(As we rejoin our intrepid heroine let's reset the scene just a bit...First remember the room, once the grand parlor of an immensely wealthy family, now it is decorated with a row of stainless steel tables, each covered with vials, beakers, Bunsen burners, and other lab equipment. Against one wall is a sort of torture rack that resembles one of those tables only leaned upright, with a pair of large metal shackles affixed to the top. It's here poor Victory is bound. With her powers depleted after a series of clever traps, she was captured by the villainous Cassandra X. and her henchmen. Our brunette heroine has been cleave-gagged with a strip of black cloth, her slim arms stretched over her head and locked into those shackles. Her slender body is outstretched, still clad in the shiny purple Lycra of her two piece uniform, leaving her toned abdominals bare. Her shapely legs seeming as long as ever, running smoothly from her skintight hotpants down to the silver calf length boots. Her powerbelt remains around her waist, though it does her little good as it is itself still regenerating, however some strength has clearly returned to her and her beautiful face is beginning to show that familiar determination. It is here, we rejoin the adventure...)
THEY had left her alone for a time, shackled against the wall with her arms over her head. Victory slumped in her bonds weakly. It was almost a relief, the pain of her spanking subsided quickly and as it did she was able to release the humiliation. Left by herself she was able to regain some composure and as the heroine began to feel her powers recovering as well, her confidence came roaring back. Though she was not strong enough to break the shackles, Victory knew it would only be a matter of time before she would get free and make Blondie, Spanky (as she now thought of him, bitterly) and the one they called Diego pay for their treatment of her...that and of course, their criminal lifestyle choice.
Victory's powers had still not fully returned when Cassandra X. barged into the converted parlor leading a small entourage. The ostentatious cat burglar was wearing a strapless leopard print dress, which clung to every curve of her hour-glass figure. She walked with a confident swagger that seemed only to exaggerate that figure. Her flame red hair was gathered to one side, cascading over her bare shoulder and halfway down her torso. Watching Cassandra X. sweep across the room Victory had to admit (if only to herself) a certain admiration (if not envy) of this woman.
Behind Cassandra X. was an older woman, dressed more conservatively in a gray knee length, pencil skirt and plain white blouse. This woman had the look of an aging beauty queen, with short, silver streaked brown hair pulled into a proper bun and though her face showed the lines of maturity she was still quite the beauty. Her gate was no less confident, though not as much of a swagger, and Victory sensed a very straight forward demeanor about this woman. This must be Evelyn Eldridge.
Third was a man in a white lab coat. He was not near the physical stature of Casandra X.'s three stooges but he looked more sinister. This was a man possessed of the intelligence to do anything he wished and chose to serve evil designs. At least if one were to judge this book by its mustachioed rodent-faced cover, which Victory was not above doing. It was the eyes that gave him away, beady as they were there was a keen intellect glinting in them, and a devious edge. He was already wringing his hands as they crossed the large room.
The three thugs brought up the rear. All grinning as if they shared in some big secret. Of course they did, a secret they'd all wished they could forget before this night ended; Victory had promised herself that much. Her strength had returned enough that she was standing now, not slumped against the wall. She felt fully recovered, the strength having returned to her long legs, no pain wracking her slender body, yet the shackles still held.
Of course they do, she chided herself. Cassanda X. has been one step ahead of me at every turn, if there's a metal that can hold me, even at full strength, she'd've found it.
"My dear, I'm so glad you're awake," Cassandra X. bawled as she approached. "And feeling better too, from the looks of it."
Victory bit down on her gag, wanting to say any number of snide comments leaping to the tip of her tongue. She held them, knowing that the gag would only defeat (her) the purpose if she tried. The captive heroine settled for a baleful glare.
"Allow me to introduce your vivacious hostess," the cat burglar went on. "The lovely Evelyn Eldridge is glad to welcome you to her ever so humble abode."
"Can't we dispense with the theatrics," Evelyn sighed with a dismissive wave.
"Then what fun would she have," said the man in the lad coat. "Cassandra X. lives for the show don't you know"
"I just find it a bit tedious," the older woman replied.
"And the man to her left," Cassandra X. continued. "Is the honorable, the brilliant Doctor Timothy P. Argon."
"At your service, Madam," the Doctor said with a flourish and bow.
"It's true when I say he's brilliant," the cat burglar said. "That gas in the hallway: his concoction! Personally commissioned that one myself."
"It's basically just airborne chloroform with a synthetic anti-estrogenic," Dr. Agron explained. "I tweaked the chemical balance so it inhibits neuro..."
"Basically it disrupts a super-slut's biologic patterns so she can't use your powers," Cassandra X. cut him off. "Brilliant but long winded... and completely unacquainted with the term layman, I'm afraid."
"...Unfortunately the effects are only temporary," Dr. Argon mumbled in conclusion.
"And it's not the only concoction he's got up his sleeve," the redhead swept one arm towards one of the tables. It was lined with bottles and vials, all filled with different colored liquids.
Victory eyed the table. What did they have in store in for her? What effects might those potions have? Rage simmered within the captured superheroine, arms bound above her head and that infuriating gag keeping her from even speaking. She tugged at the bindings, powerfully now, but they didn't so much as give.
"Oh come on girlfriend," Cassandra X. laughed. "Haven't you figured out by now I'm no novice to you heroine-whores, those shackles are reinforced unobtanium...more than enough to hold you, with or without your powers."
"Cassandra, let's get on with it," Mrs. Eldridge seemed to be growing impatient.
"Oh fine," the catburglar replied with an exaggerated sigh. "See Lady Eldridge here actually orchestrated, by which I mean bankrolled, this entire operation because she wants to be the new superheroine of Capital City. So you can understand her impatience."
The voluptuous redhead slid up next to Victory, leaning against the table she was bound to and stroking her captive's bare stomach with her fingers. Her touch sent a chill through the heroine. Slowly that hand lifted and caressed Victory's cheek. She recoiled but bound as she was could not go far.
"Relax honeybunch," Cassandra X. purred. "All she wants is to know the source of you powers and we can all go our separate ways." Here she hooked her fingers in the gag and started to pull it loose. "This is your one chance to make this all so very easy and just tell us what we need to know."
She pulled the cleave-gag out of Victory's mouth letting it fall around her throat like a necklace. The heroine spat it out gratefully, licking her soft lips and considering the ultimatum she'd just received. Of course they wouldn't simply go their separate ways, she wasn't that naïve, but why would Evelyn Eldridge have any desire to become a superheroine? Much as she want to simply start spewing every caustic retort she'd been able to think of while gagged, Victory knew there was more at stake here.
"You can inform your client," Victory glared at the cat-burglar. "That kidnapping and false imprisonment are no ways to start her career as a super heroine."
"She makes an interesting point," Dr. Argon chuckled.
Cassandra X. looked at the heroine with sympathetic pout. "Make things easy on yourself, I know it's hard to accept being defeated, twice, but look around...this is only going to get more unpleasant."
"Cassandra you may have captured me but this is far from over," Victory snarled. "I'm far from defeated!"
"Well my dear you are right...about this being 'far from over'," Cassandra X. purred. "Doctor, you may begin."
"I'm going to give you this one chance, let me go, return the Knox Diamond and turn yourselves in," Victory said without a hint of trepidation. "Save me the trouble of breaking loose and yourselves the trouble of the beat down you'll all get when that happens."
"Oh I don't think so," now it was Mrs. Eldridge speaking. "The diamond has already been given to my son, Connor, its rightful owner." Victory didn't understand but there'd be time for explanations later. "As for me, it's been far too long I've been nothing but arm candy, a pretty face for my husbands at their press conferences and charity balls, now I'll be the star...once you tell how to become the next 'Victory'! So save yourself the trouble and just..."
"Mrs. Eldridge not that I'm unsympathetic to your motivations," Victory cut her off. "But my powers are one of the few things money can't buy."
"We'll see," the older woman snorted.
"And fair warning," the heroine added. "It takes a lot more than super strength to be a superheroine."
