Chapter Ten
November 12th, 9:05 PM
Margot felt her body shake. No, felt it being shook. There were hands on her shoulders. She could feel the icy cold skin. She felt cold up and down her body. So she opened her eyes.
The light was blinding. It was directly above her, a rectangular fixture on the ceiling. She recognized it. She had seen it inside that doctor's shed...
She was still in the shed. And the doctor was still there too. It was his hands that were on her shoulders. It was his face, his ugly mustache and tight glasses, that she saw against the intense glow of the light. It was his voice she now heard.
"You better wake up. The boss will be here soon."
Margot tried to pluck his the doctor's hands from her shoulders, but found that she couldn't. She couldn't move her hands at all, and when she looked down her body to see why, she saw coils of thin rope binding her wrists together. She also saw that she was wearing no clothes except for her matching lacy flesh-colored bra and panties and her plain white socks. She tried to stand, only to learn that her de-booted ankles had been bound, too. She tried to speak, but it only came out as "MMPH." A gag.
Margot squirmed, "mmphed," tried to thrash her bound legs around. She was laying on the floor of the shed, almost perfectly straight, so that she resembled a sort of tied-up awards statue. Todorov was standing above her, his shoes resting on either side of her waist. He was smiling, seeming to delight in his ropework. She was bound and gagged and without her superheroine outfit. She felt the bare skin of her back of her thighs prickle against the ground, and the bare skin of her chest burning within the harsh white light.
"You're probably wondering why I've divested you of your clothes," Todorov said. "And why I've divested you of this."
He held Margot's black mask out in front of her face. Margot howled into her gag. Her identity had been revealed!
"The reason is because I don't think you're a proper superheroine. And I don't think a young lady should go around pretending to be she's something she's not." Todorov slipped the black mask into the side pocket of his coat. "So I took off your boots and gloves and belt and everything else. You can thank me later."
Margot glared at Todorov, who's face was silhouetted by the shed's fluorescence. Todorov grinned back. She tried to separate her hands, only to feel the thin ropes cutting into her soft skin. She closed her eyes. "He's right," she thought, sadly. "I'm not a superheroine." She felt exposed underneath the light; her underwear couldn't save her from the feeling of total nakedness in front of this insane sociopath.
"Don't fret, though," Todorov said. "Because I'm giving you some hope. You like that, right, hope? It's what caused you to foolishly believe you could change my ways."
He pulled a syringe out from a different pocket of his coat and showed it to Margot. "This is the antidote, right here. A real antidote for your friend the Blue Lynx."
Behind the gag, Margot sighed. What was this?
"I'm showing it to you because it's yours to take, on one condition."
Margot blinked at Todorov rapidly. "What?" she wondered. She let a big "MMPH" into the cloth. "What do I have to do?" she begged, with no words.
"It's simple, honey. Just tell me the secret identity of the Blue Lynx. Tell me where she lives and how I can get to her. So that after you've administered the antidote, we can continue to have fun."
Margot instinctively shook her head. "MMPH!" she said. "No!" she thought. "Absolutely not! I would never sell out my friend!"
Todorov dropped his gaze in response, laughing quietly. "You sure?" he asked. "This is a once in a night-time opportunity."
Margot paused. She needed to think, really think, for a second. She didn't have to give Todorov a real name, or a real address. And what could he do about that? She'd escape with the antidote, and she'd come back later with Erin, and then the doctor would really be in trouble. She started nodding at Todorov, trying to let him know that she was reconsidering. She felt the toes of his shoes tapping at the her naked hips.
"You want me to take off the gag, so you can tell me?"
Margot nodded. Todorov smiled, and then bent down. He stuck his hands behind Margot's head, running his fingers through her hair before finding the knot of the bandana gag. He struggled with the knot for a minute, then finally pulled it from Margot's mouth. She coughed as the fabric left her lips, feeling spittle run down her lips and toward her jawline.
"So," Todorov said, putting the bandana in yet another pocket, "Who is the Blue Lynx?"
Margot coughed. "Umm."
Todorov snapped his fingers. "Now!"
She needed a name, an address, anything. But it was impossible to think with the light, and the cold floor on her naked skin, and the sensation of ropes biting into her wrists and ankles, and the knowledge that she wasn't like Erin, that she wasn't a proper superheroine, that she had been tricked and captured and was now bound on the floor of a madman's shed in just her bra and panties.
"Her name is, umm, Yancey..."
"Not true," Todorov said, bringing the gag back from his pocket. "Back on you go."
He bent down and speedily knotted the gag around Margot's mouth, this time even tighter than before. Margot struggled and "mmphed" as she felt his hands on her neck and head. She had blown her chance.
"It doesn't matter," Todorov said. "The boss will be here any minute now. I couldn't let you go now. He said he wanted to talk to you."
Margot closed her eyes. She replayed the last couple of days in her head. Driving Erin out to do that horrible PSA. Talking with Erin, yelling at Erin, trying to convince her that it was all for their own good. Erin storming off into the night, and Margot coming to her rescue at the last moment. Erin sick, passed out on the couch, and Margot driving out to the suburbs to apprehend the man who had poisoned the Blue Lynx. And now her, Margot, alone, on the floor of this shed, waiting for Brent Hammerson to arrive and do God knows what. She felt tears welling up in her eyelids. How could all this happen? How could she have been so stupid?
She heard three slow, almost uncertain knocks on the door of the shed. She opened her eyes. "Oh no," she thought. "He's here."
Todorov stepped around Margot's bound, nearly naked body and walked to the door. "Guess that's the boss," he said. "I can't wait to see what we wants to do with you."
He laughed and pulled the door open. Suddenly, there was a sound, and Todorov stumbed back into the shed, his head bent, his hand clutching his cheek. "You!" he muttered.
Margot struggled to raise her head and she what was going on. From her floor-bound position, she could only take in Todorov's back, which was cautiously stumbling her way still. But she the voice she heard next was warm, rich, and utterly recognizable.
"That's right," Erin said. "Me."
"But... how?" the doctor asked, still attempting to find his bearings.
"We look out for each other, me and the Black Bobcat," Erin said. She coughed but quickly resumed speaking. "I knew where to find her, and where to find you, Grigory Todorov."
Todorov laughed. "You're weak as a kitten, Blue Lynx. I know what I put in that poison. It won't be long before you've lost your the last of your... Nine lives."
"I'm down, but not out," Erin replied. And Margot watched as Todorov flew across the room, over her bound and gagged body, with loud screams and flailing arms, into the far end of the shed, where Margot heard the loud crash of medical equipment shattering.
She heard Todorov's sobs of pain and then, at long last, saw the Blue Lynx come into view. She was walking carefully, resting one hand on the long side-table, her other hand on her abdomen. She coughed as she looked into Margot's eyes and smiled.
"Black Bobcat," Erin said, her eyes glimmering with sympathy and affection.
"MMPH!" Margot replied, ecstatically.
With evident pain, Erin crouched to the ground, reaching her hands around Margot's head. She removed the gag from Margot's mouth and let it slide down her neck.
"How," Margot coughed. "How did you---"
"I took the bus," Erin said. "It took a while, but I got here."
She began to unwrap the ropes from Margot's wrists. Margot leaned up to look Erin in the eyes, and found that the Blue Lynx was completely focused on the task at hand. "Because... She's a true hero," Margot thought. She smiled.
"I'm so proud of you, Margot," Erin whispered into her ear. "I'm so proud. But you really can't do this on your own."
Margot nodded sadly. "I know," she whispered.
"We're a team," Erin said. "We're only good if we both work together." She had freed Margot's wrists and had moved on to her ankles. "Otherwise we get stripped and tied up."
Margot giggled. Erin was right, was so completely right. Whenever they were apart, bad things seemed to happen. But whenever they were together, working on a case as a team, they were indestructible. How foolish she had been to come out here alone. In trying to make things right, she had almost gotten herself killed. How was that good for the Blue Lynx, or for the city?
Behind her, Margot heard Todorov groaning, and she watched as Erin got up from the ground and slowly meandered toward the back of the shed. Margot picked at her ankle bonds with her free hands as she listened in to their conversation.
"How are you feeling, Blue Lynx?" Todorov cackled in a broken cadence.
"Not great," Erin admitted. "No thanks to you."
Todorov laughed. "It was nothing personal."
"That's nice to hear," Erin said. "But it doesn't change the fact that you're a horrible douchebag."
She coughed. Margot could tell that it was taking every ounce of the Blue Lynx's strength to even stand up and talk. She had to help somehow. And then she remembered the syringe.
"Blue Lynx!" Margot cried out. "There's an antidote! In his pocket!"
Erin turned back toward Margot, and then once more toward Todorov. "Okay," she said.
Margot heard the sounds of Erin pushing away Todorov's hands, of the Blue Lynx peeking into the pocket's of the doctor's labcoat, of a a superheroine having her way with a prone, useless, contemptible nothing of a man. They were wrestling, Erin and Todorov, and Margot tried desperately to free her legs so that she could turn around and help. But just as she unspooled the final roll of rope from her ankle, the shed door opened. And into the room, carrying a pistol and pushing his fingers through his slicked back hair, strolled-- who else-- but Brent Hammerson.
On to Chapter Eleven
"He held Margot's black mask out in front of her face. Margot howled into her gag. Her identity had been revealed!" Instant arousal reading that
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