board given they were shooting at her.

They did it again. One round hit the doorframe, the other her right arm as she put it up in front of her face. The guy in the suit was a better shot, and less panicked, than his companion. She could see a couple more men responding to the noise, running toward the partitioned off area they had come out in…

Except that they were no longer in it. Twilight sprang out from behind a bench, her leg snapping around in an arc which ended in one of the guard’s stomach. He went down hard and Cygnus heard a gun clattering across the floor. The second guard turned at the sound, unsure where the trouble was. It also distracted the hippy and Cygnus decided it was time she joined the party. She darted forward as the mobster’s finger tightened on his trigger. This time his shot missed, but her punch caught him squarely on the jaw. He went down, his eyes glazing over and then rolling back. There were gunshots from the lab, and the sound of shattering glass; Cygnus ignored it as she focussed on the hippy, who had just realised he was in real trouble now.

‘Shit!’ the man squeaked and his gun went off.

Cygnus felt the impact in her stomach and said ‘Ow,’ and then she punched him where he had just shot her. The hippy made a strangled retching noise as her fist embedded itself in his stomach, and then he doubled up over her arm before sliding to the floor.

There was a louder crash of shattering glass and Cygnus looked up to see a guard lying sprawled on one of the benches. The lab staff had not even escaped their initial shock yet, so she doubted they were going to be a problem.

‘You okay back there, partner?’ Twilight called out.

‘They were just handguns,’ Cygnus replied.

Twilight actually laughed. ‘Nothing serious then.’ She raised her voice, speaking to the room. ‘All right everyone, you will remain here. Any attempt to leave will result in my bulletproof colleague having to stop you, and you don’t want that.’

Cygnus grinned, spotting a phone on a table nearby. She picked up the receiver and dialled. Now this, this was going to get Ghostfire’s attention.

~~~

‘Someone talked,’ Ghostfire growled.

‘None of the ones they arrested knew about that lab,’ Kopf pointed out calmly. ‘A street informant, a lucky guess. None of our people will have talked to them.’

‘Possibly, but Foster knows too much.’

‘I have already initiated a damage limitation exercise. He will not be a problem.’

‘When can we go ahead with neutralising Cygnus?’ Ghostfire asked. He was never big on praising initiative. ‘Those two are becoming more of an inconvenience than expected.’

‘Soon,’ Kopf replied, trying to keep his exasperation out of his voice; his protégé had never learned patience. ‘Containment is almost ready. Conrad has arranged everything for the capture. You’ll need to talk to Heartbreaker. She is… reluctant.’

There was a grunt from the space the invisible man occupied. ‘I’ll talk to her. She’s in the apartment Conrad’s set up?’

‘For the plan to work it is best that she appear to be nothing more than a new tenant. She moved in yesterday. What about Twilight? She is, perhaps, proving more trouble than she is worth.’

There was silence for a second. ‘When Cygnus is taken out of the picture, Twilight won’t be such a problem. We’ll see what happens. If she continues to be an issue then we’ll eliminate her. Or move up the timescales. She’s such a perfect patsy for Tonaldo’s murder, it seems a shame to waste her.’

27th November.

‘Does it seem to you like there’s more security here than before?’ Cygnus asked as they looked through the perimeter fence outside Solomon Airfield.

‘You mean, there is some?’ Twilight asked in reply.

‘True, but also more than you might expect for a few plants.’

‘I suppose that depends on the plants.’

‘Huh. Anything on the radio?’ They had been watching for a little over an hour, not knowing exactly when the shipment was going to arrive.

‘The tower just gave landing clearance for a plane with the same registration as the one we saw on Monday.’

‘Show time?’

‘Let them taxi the thing over here. I know the layout of the room so I can port in there and check the place out. We’ll go in if it does look dodgy.’

‘You won’t have your shield…’

‘I was doing this when you were a secretary,’ Twilight reminded her.

‘I’m still a secretary.’

‘And I’m still doing this.’

~~~

The two offices in the warehouse were prefabs, fairly light construction on a metal frame, bolted to the floor and nowhere near the height of the building they were housed in. Twilight reformed out of the darkness on top of them, checked her position, and then belly-crawled across to the edge to peer over.

Two men were unloading crates from the Beechcraft guarded by six men. These guards were not like the ones outside, who had side arms and nightsticks. These were packing P90 sub-machine guns, fairly state-of-the-art military weapons out of Europe. The muzzles were fitted with sound suppressors too. It seemed like Ghostfire had decided to beef up security, and he wanted it kept quiet if anything went down.

Pushing backward, Twilight sank into the shadows and reappeared lying on the grass beside Cygnus.

‘And?’ Cygnus asked.

‘It’s nothing legal.’ Twilight got to her knees. ‘They’ve got six men inside with auto-fire weapons. Latest thing, nine hundred round-a-minute, fifty rounds in the magazine, and they normally fire armour-piercing rounds.’

Cygnus shrugged. ‘Pulya was using AP rounds.’

‘All right, Miss I’m So Hard I Scratch Diamonds, I’m going to take out the guards outside, quietly, and then you can go in the front, noisily.’

‘Sounds like a plan.’

‘I thought so,’ Twilight replied with a grin, and then she sank into the shadows.

Twilight had never really worked out what her mutation was. Deep down, somewhere in a part of her mind that belonged exclusively to Andrea, she had speculated on some sort of Cheshire Cat effect. Alice in Wonderland had never appealed to her especially, though she had enjoyed one of the films she had seen recently, perhaps because of the insanity of it, and the Zenescope comic version had been… interesting. Andrea felt it unlikely that that could have been an influence on how her powers had manifested. Whatever had, she was made for stalking: stealthy, flexible, with good night vision and the ability to slide between shadows with a thought… She loved it.

She took her time, picking the guards off one by one as they strayed too close to the shadows of the building they were watching over. Each was flanked, silenced, and then lost consciousness as she closed off the blood to his brain for just the right amount of time. They were all going to wake up with lousy headaches, but they were going to wake up. She was not sure all the men inside would.

‘Ready?’ she asked as she slid out of the darkness next to Cygnus.

‘I should probably say something like, “I was born ready,” but you’ve seen how I was born.’ Flashing a grin, the blonde took off for the other end of the warehouse while Twilight vanished back to the roof of the offices.

Penny contemplated Cygnus’ entry into the building for five or so seconds as she flew over. Twilight would be at the back, handling things there, so she wanted to go in noisy. There was a small door within the much larger one they took the plane in through. The big one was not going to budge because it needed motors to shift it, and the smaller one was likely to be locked. She decided that detail did not matter. Stepping up to it, she lifted her leg and kicked. There was a loud bang mixed with the shriek of complaining metal, and the door was catapulted inward, ripped from its hinges.

‘US Customs Inspector,’ Penny said brightly as she walked through into the warehouse. ‘We heard you boys were bringing in a sample of potatoes from Columbia and those Columbian potatoes are just rife with blight. We have to inspect every single…’

The term ‘raining bullets’ was not something Penny had ever thought of as real, but it seemed to accurately describe what happened to Cygnus. The majority of the slugs being fired in her direction peppered the door behind her, but she felt ten or so impacts, one under her right eye which was probably going to leave a bruise. She heard someone drop a crate and was not sure whether that was Twilight hitting the box-carrier, or a reaction to the gunfire.

Picking the nearest target, she ran forward and punched him in the guts, winding him enough to drop him, though she thought he was still conscious. More bullets ploughed into her, adding a second bruise over her right ear, but none of the armour-piercing rounds were penetrating. They were less than bee stings to her; more of an annoyance than a threat.

‘They’re not stopping her!’ one of the men yelled.

‘Where’s Jacks gone?’ someone else yelled out. Twilight was busy too.

‘There’s another one!’

Cygnus took off, gliding the five paces to her next target and driving her fist into his solar plexus. He let out a grunt of pain and collapsed, not even twitching.

‘Put your guns down!’ Cygnus yelled. Apparently she still needed to work on that.

But now there were only two people firing at her. More gnat bites as she closed on her last target and saw something black and fast appear behind the other. Her target yelped as her fist glanced off his ribs. The bullets hitting her stomach refused to stop and she hit him again, and again…

And then there was silence. Cygnus turned to see the only conscious gunman holding one hand up and the other to his stomach. Twilight was standing over him with her pistol in her hand, just in case, but it did not look like he was going to be any trouble.

‘Check out what fell out of the crate,’ Twilight said, nodding toward a broken container on the floor beside the aircraft.

Cygnus walked over and picked up a plastic bag, turning it in her hand. ‘I hope this isn’t just flour.’

‘I’m thinking you don’t use military hardware to defend flour. Better call the cops.’

‘There was a phone in the office. You’ll be okay here?’

‘I don’t think he’s going to be any trouble.’

Cygnus headed for the back of the warehouse, glancing at the two box-carriers as she passed them huddled against a wall. She found the telephone and dialled, and then looked down. The bullets had done little to her, but they had put several holes in her suit.

‘June’s going to kill me,’ she grumbled.

~~~

June was actually quite sanguine about it. There had been a little tutting over the number of holes Cygnus had managed to put in the suit, but then she sat at her work table with the little gun-gadget, pinching and sealing, humming as she worked.

‘I was expecting more…’ Penny began and then realised she was not sure what she had been expecting. ‘Well, more emotion.’

‘Are there any holes in you?’ June asked.

‘A couple of bruises,’ Penny replied, peering into the mirror. ‘I hope this one under my eye goes before morning or I’ll have to tell people I walked into a door.’

‘I can cover that with make-up. After Miami, if you aren’t bleeding I’m not going to worry over it.’

‘Probably a good attitude to have. I suspect we might be hitting Ghostfire’s business where it hurts now. There are going to be more bullets.’

‘Come back in one piece and I’ll be happy. Mind you, perhaps you should invest in a spare costume…’

~~~

‘That shipment cost a quarter of a million dollars,’ Ghostfire said, his voice rising to levels which Kopf generally found uncomfortable. ‘First the lab and now this? They have inside information from somewhere.’

‘They have information from somewhere, I agree,’ Kopf replied.

‘I want everyone who knew the details of that shipment interrogated…’

‘Those who knew are either in prison, or passed our security checks before we let them in. At this point it is too early to speculate on their source, but it is unlikely to be within our group. Perhaps the Red Huntress has been doing more digging. The woman is good at uncovering information.’

‘Huh.’ Kopf had a way with Ghostfire; talking to him always calmed the man down. Almost always anyway. ‘I should have made sure I finished the job when I had the chance.’

‘Perhaps. I have arranged increased security at our other facilities. In a few days we can go back to a normal footing. You should have that talk with Heartbreaker as soon as possible.’

‘I’ll see her tomorrow.’

28th November.

Adrienne Philips looked around her apartment, frowning a little. Something was wrong. Nothing she could put a finger on…

She shook her head. It was a new apartment, and not really hers. It had been supplied for her job and she was not really used to it. She did not think she was going to get used to it either, assuming she did what they asked.

Something moved beside her. There was nothing there, but she felt it; a touch of air where there should be no breeze; a sensation of motion where there was nothing to move. A hand stroked over her cheek and she heard the voice.

‘The Professor tells me that you’re… having second thoughts about this one, my dear Heartbreaker.’

Of course, he had a key. She bit back on the reprimand she wanted to give for sneaking up on her. ‘I… This isn’t like the others. The others were gangsters, this is…’

‘I need this person eliminated,’ Ghostfire said, his voice soft. His fingers traced a pattern over the skin above the low neckline of her T-shirt. ‘You are perfect for the task and look at all the nice things we’ve bought for you to play your part.’

‘I won’t be able to keep them, though…’

‘I don’t see why not. Professor Blutadler says he’s close to finding a cure for you. With this little thing done, you’ll be able to lead a normal life.’ His hands lifted her shirt, his fingers slid over her stomach. ‘A normal life with anyone you wish.’ His lips brushed her throat and she moaned.

‘I…’ Adrienne’s voice faltered as his fingers brushed beneath her large breasts. Intimacy, the kind she never enjoyed normally, was her weakness. Ghostfire knew her secret and knew how to guard against it, and with him she could pretend… ‘I’ll do it,’ she groaned.

~~~

Cygnus and Twilight stood outside a building in Churchton, watching as women were escorted out toward a waiting bus which the NMCPD had brought out from somewhere. Most of the girls were wrapped in blankets, many were barefoot, and a lot were in clothing that provided little protection from the cool night.

‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ Cygnus said, her voice dull.

‘Well… brothel… not too unexpected, I guess.’ Twilight still sounded a little shocked.

‘Yeah, but…’

‘The slaves in the basement were more of a shock, I admit.’

Cygnus had had to kick the door in, thinking that perhaps they had found another drug lab. They had not been upstairs to see the half-clad women which would have made the building’s function more obvious. Instead of chemical equipment, they had found cots in rows down the walls of the room and distraught women who spoke little in the way of English.

After that, the guards on the upper level had taken more damage than usual as the two Ultras swept through to make the place ready for the police. There were a couple of ambulances alongside the bus, dealing with sword wounds and broken limbs. None of the cops seemed inclined to complain about excessive force, however.

Special Agent Bryant walked over from that direction. Her face was tight; suppressed rage under control, which was slipping. Cygnus watched her, wondering whether they would get a reprimand from the UID.

‘I commend your restraint,’ Bryant said when she was close enough to speak without being overheard. ‘I’d’ve shot them.’

‘They’re low-rank rent-a-thugs,’ Twilight replied. ‘They deserved what they got, but it’s the people in charge I want to hurt.’

‘You two’ve been busy. This is, what, the third big score in as many days?’

‘We’re following up on some information,’ Cygnus replied. ‘If a couple more leads pan out we’ll call and you can get the FBI in on it.’

‘That big?’

‘Not sure yet, and I need to be sure before we bring in the cops. It’s… complicated.’ Like, if they told the Feds how they had got the list of locations, Leighton and Thorpe would be implicated and Penny would likely be out of a job.

‘Well,’ Bryant said, ‘leave some for us to clean up. Good work tonight.’ She turned and headed off toward her car.

29th November.

Kopf checked the report he was reading, nodded, and picked up the telephone receiver, dialling from memory. He waited a few seconds for the line to connect and then spoke. ‘Heartbreaker, my dear, this is Blutadler. Everything is ready, we go tonight.’

‘All right, Professor,’ the voice on the other end replied. She still did not sound happy, but he could live with that.

Still… ‘I’ve made a breakthrough in your case. We can’t risk you coming here until the heat has died down, but I am cautiously hopeful.’

‘That’s great news, Professor. I’ll let you know when it’s done.’

‘You have the burn phone we provided?’

‘Yes, sir. I’ll toss it after using it.’

‘Good. I’ll see you soon, child.’

Kopf hung up and nodded. By tomorrow, Cygnus was going to be too grief-stricken to worry about Ghostfire or anything else.

~~~

‘Out again tonight?’ June asked. She was stripped to the waist and trying to decide what bra to wear under a purple, translucent blouse.

‘Well you are?’ Penny replied as she put her costume into her bag.

‘I’m not planning to get shot at.’

‘True. Ask Red about getting some more of that plastic stuff for a second costume, would you?’

‘Sure. You won’t be joining us?’

Penny considered for a second, and then put her overskirt into the bag as well. ‘Maybe. Depends on how things go.’

~~~

Bobby looked up as a chime sounded, alerting him to something on the drive. He stepped out of the kitchen and looked up at the big, wall-mounted screen which was now showing the image from one of the security cameras.

There was a girl walking up the drive. Not tall, from the looks of it, but very… pneumatic. Large breasts for a small frame, wide hips, and a very narrow waist. The body was almost too attractive, as though nature was trying too hard when it had created her. On the other hand, she was not wearing a costume of any kind, just jeans and a handkerchief top. She was not even carrying a bag.

Shrugging, Bobby went through the lounge to the front door to see what she wanted.

‘Oh… Uh, hi…’ Close up, she looked a little nervous, but just as attractive. She had a cute sort of face, with full lips, and blue eyes, half-hidden under a long fringe from the mop of ash-blonde hair. She had a thing for tattoos, it seemed. There was a tribal band on her left bicep, stars peeked out over the top of her jeans, and there was something written on her right forearm.

‘Good evening,’ Bobby replied. ‘A little late for a walk, is it not?’

‘Uh, yeah… Well it was a drive, except that my car broke down about a mile down the road, my phone is in my bag, which is in my apartment… I don’t suppose I could use yours to call the auto club?’

Bobby looked her up and down. She was stunning, really beautiful, and Cygnus had been with Svetilo… ‘Of course you may,’ he said, stepping back to let her in. ‘Go straight through. There is a telephone in the lounge.’

‘Thanks,’ she said, walking past him. ‘I’m Adrienne, by the way.’

‘Bobby.’ He followed her at enough distance that he could watch her behind swinging. It was mildly hypnotic. ‘The phone is on a small table just to the left of the door.’

‘This place is amazing.’

‘Thank you. I did the basic design myself. I am not an architect, but it follows my plan well.’

‘I guess you’re kind of rich, living out here in North Beach.’ She stopped in the doorway, spotted the phone and reached for it, smiling.

He laughed. ‘Not as rich as some, but I am comfortable.’

She gave him a grin and then turned her attention to the phone as it was answered. ‘Hello, yes, my car’s broken down… Well, it just stopped. I’m sure the tank was full… Uh, hang on.’ She looked around at Bobby, holding her hand over the mouthpiece. ‘What’s that road called?’

‘Tree Lane.’

‘It’s Tree Lane, in North Beach… Yes, in New Millennium City… Okay… An hour? Well, if that’s the best you can do. Thanks.’

Bobby looked consoling. ‘An hour before they can pick you up?’ Adrienne nodded. ‘Then you must stay here until it is time to meet them. I was just pouring myself a drink…?’

‘Oh, you’ve been so kind already, I couldn’t…’

‘One small glass of wine will make the time go faster, and not impair your driving.’ He marched off toward the kitchen before she could say anything else.

She followed, leaning against the counter as he poured her a glass of white wine. He glanced over, wondering whether she knew she was curving her body the way she was: hips tilted back, chest pushed forward. No, he thought this one was innocent of the allure she exuded. Yes, she seemed old enough to drink, not that such regulations bothered him, but she had something of the Lolita about her.

‘Here you go,’ he said, handing her the glass.

She took it, sipped some wine, smiled, and licked her lips. Bobby’s pulse rate increased. As he rounded the counter she stepped closer, still smiling.

‘You’ve been so kind,’ she said, stretching up on the tips of her toes. ‘Thank you.’ Then she kissed him, just a touch at first, then deeper, her tongue sliding between his lips as her breasts pressed against his chest…

And something felt slightly wrong, but he found he no longer cared as his world became a haze of pleasure. He felt himself slipping to the ground and there was nothing he could do about it. He could see Adrienne’s pretty face, the smile no longer there. Why was she unhappy when he was so elated?

Adrienne backed away after lowering Bobby’s twitching body to the floor. The pleasure they felt was the only good thing about it. She had never met a man who could kiss her without succumbing; Ghostfire knew her lips were a no-go area. It took the intimacy out of the sex they had, but she still felt she could share more of herself with him than any other man.

Biting her lips, she looked down and saw the pleasure give way to pain. Bobby’s fists clenched and he curled into a ball, his face twisted in sudden agony. At least it did not last long. A second or two later he was lying still. There was a reason they called her Heartbreaker.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and then she turned, running for the door because she did not want to be there any longer than she had to be.

~~~

‘You made it!’ June beamed at Cygnus as she strutted through the crowd at the Den. ‘What was it tonight?’

‘Another lab, but it was shut down when we got there. I guess he had nothing to process.’

‘You’re doing very well,’ Red said, smiling warmly. ‘I’ve been following your exploits on ACPN.’

‘Thanks,’ Cygnus replied. ‘Not all my own work…’ She looked around and then grinned. ‘Speaking of which, I managed to persuade a friend to join us tonight.’

Andrea appeared from between two couples, avoiding them with animal grace. She was wearing the dress she had bought for her last visit to Lena, more holes than fabric, and a pair of high-heeled pumps, and she was getting a fair bit of attention as she crossed to the bar.

‘Andrea,’ Red said. ‘It’s nice to see you again.’

‘Someone said that I should get out more,’ Andrea replied, glancing at Cygnus. ‘And she’s probably right.’

Red gave her a grin. ‘First drink is on me then. We’ll celebrate work well done.’

30th November.

‘You sleep through that?’ Andrea asked. She was in bed with Cygnus; she was also a little uncomfortable about that, but Red only had one spare room.

‘You should have heard it when it was those two and Svetilo.’

‘I could’ve gone home.’

‘Never drink and port. You said yourself you were feeling the alcohol.’

‘Yeah… It’s not like I have to get up early.’

‘Plans for tomorrow night?’

‘I’m going to see Lena. It’s the only way I can keep an eye on Tonaldo while we’re focussing on Ghostfire. You?’

‘I’ll be at Bobby’s place. Combat exercises and then wrestling.’

Andrea giggled. ‘Wrestling? That what you call it?’

‘I’ve learned some amazing moves from Bobby’s “wrestling” lessons.’

‘Sure you have,’ Andrea replied, grinning.

~~~

‘Bobby,’ Cygnus called out as she walked in through the door. There was no answer, which possibly meant he was in his room at the top, or in one of the rooms at the back. Maybe he planned to delay the combat practice for later.

Dropping her bag she lifted into the air, up through the hole in the ceiling and into the gym. No sign of him there. Grinning, she went higher, aiming for a second portal up into the bedroom above. There he had a huge, king-sized bed which they used rarely, but with all that space the sex was always incredibly wild.

Except that he was not there either. ‘Okay,’ she muttered, ‘hot tub again, maybe.’ Turning she made an exercise of darting down two floors with as tight a set of turns as she could pull. Then she picked up her bag again to drop it in her room, and walked through into the lounge. She was halfway to the bedroom when she glanced toward the kitchen and stopped dead in her tracks.

‘No,’ she breathed. Her bag hit the floor as she ran around to where he was lying, curled into a tight ball with his hands clutching his chest. The look of pain on his face…

She checked his pulse and his skin was cold, and there was no sign of…

‘No,’ she said again before running for the phone.

~~~

‘Heart attack?’ one of the EMTs said.

‘Looks like it,’ the more senior one replied, ‘but we’ll leave that to the pathologist.’ She glanced at Cygnus, sitting on the couch with a blanket around her shoulders. Then she turned her gaze toward Dannon and Bryant who were talking to the ME. ‘We’re not needed here. Best we get out and leave that lot to work.’

They passed Red and June coming in as they went out. June rushed over to where Cygnus was sitting, arm going around her shoulders, offering companionship and a place to cry, but Cygnus had settled into a state of weird, silent calm. She thought she should cry, but the tears were not coming. She thought that, somewhere inside her, Penny was sobbing, but the emotion was not working its way out yet.

Red joined them a few minutes later after checking that June had Cygnus covered and talking to the UID agents.

‘They’re saying a heart attack,’ Red said. She got a nod from Cygnus. ‘They think he died last night. There was nothing you could have done.’ Another nod. ‘Dannon says we can take you home. You’re staying with me tonight. They may want to talk to you tomorrow.’

‘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 was 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…’

‘She’s a friend. More than that, this is worrying June sick. I’m going over to see her later.’

Twilight gave a nod. ‘I’ll drop by there when I quit for the night, let you know where I’ve got to.’ She got to her feet and started for the door.

‘Good hunting,’ Red said to her retreating back.

~~~

‘The New Millennium Police have been unusually successful today,’ Ghostfire growled, ‘and now Twilight has destroyed another warehouse.’

Kopf nodded. ‘I have been analysing the attacks. I believe I have detected a pattern.’

‘You know where she’s going to hit next?’

‘It seems that she is following the list of properties from our interactions with Thorpe.’ He tapped some keys and a map appeared on one of his monitors. ‘These three locations are the most likely targets.’

‘I’ll…’ Ghostfire began.

‘I have sent Thog out to the warehouse on Gorton Street with a number of zombies. You should not take an active role in the proceedings. The risk of identification is too high.’

‘She’s become a liability. I want her head on a spike!’

‘And Thog will see to it that you get it. And if he fails, there is no further risk of discovery. If, somehow, she were to see you, our operation would be severely damaged. Your dual-identity is too valuable a commodity to risk on such a venture.’

There was silence for a few seconds. Ghostfire knew Kopf was right; he just did not like it. ‘When can I have her?’ he said, changing the subject.

Kopf turned to look out through the armoured glass between them and Cygnus. ‘I will wake her tomorrow and begin active tests. The day after… unless something unexpected comes up.’

There was a grunt of displeasure and then the opening of the door out of the observation room. Kopf turned back to his instruments without comment.

~~~

At first the warehouse appeared to be entirely empty. Twilight stepped through the shadows to one of the corners where there were a number of unmarked crates and waited for several seconds, trying to detect anyone in there with her. Satisfied that she was alone, she used her sword to lever open an edge of one lid and then began prising the box open with her fingers.

So far she had found two warehouses used for drug storage. Both had had people in them she could question, not really expecting the answers she wanted. She had left both for the NMCPD to clean up, making sure she was gone before anyone official appeared. This time it was not drugs, however.

There was a crate full of grenades, but not explosive ones. Not normal explosive ones anyway. She picked one up and turned it over in her hand, examining the base where a label told her that it was an EMP grenade, designed to take out electronics. It was a weird thing to find given that they were supposed to be experimental, and military.

Cracking another box she frowned at the rifles within, lying in wooden racks three deep. Nine weapons of an unfamiliar design. Lifting one out, she examined it. No magazine, but the receiver seemed to be designed for some sort of power pack. Integral, high-tech sights on the top. These were laser rifles, or some sort of energy weapon. Was Ghostfire stockpiling them? Was this part of the war on the Tonaldos? Or was he selling them and, if so, to whom?

Before she could check another crate she heard something behind her and turned. Then she gasped.

There were six of the cybernetic zombies moving toward her and she could see more on the gantries above, probably there to cut off any escape. It was the behemoth in the middle of them that drew her attention, however. Easily eight feet in height, the figure was massively built. The dim overhead lights glinted off his skin, which was dull and metallic. Whatever had given him that skin had distorted his features, flattening and pushing his nose up to give a skull-like impression. His eyes were an unhealthy yellow colour. He growled.

‘Oh crap,’ Twilight said, her eyes widening as he charged at her.

~~~

‘Twilight has been engaged,’ Kopf announced.

‘Do you have video?’ Ghostfire asked.

‘From four of the zombies. Thog is charging her.’

‘I’ll be right down. I want to see this.’

~~~

Twilight dived to her left as the metallic monstrosity’s fists swung through the space where she had been standing. The sound of steel-skinned hands hitting concrete was loud, but it gave her an idea. Of course it was a bit of a vague idea and it relied upon a lot of circumstances…

Her sword swung, cutting the foot off an approaching zombie. It fell, rolled over, and began crawling toward her. They were good-quality zombies, that was for sure. A little too nimble for her taste, maybe. Good zombies should shamble. Whoever had built their electronics was…

Twisting again, her sword took another zombie to the ground and she vaulted over it as the big man rallied and turned to try again. Twilight ducked under a wild swing, grabbed a grenade from the crate she had opened, hit the firing stud and tossed the thing on the floor. Then she vaulted the crates. She was not sure how long the fuse was on the things, but she had somewhere else to be and Metal Man was ploughing his way toward her, ignoring the boxes he was wading through. There was a small office off to one side of the main room, and she could see the glow of a lamp in it. That was where she was headed, and for two reasons. First, there was the plan to stop the big thug, and then there was the escape clause if that failed.

Behind her there was a flare of light. Twilight heard a high-pitched shriek as her radio died an ignominious death. The grenade had gone off.

~~~

‘What happened?’ Ghostfire asked. He had just walked in to screens full of snow.

‘She found some of the EMP grenades,’ Kopf replied, his fingers tapping on keys. ‘She is a resourceful wench, I will give her that. Their range is limited…’

The screens changed, showing more distant views of the scene from the zombies on the upper levels. All the ones on the ground floor were down, their control modules shorted out by the burst of electromagnetic radiation. Twilight could be seen pushing through the office door while Thog was staggering after her, looking dazed.

‘I thought those things were non-lethal?’ Ghostfire growled.

‘They are, unless you’re a robot. The flash can be disorienting, and Thog’s metal skin may have had a current induced in it… It does not seem to be bothering him much and she is now trapped. That door will not stop him for long.’

~~~

The door was not going to hold, not for more than a couple of seconds. Twilight grabbed the light from the desk, turned it off, and unscrewed the bulb. Next came the baffle, which was stiff, and the door was giving under the thug’s fists. She got the shade off, screwed the bulb back in and turned, hiding the lamp behind her back just as the door crashed open.

‘Dark not help girl,’ the metal monster growled. ‘Thog crush…’

Twilight snapped the light on. ‘You should really work on those communication skills.’

Thog drew back a fist. Twilight stepped forward, ramming the naked bulb into Thog’s chest. There was the odd, squishing sound of thin glass imploding, and then there was a smell like a cross between burning pork and molten solder. Thog lurched backward and there was a loud bang from the plug on the wall. Twilight threw the lamp aside, swung her sword up, and stabbed it through one of Thog’s yellow eyes. She felt the slight resistance of the back wall of the eye socket, but her sword was very sharp and driven with a lot of force.

Roaring in pain, Thog swung his arm, catching Twilight a glancing blow to the ribs. She figured there was going to be a bruise there the size of a plate by morning, but she ignored it, yanked her blade free with a screech of metal on metal, and went for the other eye. Her sword skated off his bald skull and his fist swept past her head. She turned, stabbed, and Thog let out a scream as his other eye was speared.

Twilight had no idea how he was still standing, but he was, and she backed away, watching as he swung wildly at the empty space around him for several seconds before collapsing to the floor.

~~~

Kopf frowned at his displays. They could not see what was happening in the room; none of the zombies had made it to the ground to look in yet, but…

‘Thog’s vitals are unstable,’ he said. ‘She’s found some way to stop him.’

‘Blow the building,’ Ghostfire said, his voice flat.

‘Unstable, not flat,’ Kopf replied. ‘He can be recovered and…’

‘Blow the building, now! I want her dead! Do you hear me, Blutadler?!’

Kopf’s fists clenched; there would be some unhappy people… But they were a long way away and Ghostfire was here. Kopf had made this decision a long time ago. He reached for the keyboard.

~~~

Twilight watched as explosions and flame ripped through the warehouse she had been in a few seconds earlier. She had heard the first detonation and dropped into the nearest shadow, and now she was across the street watching all the evidence go up in smoke.

Ghostfire really wanted her dead. She had no doubt that he had been able to see what the zombies saw. He had known she had defeated Thog somehow and he had ordered the demolition of the building. A stash like that was probably rigged in case the police found it.

The thought occurred to her that he had no way of knowing she had got out and it was probably going to be a good idea to keep it that way. Well, it was if she could figure out a better method of locating Cygnus. Maybe Red had come up with something.

Turning from the flames, she stepped into shadow.

12th December.

Titanic Street was not far from the quays. The location had been selected for short transport of frozen materials from incoming ships and, amusingly for a street named after a vessel that had fallen prey to an iceberg, it had a lot of cold-storage warehouses on it.

The one Twilight was watching was quiet, too quiet for something which was supposed to be operational. Red had pointed it out on the list as an anomaly. The only premises on there that had a fully legitimate business running out of the whole building. The only one with a business that seemed to have no connection to any of the front companies identified from the other sites they had raided, and the only meat storage warehouse.

Andrea had grabbed a couple of hours’ sleep and then gone out in the early hours, before the sun was up. If this was the place they were holding Cygnus, time was running out. In truth, that was by no means a certainty, but the longer Ghostfire had her, the less chance there was that they would get her back in one piece.

Well, there seemed to be no one about. Stepping into shadow, Twilight ported to street level near a door with a lock she hoped she could pick.

~~~

Penny’s eyes flickered open and, for a second, she had no idea where she was. Then her vision cleared properly and…

She still had no idea where she was, but she knew what her condition was, and that was ‘in trouble.’ Her arms and legs were encased in heavy, metal shackles attached to the floor and ceiling of the cylindrical room by thick, articulated limbs like metal tentacles. It felt as though her hands were stuck in some sort of soft goo which made getting any real purchase difficult.

Through what looked like dense, thick glass in front of her she could see a man working at banks of computers. He looked old, well into his sixties, probably older. His hair was grey, what there was left of it, his face angular and gaunt, and he had a thick, Roman nose. The lab coat suggested a scientist rather than a doctor. He turned and looked at her.

‘Good, you’re awake.’ He had an accent; German, Penny thought. ‘The gas tends to have some after-effects. You should fully recover in a few minutes. Not that that will make too much difference.’ He reached out a hand to a panel beside the window. ‘I have some tests to run. A Neurotronic field is suppressing your powers at the moment to allow me to safely do… this.’

Penny felt a tingling in her limbs, but nothing excessive. ‘What? You’ll tickle me?’ she asked. ‘Who the Hell are you?’

‘You may call me Professor Blutadler, and the effect will become more obvious…’

Penny screamed. It felt as though someone had run hot lead through her bones. Electricity burned through every nerve. Her fists clenched in their gelatine bonds and she pulled, trying to get away from the pain. There was a tremendous sound of tearing metal and she was falling, but the pain was still there.

‘What?! This is impossible!’

Penny heard Blutadler’s voice, but it was definitely Cygnus, teeth gritted against the pain, who looked up at him. She lifted upward, drawing back her fist as she did so.

‘No! The field! How are you doing this?’

Penny’s fist slammed into the glass and cracks appeared across its surface. Blutadler bolted for the door at the back as alarms began to sound. Her fist struck out again and this time the entire window collapsed inward. The pain was still there, but she was out of the room and into… Well, another room. She had no idea how to get out of the base and there were going to be guards, or something, coming after her soon. How was she going to get out?

~~~

There was nothing obvious anywhere in the warehouse, and the cold was starting to become numbing. The interior was fairly simple, however, and there were only a couple of locations where someone could conceal either a heroine or an entrance to a hidden facility.

She found the latter. Or she found what looked like a freight elevator, which would have been ignored if it were not for the buttons which made it go down as well as up. The warehouse was not supposed to have a basement, but there it was, a button for down with a lock beside it, just begging to be picked.

It took five frustrating minutes before she was going down. And down, and down… And after a few seconds she realised that she had no idea what she would meet when she got to the bottom. There was a service hatch in the ceiling, and she pushed her way through it just as the car came to a stop and the doors opened.

She was, perhaps, expecting to hear voices; guards wondering why the elevator had come down, maybe. What she heard was an alarm claxon echoing loudly in the narrow confines of the elevator shaft. No one entered the car; no one seemed to be paying it any attention. Twilight got the distinct impression that Cygnus was being a distraction again. Somehow, somewhere in the base under the warehouse, her partner had got free and was causing trouble. Which, given her propensity for being where she should be when it was needed, was what Twilight should have expected.

Dropping down, Twilight drew her sword and started looking for the source of the confusion.

~~~

There were… things trying to stop her. They smelled bad, looked worse, and they had bits of metal bolted to their heads like some sort of semi-successful Frankenstein’s monsters. Somewhere in Penny’s pain-addled brain a thought surfaced that Twilight had mentioned cyber-zombies, but she was too busy hitting them to worry over exactly what they were.

She had charged out after Blutadler, but he had turned a corner to the left or right, and she had no idea where he had got to. Picking a direction at random, she had got a dozen yards before the zombies had appeared, blocking her path. They had made no sound, but their intentions had been obvious.

The end of that corridor had been a T-junction, and she had turned left for a second time and began slamming zombies aside that way. All the doors looked like offices, not exits, and she ploughed on, the pain making her head fuzzy and her swings wild. Luckily, with the number of semi-dead creatures attacking her there was usually something at the end of her arm when it stopped.

‘You can’t escape, girl.’ The voice came from behind her. She slammed a dead body against a wall and turned, but there was no one there who was not animated by electronics. ‘Surrender now, and I’ll let you live.’

Something grabbed her arm and she kicked out. A dead face fell away along with the grappling hand. ‘Fuck off,’ she growled, and the corridor filled with light.

It was as though someone had activated a small sun in the confined space, a brilliant flare of white light which filled her vision for a second and then was gone. If she had been looking that way it would have blinded her, but the zombie had distracted her. The creatures coming down the passageway toward her had not been so lucky, and now they were flailing about, blinded by the weapon that had been meant to stop her.

‘Cygnus! Run!’ Another voice, female, urgent. As it sounded several small spheres flew over Penny’s head, hit the wall and ceiling behind her, and exploded into clouds of smoke. Penny ducked away from the detonations, smashed a zombie aside, and ran toward the voice, and then the black-clad figure she could see holding a sword.

There was a roar of anger from behind her and a beam of light flashed past her, burning into a wall. Whoever was back there, Ghostfire presumably, he was firing a beam weapon wildly through the smoke… Light bursts and light beams…

Twilight grabbed her arm and pulled. ‘Come on, we need to get out of here!’

Penny winced and nodded, and ran with her friend down the corridor, around a corner, and into an elevator. Twilight slammed the hilt of her sword against the up button and the doors seemed to take forever to close.

‘Can you fly?’

Blinking, Penny looked at Twilight and frowned. ‘Why? We’re going up…’

‘Until they cut the power, or…’

‘Yeah, sorry… They hit me with something. My brain’s on fire.’ Grabbing Twilight, she lifted them both up through the hatch and powered upward. ‘When do I stop?’

‘Take us out at the roof, if you can. I’ve got some clothes for you in a bag a couple of blocks away. You need to be Penny as soon as possible.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Because… Because there’s a warrant out for Cygnus’ arrest.’

‘Arrest…?’

‘You’re charged with Bobby’s murder.’

~~~

‘How could she possibly have ignored the neutralisation field?’ Ghostfire growled. ‘And how did Twilight get in so easily?’

‘The last is easy,’ Conrad replied. He was cleaning his rifle again. ‘You were distracted by Cygnus’ escape and your security here is based on the arrogant assumption that no one knows where you are. Given that Twilight and Cygnus were marching through your supposedly secure facilities one at a time, this place was obviously going to get the same treatment eventually. And you gave Twilight a strong reason to look harder.’

‘Arrogant?’ Of course, Ghostfire picked up on that.

Conrad felt a hand on his shoulder, a flickering of his flight or fight reflex… ‘I’ve faced down charging rhinos,’ he said. ‘If you want to keep your pretty face intact, you’ll never do that again.’

Before Ghostfire could respond, Kopf interrupted. ‘Cygnus is a unique Ultra. In fact, I would go so far as to say that she is not an Ultrahuman at all.’

‘She can fly, lift cars, bounce bullets…’ Ghostfire began.

‘But Ultrahumans derive their power from the ability to manipulate energy, an energy we call cosmic because we do not understand it. Some aspect of the Ultrahuman brain, I believe the greater interconnectivity of the two hemispheres, allows them to direct that energy as they see fit. In most, “as they see fit” has a rather limited meaning. Their powers are fixed by their belief in them.’

‘And Cygnus is different?’ Conrad asked.

‘Cygnus is a source of cosmic energy. There is something within her, embedded within her chest. My scans were unable to detect it. It has no mass or form, but it is there and it powers her.’

‘Can you get it out of her?’ Ghostfire asked, his voice urgent.

‘Not with her out there.’

‘Then find her!’

~~~

‘Police and UID agents continue to search for the fugitive Ultra, Cygnus,’ the ACPN reporter said from the screen in Penny and June’s apartment. ‘There has been no sighting of her since Monday when she attended the funeral of the man she is now accused of murdering, Robert Lee, aka Zephyr.’

In the background, footage of police escorting a woman to a waiting, armoured, police transport could be seen and Penny’s fists clenched.

‘There has been no statement regarding the identity of the witness in the case. UID Special Agent Jacob Dannon stated that she was being moved to a secure facility for her own safety.’

‘Heartbreaker,’ Penny growled. ‘She’s the one who killed Bobby.’

‘A tidy plan,’ Red commented. ‘No one else involved. She’s an unknown so there’s no one to identify her as a member of Ghostfire’s gang.’

‘They’ve got other evidence,’ June added. ‘A syringe with your fingerprints on it, security video of you entering her apartment building…’

‘Well, that’s real,’ Penny admitted. ‘I went there to accuse her of killing Bobby. That’s where they gassed me.’

‘And likely obtained your fingerprints,’ Red agreed.

‘It’s a good frame-up,’ Andrea said; she was actually Andrea, in civilian clothes and supposedly off work with a cold. ‘There has to be evidence in that lab facility to prove you’re innocent.’

‘They’re going to have beefed up security,’ Penny replied. ‘It was hard enough getting out…’

‘We need another distraction. Let me handle that. You’re going to need a new costume; something a little more discreet.’

‘Like a black catsuit?’ June suggested.

‘That’d do. It’ll take me a couple of days to get things going. You’ll have time to fit it to her. At least it doesn’t need bulletproofing.’

‘There is one thing…’ Penny began and then stopped, frowning. ‘I don’t know… I was in pain and maybe I was feeling paranoid…’

‘Anything might be helpful in stopping them, Penny,’ Red told her.

‘Ghostfire… He used some sort of strobe effect, and then he fired a light beam at me…’

Andrea slapped her forehead. ‘That voice! I knew I’d heard it before. He’s deepening it a bit to try to disguise it, but…’

‘Ultranova?’ June said, blinking and looking between them. ‘You’re suggesting Ultranova and Ghostfire are the same person?’

‘I’m saying he is,’ Andrea replied.

‘I never liked that man,’ Red growled.

13th December.

‘It is as if she has vanished from the face of the Earth,’ Kopf stated.

‘That’s not possible,’ Ghostfire replied. ‘I should know. I’m good at hiding myself, and you can’t entirely disappear.’

‘I’ve been unable to find any sign of her,’ Conrad said.

‘My informants in the UID indicate they have been unable to find her,’ Kopf went on. ‘The NMCPD are, of course, at a loss, but Project Jekyll has taken an interest and their resources are more extensive and specialised. As we suspected, she has not gone to the police to clear her name. Our fabricated evidence is too damning.’

‘The most logical course of action is to wait for her to come here,’ Conrad said.

‘You really think she’ll come back?’ Ghostfire replied; his tone suggested he did not.

‘This is the only place she can come to clear her name, and to take you down for murdering her lover.’ He finished slotting a pair of large rounds into his rifle and snapped it shut. ‘She’ll come with Twilight. We need to be ready for them.’

‘There’s only one way in,’ Ghostfire said. ‘We’ll post a squad of zombies in the corridor…’

‘Leave the traps to me,’ Conrad said. ‘It’s what you paid me to do, and I’m good at it.’

~~~

‘No reports of sightings,’ Bryant said. ‘Every informant who’s come forward has been lying or wrong. It’s as if she dropped off the planet.’

‘I’m still not convinced she did it,’ Dannon said, sighing.

‘Hiding out like this is not exactly helping her case.’

Dannon noted that his partner did not say she disagreed with the sentiment. ‘That’s assuming she’s hiding, rather than being held somewhere.’

‘Well… true. I never thought I’d hear you defending someone like Cygnus.’

Dannon frowned and then shrugged. ‘She doesn’t seem the type. And this girl, Philips, there’s something about her… I don’t know what it is, but she just doesn’t come across as on the level.’

‘She’s scared…’

‘Agreed, but what of? Cygnus and Twilight start nailing Ghostfire’s places, and then this happens. I don’t like that kind of coincidence, Heather. Don’t like it at all.’

~~~

Penny sat on the sofa watching ACPN. She could not really hear the reporters; the voices in her head were clamouring for attention. She had had to almost force June to go out to the Den, and it had only been the promise that Andrea would be coming over later which had finally persuaded her, but now she was alone with the noise.

There were fragments of it she thought she could understand, or perhaps just get an impression of the meaning. They sounded like people dying. There were screams, shrieks of pain, shouted words in gibberish languages. The gibberish came as calm speeches as well; never anything understandable, but she felt like she should grasp their meaning; something or someone was trying to tell her something and it was her fault she was not getting it. It was like… It was as if the voices were memories from lives she had never lived, out of synch with her mind and so indecipherable.

‘Penny?’

Penny’s head snapped around at the sound of Andrea’s voice, and the voices receded.

‘Penny, are you okay?’

‘I’m… better now. Any news?’

‘Not really. Tomorrow I’ll go see Lena and get the ball rolling.’

‘That’s your distraction?’

Andrea nodded. ‘Tonaldo got a shipment of heavy weapons in yesterday. I’ll give him the location and he’ll send a small army. We go in after them.’

‘You know, both sides are going to want us dead.’

‘Yeah… But I think they’re going to be too busy killing each other to worry too much about us.’

‘It’s risky. Are you sure you want to do this? If I get you killed…’

‘No one’s getting me killed but me,’ Andrea said. ‘Have you got any booze in this place? I think alcohol would be a good idea right now.’

Penny got to her feet and headed for the fridge, her mind on the possible outcome of their next big adventure.

14th December.

‘Have you got someone?’ Penny asked, her speech a little slurred. One bottle had been finished and then she had found a second.

‘Waddya mean?’ Andrea asked in return.

‘Someone special, like Bobby was.’

‘No time. Closest thing I have is Lena Tonaldo, and I’m being paid to fuck her.’

‘You should make time,’ Penny replied, as firmly as a drunk Penny could manage. ‘We could both die soon. You never know when something’ll get ya… Or when you’ll lose someone.’

‘Well… There is someone, but it’s com’licated.’

Penny giggled. ‘You said com’licated.’

‘I’m drunk. So are you.’

‘Yesh, but I didn’ say com’licated.’

‘But you did just shlur yesh.’

Another giggle. ‘It’s not complicated. If you like him, I assume it’s a him…’

‘It’s a him.’

‘If you like him, then go get him. Well, maybe not right now. You’ll port inoo a wall.’

‘He doesn’t know who I am,’ Andrea replied disconsolately. ‘He knows Twilight. I think he likes her. I know he likes her ac’ually. I was lying on top of him’n…’

‘Wait… You were lying on top of him?’

‘It’s com’licated. Anyway, he likes Twilight and how am I going to start a relationship when I’m in a mask all’a time? And then if he found out about the shadow-stepping…’

‘Some men like some mystery. Some men’d go for the mask staying on. Kinky…’

Andrea burst into a fit of giggles. ‘Maybe…’

‘If we get out of this alive,’ Penny said, turning serious, mostly, ‘you do something about it. Hear me? You don’t want to washte the time you have on maybes. You never know when you’ll loosh it all.’

Andrea gave her a solemn nod and then grinned. ‘Too serious. You’re not drunk enough.’

Penny just groaned.

~~~

Cygnus examined herself in the mirror in June’s room. In truth, the catsuit showed less skin than her usual costume, but it was not really less revealing. She looked… badass. Yup, that was the word for it. June had fitted it well; it was really tight, but she thought she could move well in it.

‘Happy?’ June asked from behind her. She sounded a little tired. It had been a late night, then she had slept badly, and she had been working on the costume most of the day.

Cygnus turned and smiled. ‘What does my designer think?’

‘I think… I think it’s a job well done, and you look really hot in it. It’s a little generic for my taste, but without a mask and with the hair and figure you’re not a clone of Twilight.’ June nodded. ‘I think it’s good.’ Then she grinned. ‘Obviously, I’d prefer more flesh on show…’

Cygnus grinned back, reached to her throat, and opened the zip down to just above her crotch. ‘Better?’

June’s cheeks heated a little. ‘Uh… yes.’

You don’t want to waste the time you have on maybes. You never know when you’ll lose it all. Penny had said it, and she had been right. Cygnus came to a decision and stepped forward, closing the distance between them quickly before either of them could object. Her hands grasped the sides of June’s face and she pulled her friend in until their lips met. There was an instant of resistance before June was kissing her back.

‘We shouldn’t…’ June breathed as Cygnus broke the kiss.

Cygnus pushed her backward, onto the bed, and then climbed on top of her. ‘Yes… we should.’ Their lips met again. June let out a little moan as Cygnus’ fingers began working the buttons on her blouse, but there was no attempt to stop what was happening. Cygnus trailed kisses down her friend’s throat and chest until she found an exposed nipple. June was moaning louder now, her hands pushing the suit from Cygnus’ shoulders, roaming over bare skin. She found the back of Cygnus’ neck and pressed hungry lips harder against her breast.

‘Wanted this… so long,’ June moaned. ‘Don’t stop.’

Cygnus’ hand found its way under June’s skirt. The brunette’s panties were already damp. ‘I have no plans to,’ Cygnus said before moving down between June’s thighs.

~~~

Andrea looked down at the mop of blonde hair spread across her breasts and smiled slightly. There were worse ways to get information. Lena disliked her father’s business, and wanted no part of it. Tonight, however, there was a need to be more direct about it.

‘Lena, honey?’

‘Numhuh?’

‘I need… I need to tell you something. Something for your father. He can’t know it came from me or he’ll ask how I know, but…’

Lena lifted her head and saw a worried expression on her lover’s face, and reacted as expected. ‘What is it? Are you in trouble?’

‘No. But… It’s this guy your Poppa’s having trouble with. I… I… One of my clients talks in his sleep. I know they’re planning something big. I’m afraid they’ll hurt you, Lena.’

‘Big?’

Andrea nodded. ‘Like massive Ultra attack big. They’re going to kill everyone they can find up here.’

‘Shit!’

‘Yeah. But…’

‘What?! What is it?’

‘I know where their main base is. If you told Mister Tonaldo, then he could hit them first and… and I wouldn’t lose you.’

Lena frowned and pulled herself up the bed to settle shoulder to shoulder with Andrea. ‘I never go out. If I tell him, he’ll wonder where I got the information…’

‘Oh,’ Andrea said, ‘I… I hadn’t thought of that.’ She had, but she was confident that Lena would be able to handle the necessary subterfuge.

‘Billy the Fink. He’s a ratty little bastard, but he’d sell his mother for information like that, and he’ll want to take the credit for it. I’ll call him in the morning and he’ll be around here so fast he’ll leave skid marks on the carpet. Neither of us will be mentioned.’

Andrea grinned. ‘You know, you’re incredibly sexy when you’re being sneaky.’

Lena grinned back. ‘How sexy?’ she replied.

15th December.

Cygnus slipped out of bed, found her new suit, and climbed into it as quietly as she could before picking up her boots and walking to the bedroom door.

She looked back once. June’s hair was a pool of black against the white pillow. The sheets covered her to her waist. Memories of fingers sliding over that tanned skin came, unbidden, to mind. Cygnus shook her head and went through into the lounge to put her boots on.

If she lived through the day, what she had just done might prove to be a problem. She hoped it would not, but Penny had been right in thinking it would change things. She had been right about the connection not being there with Dom as well. Tonight it had been different. Tonight it had felt like it had with Bobby.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Cygnus went to the window. She was leaving now, and she might not be coming back, but at least she was not going to die regretting that she had never let June in as close as her friend wanted to be.

~~~

‘Anyone here yet?’ Twilight asked as she stepped out of the darkness behind Cygnus.

‘One day you’ll do that and someone’ll die of shock,’ Cygnus commented.

‘Sorry.’ Twilight dropped to her knees beside her partner and looked down at the warehouse opposite.

‘No one’s arrived, no.’

‘Should be soon. Billy the Fink showed up…’

‘Wait… Billy the Fink?’

‘William Finkle. Unfortunate name for a mobster. He turned up at nine in the morning, and it was a good thing he had good information; David doesn’t like getting up early on a Sunday. Jonny went out about ten minutes ago with some friends. They took six cars.’

‘Right… Well, ten minutes isn’t enough time to get here and they sent Jonny?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Twilight grinned. ‘It’s going to be a blood bath. Well, assuming those zombie things bleed.’

‘Don’t you know?’ Cygnus nodded at her colleague’s sword.

‘Good point… It’ll be an ichor bath. They bleed… something.’

‘Oh… There!’

Twilight narrowed her eyes, trying to spot what Cygnus had seen, and then she did as the first of the six town cars passed under a street light. They were driving without lights, but Cygnus had spotted them. Being able to see that well in the dark had to be useful.

‘Okay. We give them ten minutes and then we go down the lift shaft after them. Try to stay hidden as long as possible.’

‘There didn’t seem to be much down there to hide behind.’

‘And that’s why we have them to help, and I have you to be distracting.’

Cygnus was still watching as the men began climbing out of the cars. ‘Those look like some really heavy weapons.’

‘Yeah,’ Twilight said, grinning more broadly, ‘that’s just what we need.’

~~~

‘The elevator is on its way down,’ Kopf said, his tone almost absent. ‘I must say, I was a little disappointed that they just broke the lock on the door, and fixing the lift controls is going to take time.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ghostfire replied. ‘They’re coming. How many zombies do you have in the corridor?’

‘Twenty. That should be quite enough. Not even Cygnus is up to stopping twenty of my blood zombies. That just leaves my personal guard… They have reached the bottom. Visuals should be coming in…’

The sound of an explosion echoed through the structure. ‘What the Hell?!’ Ghostfire growled. His gaze flicked to the images coming in from the zombies in the access corridor. ‘That’s not Cygnus and Twilight! Those are Tonaldo’s people! I want all guards to positions. Everyone pick up a gun!’

‘Well…’ Kopf said, a slight smile on his face. ‘The clever little vixens…’

~~~

The elevator car shook as Cygnus landed on its roof. She lifted again, briefly, before settling and putting Twilight down.

‘Was that…?’

‘Grenade,’ Twilight said as though she had felt a few grenades go off in her time. ‘Jonny has the subtlety of a tank.’ She pulled the hatch open and ducked her head down to check the corridor. Then she dropped down to the inside of the car without a word.

Cygnus followed her and found herself in what looked like a war zone. There were bodies, both dead and still twitching. Some of the twitching ones were also dead. There were burns on the whitewashed walls, a crater in the floor about ten yards down. The source of the noise of battle was not visible, however. Jonny’s army had fought its way to the first corner, it seemed.

‘There are at least two levels,’ Cygnus said. ‘The chamber they had me in was double height and there was a door at the base as well as the observation room.’

‘Okay…’ Twilight’s gaze flicked around and she pointed. ‘Think you can open that vent for me?’

Lifting herself a foot into the air, Cygnus grabbed the mesh and pulled. Bolts twanged as they gave up the ghost. ‘Yeah, but are you sure you’ll fit?’

Twilight gave her a grin. ‘There are advantages to smaller boobs, y’know? I’ll go down, you take this floor.’ With that she bounced up to the hole in the wall and pulled herself through into the duct beyond.

‘Be careful,’ Cygnus told her before turning and flying down the corridor.

It seemed like the zombies were losing. They were not bulletproof and Jonny’s boys had a lot of guns. In fact they seemed to be using the P90 sub-machine guns she had seen before. Big magazines full of armour-piercing bullets were being used to hose down the not-dead creatures. In this case that was working against the living since the smaller penetrators had less effect on the dead flesh, but the sheer volume of ammunition was definitely pushing the monsters back.

What was stopping them right now was a heavy door which the zombies were guarding. It had been open when Cygnus had been escaping, but now it was shut. Gritting her teeth, Cygnus pulled back as far as the corridor would allow, and then powered over the heads of the mobsters. Her impact with the door was cushioned by two zombies, but she still felt it, along with the bullets smacking into her back. Ignoring the latter, she grabbed the locking wheel on the door and turned it, pulling the heavy metal back before going through and then up.

‘She opened it for us!’ Cygnus figured that was Jonny Tonaldo. ‘Get in there, boys!’

Someone else yelled, ‘Grenade!’

‘Shit,’ Cygnus grumbled, and she poured on the power away from the doorway. There was a clattering sound, as though a metal ball was bouncing across concrete, followed by a loud bang.

She heard Ghostfire’s voice then, somewhere up ahead. ‘Return fire!’ The corridor filled with flying lead.

~~~

Twilight dropped silently into what appeared to be some sort of storage space. There were crates enough, metal and wooden. She could see a doorway at the back; the room beyond it pitch black. There was no sign of anyone in the room; it appeared that she had lucked out.

Right up until the point where the room filled with bright light. She shielded her eyes from the glare, squinting and trying to figure out what was going on. Her sword was in her hand almost before she was aware of drawing it, but there was still nothing to cut.

‘I was hoping that Cygnus would turn up here.’ The voice came from several speakers making it impossible to localise. She did not recognise it, but it was not English. Blutadler had had a German accent, according to Cygnus, and Conrad was Austrian. ‘She is the one I was hired to kill.’ Conrad then. ‘However, I’ve studied you as well. You will make an acceptable addition to my tally.’

‘What’s with the lights?’ Twilight yelled back. Her eyes fixed on the doorway at the back of the room. That had to be where he was, but getting to it…

‘I said I’d studied you. Kopf is unsure exactly what you do, but your ability to evade us appears to work in darkness. These lights eliminate even your own shadow. Now…’ She saw it then, the glint of light on a double gun barrel in the darkness of the doorway. ‘Goodbye, Fraulein.’

Twilight dropped and rolled to the right, and then threw a handful of smoke pellets at the ground. She heard the explosion of Conrad’s gun, and a second explosion as the huge shell blew a chunk out of the wall behind where she had been standing. Shadow enveloped her like a friendly hug…

‘Your smoke will not conceal you for long, girl,’ Conrad said into the microphone beside his sniping position. ‘You must come out eventually and you cannot dodge forever.’

‘Don’t have to,’ Twilight said, and then she pushed her sword through his back. The big man let out a gasp, drew in a single, shuddering breath, and then collapsed over the butt of his rifle.

Nodding, Twilight pulled her blade free and turned around to see if she could find a light switch.

~~~

It was the light blast which gave him away. Cygnus saw it, an incandescent beam of white light coming from a nothing which was standing in the doorway ahead and sailing past her head to vaporise some ceiling behind her. He was there, Ghostfire, or Ultranova, or whatever, right where she did not have to see him. She accelerated down the corridor, covering the twenty yards in a couple of seconds. She felt herself hitting something, a body, heard a grunt, and started decelerating hard as her target slipped away beneath her.

‘Bitch!’

She heard his voice behind her, but she was too busy taking in the room around her. An open space with tables, a mess room for the human guards Jonny’s people were now engaged with. She turned before hitting the wall and a blast of light seared her cheek. She felt the heat, the sudden burst of pain letting her know he had done damage, and she dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch.

‘I wanted you alive,’ Ghostfire said, his voice rough with anger, ‘but we’ll have to hope Blutadler can extract this energy source of yours from your corpse.’

She saw the flare of light from his hand and dodged right, the beam lancing through empty space. Twisting she closed the gap between them, her senses alert for any sign of his position and… It was as if she could see him. She could not exactly see him, but she knew where he was, how he was moving. She saw the light begin to flare again, drew back her arm, stepped in, and slammed her fist into his chest. She felt the heat of his beam passing her leg, heard the air escaping his lungs, and she struck out again. The sensation that her fist was sinking into his chest was strange; the ribs collapsed like wet twigs and then there was the strangely liquid feeling as she pulverised his internal organs.

Ultranova, the man who was a hero to the city and also one of its criminal leaders, materialised in front of her. He coughed and blood spattered her face. He looked, of all things, surprised. ‘How…?’ he said.

‘That was for Bobby, you ugly bastard,’ she whispered to him. Then she pulled her hand free and he crumpled to the floor as though his strings had been cut.

~~~

Conrad had set himself up in the doorway to a laboratory. There were retort stands, test tubes, flasks, and a lot of other chemical apparatus, but they were not for drug manufacturing. There were also hypodermic syringes, scalpels, tongs, and then there were the cages.

Many contained rats, but there were a few rabbits and a couple of monkeys. It was the monkeys which drew Twilight’s attention. They looked sick, but beyond that they looked… warped. One had six-inch claws sprouting from its fingers and sabre-like fangs. Another had two extra pairs of arms hanging limply at its sides giving a new definition to ‘spider monkey.’

Whoever this Professor Blutadler was, and perhaps his real name was Kopf, he had been performing some rather unethical experiments. The metal-skinned thug at the warehouse, had that been his work? She figured he was definitely responsible for the zombies.

There were also computers, or rather there were consoles. Thin clients to a much larger mainframe somewhere in the facility, but the consoles might do. She tapped a key on one and it sprang to life showing a desktop with icons. The operating system was unfamiliar and it took her a while to figure out where the file management system was. There was a search facility; Blutadler clearly had trouble remembering where he put things since that feature was pretty prominent. She typed in ‘Cygnus’ and started the search.

A sound behind her made her turn and she saw a figure shambling toward her. A zombie. The same semi-decaying form with the same cybernetic implants making it move, but this time it was different. The dark blonde hair was gone, the once clear blue eyes were yellowed, the skin was greying, but she could still see the bone structure of the face and she knew with horrible certainty that Blutadler had experimented on humans. Her brother, Andy, was walking toward her, raising his arms.

‘No…’ she breathed, stumbling back from him. Something seemed to have grabbed hold of her heart and squeezed. How could it be…? Ultranova had killed… They had never found a body.

He reached for her again and she leaned away from the clumsy grasping. ‘Andy? Can you hear me?’ The eyes were dead. There was nothing in there but whatever was left of a brain and the circuitry needed to keep it all functional. ‘Oh God!’ His hands found her throat and began to squeeze and all she could do was look into those dead eyes. ‘Andy… please…’ she choked out, but she was not looking at Andy, not any more. This was the body they had never got to bury and it was choking the life out of her.

Her sword came up, slashing open the zombie’s chest, but he kept squeezing. She slashed again, hearing something metallic snap, but the pressure on her throat continued. She was starting to feel foggy, vague. Her sword swung again, and again… And the pressure stopped.

Gasping for breath, Twilight sank to her knees as her dead brother collapsed backward onto the ground in front of her. Behind her the terminal chimed to indicate it had finished its search, but she ignored it, massaging her throat and trying to ignore the body she had just killed again.

~~~

Jonny Tonaldo pushed his way into the mess hall to find out why the shooting had stopped. What he found was a tall, blonde woman in a black catsuit standing over the body of Ultranova. The front of the hero’s chest looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, but there was only the girl. The girl with blood on her face.

‘You’re that Cygnus, right?’ Jonny asked.

Cygnus turned slowly and looked at him. ‘You’re Jonny Tonaldo,’ she replied, her voice dull.

‘Uh… yeah, and that’s Ultranova…’

‘That’s Ghostfire, Boss,’ one of his men said. There were not so many left out of the twenty-seven he had brought with him. Ducco was one of the smarter ones, even if his voice made him sound like an idiot. ‘I seen it myself. She was poundin’ on nothing, and the nothing was shootin’ at her, and then he just appeared. They said Ghostfire was invisible, right?’

‘Right,’ Jonny said. He looked at Cygnus, who had gone back to looking down at the man she had just killed. ‘Guess we get two birds with one stone.’ He raised his rifle.

Cygnus wheeled around and punched him in the face. It was with none of the force she had used on Ghostfire, but there was still a lot of blood splatter as his nose turned into a pancake. He staggered backward, the P90 dropping out of his hands as he clutched them to his face.

‘Fucking bitch, you broke my nose!’

‘There are still lots more bones I can break,’ Cygnus growled as she marched toward the inner door. ‘Keep out of my way.’ Almost wrenching the door of its hinges, she continued walking, looking for anything which might be useful to her, but also for Blutadler; she had a score to settle with him.

Turning a corner she heard a voice she thought she recognised and a doorway which seemed vaguely familiar, and ran toward both.

The observation room’s window had not been repaired. The shackles she had torn down were still broken on the floor of the room beyond. That chamber seemed lifeless, but the six screens Blutadler had used to monitor her were alight with his image; a looped recording was playing.

‘I see you have beaten my protégé, Cygnus. Well done. Was it you or Twilight who thought of sending our location to Tonaldo? Not that it matters. A clever plan. Twilight has defeated Conrad. I thought you would like to know. I sent one of my blood zombies to delay and distract her. I have no illusions that it will kill her, but I needed to get past her to my escape vehicle, you see. A tunnel leads to the bay from here. You have no chance of finding me.’

His old face smiled at her from the screen. ‘You are something unique, Fraulein. Something all my years of research into EMX-One mutations has never uncovered before. Your potential is… limitless, yet you seem limited. I will find you again, have no doubt, and next time I will be ready for you.’

The screen went to snow for a second, and then the message repeated. Cygnus ignored it, jumping through the shattered window and heading for the door at the bottom of the containment chamber. Twilight could be in trouble.

~~~

There seemed to be no trouble, just an eight-limbed capuchin, an unmoving Ultra hunter, and a zombie with its chest ripped open and a dish-towel draped over its face. Twilight was standing with her back to both bodies, facing a terminal. As Cygnus turned to check on her, she pulled a memory stick out of the console and held it up.

‘I got everything they collected on you. There’s a lot of scientific data and their plan for getting their hands on you, and some other stuff that’s not really your concern.’

Cygnus blinked at her. ‘If it’s about me…’

‘It’s not. It’s about me…’ She turned, her eyes flicking down, and Cygnus followed her gaze to the zombie. Why cover its face and not cover Conrad? Unless…

‘You knew him?’

‘That… That used to be my brother.’

‘You said he died. You said Tonaldo… Oh, you said they never found a body, just a wallet. Blutadler…’

‘Professor Blutadler, or Kopf, or whatever his name is, turned my brother into that walking corpse. Have you seen him?’

‘No. I found Ultra… Ghostfire’s taken care of, but Blutadler sent that to distract you while he got past to some escape pod or something. He left me a message, on the consoles in the observation room.’

‘Damn… Well, I just sent a message to Special Agent Dannon telling him where this place is. Maybe we should go see whether there’s another escape pod.’

Cygnus frowned. ‘Might be better if he didn’t find me until we’ve cleared my name.’ She turned and headed for the door, stepping over Conrad’s body. There was a lot of blood pooling under him and he was going to be lucky if he was found before he bled out. Another corpse, but not of her making, and considering what he had done she was not going to complain about it.

There was a doorway hidden behind some crates at the eastern end of the storeroom. Cygnus turned the wheel and opened it, and they found themselves looking at a corridor that belonged on a submarine. Metal walls, decking rather than flooring. The door they were going through looked like it had been designed to hold back water if needed.

There was another, similar, door at the end, and beyond that was a room which fitted the science fiction bill nicely. On their left was a tube with a heavy, glass door keeping out the greenish water which was filling it.

‘He said he’d be out in the bay before we could catch him,’ Cygnus said. ‘He must have… a submarine?’

Twilight’s teeth clenched as she snarled. ‘I’m going to get that bastard if it’s the last thing I do.’

‘He’s coming back. He said he was coming back for me. I don’t know why. He seemed to think there was something special about me.’

‘Then we’ll be waiting.’ Twilight’s gaze scanned the room and she walked over to another door, opening it and looking in. ‘For now, get your special butt over here. There’s a ladder, going up. Hopefully it’ll take us to the surface.’

‘I hope so. Anywhere has to be better than this.’

~~~

‘Oh thank God!’ June exclaimed as Cygnus and Twilight came in through the balcony window. ‘You just went out and I didn’t know what had happened, and ACPN has been going on about a raid on a meat-packing plant in Churchton, and… Oh my God what’s that stench?!’

Stopping just inside the door, both Ultras began to strip on the spot. ‘The super-secret escape ladder from Ghostfire’s base,’ Twilight said, pausing to pull off her cowl, ‘opened up into the main Churchton sewer.’

‘You’d better get a bucket or something for these,’ Cygnus added. ‘I’m first in the shower.’

‘Fuck that,’ Andrea replied as she shucked off the last vestiges of Twilight. ‘We’re all girls together and I’ve seen you naked before. Besides, we’ll both need someone to scrub our backs.’

Penny sighed. ‘Yeah… June, could you get the scrubbing brush from under the sink? And maybe the bleach?’

Part Six: The New Protector of New Millennium

New Millennium City, MD, 17th December, 2013.

‘We return to our main news story tonight,’ the ACPN presenter said. ‘At midday today it was announced that Ultranova, protector of New Millennium City for the last decade, was killed in action by a previously unheard of villain, Ghostfire.’

‘The story isn’t going to change,’ June pointed out.

Penny adjusted her glasses. ‘I know, but if I keep watching them tell it, maybe I’ll believe it wasn’t me that killed him.’

‘At the same press conference,’ the presenter continued, ‘UID Supervisor Harold Kent announced that Ghostfire himself died in the fight and that the heroine Cygnus was, in fact, framed by Ghostfire. ACPN investigations suggest that Cygnus and her partner, Twilight, were instrumental in ensuring that Ultranova’s sacrifice was not for nothing.’

‘At least you’re getting some of the credit,’ June pointed out.

‘Yeah, well, if Andrea hadn’t taken the evidence to Jacob Dannon yesterday, I’d probably still be in hiding.’

June sighed. ‘She took the information from the office with her too, didn’t she?’

‘Yeah. Now might be a good time to capitalise on your new modelling celebrity.’

The presenter was still going on, despite having given all the information she had given previously.

‘…a major gap in the Ultrahuman protection of the city. It will be a tough act to follow, but experts suggest that Cygnus, now proven innocent, is likely to take over Ultranova’s role as the official protector of New Millennium.’

‘You what?!’ Penny exclaimed.

18th December.

‘Well,’ Twilight said, ‘you did kind of kill the last one. It’s only fair.’

Cygnus glowered at her. ‘Please don’t remind me. I’m still trying to work through that one. If I burst into tears at some point, don’t sweat it.’

‘I’m not sure what the problem is. I left Conrad to bleed to death and I had to cut my own brother’s heart out, and I’m not blubbering.’ The black-clad heroine paused for a second and then added, ‘Anymore.’

‘I just… I keep seeing his face looking up at me over where my fist was buried to the wrist in his ribcage. He looked so surprised.’

‘He was overconfident. If you think no one can beat you, it tends to be a shock when they do, and he killed Bobby.’

‘No, Heartbreaker…’

‘He’s as much to blame as she is, probably more, and you know it.’

‘Yeah… Look, I’ll get over it. I just need some time.’

Twilight gave a nod. ‘Don’t take too long, it’s almost Christmas and Red isn’t going to want you moping around at her party.’

‘Huh, no. And by then I suspect I’ll have more to mope about. I’ll probably be unemployed.’

19th December.

When it happened, even though both Penny and June knew it was coming at some point, the way it happened meant that they did not really have to stretch their acting skills to feign shock.

Penny was at work, as usual, though Mister Leighton had been looking very concerned about her since she had returned and everyone was under orders to avoid over-stressing her. Officially she had had a minor breakdown over her ‘friend’s’ death. Someone had, apparently, neglected to tell the police about her low-stress environment since two armed SWAT officers burst into her room without warning, followed by a tall, dark-haired woman holding a handgun.

The woman checked a notepad. ‘You’re… Penny Worthington?’

‘Uh… that’s right.’

The woman nodded. ‘I’m Detective Warner. Please step away from the computer.’ She produced a sheet of paper from her pocket, handing it to Penny. ‘That is a copy of our warrant to seize all records from this company, both paper and electronic.’

Penny scanned the form. It looked real. Then again, she had been expecting this for days, just not with MP5s. ‘Okay. Uh, were the sub-machine guns really necessary?’

Warner gave her a smile which did not reach her eyes. ‘These men will take you to Justice Square. We’re interviewing all the staff there.’

Penny pushed her chair back and got to her feet. ‘Is it okay if I take my bag? Or do you want to search it first?’

~~~

‘Mister Leighton is upset, of course,’ June said glumly. ‘I think it’s mostly because he didn’t know. He told me he had a few suspicions, mostly about DeWitt. Jonny Tonaldo being on the board…’

‘Not anymore,’ Penny put in. ‘Getting caught red-handed with illegal weapons and a lot of bodies… He’s going away. There is no way his lawyers are getting him out of this one.’

‘True. But Mister Leighton didn’t have a clue about the Ghostfire accounts. Thorpe handled all of them personally.’

‘Which isn’t going to look good for Mister Thorpe.’

‘Couldn’t have happened to a nicer man, but Leighton and Thorpe will lose its licence, Mister Leighton’s sure of that. He says he has enough money to retire, once his assets are unfrozen. Most of the company’s work didn’t involve laundering money for criminals. He should be okay, but…’

‘We’ll all be out of work.’

June nodded. ‘That. Yeah.’ She leaned over, wrapping an arm around Penny’s shoulders and pulling her in for a hug. ‘We’ll be okay. I’ll call my agent, and Dom, after New Year. I bet there’ll be work coming in.’

Penny tried to stop herself tensing, but did not quite manage it. June loosened her grip and settled back on the sofa as though nothing had happened. Neither of them was mentioning the elephant in the corner. Cygnus had seduced June, though ‘seduced’ was probably not the right word, and then she had survived and Penny had to deal with it. Thinking of it as something Cygnus had done made it a little easier on both of them. A little.

20th December.

‘Tonaldo will be back to hating our guts,’ Cygnus commented as she watched men and women being loaded into police vans.

‘Yeah,’ Twilight said, grinning maliciously, ‘but that’s how I like it. Plus, I’ve been wanting to take this lab down for a couple of months and he’s been getting off lightly recently.’

‘We got his brother locked up.’

‘Relatively lightly.’ Twilight looked up at the sky. There were two helicopters up there, almost as per normal: the NWCPD one and the ACPN one. There were reporters waiting to talk to them outside the police cordon, and if she was really lucky she would get her partner to handle all of that. Cygnus, she told herself, needed the good publicity at the moment. She frowned. Something else was in the sky, something small… ‘What’s that? Can you make it out?’

Cygnus followed her pointing finger, squinting up into the sky. ‘Uh… Wow, that’s doing its best to remain hidden. Some sort of drone?’

There was a sound, something like tearing fabric, or a very turbulent flow of air through a narrow tube. The air in the middle of the circle of police vehicles rippled, twisting almost as though they were looking at a pool of water. And then two figures stepped out of the distortion before it closed behind them.

One of them was immediately recognisable. She was tall, slim, and beautiful. Her hair was a cascade of shimmering, platinum blonde, her eyes were the clearest blue, and her skin was alabaster. She was dressed in a flowing, white gown, split to the hip, which was her off-duty costume. She was Brightstar, one of the highest-ranking members of the Union of Ultrahumans.

The other took a second longer to register. About the same height as Twilight, he was an average sort of man with average, brown hair cut short. His eyes were hazel and he looked a little skinny. Not obviously heroic material, until you saw the bright spark of intelligence in his eyes, the way he seemed to observe everything, taking it in and filing it for later. He was Hugh Charles Last, Doctor Ultimate, possibly the most intelligent man on the planet and the last time Penny had seen him he had been making a guest appearance on True Powers.

It was a little like having royalty turn up to the dinner party you had organised for a few friends.

‘Sorry,’ Ultimate called out. ‘Sorry everyone. Unexpected visit. Urgent need to talk. Thought this was best. Carry on.’

Brightstar, apparently used to her friend’s manner of speaking, smiled at the two girls in front of them. ‘What Hugh is trying to say is that we need to talk to Cygnus.’

‘Uh… oh!’ Cygnus replied. ‘Well… go ahead.’

‘In private,’ Brightstar added.

Cygnus frowned. ‘As I’m sure you know, this is Twilight, my partner. I don’t have any secrets from her.’

Ultimate seemed to either not get the slight barb, did not care, or felt that it was fine. ‘Ultranova needs to be… Uh… Where was I?’

Brightstar sighed. Doctor Ultimate’s brain tended to be occupied with at least three things at once, on top of what was happening in the world outside his head. He occasionally lost track of a conversation, had two of them at the same time, or repeated words for no obvious reason.

‘You get used to this,’ she said. ‘We need a replacement for Ultranova and we would like you to join the Union to fill his place.’

‘Isn’thawhaIsaid?’ Ultimate stated in a jumble of syllables. He also forgot to slow down his speech to normal human comprehension rates at times too.

‘Almost.’ Brightstar looked pointedly at Cygnus, awaiting an answer.

‘Just like that?’ Cygnus asked.

‘You’re the obvious choice.’

‘Group dynamics,’ Ultimate said. ‘Spread of powers, accepted power levels, and then there’s the obvious really when you think about it.’

Cygnus decided she was not even going to try. ‘What about Twilight?’

‘Oh… I’m not their kind of person,’ Twilight put in. ‘I’ve got my hands full here, and I’m nowhere near the magnitude they need.’

It was true that the Union had been formed to handle large-scale events, big threats. They had stopped an asteroid from crashing into Earth, halted wars, handled famines. Twilight was not the kind of hero they needed. That did not mean Brightstar could stand there with a patronising smile on her face…

‘I have my hands full here too,’ Cygnus said. ‘My partner needs my help. The city has just lost its most famous Ultra. It’s an honour, it really is, but I’m going to have to say no.’

Brightstar’s eyes widened for a second. She did a lot of the political work for the Union and she was good at hiding her emotions. There had to be a lot of surprise there.

Ultimate, it seemed, was more nonplussed. ‘Has anyone ever turned us down before?’ he asked without a single diversion or stutter.

‘No,’ Brightstar replied.

‘First time for everything,’ Twilight said brightly.

‘Ah,’ Ultimate said. ‘Well, worth a try. I got to see Kopf’s data on you, young lady. Even if you’re not going to join up, I’d like the opportunity to talk to you about it. Drop me a message on UltraNet.’ He turned, producing a device from somewhere on his person and tapping a button. The shimmer in the air appeared again and he stepped through without further comment.

Brightstar nodded to them both before following him.

‘She wasn’t pleased,’ Twilight commented. There was a mile-wide grin on her face.

‘She’ll live,’ Cygnus replied.

~~~

‘You refused Brightstar?’ Red said, her lips curling further upward at the edges the more she thought about it. ‘Oh… she’s going to hate that.’

‘She’ll live,’ Andrea said, grinning. She had taken less persuasion than usual to come to the Den after the lab bust.

‘I’m not letting them put me on call all the time just because they lost one scumbag member,’ Cygnus added. ‘I’ve got responsibilities here. There’s plenty to do and, frankly, I’m going to need a new job next year.’

‘Maybe,’ Red said. ‘Oh, while I remember… I don’t want to bring the mood down, but the executors of Bobby’s will contacted me. They need Cygnus at the reading, and June, and me. It’s on Monday, ten o’clock.’

‘Not like I have to go into the office,’ Cygnus replied. ‘It’s closed until further notice, probably for good.’

‘There’ll be clean-up to do,’ June put in, ‘but you’re right. I shouldn’t have a problem either, but why do I need to be there.’

Red just smiled. ‘Have to wait and find out.’

21st December.

Of course Saturday afternoons were the worst. Normally Penny would have changed and flown to Bobby’s house. They would have thrown each other around the dojo, and then made love until neither of them could move. Now it was just Penny, watching television with the voices as a constant backdrop.

ACPN was still playing stories about Ultranova’s death, and each time one aired Penny thought the voices whispered, ‘You killed him,’ over and over again. But when she focussed on the sounds at one point all she could hear was the usual gibberish and she concluded that the voices did not care about it. She was hearing what she wanted to hear, or did not want to hear, in the random noises.

‘You should go out,’ June suggested when the moping had become too much for her. ‘Go find some criminals to smack around.’

‘What if I hurt someone?’ Penny replied.

‘That’s the idea.’

‘I mean really hurt them.’

‘Pen, have you ever hit anyone as hard as that before?’

‘Pulya…’

‘Was in a suit of armour. I’m talking about the thugs and purse snatchers? The drug dealers I think you could hit harder, but it’s not my call.’

‘There’ve been some broken bones, but… no.’

‘Right. Ultranova was trying to kill you. From the state of your face when you got home, he could have done it, and everyone knows he had some fairly heavy defences of his own. Bullets bounced off the guy. You did what you had to do to defend yourself.’ She paused and then added. ‘Red thinks it’s better he didn’t live to stand trial.’

Penny looked up at her, shocked. ‘She what?’

‘This way they can cover up the fact that he was basically using his hero identity to put down the opposition while committing some pretty unpleasant crimes himself. She did a little checking. He’s taken down a disproportionate amount of Tonaldo’s people and he’s been Hell on independents. His people, though, or the ones suspected of belonging to Ghostfire anyway, he hasn’t touched one of them. When he has shown up the crooks usually get away. The last lot that were caught were in that car you grabbed.’

Thinking back on it, him firing at the getaway car had had the effect of making the cops back off rather than stopping the bad guys. At the time Penny had assumed that that was accidental.

‘Bastard,’ she muttered. ‘I used to idolise that man.’

June grinned. ‘Yeah, and then you met him.’

23rd December.

It was not until Monday morning that Penny realised that Cygnus had nothing formal to wear. She felt a little uncomfortable in a black mini-dress at the lawyer’s office, but it was the best she could do and no one else seemed bothered.

‘This shouldn’t take long,’ the lawyer said. He was suitably old: grey hair, grey eyes, dressed in a grey suit, and probably considering retirement. Penny liked him just for that. ‘Mister Lee wrote a new will three months ago and the terms are very clear.’

The old man gave Red a smile. ‘As you know, Miss Jacoby, Mister Lee has left you his collection of Japanese Kyūjutsu books and manuscripts.’

Red glanced at Cygnus. ‘That’s Japanese archery. Bobby has a very extensive library of martial arts texts going back centuries.’

‘To Miss June Summerfield,’ the lawyer went on, ‘the sum of fifty thousand dollars “to let her take the modelling world by the throat and show it who is boss.”’

June gave a little giggle. ‘That sounds just like him. That’s wonderful, and very useful considering.’

‘It should tide you over until you can get modelling to pay,’ Red agreed.

‘Finally,’ the lawyer said, ‘the remainder of Mister Lee’s estate goes to the Ultrahuman known as “Cygnus.”’ The subject of the final clause let out a gasp. ‘There is a fairly substantial lump sum, his house, the remainder of his martial arts materials, and a number of long-term investments. I’ve been instructed to make arrangements to set up access to the accounts via the Federal protocols for use of a pseudonym. I’ve done this sort of thing before.’

‘Uh… right,’ Penny said. ‘Thanks.’

~~~

‘You don’t seem especially happy,’ Red commented.

‘I’m… a little shocked,’ Penny replied.

It was the first time she had been back in Bobby’s house since she had found his body and Penny was feeling a little uncomfortable. Being Cygnus just then had been a decision of necessity; the voices would have been roaring in her head if she had been Penny.

‘I can understand,’ Red replied, ‘but it’s yours now. You could move in here if…’

‘Not yet,’ Penny replied quickly. ‘It’s too soon. Besides, if I do that I’m almost committing myself to being Cygnus full-time.’

‘Not really. This place is out of the way and the security systems are first rate. There’s plenty of privacy if you want it. Here’s an idea: invite Twilight over. Use the dojo. You need someone to spar with. Come over to check on the place now and again. Spend some time in the guest rooms.’

June had been silent up until now. She turned and looked timidly at her friend. ‘Maybe… Well, maybe we could have the Christmas party here rather than at Red’s. There are enough rooms, and it would be like… like having Bobby with us.’

‘I’ll cry,’ Penny asserted.

‘No one is going to think less of you because of it,’ Red told her. ‘Come on, I’ll show you where he kept his texts. You’ve probably never been in the basement.’

‘I didn’t even know there was a basement.’

Red grinned. ‘Where do you think his wine cellar was?’

24th December.

‘Okay,’ Andrea said as Cygnus put her down on the floor of the dojo, ‘yes, I think I could get used to this.’

‘Red thought we could spar here,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I’ll show you the martial arts books in the basement later. Bobby left them to me, aside from the archery stuff. Though if you’re interested in that Red’s leaving them where they are since it’s all climate-controlled down there. I don’t think she’d mind you reading them.’

‘I’ll leave the bow and arrow stuff to her. Are you really okay with this? He meant a lot to you, and obviously it was reciprocated, and now you’ve got this place to remind you of him all the time…’

‘I’m good,’ Cygnus replied, and then frowned and let Penny out, at least vocally. ‘Well, actually I’m not good at all, but I’ll get over it. This place has a lot of memories in it. The vast majority are really good and once I’ve got over the bad one I should be fine.’

Andrea nodded. ‘You know, I think I can tell when it’s Penny speaking now. The tone’s a little different. Cygnus doesn’t have Penny’s insecurities.’

‘I don’t have as many insecurities as I did,’ Penny replied, giving a slight smile. ‘I… had a revelation.’

‘Oh?’

‘Beauty’s only skin deep, right?’

‘That’s what they say?’

‘Ugly is in your head. I mean it’s a state of mind. I always thought I was ugly. I was the ugly duckling and Cygnus is the swan. It’s why I picked the name. June always said I was stupid, I was never ugly, maybe not attractive, but never ugly and… she was right.’

Andrea laughed. ‘She’s a bright girl. What convinced you?’

‘Ultranova. For all he was a good-looking guy, he was ugly on the inside and I think he knew it. Everyone saw the charming exterior and they kind of glossed over the fact that he behaved like a total prick even when he wasn’t killing people and selling drugs.’

‘That’s pretty deep.’

‘I’ve been rather introspective recently.’

‘A little self-reflection is good for you, but do you want to see if you can beat me up now?’

Cygnus grinned and dropped into a ready stance. ‘You know you’ll probably kick my ass, don’t you?’

‘There’s a high probability of that, yeah, but we learn most from our mistakes.’

‘That’s pretty deep,’ Cygnus replied, grinning.

‘Shut up and try to hit me.’

Epilogue

Schatten Schloss, Italy, 1st January, 2014.

Somewhere high above, in the clear night sky, the moon was new and, as everyone else celebrated the turn of the year, David Lazlo Durant stood in the deepest chamber of the castle encircled by six candles. He was not attending a party this year, and he had no family to be with. His purpose was far different.

Schatten Schloss was old, very old. It had been built so long ago that no one was entirely sure when the first stones had been set. There had been work done since. The keep had been extended upward and a somewhat fairy-tale tower added, an outer wall had been added at some time in the fourteenth century. Some of the chambers in the accommodation areas had been refitted several times. Plumbing had been installed around nineteen-twenty. This room had never changed, not since it was first cut from the rock of the Alps.

Now the stone lining was vanishing into shadow as darkness seeped in and began to surround him. It crawled across the floor, sneaking between the iron candle stands and then rising to envelope the flames. It barely paused around the light and then rushed in once that was gone. Durant could almost feel it wrapping around him and he was instantly cold. Even though he had done this many times, the blackness still chilled him right through to the core, bringing with it the fear Mankind had felt in the darkness since the dawn of the species.

‘You have found her.’ The voice was a whisper, but it rang in his ears, apparently coming from all around him, from a great distance and right beside him all at once.

‘We have,’ Durant replied. ‘She is young, inexperienced, and she has no idea of her potential…’

‘Of course she does not. If she did, she would be with us already. She must be made ready.’

‘We have operatives in place, some of our most experienced Scribes and Shades have moved into the city in preparation.’

‘On the fourth new moon I will be ready for her. See that you are.’

The darkness vanished leaving Durant gasping for breath. The conversation, he knew, had taken place in an instant, but his lungs were seared with the cold of it and it was hard to breathe.

The fourth new moon. He knew the lunar calendar well and that set the timescales. He knew what needed to be done. On the thirtieth night of March, Andrea Morgan had to die.

###

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

The Thaumatology Blog: http://thaumatology.wordpress.com

The Steel Beneath the Skin Blog: http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com

Other Books by this Author

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101 - ASIN: B006IYIESW

Demon’s Moon - ASIN: B006JPN7A0

Legacy - ASIN: B006OKR8PK

Dragon’s Blood - ASIN: B0072S1DOU

Disturbia - ASIN: B007GNICZO

Hammer of Witches - ASIN: B007YG2I44

Eagle’s Shadow - ASIN: B008E17TYW

Ancient - ASIN: B00923F8AS

Dragonfall - ASIN: B00AKV95XW

The Other Side of Hell - ASIN: B00AS0NF54

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll - ASIN: B00BNSQ4AS

Vengeance – Coming Soon

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study - ASIN: B006ZAJ7TY

Tales from the Dubh Linn - ASIN: B0080XPD88

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin - ASIN: B00D4MN40O

The Cold Steel Mind - ASIN: B00FJIQ85O

Steel Heart - ASIN: B00H0GYRQA

The Winter War - ASIN: B00I6HRXAE

The Greatest Heights of Honour - ASIN: B00JHEOI26

Table of Contents

Part One: Cygnus Rising

Part Two: Twilight

Part Three: Fire, Light, and Bullets

Part Four: For Ever

Part Five: Falling

Part Six: The New Protector of New Millennium

Epilogue

Table of Contents

Part One: Cygnus Rising

Part Two: Twilight

Part Three: Fire, Light, and Bullets

Part Four: For Ever

Part Five: Falling

Part Six: The New Protector of New Millennium

Epilogue