Adventure Girl flew slowly down the corridors of the Liberty Squad's satellite headquarters. It wasn't that she couldn't maneuver at higher speeds, even in these narrow hallways; to be honest, Adventure Girl was still new enough to the team that she had to take her time and keep a careful eye on the signs to avoid taking a wrong turn.
She still felt a little awed by her new position in the world's premier grouping of superheroes. When the Rescuer had finally proposed her for membership and the whole team had unanimously agreed, it felt like the happiest day of her life. And to think, it all started with one small act of courage. She thought back to the day she'd been kidnapped from the debutante's ball with all those other girls, and the Rescuer had come to...well, rescue her. But when he'd lost his powers due to the effects of the Parallax Key and been thrown right in the cell with them...it had seemed like the right thing to do, helping him break out. He didn't have any powers, and it wasn't stopping him from doing the right thing.
And that had led to her first meeting with Doctor Darke, and that had led to her bathing in the energies of the Parallax Key, and that had led to a secret life as a superhero, training with the Rescuer and helping to save the world, and all that had led her here, to the apex of everything a hero could hope for.
She stopped, finally finding the door to the steam room. Certainly membership had its privileges, she thought to herself as she went inside.
She was a little taken aback when she saw Venus Ascendant already bathing in the hot steam. Adventure Girl still didn't know all her new allies as well as she knew the Rescuer, and she hadn't had much chance to talk with Venus socially. All she knew about her teammate was what she'd picked up from conversations with other members, and that had been a little...weird. Not exactly tense, but...there was a history, there. Something nobody quite wanted to bring up, but something they couldn't let go. Captain Patriot always glared at her whenever she walked into the room, the Rescuer never quite seemed able to meet her gaze, and Doctor Phobos always seemed to have a silly grin when he looked at her that really seemed out of place on the face of the Dark Avenger. But nobody seemed willing to explain it all to Adventure Girl.
Venus Ascendant looked up. "Hello, dear," she said. She stretched a little, and Adventure Girl...not quite blushed or turned away, but certainly became a lot more interested in the detail of the ceiling tile. Venus seemed to be perfectly comfortable displaying her naked body in a way that Adventure Girl wasn't. "Hope you don't mind a little company. I just finished a battle with the Criminal Element, and I'm feeling a bit like my lungs were scrubbed out with a wire brush. I thought perhaps a few deep breaths of steam might help."
"What did he turn into?" Adventure Girl asked. "Arsenic?"
"Chlorine," Venus said ruefully. "Felt like I was inhaling bleach. So what brings you down here?"
Adventure Girl gingerly began to remove her costume, and not just because she felt a little nervous about the way her body compared with that of a Greco-Roman paragon of beauty. "The Freak Parade tried to spike New Amsterdam's water supply with a mutagenic serum, and I went three rounds with Beatdown. Guy hits like a truck." She peeled off her clothes, trying not to feel self-conscious about the way her own lithe, athletic form seemed girlish next to Venus' supple curves. "In fact, he actually hit me with a truck."
Adventure Girl sat down, trying to let the heat seep into her body and unkink the stiff, aching areas that still protested after the fight. "Here," Venus said, shifting position. "Let me help you with that." She put her hands onto Adventure Girl's back and began kneading the muscles, working the soreness out of her shoulder where Beatdown had slammed her into a support pillar.
"Thanks," Adventure Girl said gratefully. "That feels...oh, that feels nice, Venus." That was the downside of being near-invulnerable, she thought. You really needed someone with super-strength to give you a massage, and there wasn't always someone around who could bend steel with their bare hands when you really needed them.
"Not a problem," Venus said. "And please, call me Helena. Secret identities are worth keeping, but I don't think that knowing my first name is going to endanger my friends and loved ones."
Adventure Girl sagged forward a bit under Venus--Helena's touch. "Samantha," she said a bit shyly. "I thought all your people had super-powers, like you," she said. Not that she meant to pry, but...
"My family in Olympia have also received the blessings of the gods, yes," Helena responded as she continued to work the tension out of Samantha's back. "But I was really referring more to my secret identity in Man's world. My mission to educate your society has required me to take an identity other than that of Venus Ascendant, and the friends I made in that identity are no less dear to me than my family back home."
Samantha's brow furrowed a little. "Um...you know, I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but...you're always talking about that whole thing, educating Man's world and all. But I never really understood what you're supposed to be educating us about. I mean, is it a political thing? Women's liberation, equality of the sexes?" Samantha didn't think she had to feel guilty about her own feminist credentials; any woman capable of defusing a nuclear bomb with her eyeballs shouldn't need to wonder if they were the equal of a man.
"Oh, I don't mind talking about it at all!" Helena said brightly, working her fingers down towards the small of Samantha's back. "It's a little difficult to explain, is all. A lot easier to show than to tell. It's not really political, it's more of a cultural exchange. You see..." She paused. "Hang on." She stood up, and Samantha's venture-senses picked up the tread of her feet as she walked over to where her clothing was piled up. Samantha wondered what exactly she was doing, but between the steam and the massage, she was feeling relaxed enough to let Helena explain in her own time.
Sure enough, Helena returned in moments. "It requires a little trust," she said with a smile, "but I think at this point we've both saved the world enough to believe in each other's fundamental good natures." She held out a long silver rope-like belt. "This is the Girdle of Minerva. It has been enchanted with a number of magics, but the two most prominent are that it is unbreakable, and that anyone bound by its confines can speak only truth. Now, go ahead and put your hands behind your back."
"I..." Samantha tensed up a little. Despite her vast physical power, magic was one of her few remaining vulnerabilities, and one that seemed to crop up just a little too often for her tastes. It wasn't that she was developing a phobia about it or anything, but after being controlled by the Pendant of Persephone, possessed by the Amulet of Hera, entranced by the Crystal of Eros and bewitched by the Mirror of Aphrodite, she wasn't particularly sure she wanted to find out what it was like to be tied up with the Girdle of Minerva. (And just what was it with the ancient Greeks and mind control?)
"It's alright, my dear," Helena said, resting her hand on Samantha's shoulder. "You have absolutely nothing to fear from me."
"That's what the Rescuer said," she grumbled, but she nonetheless put her hands together behind her back and allowed Helena to wrap the Girdle several times around her wrists. "Stand up, please," Helena said, and Samantha got to her feet. *Just how long is this Girdle of Minerva?* she wondered, as Helena wrapped it tightly around her ankles as well.
"There we go," Helena said, pulling the ropes taut. Samantha could stand, but little more, and a few experimental tugs made it clear that the Girdle of Minerva was as unbreakable as advertised. "Now, Samantha, how do you feel?"
