Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly (2 page)

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?

22
^nd
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.’

25
^th
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?’