Liberty Read online

  Liberty

  An Ultrahumans Novel

  By Niall Teasdale

  Copyright 2018 Niall Teasdale

  Amazon Kindle Edition

  Contents

  Part One: New Beginnings

  Part Two: Undercurrents

  Part Three: Faith

  Part Four: Iron Cap

  Epilogue

  Part One: New Beginnings

  New Millennium City, MD, 24th December 2016.

  It was the night before Christmas and the population of New Millennium City was doing what many people indulged in at that time of year: desperate, last-minute shopping. In Friendship Park, things were a little more relaxed: there were people looking for presents, but they had most of the major ones already sorted out and were on the lookout for trinkets. Someone had had the bright idea of putting on a Christmas Fair, so there were stalls of various kinds selling food, Christmas decorations, handmade gifts, and general festive goodies. Tonight was the last night. Even the stallholders had more seasonal goodwill to go around, so there was a distinct hint of frivolity about the place, right up until the horned demon showed up.

  Almost seven feet in height, it was dressed in a Santa costume which had obviously been designed for a much smaller man. The trousers were stretched tight over thickly muscled thighs and the jacket hung open over a broad, heavily muscled chest. There was no skin on display since the thing was covered in thick, off-white fur, except over a face only a mother could love which featured a mouth full of sharp teeth and a pair of twisted horns stretching up from its brows. It was not wearing boots, which let everyone see the claws that ended both fingers and toes. It was carrying a large sack, the kind presents went in, but it appeared to be empty, for now.

  ‘Ho, ho, fucking ho,’ the Krampus figure bellowed. ‘Every last one of you is on my naughty list. My little helpers are going to be collecting wallets and valuables as your punishment.’ There were six other Santas with sacks and firearms around the circle of stands which formed the centre point of the fair, and they were moving as soon as the demand was made. Krampus started toward an older couple who were standing nearby, their eyes wide. ‘Let’s see what you’ve got for me.’

  The old woman peered at the monstrous figure approaching her for a second. ‘You know you’re not going to get away with this, don’t you?’ she said. ‘If I were you, I’d leave before things get unpleasant.’

  Krampus gave her a big, toothy grin. ‘Lady, there’s nothing that can stop me. Not now. Nothing!’ There was a scream from behind him. He ignored it, even though it did not really sound like a scream of outrage, which was the kind of thing he was expecting. ‘Give me–’

  ‘Holy shit! Get me out of–’ The cry cut off in a mumble.

  Now Krampus did turn, because he recognised the voice. Across the little square, one of his henchmen had been turned into a Santa-snowman. He was encased in ice all the way up to his mouth and was struggling to break free. Three more of his people were lying on the cold ground, unconscious and, as he watched, a tall man with glowing, all-blue eyes reached out a hand and a fifth thug found himself being frozen into immobility. The Ultra was not even in a costume, though the fact that he was wandering around in jeans, a T-shirt, and a light jacket even on a wintry night like this was a bigger indication of his nature than his eyes.

  Something caught the corner of Krampus’s eye and he turned in time to see a moving mass of blackness swallow up his last goon. There was only one person that was likely to be. What was Twilight doing in Friendship? She spent her time keeping Churchton quiet. But when the darkness receded – leaving the thug in the Santa suit lying on the ground – and Twilight stepped out of it, she was not in costume either. She was, in fact, wearing a lacy top over a black bra, a tiny leather skirt, fishnet tights, and over-the-knee boots in shiny black. The cold obviously did not bother her either. She was a good-looking woman; even her jet-black eyes just added an exotic touch to her long, angular face. Since returning from wherever she had been for eighteen months, she had been wearing her hair long: the fringe fell over her eyes in a random manner, and she sported a pair of pigtails that fell down past her shoulders. She wandered out toward the middle of the open area, shaking her head.

  ‘Really? This is your idea of a fun Christmas Eve?’ she said. ‘Christmas is supposed to be for family. I was out here with my boyfriend.’ She indicated the tall, well-built man walking up to stand beside her. ‘You just had to do something like this.’ Krampus opened his mouth to respond, but she kept right on going. ‘I mean, seriously, I’m the Avatar of Shadow. I’m the embodiment of all the things you fear when the lights go out. I am a walking nightmare. I make the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come look cuddly. But even I think this is crass.’

  Krampus leered and took two steps forward. ‘So, what ya gonna do about it? Punch me out? Scare me half to death? Get your boy there to freeze me to the spot?’

  ‘Nope. We’re just taking care of the thugs and keeping you talking while she gets here.’ Twilight pointed over the monster’s shoulder. ‘She’s kind of big on family values at this time of year.’

  ‘Sure, you think I’m falling for that one? There’s no one–’ He stopped as someone tapped him on the shoulder. Right behind him was Cygnus, stunningly beautiful Cygnus with the long, flowing hair which shaded from white at the crown to pale blue at the tips. Cygnus, who fought crime in a white swimsuit with a pattern of blue stars on the chest and thigh-high high-heeled boots. Cygnus, who looked really annoyed.

  ‘You are on my naughty list,’ she said, and then she punched him in the jaw.

  ~~~

  ‘So, after he blacks out,’ Cygnus said, ‘he turns into this wimpy little guy in a really loose Santa suit who is also unconscious and still has a broken jaw.’

  June giggled. ‘I shouldn’t giggle at a broken jaw, but really.’

  ‘He deserved it,’ Andrea said, smirking. They were all in Jacob’s house, Cygnus and June – technically Astraea since she was in her costume – on the sofa, while Andrea sat in Jacob’s lap on the chair. None of them were bothered by the cold – Jacob kept his house at around forty degrees Fahrenheit all year round, though that was a lot easier in winter.

  ‘So, Jacob,’ Cygnus said, ‘the big day tomorrow.’

  Andrea giggled. ‘He’ll be fine. Now that he has that new suit, there’s no excuse for him to not meet my parents and I haven’t really been back to Boston since I got back from China.’

  Jacob rumbled a little, though exactly what that meant was unclear. ‘As I understand it, June’s never taken you to meet her parents.’

  ‘That is… true,’ Cygnus admitted.

  ‘I haven’t told them I can fly either,’ June said. ‘Maybe I should make the effort. If we get a break in the new year, we could fly down there.’

  Cygnus gave a small grimace. ‘If. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when my new job starts.’

  ‘There’s that, but maybe we should try. I don’t think they’re going to go nuts knowing I’m an Ultra. And they know their only daughter’s dating Cygnus, they’ve just never met her.’

  ‘It’s probably time they did.’ Cygnus got to her feet. ‘We’ll leave you two to the rest of your night. You’re stopping off at the house before you go up to Boston, right?’

  ‘We’ll drop in to wish you Happy Holidays, or whatever,’ Jacob said, nodding.

  ‘I’ll tell Denny to remind us to put clothes on,’ June said as she got up and headed for the door.

  ‘That’d be appreciated.’ The big man considered that for a second. ‘Do I lose masculinity points for that?’

  ‘Yes,’ Andrea replied, ‘but you do gain good-boyfriend points. We’ll call it a wash.’

  25th December.

  The main bedroom of the house
Cygnus shared with June and Andrea had not seen much use since they had moved in. Until recently. Whether in the form of Cygnus or the form of Penny, she had finally decided that the room was meant to be used and, now that June could fly, it should be used. It had needed some refurbishment, so there had been contractors in for most of December.

  While the dojo had no windows, the top and bottom floors did. One of the bedroom windows had been replaced with sliding glass doors, with a biometric lock like the one Svetilo had on her balcony window. Outside it, there was now a little walled patio area which could be used for sunbathing or whatever. Inside, there had been a lot of redecoration; the room had been quite dark, and it was now a warmer shade of red. The bed had been replaced too: Bobby had had a large, circular thing which Cygnus had quite liked but preferred not to sleep in. The new bed was the standard shape and only king-sized. That was quite big enough.

  June was currently lying on it, her arms and legs splayed out to the four corner posts which were thick, steel things. She was held in place by leather-padded cuffs with steel interiors and steel cables which were supposedly capable of lifting ten tons. Cygnus had been dubious about bondage play at one time, but they both found being helpless to put up with whatever the other wanted to do to them to be quite the turn-on. The new gear was a joint Christmas present; while Cygnus could just dial her strength down, June could not, and they had been through ropes of various strength, several chains, and one set of ordinary leather cuffs. The bedposts had been put in because they figured that with the new cuffs and cables, the next likely failure point was the bed. Cygnus was fairly sure that June was not going to uproot the bolts the posts were anchored by. Fairly sure.

  The other reason for the restraints was that, when things got really wild, giving head to June could get a little dangerous. She tended to squeeze her thighs together. That had caused Penny the odd issue even before June’s thighs came with a cosmic power boost. With June thoroughly anchored down, Cygnus could really go to town. And she was. June was begging for her to stop. Pleading in between orgasms. The new, quite long and thick, vibrator they had also bought for Christmas was certainly part of the experience, but Cygnus’s tongue was working over June’s clit with a fever too. So, June was begging, but not with the one word which would make Cygnus stop immediately, so Cygnus kept going.

  Cygnus was not even sure how long they had been at it. She was going to stop soon because a glance up at June’s wrists had revealed red marks around the cuffs. June could fix that easily enough, but they were likely to sting a bit before she did. Another few minutes. The reaction she was getting was… Cygnus was not sure she had ever seen her friend quite so worked up. June was totally into it, lost in the role. Was she fantasising about some sort of torture scene? Or was it just the sensation of not being able to resist? Whatever was happening in June’s mind, she did not seem to want it to stop because she still had not said the word. Had she forgotten?

  Turning the vibrator up a notch, Cygnus thrust it harder and faster. She pressed her lips down and sucked. June’s body tensed so hard she actually lifted off the mattress entirely for a few seconds before she crashed back down.

  ‘Pomegranate!’ June shrieked. Cygnus turned off the vibrator and lifted her face away instantly. ‘Pomegranate, pomegranate, pomegranate!’

  Grinning, Cygnus bent to release June’s legs, then moved up the bed to undo her wrist cuffs. June turned onto her side and curled into a ball, the bright-pink shaft of the vibrator still sticking out of her. ‘Are you okay, love?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Yes,’ June mumbled. ‘Oh God, yes. I just need a few seconds…’

  Cygnus very carefully checked June’s wrists, then her ankles. There was some abrasion, but it was not as bad as she had thought. They were good cuffs.

  ‘That was intense,’ June said, uncurling herself. ‘That was… Wow. I am putting you in those later.’

  ‘I thought you might. After seeing you in them, I think I’m looking forward to it. Shower, breakfast, presents?’

  ‘If you carry me to the shower.’

  ‘I think you should take the vibe out first.’

  June whimpered. ‘I’m not sure I want to. It’s going to feel like part of me has gone missing.’

  Cygnus smiled. ‘We can always put it back after breakfast.’

  June just whimpered again.

  Boston, MA.

  LeFey Coffee was closed for the holiday. The lights were out in the customer seating part of the shop, but sunlight still came in through the windows. The day was overcast and cool, so the sunlight was dim and grey which meant that Andrea had no trouble at all in drawing the shadows together enough to step into them.

  ‘That still creeps me out a little,’ Jacob commented. ‘Have to admit it’s not as unpleasant as the warp tubes, but it’s still kind of creepy.’

  Andrea just grinned and started for the back of the shop. There was a kitchen there and the smell of cooking food, but her mother was not working on anything. She stepped through a doorway to the stairs which ran up to the upper floors. ‘Hi,’ she called out. ‘Put your clothes back on. Your daughter’s here.’ She could almost feel Jacob blushing behind her.

  ‘We’re in the lounge,’ Audrey’s voice called back. ‘And we’ll stay naked if we want to.’

  Andrea looked over her shoulder. ‘My mother.’

  ‘I can tell where you get your sense of humour,’ Jacob replied.

  ‘Oh, no, that’s Dad. Mom’s just been with him long enough that some of it’s rubbed off.’

  Both parents got to their feet as Andrea led Jacob into the lounge. Marcus was a solid-looking man of Irish stock with very dark hair, now greying at the temples, and blue eyes which sparkled. Audrey had been blonde until her son, Andrea’s older brother, had died. Now her hair was grey but vibrant and she had given Andrea her brown eyes, until Andrea’s had gone entirely black. Andrea had clearly got a lot of her Latin looks from her mother.

  ‘Happy Christmas,’ Andrea said, and there was a lot of well-wishing along with the handshakes and kisses.

  When that was done with, Marcus was still peering at Jacob. ‘I was expecting someone in a suit of armour,’ he said after a second.

  ‘Doctor Ultimate strikes again,’ Andrea replied.

  Jacob undid a button on his shirt to show the suit underneath it. ‘He managed to get a bunch of the electronics integrated into this. I can actually go out in normal clothes again. Though it’s cold enough for me outside that I don’t need the help.’

  ‘And this happened when Andrea… got her new eyes?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘It started then. It was a while later before it began to manifest fully.’

  ‘Well, let’s sit down and break out the drinks,’ Marcus said. ‘We’ve got a while before the food is ready, so we want to hear the full story. We’ll grill Andrea after dinner.’

  Andrea grimaced. ‘Great. I noticed you’ve got the shop’s kitchen cooking something too, Mom. How much are you making?’

  ‘Oh, enough,’ Audrey replied with a slightly embarrassed smile. She looked Jacob up and down. ‘Well, I think it’s enough. You’re built like my son was, Jacob. I hope I’ve made enough.’

  ~~~

  ‘That seemed to go pretty well,’ Jacob commented as he undressed for bed. There was a sort of question in the statement: did Andrea think the same?

  ‘Yes,’ Andrea replied. ‘You were expecting Dad to be cleaning his shotgun? I don’t think he owns one.’

  ‘I’m not sure I knew what to expect. I mean, I’m black…’

  ‘I’d have mentioned if that was likely to be a problem.’

  ‘I’m stuck in this suit most of the time, and that’s kind of weird.’

  ‘They got used to me becoming what I am. That suit’s pretty ordinary compared to “your daughter is now a walking shadow.”’

  ‘Yeah, I guess. I suppose I was expecting more… questions.’

  ‘They’ve known we’ve been dating since I came up here to tell them ab
out my powers. They wanted to meet you, but I think they’re just happy I found someone.’

  ‘Huh.’ Jacob looked down at his suit. The outer layer was a grey fabric. Beneath that was a layer with the general consistency of latex, and then there was a smooth, silky liner on the inside. It was remarkably comfortable and remarkably thin, which was useful under the circumstances. On the inside of the right wrist there was a small display panel. He tapped it into life and checked through the condition displays: it was not meant to provide the depth of information his full suit did, but it gave the important details. ‘At least they won’t be worrying over us having sex under their roof. It’s a little too warm in here for me to do without the suit.’

  ‘Fuck that,’ Andrea said. ‘I am not doing without Christmas nookie.’ She walked over to the radiator on one wall and turned off the valve. Then she walked over to the window and opened it as wide as it would go. And then the room filled with darkness. Jacob could feel the temperature dropping almost immediately, though with Andrea’s shadows blocking the light, he could not see the numerals on his display. ‘That should be enough,’ Andrea said, and the shadows receded to their normal locations. ‘Now, strip.’

  Jacob glanced at his wrist, shrugged, and began unsealing the suit. ‘You know, I could have just taken this off and the room would’ve cooled.’

  ‘Yes, but that’s tiring for you,’ Andrea replied, stalking toward the bed. ‘The last thing I want you to be right now is tired.’

  He grinned. ‘Good thing we’ve had plenty of time since dinner then. Your mother cooks a mean Christmas dinner. Kind of like mine used to do at Thanksgiving.’

  ‘Irish-Italian family. We’ve always taken Christmas pretty seriously.’ Andrea pushed on Jacob’s chest and he dropped onto the bed, as naked as she was. She straddled his thighs, wrapping her arms around his neck. ‘Now, let’s see if we can’t burn some of those calories off.’

  New Millennium City, MD, 31st December.

  It had not been the best of years and it seemed that everyone wanted to see it out with some enthusiasm. That was why Cygnus had a full house for New Year’s Eve. Cygnus and June were there, obviously, and Andrea and Jacob were spending the night there too. Svetilo and Zoe had come over and would be spending the night, and so would Heather Bryant and Andy Hatch. Andy – Fire Bug to the general public – was being very gentlemanly around Heather, but no one was taking bets against them ending up in bed together again.