By day, she was simply Judy Wittimak, networking engineer and software programmer. At twenty-four, she was already well-respected within the technical community of San Francisco as a freelance contractor. Certainly, she didn't make as much as she might have if she'd gone to work for one of the big firms, but her independent status gave her the kind of freedom she needed to live her double life. That was worth more to her than any amount of money.

When she donned her costume, she was known to the world as Lady Twilight.

Judy regarded herself critically in the mirror, trying to view herself as others saw her. She was a neat, well-groomed young lady, her hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail. Medium height, minimal makeup, and a nice figure apparent even under a conservative outfit. It was clear that she worked out and kept herself fit, though of course only a remarkably discerning observer would guess that she was a martial arts champion. She was a reassuring professional for customers, an attractive and competent woman (she hoped) socially. She wondered if the glasses were overdoing it - she didn't really need them, but they seemed to be standard equipment for the whole secret identity thing.

It was mostly an act. She hated the sensible clothes and the prim little voice she had to use when she was working. It made her miserable to be constantly well-mannered and agreeable, especially when faced with self-important jerks who treated her like some sort of cute pet. But she couldn't afford to attract attention to herself as Judy Wittimak - not if she wanted to keep the true identity of Lady Twilight safely hidden from the world.

But Lord, sometimes she just had to blow off some steam.

In an impatient frenzy, Judy stripped out of her work clothes, tossing them to the floor of her apartment with disdain. She thrust aside the coathangers in her closet and slammed the hidden panel with the heel of her palm, almost desperate to get at the costume underneath. The feel of the smooth fabric between her fingers sent a tingle of excitement all through her body.

The costume was mostly black, with a hint of deep blue. Pencil-thin purple stripes traced her curves in all the right places, and the starburst blaze that was her heroic insignia stood out proudly over her left breast. Most of the micro-technology of the suit was housed in the gauntlets, shin-pads, and the headgear. In earlier incarnations of the costume she'd tried a cape, but quickly became sick of the way it always got caught in doors and snagged on nails.

The outfit made the most of her feminine beauty. She didn't go overboard - she knew of some heroines back east who actually wore leather thongs and stilleto heels, and she had no idea how they expected to be taken seriously as authority figures. But her trim, curvaceous figure was unmistakeably complimented by the costume's flattering lines. Her kickboxer's thighs and hard biceps were as lovingly accented by the dark curves of the oufit as her shapely breasts and tight behind.

Of course, the suit was also highly functional. Judy was naturally gifted with super-abilities, with not only lightning reflexes and superior stamina, but with a physical strength almost as great as that of the quarterhorses she loved to ride. But her real gift was her intellect. Desigining software and manintaining networks... that was child's play. The costume was her real achievement. It amplified her natural strength until she was powerful enough to lift a fire truck over her head, and increased her reaction time three-fold. It was bullet-proof (any superhero who couldn't protect herself from bullets would be very dead, very fast), and the gauntlets contained focused electrical projectors that could release a charge gentle enough to stun a butterfly or strong enough to melt a bulldozer down to a puddle of slag. With micro-hooks on her gloves and boots she could scale just about any surface. The onboard computer in her headgear contained a vast array of sensors and vision enhancers, as well as an analytical program that let her find the weaknesses of her foes.

And of course, there were a few special features on the costume as well... the sorts of things she didn't want the public to know about.

It wasn't as easy being a superhero these days as it had been for her predecessors. Time was, a hero could swing in, save the day, and leave the bad guys tied up for the police to find. It was clean, simple and respectable. But superheroes these days were plagued by a menace far worse than any villain: lawyers.

The lawyers had it down to an art. Blame the "vigilante," provide some sort of lame-assed excuse for their scumbag clients which actually passed as "reasonable doubt," and the criminals walked free. "If these so-called heroes are serious," the lawyers whined, "why don't they come to testify in court?"

Judy wouldn't have had any problem testifying... if the legal system would let her take the stand as Lady Twilight. But the lawyers demanded to know the identities of the heroes if they were going to take the stand. And a hero who gave up her secret identity might as well just slash her wrists right there - it would be quicker, easier, and a lot kinder to her family and friends.

So it wasn't enough just to bust the bad guys any more, because the system wouldn't follow through. If you were a superhero, you had to dispense justice all by yourself. The police were mostly on her side - they gave superheroes as much leeway with the law as they could. They had hard jobs, and would take all the help they could get.

Judy smiled. In a way, that was kind of fun. It could be a LOT of fun. Her goal was to make sure that by the time she was done with the bad guys, they'd never want to go back to a life of crime. To achieve that goal, she had practiced a number of techniques. Some of them involved persuasion and even love... and some of them involved a great deal of humiliation.

Either way was fine by her.

Judy made her way to the rooftop of her apartment building and surveyed the city as the evening lights began to glitter to life. She had a couple of things she wanted to do tonight, but she wasn't sure which of them she should try. On one hand, she knew that the super-villainess, Sasha the Lynx, was somewhere at large in the bay area. Sasha was a cagey foe, specializing in industrial theft and big-money technological crimes - not bloodthirsty, but unquestionably intelligent and dangerous.

On the other hand, though, there was a special matter she wanted to deal with. A new superheroine had come to town, going under the name of Power Princess. This Power Princess had made QUITE a nuisance of herself to the press, throwing out all sorts of extravagent claims about how she was the greatest heroine in the city, how she was going to clean up this town where all the other incompetent heroes had failed. Judy was just itching to find this upstart and take her down a peg or two.

What to do, what to do?

What do you do now?

	Judy goes after Sasha the Lynx
	Judy goes after Power Princess

	Back to the previous chapter
	Back to the beginning of the story.
View outline of the chapters.

View info about this story
Story program written by Valerie Mates