EVEN sooner than she expected, Victory heard footsteps in the hallways coming towards her. Her mind began to spin wondering how she would live down this humiliation. Would this be the end of her crime fighting days? She had come this far with an endorsement from the mayor of Capital City himself, without which she'd likely have been branded a common vigilante. Once word of her defeat got back to him, how would he react? It's one thing to endorse an invincible super-heroine to guard your burgeoning metropolis and quite another to allow a foolish little girl in a spandex two-piece to run around your city trying to get herself killed. After a long moment a single uniformed officer came around the corner, she had long black hair pulled into a ponytail, her standard issue berretta led the way. Victory was surprised at first to see a woman standing there, then even more surprised to recognize her.
The officer's name was Sasha Cortez and she had become something of a celebrity in Capital City. Partially because of a few marquis cases she'd been involved with but mostly because being Latin and a woman made her a P.R. bonanza for the scandal ridden CCPD. The fact that she looked absolutely gorgeous on camera (or anywhere else for that matter) was icing on the cake.
Sasha looked at the bound heroine with surprise of her own. "Victory?"
"They're gone," Victory said quickly. "It was..."
"Cassandra X., I know," Sasha spoke with a sexy accent. "I've been on her case most of the day but she gave me the slip earlier this evening... and now again...damn!"
The voluptuous Latina slipped her pistol into its holster and hurried to Victory's side. She quickly began untying the ropes and the young heroine felt instant relief flood through her at the first hints of slack. Victory bit her bottom lip to hold back a gasp. She wasn't sure she could stand this kind of treatment regularly. Her arms came free of their bonds and Victory sat forward rubbing her wrists. She didn't take much time before going to work on her ankles while Officer Cortez was undoing the ropes around her waist.
"I should have known the Knox Diamond would be her target," Officer Cortez chided herself.
"Don't feel too bad," Victory said flush with embarrassment. "At least you aren't..."
"Don't," Sasha cut her off. "Cassandra X. is the most successful thief in the world and if the rumors are true you wouldn't be the first super-heroine she's caught off guard."
Freed at last the heroine stood and stretched. True or not that came as scant consolation to the humiliated heroine.
"The silent alarms have been tripped," Sasha said. "You'd better get dressed before the CCPD arrive, you might even be able to get out of here unnoticed."
Victory followed her pointing finger to a pile of clothes: her gear! The heroine rushed to the pile and began to separate and take inventory; boots, hot pants, bracelets...even her powerbelt was present and accounted for! She buckled that around her waist feeling her powers return. She understood why Cassandra X. had left her mask but not the rest. Fortunately that meant the cat burglar was unaware as to the source of her powers. She was just tucking her plump C-cups back into the skintight halter as they began to hear sirens arriving outside. She still had time to escape with her dignity intact, as long as... The superheroine hesitated looking to Officer Cortez. It had been embarrassing enough to be found that way by a lone female, now would she have to admit her defeat to an entire group of men? The CCPD weren't necessarily her biggest supporters, despite her mayoral endorsement. Still Victory tried to remain a paragon of virtue and it didn't feel right to lie or run away.
"Go!" Sasha seemed to read her mind. "No one but Cassandra would benefit from your defeat going public." They could now hear the reinforcements storming into the museum.
"I owe you one!"
"You owe me two," Officer Cortez said. "One for the rescue, one for covering your cute little butt...literally."
Sasha's tone was light but Victory suspected the shrewd woman wasn't altogether joking. She nodded and slipped away just as a group of officers rushed into the room shouting and brandishing their weapons. She heard Officer Cortez shouting back and a communal groan of disappointment. Victory quickly found an as yet uncovered exit and took it, conveniently enough, into the alley where the Victorycycle was hidden. The heroine climbed on feeling a measure of reassurance on the powerful motorcycle. In short order the she had returned to her apartment and reverted to her secret identity of Jordin Tyler.
Jordin enjoyed a relaxing bubble bath, hoping the hot water would wash the soreness out of her recently stretched body and let that night's events drift into nothing more than unpleasant memories.
UP early the next day, Jordin hit the gym, working out her frustrations in an hour long session of cardio kickboxing and then stretching out the stubborn kinks and cramps leftover from the previous night's ordeal, in a half hour yoga session. Afterwards she stopped for an herbal tea and use of complimentary wifi to do some research on airborne sleeping agents, knowing she'd need to find some countermeasure before facing Cassandra X again. However her results were fruitless and so, frustrated, she switched her focus to searching for information on the infamous cat-burglar. Finding equally futile results, Jordin settled at last for some stress free on line shopping. Summer was winding down after all and the new fall lines were starting to show up.
On a sudden whim (call it women's intuition) Jordin found herself Google-ing Capital City's most-well-to-do residents. It had occurred to her that Cassandra X. might have some unknown benefactor or at least some local connection here in Capital City. As she clicked through names and news articles Jordin began to wonder if this wasn't too open ended of a search. After all she didn't even know where to begin; crime bosses, oil barons, CEOs, lawyers, politicians; all sorts of wealth called Capital City "home". Then, by chance, she came across something very interesting; an article from the CC Inquirer about the latest antics of billionaire playboy Connor Eldridge. It led with a picture of him getting out of a limo with three women, none of whom seemed to be wearing any underwear, and went on to detail his drunken escapades. It was a line near the bottom of the article that caught her eye.
"Connor's father Holden Eldridge could not be reached for comment as he went before the Supreme Court this week to face allegations of corporate espionage involving chief competitor Knox Enterprises."
There it was in black and white! Jordin was not familiar with white collar crime, nor with the intricacies involved in these sort of corporate rivalries, but she did know something about coincidences or more precisely that there was no such thing. The famed Knox Diamond being stolen in the same week that Eldridgecorp and Knox Enterprises began a high stakes legal battle sent up a huge red flag!
ELDRIDGE Estates was a palatial ten acre mansion on the north-eastern outskirts of Capital City. It was a long ride from Jordin's downtown apartment but the Victorycycle made it a relatively quick trip. Still it was dark by the time the heroine arrived and as she approached from a rise in the highway, she was truly able to appreciate the size of it. All lit up and set off by itself the mansion looked almost like its own small city. Victory approached from the rear, locating the servants' entrance and parking her cycle down the street from that gate, concealing it behind some brush. There was a chill in the wind and goose bumps rippled across her long, bare legs. Having become well accustomed to her two-piece uniform, the heroine shook it off focusing on the task at hand.
The entire compound was encircled by a ten foot fence but thanks to her powerbelt Victory was able to clear it with an almost effortless bound. She crossed a short lawn, skirted around the tennis courts, and then made a quick dash through a meticulously well-kept flower garden before finally reaching a window which actually opened into the mansion. It was not locked and slid open easily allowing Victory to crawl through into an enormous library. Once inside she could suppress a sigh, sneaking around like this, breaking and entering essentially, wasn't her favorite tactic but some situations called for it. After all she'd hate to make enemies of the Eldrigdes without good reason.
Victory made her way through the library, marveling at the size of it and wondering if anyone had ever actually read a single book there. When she came at last to the door on the far side she cracked it open and peered through cautiously. The hall on the other side was mostly darkened and more importantly completely silent, so the young heroine made her way down it. Detective work was not Victory's strong point, and as she walked down that long, dimly lit corridor she began to wonder just what she even expected to find. It wasn't as if there'd be an empty trophy case with a sign hanging in it; KNOX DAIMOND: COMING SOON! Not to mention this mansion was big enough she could easily get lost in it.
Too late now, she told herself. I'm already here, if there's anything amiss there'll be some sign, I just know it.
As if in answer to her (women's intuition) assumption, the lights in the hallway came suddenly on. Victory even had to shield her eyes against the flare. Then two gleaming metal gates dropped from the ceiling, one in front and one behind her. Moving quickly Victory grabbed two of the bars on the gate in front of her; Iron! It posed little resistance to her super strength and she easily pulled them apart to create an opening. As she stepped through, a mechanical arm dropped in her path. On the end was a saw blade four feet in diameter; it began spinning and came straight at the super-heroine. She ducked it easily, her reflexes enhance by the powerbelt, but almost as quickly the arm changed directions swiping down at her. Luckily Victory was able to get an arm up and the blade skipped harmlessly off her silver bracelet. The blade came back again, only this time Victory was ready! She charged, knocking the blade sideways with a swing of her arm, using the bracelet offensively. The force hammered the saw and connecting arm into the wall where it sliced in, ground to a halt and became stuck. Victory grinned hearing the servos and hydraulics burn themselves out.
