Chapter Three
January 5th, 12:30 PM
There was a bump. Erin's body bounced, and suddenly she was awake, thrown into a world that was small, dark, and very, very cold.
She could feel a gag in her mouth, and could taste hints of something sweet on her lips. She remembered this morning-- Sunny and the ninja, Steve-- and the vision of her helpless and about to be chloroformed became all-consuming.
They had kidnapped her. And now she was... Where?
She looked down. She saw first her breath, distinctly white in the cold. Past the plumes she saw her shivering body, totally naked except for her silk bra and panties. Her captors had bound her wrists and ankles with thick rope, with additional rope around her torso, fastening her arms to her body, and around her bare thighs. She was laying on some sort of rough gray fabric. Above her, she could see a metallic sheen, and below her, she could hear the sounds of objects whizzing by.
"The trunk," she thought. "They've put me in the trunk of their car."
It was a classic situation: the home invasion, the chloroform, the bondage, the ride in the back of the car. It was a situation that Erin had imagined might happen to her, at some point: the day her dad had become Mayor, she had become not only a celebrity, but a tool for his political opponents. That had to be what this was. "Blackmail," Erin thought. "They want Dad to ease up on the drug stuff." Hammerson did know where she lived, after all.
But Sunny hadn't mentioned her dad when they'd captured her. She'd only mentioned the Blue Lynx. "Why?" Erin thought. "Do they know that I am the Blue Lynx?" No. If they had known that, they would've surely said something after breaking in. These villains loved to gloat. Anytime they'd put Blue Lynx in a jam, they couldn't help themselves.
"This must be a trap, then," Erin thought. "They plan to ransom me. But they don't want money. They want the Blue Lynx." She almost smiled to herself. "Pretty funny how they already have the Blue Lynx and don't know it."
The humor of the situation rapidly dissolved. Because they did have her. They had her without her weapons, without her mask, without her signature element of surprise, without a plan. They had her without her partner, even: Margot would have no idea where they had taken Erin. And unless someone had seen Sunny and the ninja remove Erin's unconscious body from her apartment, the cops wouldn't have any idea, either.
Erin tensed her muscles and pulled hard against her wrist ropes, biting down on her gag. She could feel her bonds loosen slightly, but the effort it took was supremely painful, especially on her cold skin. "It hurts so much," she thought. "But I have to get free."
As she pulled again, the car suddenly came to a halt, tossing her body against one side of the trunk. Erin now sat on top of her bound wrists, her face against the trunk's carpet. She tried to roll herself over, hearing the sounds outside of doors opening and shutting. A louder sound now clicked behind her, and the trunk flooded with white light and blasts of cold air.
"God, that's a nice ass," Sunny said. "Right Steve?"
Erin's face was still pressed against the trunk floor. She couldn't see Sunny or the ninja, or hear the ninja's response. Maybe he didn't respond? Either way, she didn't like being in this position, with her back and butt exposed to the elements and Sunny's lascivious stare.
"MMMPH" Erin mumbled. Sunny laughed and snapped her fingers. The black-clad arms of Steve were once again around Erin, pulling her off of the carpet. He turned her around in his grip with deft, efficient movements, so that she was soon nestled against his body in a cradle carry, her legs draped over one arm, the other arm supporting Erin's lower back. As the ninja turned away from the car, the winter light blinded Erin, and she cried out against the gag and shut her eyes.
"Alright, let's take her to the back," Sunny said. Erin heard the crunch of snow as the ninja began to walk. She was cold, but the ninja's torso made her warmer. She didn't like to admit it-- being carried this way was humiliating in any fashion, never mind after being abducted in her underwear-- but this was a good deal better than the trunk. With her eyes still shut, she nuzzled against her bearer's arms.
Sunny noticed. "Don't get too comfortable, Miss Steele," she said. "You're a hostage, now."
Erin heard a door creak and felt the light dim. She still couldn't open her eyes, and could barely summon the strength to struggle. She complied weakly as the ninja set her down into a wooden chair.
Sunny snapped her fingers again, and immediately the ninja began working his fingers at the ropes around Erin's wrists. "Oh shit," Erin thought, cracking her eyelids open, a sense of resolve suddenly coursing through her veins. "This is my chance."
As Erin felt the ropes drop from her wrists, she darted forward, tearing at the air with her nails, looking for the ninja's face. Without barely a moment of uncertainty, the ninja snatched her wrists and pulled them behind the chair back. "MMPH!" Erin cried, feeling her arms wrenched back together, knowing the ninja was making quick work of her new bonds. "He's so fast," she thought. "I thought I had him."
Sunny laughed. "You are a feisty one," she said, squatting to the ground to meet Erin at eye level. "Like your dad." Her eyes lingered on Erin's chest, which was now exposed to the dim light of the room.
Erin frowned. Her upper body was now securely restrained to the chair, and her improving vision noticed the ninja untying her ankles, most likely to tie them around the individual chair legs. Whoever this guy was, he was a pro.
"The others are in the house. They should be coming down in a minute," Sunny said.
Erin writhed against her bonds, and could feel her ability to move being constricted with every one of the ninja's calm, methodical ties. There were more people? Just how big was this operation? And where was she?
She blinked. Shapes were slowly beginning to form. Sunny's blonde hair popped against the dimness of the room. It reminded her of something, this place. It reminded her of... She shuddered. That shed where those hillbillies had tied her up months ago. That source of so many sleepless nights, that catalyst for some many nightmares, so many visions of her clothes being torn from her body by rednecks, so many horrible dreams of her superheroine career coming to an end...
"You okay, Erin?" Sunny said, looking at her quizzically. "You're making funny noises."
Erin closed her eyes. She must have been "MMPHING" against her gag.
"You don't have to be afraid," Sunny said. "If your father goes along with plan, and if Blue Lynx goes along with plan, then we'll return you to society unharmed."
Erin looked up at Sunny. "Stay calm, Erin," she thought. "It's okay to be a little scared. That's what your kidnappers expect of you. But don't lose focus. Those hillbillies are in jail. They aren't coming to get you."
The door creaked open. Erin half expected to see those two goons-- Jackson and Clayton, those were their names-- and was surprised when a tiny, dried-up old woman crept into the room. She looked at Erin with heavy-lidded eyes and smiled a calm, closed-mouth smile. "Hello," she murmured, moving toward Erin's chair, her arms tucked behind her, her movements silent and deliberate.
Erin felt a twinge in her ankle. The ninja must have been putting his finishing touches on the knots, because he stood up. He admired Erin with serene blue eyes, but not in the sex-crazed way of most of her foes. There was almost a kind of respect in his look, as if he knew he had captured more than the mayor's daughter. It was like he could see through her; it was like he understood her greatest secrets. Erin gulped.
The ninja stepped back, and another figure walked into the room. He was a small man, just a little bigger than the old woman, with eyeglasses glued to his face. Erin didn't need to see his labcoat, or the lapel pin on his chest, to know who she was looking at: Grigory Todorov. The man who had poisoned the Blue Lynx. He grinned his broad, evil grin at Erin. "Erin Steele," he sneered. "In the flesh. And practically nothing else but the flesh, I might add."
No one laughed at his joke, and Erin rolled her eyes. So Hammerson brought the doctor back. Figures. "I've beat him before, and I can do it again," Erin thought.
"Where's that kid?" Sunny asked, looking at Todorov.
"He was right behind me," the doctor replied.
"Kid?" Erin thought.
And into the room walked a gangly redhead, a young man who couldn't have been much older than Erin. He stopped in front of her and stared. His mouth fell open, and his eyes glazed: he seemed to be in a trance.
"Has he never seen a girl in her underwear before?" Erin thought.
And then it hit her. It wasn't just any girl he was looking at. It was Erin Steele. A girl who he recognized from college. A girl who had been in several of his classes.
Because this wasn't just any guy she was looking at. This was the kid who had had that crush on the Blue Lynx. Who had brought her name up in just about every class. Who had made a costume of his own and who had tried to capture her. Who had even gotten pretty close to unmasking her, one time.
This kid's name was Jeremy. But Erin knew him better by his alter ego: the De-Lynxinator.
"Hey Erin," Jeremy mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Uh, what's up?"
Erin furrowed her brow, trying to make her disdain as clear as possible. What was this dweeb doing here? "I thought I had left him behind in college," Erin thought. "And now he's hanging out with these monsters? Come on, Jeremy." She "mmphed" into the gag. Did he have any idea what he was getting into?
"Let's go ahead and shoot this video," Sunny said, gesturing at Jeremy. "You brought your phone with you?"
Jeremy nodded, plunging his hand into his pocket and nervously extracting a smartphone. "Here it is."
"Alright everyone, masks on," Sunny said. She took a balaclava from her pocket and pulled it over her head. Todorov, the old woman, and Jeremy quickly followed suit. The ninja remained still.
Sunny strutted behind Erin and placed her hands on the back of the chair. "Let's try to get this right the first time, gang," she said, beckoning toward the old woman and the ninja. The four gathered together around Erin and faced Jeremy, who held the smartphone out in front of him with a shaking arm.
"Remember: I'll do the talking," Sunny said. She stroked Erin's hair. "You just stay quiet, okay, Miss Steele?"
"MMPH," Erin responded.
"Okay kid. Action."
On to Chapter Four
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