Prologue

There was darkness, and there was silence. Then there was a light and noise. Once upon a time, there would have been fear, or hesitation. But that was then and this was now. Right now, there was light, noise and, maybe more importantly, a train, and it was heading right for them. 

“This is going to suck,” Maxine Powers said to herself. “You ready?” The creature inside of her, the alien entity that had bonded to every fiber of her being, responded by enveloping her entire body in the black and purple goop. 

Ready, Penny said, and there was an extra edge to a voice that was already mostly edges. Max could tell they were worried, but also somewhat excited. She couldn’t deny she felt the same way. This was beyond anything they’d done before, bar one unfortunate incident. 

When the two had first met, Max and Penny’s relationship had been a bit rocky, to say the least. Falling off of a skyscraper could have been the end of it. Now? Now, the two of them crossed their arms, braced, and took the Red Line going downtown to the face with a smile. There was a lot to complain when it came to Lockridge Bay, but its infrastructure was nothing to sneeze at. Especially when it came barreling down at you at fifty miles per hour.

Penumbra roared with pain and adrenaline. Penny was already stitching their bones back together while Max climbed on top of the runaway subway car. So much noise, the tunnel above them whizzing past at speeds fast enough to turn them into an unpleasant purple paste. 

That was unpleasant, Penny said with a grin that appeared on both their faces. Most people were unsettled by the sight of Penumbra. Separate, neither of them was particularly imposing. Max was barely five foot seven, and Penny was a puddle of goop that looked like an artist’s rendition of a cup of radioactive sludge. But together, together they were over six foot tall, muscular, skin like an oil slick with white eyes that looked more like that of a cat’s than anything human, and a smile that was all teeth, all the time. 

“Yeah,” Max said. “But it was awesome.” Penny just chuckled. Once upon a time, they would’ve been worried about Maxine. She hadn’t exactly been in a good place when they met. But over the past year, Max’s confidence in their combined abilities had grown. Penumbra could take a hell of a beating. “Now, let’s stop this thing.”

They climbed down the side of the subway car, dodging signs passing by fast enough to turn a tomato into a virgin bloody mary. The doors were obviously closed, but that wasn’t really an issue. Penumbra held up a hand, and the fingers became sharp and tough, until they were claws, strong enough to push between two steel doors and pry them apart. 

“Don’t let go,” Max mumbled, as much to Penny as to herself. She felt their legs grow a little spikier. The last thing she wanted was to be ricocheted off the walls of the tunnel at this speed. Straining a bit, she wrested the doors open and flipped inside. Behind her, they hissed closed again. It was a little more quiet inside the car, at least. Well, aside from the screaming, of course. “Don’t pa—” was about as far as she got before a brave passenger shoved his fist into her face. 

He was as tall as she was, and pretty well built. Going by his gym-bag, he worked out regularly, and he hadn’t hesitated. A true hero. Penumbra didn’t flinch, but they did stop talking. There was a quiet moment where the two of them looked at each other, then, the man tried again, hitting her with his other hand. Penny made sure to make the skin on their face a little more squishy, to avoid him breaking his knuckles. They also made sure the toothy grin was nowhere to be seen. Having a mask that was just inky black, with the cat’s eyes, was intimidating enough. 

This always happens, Penny said. Just once, I wish people would hear us out. 

“It’s fine,” Max said to both Penny and the man. “Just let it out, man.”

“What did you just say to me?”

“Just let it out.” Penumbra raised their hands. When Max and Penny spoke at the same time, when their thoughts were so in sync neither of them knew where one ended and the other began, their voice gained a quality that tended to put people on the back foot. Most people didn’t harmonize with themselves. “Sometimes fear is an appropriate response, and like, you’re stuck in here, so flight isn’t an option. Just let it out.” That seemed to take the wind out of the man’s sails a bit. He dropped his fists.

“What?!”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” they said. “I’m here to help.” 

“You’re that… that thing!” an older man shouted. He looked like middle-management. Max had spent a lot of her life under middle-management, and she could smell the abuse of power from half a car away. It smelled like cheap cologne and a messy divorce. “You’re that alien! I saw a TV report on you!” Some younger people at the back of the car whooped. To Max and Penny’s amusement — not that they’d ever admit it — they’d sort of become Lockridge Bay’s unofficial mascot. 

“You can call me Penumbra,” they said. “Can anyone tell me what happened?”

“Train broke,” the older man with the clip-on tie said. Of course it was a clip-on tie. He was wearing a jacket, but Max could feel in her gut that he had a pocket protector. 

“Yeah, no shit, smart ass,” Maxine finally snapped, then cleared her throat. “A-hem,” they continued. “Where’s the driver?” 

“Out,” the man who had punched her in the face said. “Had a stroke or something behind the wheel, and we can’t get the cabin door open.”

“Ah. No problem then,” Penumbra said. “Which way to the—”

“Front of the train,” the other man said. “You know, the direction it’s going.” 

Penumbra spun around, and they raised a finger, said nothing, and then turned on a heel. The man was very obviously right, but they weren’t going to admit that. On the way to the front of the subway, a woman stopped them. She looked to be maybe in her early thirties. “E-Excuse me.”

“What’s up?” Max asked. She looked nervous, and that was more than a little understandable. If Max didn’t stop the train, they’d all be crashing sooner or later. “I promise, it will be okay.”

“I… I’m just curious,” the woman said, lowering her voice a bit. She looked left and right, like she had something to confess. That, too, was something they were getting used to. People who saw Penumbra usually either wanted to confess their crimes to them, or ask them to commit some crimes on their behalf. There was a lot of “Well, my boss is a bastard” to deal with. They nodded. “What are you doing later?”

“Oh.”

That was also something that happened with some regularity. When Penumbra needed to be a little bit more imposing, that was always an option. Penny had the ability to twist their body to quite the degree, although never without Maxine’s permission. And often, being close to seven foot tall kept people from trying to play hero like the guy from before. This had the side effect of attracting people who weren’t scared of tall, buff monster women. And there were a surprising amount of those. 

“Um,” Max said, “I’m afraid I’m not, uh, currently looking for someone else. I’m pretty happy in my relationship. Um. Thank you.” She felt herself stammer. Despite being a good foot taller than the woman looking up at her dejectedly, she felt about an inch tall. 

Come on, it could be fun, Penny teased. You know Victoria would be okay with it. Max shot metaphorical daggers at her. Internally. This was not the time or the place! For you, maybe. If you don’t want to, I’ll take her out. Maxine felt Penny move the mask of the suit. 

“I’ll be happy to,” Penny said. Max saw the girl blink. It was a good thing she met Victoria before she’d been bonded to Penny, all things considered. Explaining that they were technically two people, and sort-of a third whenever they merged was not easy to do, and made for some awkward first-date conversation. Sometimes they didn’t even bother with it. Penny went on more dates than Max did. “Let me give you my number,” Penny said. 

The woman bit her lip and handed them her phone. Penny happily entered their contact information while Max tried not to roll her eyes. The two of them, separately, were both dating Victoria Vicks. It was a bit hard to separate them, after all. But Penny also needed some time for themself, and despite her complaining, Maxine was very happy to give it to them. Their body belonged to both of them now.

“Yo, you gonna stop this train or what?” the man from earlier shouted. 

“In a minute!” Penumbra shouted as they handed the woman her phone back with a wink. “Now, to save the day.” They looked over their shoulder at her one more time. “Call me,” Penumbra said before they ripped the door to the driver’s cabin half off its hinges. 

Half an hour later, Penumbra dragged the train into an evacuated station. Police, paramedics and firemen were already on the scene as she hopped onto the platform. They’d turned off the power to the last of the track, so Penumbra had to pry the doors open to let the EMT’s through to get the driver out. 

The woman walked under their arm, blushing fiercely as she nodded at them. Penny nodded back. Max giggled internally. 

“You again,” a voice behind her said. “You keep showing up when there’s trouble.” Penny and Max both tightened up. They didn’t like the voice. It was a voice that drank cheap bourbon and pretended cigars made you look distinguished even while you were threatening people. It had a kind of everyday malice with delusions of grandeur, sweet the way sandwich-meat left out on the counter for two weeks is sweet. It had flies in it. 

“Officer Hayman,” Penumbra said, “just doing my civic duty.” 

“Detective. You know, we could have you locked up for disturbing the peace,” Hayman said, putting his thumbs in his belt. “All kinds of rumors about you going around.”

“Nothing substantial, sir. I haven’t committed any crimes.” Okay, that technically wasn’t true. Penumbra was actually responsible for quite a bit of destruction of property, but that was mostly by accident. They had been a little clumsy when they’d first started hopping around the city. “I’m not a vigilante.”

“Then why don’t you show your face, hm? Show us some ID.”

“No law against wearing a mask,” Penumbra said. “Am I being detained? I can’t be forced to show identification unless I’m being suspected of a crime.”

“Not today, no. But we don’t like freaks like you around the precinct, freak.”

“You can call me Penumbra,” they said. 

“Give it a rest, Hayman,” one of the firemen said as the rest led everyone off the platform. “She saved like fifty people today.” He turned to Penumbra. “Hey, you know if you’re going to be at the parade?” Maxine felt a giggle rise up in her throat. 

There was going to be a parade downtown for first responders after the weekend. She and Penny hadn’t decided if they were going to go. Except for the police, who really disliked them, most of the city’s first responders appreciated the help of someone who could be on the scene in a matter of minutes and could punch a hole through a wall in a pinch. Maybe it was the fact that she refused to fight criminals. 

“I was consid—”

“That thing ain’t welcome,” Hayman said. “And it didn’t get an invite from city council.”

“You know what, scrap that,” Penumbra said, “Free country. Yeah, I’m thinking we might show up.” They grinned at officer Hayman. There were far too many teeth, and she could hear his heart skip a beat in fear. 

Let’s go home, Penny said. We’re hungry! With one final nod, they left. As soon as it was possible, they ducked into a dark corner, and Penny retreated. Maxine appeared, wearing her leather jacket. Anyone looking would just see a small-ish punk girl with an undercut, and she made sure to look appropriately spooked as she mingled with the crowd going outside. 

They caught a cab home. “You know,” Max said, “today was a good day.” She got out her phone, and called Victoria. 

“Hey babes,” said the wonderful voice on the other side of the line. “I saw the news. I’m so damn proud of you. Now get your asses back here, I’ve missed you today.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Max said with a grin. “See you soon.”

“Hey. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Penumbra said. Later, the cab driver would think back to this one passenger who seemed real nice and tipped well. But the way she’d smiled just made him uncomfortable. Like she just had a few too many teeth.

Elamimax

It feels good to be back in this universe. This is a direct sequel to Penumbra, but it will stand on its own too. I really hope you all like this one. Patrons are 20 chapters ahead already, so if you really can't wait, consider subscribing!

I also recently finished publishing Girl By Popular Vote, so feel free to check that out, as well as having started publishing my other sequel, On Verdant Wings, so have a look there, too!

Anyway, I'll see you in the next one!