Chapter Eleven
February 22nd, 2:31 AM
Erin had no time to move, and no space to move to. When the mask left her face, all she could do was blurt out a pained, hopeless "NO." But that was hardly enough to keep Lora from seeing her naked, or from recognizing her.
"You're the mayor's daughter," Lora said, flatly. "Erin Steele. The one we kidnapped."
Erin squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears that were desperate to escape. Lora knew who she was. The Blue Lynx's superheroine life was... Over.
"I had a feeling," Lora continued. "Your smells are similar. And your voices. It really all lines up perfectly."
Erin had lost all her will to fight, all her will to even look her opponent in the face. She had gotten lucky earlier tonight, freeing herself just before Julia had a chance to discover her secret. Her luck had run out. She could only hang her head now, could only try to prevent the further embarrassment of crying in front of her foe.
"Now, now," Lora said, patting Erin on the shoulder. "You'll be okay. You'll forget all about this once the plants take you."
Erin sniffled. The plants. She had almost forgotten about the plants. But she could still feel them, the vines rolling up her legs. They were wet and sticky, leaving residues that dripped down her calves. She looked down, saw her lower body slowly turning green, and had to kick back. But this additional movement only agitated the vines, which were gradually increasing the pressure of their long, winding hugs.
It was weird, and gross, but it was something else to think about. The end of the Blue Lynx was too painful and humiliating, on its own. "Just don't think about it," Erin told herself, silently. "You can't do anything about it, now. You did your best, girl. You did you best."
So Erin turned over Lora's words in her head. What did she mean by the plants "taking" her?
She turned her head from side to side. Green coils were now spiraling up both of her arms, with tendrils already extending to her upper body and throat. Was the plan to fully cocoon Erin?
"What's... going to happen... to me?" Erin whispered.
Lora grinned. "After the process, you'll be one of us," she said.
"And what is... 'the process'?"
Lora shook her head. "There's no need to worry, Miss Steele. You'll know soon enough."
Suddenly, Erin felt a sharp stab of pain in her thigh. She looked down and saw a long red thorn sticking into her skin. A small trickle of yellow liquid dripped from the entry point.
"Augh!" Erin cried. "What the hell is that?"
Before she could receive an answer, she felt another stab, this one in her other thigh. And then, two more, one in each of her upper arms. Erin winced, shook, and then felt...
Everything. It seemed like she could feel everything. The branches securing her boots and gloves. Every inch of vine on her arms and legs. The sturdy wooden slab supporting her. The damp air of the basement. The sweat on her brow. Her breath. Lora's breath. All of it, all it focus.
And then, it was all a haze. A green blur. A massive wash, blending everything together: the plants, the people, the room, herself, the unconscious bodies...
"What's... happening?" Erin muttered.
"It's the venom," Lora said. "To make you more... receptive."
As soon as Lora said this, Erin snapped back into a world of total feeling. Everything felt crisp, complete, alive, just like before, but with one difference: the vines now seemed of particular interest to her drug-added consciousness. And where before they had been slimy and uncomfortable, now they felt... Kind of...
"Ohh..." Erin moaned.
She blinked. What was she doing?
"Stop it, Erin," she thought. "You have to fight this. Don't let her win. Fight it. Fight... it..."
It was impossible to focus. Her thoughts had blurred again, once more blanketed in a green haze. Her head lolled on her shoulders.
What had Lora said? Taking her? "Process"? Venom... Receptive?
A horrible thought had slowly crept into Erin's consciousness, beginning to wrap around her brain like one of Lora's vines. She turned it over, again and again, letting its implications marinate, until she could take it anymore: she had to get free!
"No!" Erin cried, putting every last ounce of strength into her arms and legs. "You can't! No!"
The reaction from the plants was swift and overpowering. The branches clamped down on Erin's boots and gloves. The coils tightened on her thighs and biceps. And new vines suddenly sprouted from the furthest tips of the existing ones, stretching across her torso, grasping at her breasts and her lower body.
"You're a tough one, Miss Steele," Lora said. "But no one can beat my plants, not even you. They haven't even truly begun, yet. It's best to just relax and let them work. Let the venom flow through you. Try to enjoy it."
Erin gritted her teeth and turned her head up. Small vines were inching across her neck; she could already feel tiny leaves brushing against the underside of her chin. The pressure against her throat brought her breath out in hot, abrupt pants.
"Don't... let them... choke you..." Erin thought, trying to keep her head above the growth.
But as soon as she concentrated on one thing, something more horrible got her attention. The vines were now spreading down from her collarbone, leaving green residues on her bare skin. They snaked down her body and wormed their way underneath the hem of her spandex V-neck. Like cold, wet fingers, they slowly pushed through the fabric, sliding around her lacy bra.
"Augh," Erin groaned. "Aughhh..."
Scores of little vines were now creeping beneath the upper half of her costume. She looked down and could see them: little bumps circling around her breasts, reaching around her back, stretching out her spandex in every which way. As they grew in length, they seemed to acquire girth, and Erin could only slam her eyes shut when she thought about them ripping through her outfit.
But what was it she was thinking? Was it fear? It didn't feel quite like fear. It felt more like...
The thigh vines had now reached her hips. Erin shook her body perfunctorily, but knew she was helpless. She knew it... And she... Liked it?
"Snap out of it!" Erin told herself. "Focus!"
The plants had migrated to her backside, were now caressing her butt. She could feel the tips of the vines exploring the place were her costume met her skin, treating it with an almost nervous hesitation. She watched them from the front, poking in and around her most sensitive areas, and wondered what was stopping them from digging in.
"Maybe," Erin thought. "Maybe... It's my lucky day."
And then, all at once, the vines dove in, ripping into the bottom seams of her costume, unfurling across her pubic region, tugging her panties this way and that. They were like piranhas now, feasting on her bottom half, cutting through whatever got in their way, wrapping themselves around her rear, a vine gradually lowering itself into her crack. Erin squirmed in their grasp, wincing, trying to think about anything else, but finding her thoughts return again and again to the moment. This moment of strange, anxious.... Ecstasy.
"Ohh..." she moaned.
Her mental defenses had lowered, and her muscles had slackened. She shut her eyes and could hear the vines work away: the sound of sprouting, the RIPPP of her costume being torn away, the occasional dripping of sweat or venom. She felt her bra sliding away from her breasts, the straps torn to shreds; could imagine it slowly floating to the floor like a light pink parachute. The few threads holding the sides of her panties together snapped, and they too slipped down her body, coming to rest in the pile of torn-up blue and pink fabric that had gathered beneath Erin's boots.
Erin stretched against the wooden slab, sweaty and barely conscious, her body a chiaroscuro of dark green vines and bare white flesh. The plants had overtaken most of her, squeezing her throat, arms, thighs, breasts, and stomach, leaving only her face, her nipples, and portions of her crotch unwrapped.
"Are you ready for the completion of the process?" Lora said.
Erin glanced up, weakly, and nodded.
"Yes..." she moaned. "Yes..."
As if on cue, two large green vines suddenly rose up, one from her shoulders, and one from her legs. They pulled away from the rest of the tangle, dancing in the air like cobras, seeming to square up Erin. Apparently satisfied, the first vine suddenly shot back at Erin, plunging into her mouth. She let out a muffled squeal as the plant crept down her throat. Seconds later, the second vine found a space between Erin's legs and, with one mighty thrust, forced itself into her wet pussy.
"URRMM!!" Erin gasped.
The two vines worked her with short, deliberate strokes, making her whole body tremble, pushing her further and further toward her sexual limit. As they simultaneously attacked and fondled her orifices, the other, less forward plants tightened their hugs, applying firm pressure to her throat, her thighs, her stomach. A group of smaller tendrils had formed at the tips of her breasts, and now lightly brushed her nipples, turning them into hard points.
They were all over her, on top of her, inside her. They were overwhelming every other thought, every other feeling, flooding her with desire, forcing her to cry out, banging her against the wooden slab. It was so much... It was too much... It was...
"AAAHGHGGHGHHHHHH!"
Erin came with a single, mighty heave. The vines retracted, pulling out of her mouth and pussy, letting her take a breath. Her body laid limp in the hold of the giant plant. Her eyes were closed, her mouth hung open, her hair a mess.
Lora walked over to the slab and looked at her work. She tapped her toe, inspected Erin up and down, nodding her head.
"Miss Steele?" she asked. "Are you ready to serve me?"
Erin's eyes shot open. Only they weren't Erin's eyes. They were a brilliant green, the same color as the vines that encircled her body.
"Yes, master," Erin said.
THE END
Back to the Table of Contents
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter One
Chapter One
February 22nd, 2:00 AM
She was dreaming.
She was having a nightmare.
Again.
It happened a lot, these days. And it seemed like each bad dream was a little more elaborate than the last.
She was in costume. She was the Blue Lynx. She could look down and see her belt, and she could look out of the sides of her eyes and see the blue fabric of her mask. She was her superheroine self. But she couldn't move.
Her arms and legs were pinned down by brown, rusty looking tentacle things. Were they branches? If they were, they were pretty tough: she tried pulling at them and found that they wouldn't budge.
She had been fettered in a wide X shape to some kind of rough-hewn wooden board. The whole contraption had an ancient, earthy feel, like it had been pulled from the ground for the sole purpose of tormenting the Blue Lynx.
"Wake up," Erin thought. "Wake up."
She looked around. The room was dark, damp, and green. It looked like a basement after the apocalypse-- the sort of thing that happened in one of those books about mother nature taking her planet back. There were thick trees in the corners; they began in the dirty ground and stretched up until they hit the room's low ceiling, at which point they splayed outward, casting vines and branches along the walls. Scattered across the floor were leafy, colorful plants, all spilling over small clay pots, and long logs covered in moss.
The room smelled sweet and sour and bitter, all at once. It was like a greenhouse run by a mad scientist. An eerie green-ish light glowed on every surface of the room, but Erin couldn't find its source. She couldn't see anything that looked man-made: no furniture, no appliances, not a single sign of civilization. And yet this was obviously a person's room, and not the forest, as such.
"What the hell is this?" Erin thought.
She heard a creak, and then a slam, and then the sounds of footsteps. Footsteps trampling over branches, through the jungle, toward the Blue Lynx. Erin looked up toward the sounds and saw three figures enshrouded in shadows. A small old woman. An average height, younger woman. And a gigantic man, who seemed to be all shadow.
She knew the figures. The first was... Lora? That was her name, right? But how did she know?
Anyway, the second was easy. Bleached-blonde hair. Leather outfit. She was Hammerson's right-hand woman, Sunny.
And the third person was that ninja, Steve. The very one who'd broken her arm.
Shit.
The three figures stood together, just yards away from the Blue Lynx, watching her through the dense foliage, menacingly silent.
"Wake up," Erin thought. "Wake up."
One of the figures moved, and then, finally, spoke.
"This is one hell of a hideout, lady," Sunny said.
Lora nodded. "Do you like it? Do you like my garden?"
Sunny chuckled. "I really do. I especially love this centerpiece you got here." She pointed at the Blue Lynx. "Is that some kind of an overgrown garden gnome?"
"I prefer to think of it as a scarecrow," Lora replied.
Sunny shook her head, stepped over a log, and walked up to Erin. She could she her face now: the same attractive, evil face she had seen so many times before, only now cloaked in that mysterious green light.
"She's not very scary, is she?" Sunny said, giving Erin the once-over. "She looks kind of weak and pathetic, to me."
Erin growled at Sunny. Sunny laughed.
"You little garden toy makes sounds!" she said, moving her hand to Erin's bare thigh. "I wonder what happens if we press her buttons."
Sunny slid her fingers up Erin's leg until they rested on her crotch. Erin let out an involuntary, shocked gasp. Her face turned red as Sunny removed her hand.
"She can feel, too!" Sunny said. "This is a very interesting scarecrow, Lora."
Erin shivered.
She could feel that.
Like it was real.
"Wake up," she thought. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake the fuck up!"
But she didn't.
She looked out into the room, at the creepy miniature forest, with its tangling vines and thorns and spiked leaves, and at the three figures standing in front of her. Her enemies. Lora, Steve, and Sunny. Hammerson's goons. Holding her prisoner.
And then, in a flash, it all hit her.
She wasn't dreaming.
On to Chapter Two
February 22nd, 2:00 AM
She was dreaming.
She was having a nightmare.
Again.
It happened a lot, these days. And it seemed like each bad dream was a little more elaborate than the last.
She was in costume. She was the Blue Lynx. She could look down and see her belt, and she could look out of the sides of her eyes and see the blue fabric of her mask. She was her superheroine self. But she couldn't move.
Her arms and legs were pinned down by brown, rusty looking tentacle things. Were they branches? If they were, they were pretty tough: she tried pulling at them and found that they wouldn't budge.
She had been fettered in a wide X shape to some kind of rough-hewn wooden board. The whole contraption had an ancient, earthy feel, like it had been pulled from the ground for the sole purpose of tormenting the Blue Lynx.
"Wake up," Erin thought. "Wake up."
She looked around. The room was dark, damp, and green. It looked like a basement after the apocalypse-- the sort of thing that happened in one of those books about mother nature taking her planet back. There were thick trees in the corners; they began in the dirty ground and stretched up until they hit the room's low ceiling, at which point they splayed outward, casting vines and branches along the walls. Scattered across the floor were leafy, colorful plants, all spilling over small clay pots, and long logs covered in moss.
The room smelled sweet and sour and bitter, all at once. It was like a greenhouse run by a mad scientist. An eerie green-ish light glowed on every surface of the room, but Erin couldn't find its source. She couldn't see anything that looked man-made: no furniture, no appliances, not a single sign of civilization. And yet this was obviously a person's room, and not the forest, as such.
"What the hell is this?" Erin thought.
She heard a creak, and then a slam, and then the sounds of footsteps. Footsteps trampling over branches, through the jungle, toward the Blue Lynx. Erin looked up toward the sounds and saw three figures enshrouded in shadows. A small old woman. An average height, younger woman. And a gigantic man, who seemed to be all shadow.
She knew the figures. The first was... Lora? That was her name, right? But how did she know?
Anyway, the second was easy. Bleached-blonde hair. Leather outfit. She was Hammerson's right-hand woman, Sunny.
And the third person was that ninja, Steve. The very one who'd broken her arm.
Shit.
The three figures stood together, just yards away from the Blue Lynx, watching her through the dense foliage, menacingly silent.
"Wake up," Erin thought. "Wake up."
One of the figures moved, and then, finally, spoke.
"This is one hell of a hideout, lady," Sunny said.
Lora nodded. "Do you like it? Do you like my garden?"
Sunny chuckled. "I really do. I especially love this centerpiece you got here." She pointed at the Blue Lynx. "Is that some kind of an overgrown garden gnome?"
"I prefer to think of it as a scarecrow," Lora replied.
Sunny shook her head, stepped over a log, and walked up to Erin. She could she her face now: the same attractive, evil face she had seen so many times before, only now cloaked in that mysterious green light.
"She's not very scary, is she?" Sunny said, giving Erin the once-over. "She looks kind of weak and pathetic, to me."
Erin growled at Sunny. Sunny laughed.
"You little garden toy makes sounds!" she said, moving her hand to Erin's bare thigh. "I wonder what happens if we press her buttons."
Sunny slid her fingers up Erin's leg until they rested on her crotch. Erin let out an involuntary, shocked gasp. Her face turned red as Sunny removed her hand.
"She can feel, too!" Sunny said. "This is a very interesting scarecrow, Lora."
Erin shivered.
She could feel that.
Like it was real.
"Wake up," she thought. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake the fuck up!"
But she didn't.
She looked out into the room, at the creepy miniature forest, with its tangling vines and thorns and spiked leaves, and at the three figures standing in front of her. Her enemies. Lora, Steve, and Sunny. Hammerson's goons. Holding her prisoner.
And then, in a flash, it all hit her.
She wasn't dreaming.
On to Chapter Two
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Two
Chapter Two
February 20th, 11:35 AM
"How is the arm, Miss Steele?"
Erin looked down at her forearm, at the white skin where the cast had been just minutes ago. She hadn't seen this part of herself in weeks, in almost two months. She turned her wrist and stretched out her muscles.
"It's stiff," she said, with a small smile.
The doctor nodded at her and grinned. "Well, that's to be expected."
She sat on the table of the fluorescently-lit doctor's office, wearing a green sweater (one sleeve hiked up), blue jeans, and black boots. As she examined her arm, she grimaced. There was still pain, for sure. But bigger than that was sense that she was finally getting her body back, a sense that filled her with immense joy.
"You've got to take it easy, this next month," the doctor said. "Don't go getting kidnapped again."
Erin shrugged. She didn't exactly appreciate the doctor's tasteless joke. But nothing was going to keep her down today, on this morning, when at long last her cast was gone. Besides, this man was hardly the first to make light of her ordeal. Everyone in the city knew about her kidnapping, about how she had been abducted from her apartment and held captive for days, about how only the intervention of the Blue Lynx had saved her. When she had first talked to the press about her story, their tone was sensitive, patient, sympathetic. They felt for the poor mayor's daughter and her broken arm. But in recent weeks, the narrative had slightly shifted. A sort of sarcasm had crept in; it was almost like people didn't want to believe she had actually been through something so strange and nightmarish. She had read theories on the Internet about how the whole thing was just a set-up: a way to endear the public to the Mayor leading up to another election cycle.
The city was insane. And it had only gotten weirder and wilder over the course of the Blue Lynx's long sabbatical. Erin had wanted to go out, had needed to prove herself after her last disastrous encounter with that Ninja. "No way," Margot had said, "You're good, Erin, but you're not that good. Give it some time. Let it heal properly. And then, you'll come back, a better Blue Lynx than ever."
Better than ever. Erin hoped that would be the case. But there was something about the fight with Steve that had... Changed her. And not for the better. She had taken punches before. There were even occasions-- rare, for sure-- when she had lost fights. But to be so thoroughly dominated by a foe. To be beaten down so completely, to be practically begging for mercy, to be nearly crippled, to be unmasked... It definitely had done something to Erin's morale. She wasn't afraid of Steve. No, of course not. She told herself that she wanted to see him again, was looking forward to exacting revenge. But like never before, she now felt a sense of her own weakness. She was mortal, like anyone else. She was a twenty-three-year-old girl in a mask and bathing suit...
No, that wasn't true. She was the Blue Lynx. She was a superheroine.
"Do not ever forget that," Erin thought to herself. "You're super."
"I think you're ready to go," the doctor said, after making a few final inspections.
"Thanks," Erin said, hopping down off the table. The doctor opened the door of the office and gestured her outside.
"Do be careful," he said, as Erin walked past him and into the lobby.
"I will," Erin replied.
She saw Margot sitting in a chair, phone in hand, stylish as ever in her slim black coat, black leggings, boots, and glasses. Her friend looked up at her and smiled.
"Back to normal?" she asked.
"I think so," Erin said, stretching her arm out. "Now let's get out of here."
Margot got out of her chair and the girls strolled out of the front door of the hospital. The February air was cold but crisp, and the day was sunny and clear, containing something like a promise of exciting events to come.
Erin took a deep breath. And suddenly, a woman was in her face.
"Erin Steele," she said, staring at her, her hands gripping a pad and pen tightly. "Your cast is off."
Erin blinked. She recognized this woman. Long curly dark hair. A pantsuit. Maybe her late-thirties? It was that one lady from the paper. That reporter, Julia Wright.
"Yes," Erin responded. "Thanks for noticing."
Julia locked her eyes on Erin and grinned. "So maybe now that you're feeling better, we can talk a little more about your, umm, predicament, from last month?"
Erin rolled her eyes. "Come on," she laughed. "Really?"
"There's just a few elements of it that aren't seeming to line up," Julia said. "For example, the Blue Lynx. You said when you first talked to me that she freed you. But police interrogation of that kid, that Jeremy kid, indicates that it was in fact he who let you loose."
Erin gulped. "Well, it's kind of, umm, complicated..."
Margot grabbed Erin by the hand. "We're not talking to you today, sorry," she said, pulling Erin across the parking lot toward her car.
"What's so complicated about it?" Julia asked, following the two girls.
Margot unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat, with Erin quickly jumping into the passenger's side.
Julia stood at Erin's window, tapping on the door. "Hey!" she called out. "The public has a right to know!"
"Crazy bitch," Margot said, putting the car in drive. The vehicle shot forward, taking Julia by surprise, and speedily moved out of the parking lot. Erin looked into the rear-view mirror to see Julia scribbling frantically in her pad.
"I'm not sure if that way the best way to handle that," Erin said.
"I don't care," Margot said. "She needs to leave you alone."
Erin nodded. Julia Wright had been a pain in the butt even before the kidnapping. For months, she had been the paper's main correspondent on the topic of the Blue Lynx. But her coverage didn't exactly paint the city's superheroine in the most flattering light. What Blue Lynx did never seemed to matter to Julia-- the only question of any interest was always, "Who is she under that mask?" She had been publishing rumors of secret identities on a near-weekly basis. And while she had never gotten close to actually figuring out the Blue Lynx's alter ego, this new investigation made Erin nervous. The inconsistencies she had spotted in Erin's tale... They were truly inconsistent. If Julia kept poking around, it might occur to her that the Blue Lynx hadn't been seen in more than a month. Hadn't been seen, in fact, since Erin had got her arm broken.
Erin didn't like even thinking about that "coincidence."
"I should meet with her," Erin said. "I need to set things straight."
"But you've already met with her countless times," Margot replied. "The bitch still isn't satisfied."
Erin shook her head. "No, Margot. I need to meet with her... As the Blue Lynx."
On to Chapter Three
February 20th, 11:35 AM
"How is the arm, Miss Steele?"
Erin looked down at her forearm, at the white skin where the cast had been just minutes ago. She hadn't seen this part of herself in weeks, in almost two months. She turned her wrist and stretched out her muscles.
"It's stiff," she said, with a small smile.
The doctor nodded at her and grinned. "Well, that's to be expected."
She sat on the table of the fluorescently-lit doctor's office, wearing a green sweater (one sleeve hiked up), blue jeans, and black boots. As she examined her arm, she grimaced. There was still pain, for sure. But bigger than that was sense that she was finally getting her body back, a sense that filled her with immense joy.
"You've got to take it easy, this next month," the doctor said. "Don't go getting kidnapped again."
Erin shrugged. She didn't exactly appreciate the doctor's tasteless joke. But nothing was going to keep her down today, on this morning, when at long last her cast was gone. Besides, this man was hardly the first to make light of her ordeal. Everyone in the city knew about her kidnapping, about how she had been abducted from her apartment and held captive for days, about how only the intervention of the Blue Lynx had saved her. When she had first talked to the press about her story, their tone was sensitive, patient, sympathetic. They felt for the poor mayor's daughter and her broken arm. But in recent weeks, the narrative had slightly shifted. A sort of sarcasm had crept in; it was almost like people didn't want to believe she had actually been through something so strange and nightmarish. She had read theories on the Internet about how the whole thing was just a set-up: a way to endear the public to the Mayor leading up to another election cycle.
The city was insane. And it had only gotten weirder and wilder over the course of the Blue Lynx's long sabbatical. Erin had wanted to go out, had needed to prove herself after her last disastrous encounter with that Ninja. "No way," Margot had said, "You're good, Erin, but you're not that good. Give it some time. Let it heal properly. And then, you'll come back, a better Blue Lynx than ever."
Better than ever. Erin hoped that would be the case. But there was something about the fight with Steve that had... Changed her. And not for the better. She had taken punches before. There were even occasions-- rare, for sure-- when she had lost fights. But to be so thoroughly dominated by a foe. To be beaten down so completely, to be practically begging for mercy, to be nearly crippled, to be unmasked... It definitely had done something to Erin's morale. She wasn't afraid of Steve. No, of course not. She told herself that she wanted to see him again, was looking forward to exacting revenge. But like never before, she now felt a sense of her own weakness. She was mortal, like anyone else. She was a twenty-three-year-old girl in a mask and bathing suit...
No, that wasn't true. She was the Blue Lynx. She was a superheroine.
"Do not ever forget that," Erin thought to herself. "You're super."
"I think you're ready to go," the doctor said, after making a few final inspections.
"Thanks," Erin said, hopping down off the table. The doctor opened the door of the office and gestured her outside.
"Do be careful," he said, as Erin walked past him and into the lobby.
"I will," Erin replied.
She saw Margot sitting in a chair, phone in hand, stylish as ever in her slim black coat, black leggings, boots, and glasses. Her friend looked up at her and smiled.
"Back to normal?" she asked.
"I think so," Erin said, stretching her arm out. "Now let's get out of here."
Margot got out of her chair and the girls strolled out of the front door of the hospital. The February air was cold but crisp, and the day was sunny and clear, containing something like a promise of exciting events to come.
Erin took a deep breath. And suddenly, a woman was in her face.
"Erin Steele," she said, staring at her, her hands gripping a pad and pen tightly. "Your cast is off."
Erin blinked. She recognized this woman. Long curly dark hair. A pantsuit. Maybe her late-thirties? It was that one lady from the paper. That reporter, Julia Wright.
"Yes," Erin responded. "Thanks for noticing."
Julia locked her eyes on Erin and grinned. "So maybe now that you're feeling better, we can talk a little more about your, umm, predicament, from last month?"
Erin rolled her eyes. "Come on," she laughed. "Really?"
"There's just a few elements of it that aren't seeming to line up," Julia said. "For example, the Blue Lynx. You said when you first talked to me that she freed you. But police interrogation of that kid, that Jeremy kid, indicates that it was in fact he who let you loose."
Erin gulped. "Well, it's kind of, umm, complicated..."
Margot grabbed Erin by the hand. "We're not talking to you today, sorry," she said, pulling Erin across the parking lot toward her car.
"What's so complicated about it?" Julia asked, following the two girls.
Margot unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat, with Erin quickly jumping into the passenger's side.
Julia stood at Erin's window, tapping on the door. "Hey!" she called out. "The public has a right to know!"
"Crazy bitch," Margot said, putting the car in drive. The vehicle shot forward, taking Julia by surprise, and speedily moved out of the parking lot. Erin looked into the rear-view mirror to see Julia scribbling frantically in her pad.
"I'm not sure if that way the best way to handle that," Erin said.
"I don't care," Margot said. "She needs to leave you alone."
Erin nodded. Julia Wright had been a pain in the butt even before the kidnapping. For months, she had been the paper's main correspondent on the topic of the Blue Lynx. But her coverage didn't exactly paint the city's superheroine in the most flattering light. What Blue Lynx did never seemed to matter to Julia-- the only question of any interest was always, "Who is she under that mask?" She had been publishing rumors of secret identities on a near-weekly basis. And while she had never gotten close to actually figuring out the Blue Lynx's alter ego, this new investigation made Erin nervous. The inconsistencies she had spotted in Erin's tale... They were truly inconsistent. If Julia kept poking around, it might occur to her that the Blue Lynx hadn't been seen in more than a month. Hadn't been seen, in fact, since Erin had got her arm broken.
Erin didn't like even thinking about that "coincidence."
"I should meet with her," Erin said. "I need to set things straight."
"But you've already met with her countless times," Margot replied. "The bitch still isn't satisfied."
Erin shook her head. "No, Margot. I need to meet with her... As the Blue Lynx."
On to Chapter Three
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Three
Chapter Three
February 18th, 1:00 AM
Sunny looked around the conference room, at the strange people sitting beside her at the table, at her teammates, the group of villains who had recently given themselves the name "The Fearsome Five," and sighed.
There was that old woman in rags, Lora, as quiet and mysterious as ever. Next to her sat that hulking ninja, Steve, even more quiet and mysterious-- Sunny hadn't heard him say a word this evening. Stupid Dr. Todorov sat across from Sunny, fiddling with himself, pointlessly. And there was her. Four of them, altogether. Because that kid-- Jeremy or whatever-- had fucked up so bad. So much for the Fearsome "Five."
"The alliteration still works," Sunny thought to herself. "Fearsome Four. That's good."
What wasn't good was their first mission. Their attempt to kidnap the mayor's daughter, Erin Steele, and force the Blue Lynx to surrender had ended with the girl escaping, that Jeremy kid in jail, and the rest of the group forced into hiding for the last month.
"Do not even go outside," the boss had said. "Tell them all. It's Netflix for the next month. We'll meet to discuss this mess later. For now, please just fucking keep out of sight, for the love of God."
She had followed his instructions, and imagined her partners would, too: none of them seemed to have much of a social life, anyway. It had been hard. Sunny did not like to be hemmed in. And going almost two months without seeing the Blue Lynx was almost more than she could bear. So when Hammerson had finally called her yesterday with a simple, terse message-- "Tomorrow night. One in the morning."-- she practically leaped out of the couch.
Looking at the "Fearsome Four," though, dampened her expectations. Was this really the best they could do? Against the Blue Lynx?
Her train of thought was interrupted by Hammerson bursting through the door of the conference room, his fingers running through his hair, his shoes clopping all over the floor.
"Good evening, everyone," he said, positioning himself in front of the whiteboard that took up nearly a whole wall of the small room. "So glad everyone could make it."
"Except for Jeremiah," Todorov giggled.
Hammerson shot him a disapproving look, and Todorov stopped laughing.
"I suppose we should talk about that first," Hammerson said. "What happened that night? I need details, people."
Sunny cleared her throat. "Well, we fucked up," she said. "We trusted that kid with watching the Steele girl. And she probably got in his head and convinced him to set her free."
Hammerson nodded. "Okay."
"We left the shack, as you commanded. Steve stayed behind in case they came back, or the Blue Lynx showed up."
Hammerson looked at Steve. "And? What happened then, Steve?"
Steve returned Hammerson's look. He didn't make a sound as he stuffed his hand in his pocket, pulled it back out, and dropped a small piece of blue fabric onto the table.
Sunny gasped. It was the Blue Lynx's mask!
"Whoa!" Hammerson cried. "Is that what I think it is?"
Todorov laughed. "It seems the ninja has done it."
Steve brought his hands back under the table. He nodded, but did not say a word.
"You unmasked her? Really?" Hammerson said. "You?"
Steve nodded once again.
"So who is she, then?" Hammerson said, stepping toward the ninja and licking his lips. "Tell us!"
But Steve did not. He just shook his head.
Sunny blinked at him. "You didn't know, Steve? Is that what you're trying to say?"
Steve shook his head.
"You're just not going to tell us, then?"
Steve nodded.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Hammerson growled. "You know who the Blue Lynx is, but you're not going to tell us?"
Steve nodded.
Hammerson stomped over to the ninja and reached for his arm. In a flash, Steve's hand closed around Hammerson's wrist. He squeezed, and Hammerson cried out.
"Fuck! Ah! Let me go! You bastard!"
Steve released him, and Hammerson stepped back, shaking his wrist, glaring at the ninja.
The old woman, Lora, had picked up the mask. She examined it with sleepy eyes. "This looks like the genuine article," she announced. "Well done, Steve."
"No," Hammerson said, pointing at her. "Not well done, Steve. I'm ready to give him two hundred thousand dollars if he tells me who the Blue Lynx is. And he's just going to give us all the silent treatment?"
"Mr. Hammerson," Lora said. "You must understand that for people like Steve, there are more important things than money."
Hammerson was turning red.
"Steve has a code," Lora continued. "What Steve wants is the thrill of battle. He will help us capture the Blue Lynx, but ending her career like this, in a conference room, while we have done nothing? That is not honorable."
"You're so wise in the way of Steve," Hammerson barked. "Maybe you could get inside that head of his and..."
"I will not," Lora said. "I will trust Steve as a member of this team. But I, too, have a sense of honor, Mr. Hammerson."
Hammerson sighed. He beckoned at Lora for the blue mask, and she handed it over. Hammerson took a long sniff of the fabric, set it back on the table, and slowly trudged back to the front of the room.
"Well, okay," Hammerson said. "Honor, and all that."
He lowered his head, stamping his foot.
"We'll come up with another plan," Sunny said. "That's what this meeting is about, right?"
"Yes," Hammerson said, quietly. "That is what this is about, Sunny. So who has some ideas?"
He looked up. Lora raised her hand in the air.
"What can you teach us now?" Hammerson said sarcastically.
"Well, I've been reading the paper," Lora said. "And I've been intrigued by the articles of this one reporter, Julia Wright. Have you read her?"
"Yes," Hammerson nodded. "I know Julia. She does the Blue Lynx stories."
Lora smiled. "I think she's a natural ally. I think I can talk to her, maybe get her on our team, and get us back up to five people."
Sunny looked at her. It was an interesting idea, for sure.
"Have you thought of anything beyond that?" Sunny asked.
Lora nodded. "Oh yes, I have. Let me tell you..."
On to Chapter Four
February 18th, 1:00 AM
Sunny looked around the conference room, at the strange people sitting beside her at the table, at her teammates, the group of villains who had recently given themselves the name "The Fearsome Five," and sighed.
There was that old woman in rags, Lora, as quiet and mysterious as ever. Next to her sat that hulking ninja, Steve, even more quiet and mysterious-- Sunny hadn't heard him say a word this evening. Stupid Dr. Todorov sat across from Sunny, fiddling with himself, pointlessly. And there was her. Four of them, altogether. Because that kid-- Jeremy or whatever-- had fucked up so bad. So much for the Fearsome "Five."
"The alliteration still works," Sunny thought to herself. "Fearsome Four. That's good."
What wasn't good was their first mission. Their attempt to kidnap the mayor's daughter, Erin Steele, and force the Blue Lynx to surrender had ended with the girl escaping, that Jeremy kid in jail, and the rest of the group forced into hiding for the last month.
"Do not even go outside," the boss had said. "Tell them all. It's Netflix for the next month. We'll meet to discuss this mess later. For now, please just fucking keep out of sight, for the love of God."
She had followed his instructions, and imagined her partners would, too: none of them seemed to have much of a social life, anyway. It had been hard. Sunny did not like to be hemmed in. And going almost two months without seeing the Blue Lynx was almost more than she could bear. So when Hammerson had finally called her yesterday with a simple, terse message-- "Tomorrow night. One in the morning."-- she practically leaped out of the couch.
Looking at the "Fearsome Four," though, dampened her expectations. Was this really the best they could do? Against the Blue Lynx?
Her train of thought was interrupted by Hammerson bursting through the door of the conference room, his fingers running through his hair, his shoes clopping all over the floor.
"Good evening, everyone," he said, positioning himself in front of the whiteboard that took up nearly a whole wall of the small room. "So glad everyone could make it."
"Except for Jeremiah," Todorov giggled.
Hammerson shot him a disapproving look, and Todorov stopped laughing.
"I suppose we should talk about that first," Hammerson said. "What happened that night? I need details, people."
Sunny cleared her throat. "Well, we fucked up," she said. "We trusted that kid with watching the Steele girl. And she probably got in his head and convinced him to set her free."
Hammerson nodded. "Okay."
"We left the shack, as you commanded. Steve stayed behind in case they came back, or the Blue Lynx showed up."
Hammerson looked at Steve. "And? What happened then, Steve?"
Steve returned Hammerson's look. He didn't make a sound as he stuffed his hand in his pocket, pulled it back out, and dropped a small piece of blue fabric onto the table.
Sunny gasped. It was the Blue Lynx's mask!
"Whoa!" Hammerson cried. "Is that what I think it is?"
Todorov laughed. "It seems the ninja has done it."
Steve brought his hands back under the table. He nodded, but did not say a word.
"You unmasked her? Really?" Hammerson said. "You?"
Steve nodded once again.
"So who is she, then?" Hammerson said, stepping toward the ninja and licking his lips. "Tell us!"
But Steve did not. He just shook his head.
Sunny blinked at him. "You didn't know, Steve? Is that what you're trying to say?"
Steve shook his head.
"You're just not going to tell us, then?"
Steve nodded.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Hammerson growled. "You know who the Blue Lynx is, but you're not going to tell us?"
Steve nodded.
Hammerson stomped over to the ninja and reached for his arm. In a flash, Steve's hand closed around Hammerson's wrist. He squeezed, and Hammerson cried out.
"Fuck! Ah! Let me go! You bastard!"
Steve released him, and Hammerson stepped back, shaking his wrist, glaring at the ninja.
The old woman, Lora, had picked up the mask. She examined it with sleepy eyes. "This looks like the genuine article," she announced. "Well done, Steve."
"No," Hammerson said, pointing at her. "Not well done, Steve. I'm ready to give him two hundred thousand dollars if he tells me who the Blue Lynx is. And he's just going to give us all the silent treatment?"
"Mr. Hammerson," Lora said. "You must understand that for people like Steve, there are more important things than money."
Hammerson was turning red.
"Steve has a code," Lora continued. "What Steve wants is the thrill of battle. He will help us capture the Blue Lynx, but ending her career like this, in a conference room, while we have done nothing? That is not honorable."
"You're so wise in the way of Steve," Hammerson barked. "Maybe you could get inside that head of his and..."
"I will not," Lora said. "I will trust Steve as a member of this team. But I, too, have a sense of honor, Mr. Hammerson."
Hammerson sighed. He beckoned at Lora for the blue mask, and she handed it over. Hammerson took a long sniff of the fabric, set it back on the table, and slowly trudged back to the front of the room.
"Well, okay," Hammerson said. "Honor, and all that."
He lowered his head, stamping his foot.
"We'll come up with another plan," Sunny said. "That's what this meeting is about, right?"
"Yes," Hammerson said, quietly. "That is what this is about, Sunny. So who has some ideas?"
He looked up. Lora raised her hand in the air.
"What can you teach us now?" Hammerson said sarcastically.
"Well, I've been reading the paper," Lora said. "And I've been intrigued by the articles of this one reporter, Julia Wright. Have you read her?"
"Yes," Hammerson nodded. "I know Julia. She does the Blue Lynx stories."
Lora smiled. "I think she's a natural ally. I think I can talk to her, maybe get her on our team, and get us back up to five people."
Sunny looked at her. It was an interesting idea, for sure.
"Have you thought of anything beyond that?" Sunny asked.
Lora nodded. "Oh yes, I have. Let me tell you..."
On to Chapter Four
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Four
Chapter Four
February 21st, 12:30 PM
Julia Wright sat in the newsroom, staring at her computer screen, her mind a blank.
What to write about today?
She had nothing to say and everything to say. Nothing, because since her last article on the mysterious disappearance of the Blue Lynx, she had discovered no new leads. The police, the press, random people on the street: none of them had seen or heard the city's "greatest" superheroine in weeks. Her published call for information regarding the Blue Lynx's sudden vanishing had flooded her answering machine only with dumb jokes, bad impersonators, and requests that she, Julia Wright, find another line of work, a job more suited to her trashy inclinations.
Nothing to say... But everything to say, too. There was no news, but that didn't mean there was no story. In Blue Lynx's void there appeared a bevy of questions. Like, why? Why did the Blue Lynx leave so suddenly?
Did she retire? Was she finally just sick of fighting crime? (Julia wouldn't blame her, in this crazy city.) Perhaps it was a thing in her personal life? The death of a friend or family member? Maybe she'd had a bad break-up with a longtime partner?
Where did she go? Did she move out of town? Young millennials were doing that, weren't they? (She was confident that the Blue Lynx was in her early twenties.) Maybe the Blue Lynx went to New York to find bigger, better criminals. (Young millennials were doing that, too.)
Or maybe she was injured? She had never seen the Blue Lynx hurt before. But all it would take is one bad jump and, boom, there's a sprained ankle. The Blue Lynx was a superheroine, but she was also human. She'd need time to recuperate if she had broken a bone or ripped a tendon or something.
Or was her long vacation driven by fear? She must've known about Julia's writing, about the great public interest in seeing the Blue Lynx unmasked. Maybe she felt like people were getting too close, that the theories developed in the newspaper had some truth to them.
This was the angle she'd work, today. The Blue Lynx was in hiding, she'd say, because we're getting warm. We're putting the pieces together and forming a coherent picture. It won't be long before we discover who she really is.
She sighed and smiled. This job was just too fun.
The telephone on the desk to Julia's right rang. Julia snapped out of her reverie and picked up the receiver.
"This is Julia."
A soft, clear, subtly powerful voice. "Julia Wright. Good afternoon. This is the Blue Lynx."
Julia gasped and almost dropped the phone. She scrambled her fingers back up the receiver and quickly pulled a pad of paper and pencil out of the drawer, flopping them on the desk. "Oh, Blue Lynx! You're finally getting in touch with me!"
"Listen up. I want to meet with you. Give you an interview."
Her voice was feminine, girlish even, but also terse and authoritative. It was a superheroine's voice, for sure.
"I want to meet with you, too," Julia said. "Let's set up a date."
"Just you and I," Blue Lynx said. "At a place where I choose. And a time when I choose."
Julia nodded. "Yes, of course."
"If I get any inkling of funny stuff, then it's off. You'll never hear from me again."
Julia smiled. "Oh, don't worry, Blue Lynx," she said, crossing her fingers. "There'll be no funny stuff."
"I need to set the record straight with you."
"Okay, alright," Julia said, impatiently. "Just tell me where you want to meet, and I'll be there."
There was a pause. And then, "Your office. Will it be empty tonight at midnight?"
Julia nodded. "Yes. I can definitely be here."
"Good. I'll see you then."
And the Blue Lynx hung up.
Julia put the phone back on the cradle.
She couldn't stop smiling. She couldn't believe her luck.
She had thought this was a slow day! And then, seconds later, who should call but the Blue Lynx herself! Asking for an interview! In the newsroom, of all places!
She wondered why the Blue Lynx would choose such a venue. It was Julia's home turf, after all. Probably just a signal of some kind, a message that the superheroine would not be intimidated. She was ready to meet the press and give them a story, providing there was no "funny stuff."
Julia smiled as she thought of this, and even let out a small laugh to herself.
There certainly would be "funny stuff" tonight.
She couldn't sit still. She had to get up, move around. She left her desk and went to the newsroom's kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee. She drummed her fingers on the counter, waiting for the pot to fill, thinking of all the wild possibilities a visit from the Blue Lynx might entail.
When she came back to her desk, the phone was ringing. She put down the coffee and picked up the receiver.
"This is Julia."
"I know that," a old voice rasped from the other end. "You're the reporter who does the Blue Lynx stories, right?"
Julia cleared her throat. What was this, now?
"Yeah, that's me. Can I help you?"
The old voice laughed. "You can, Ms. Wright. And I think we can help you, too."
"Help me with what?" Julia asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Why, with your little cat problem, of course," the voice said, erupting into laughter.
It almost made Julia want to laugh, too.
"Huh," Julia said. "It's funny you should mention it..."
On to Chapter Five
February 21st, 12:30 PM
Julia Wright sat in the newsroom, staring at her computer screen, her mind a blank.
What to write about today?
She had nothing to say and everything to say. Nothing, because since her last article on the mysterious disappearance of the Blue Lynx, she had discovered no new leads. The police, the press, random people on the street: none of them had seen or heard the city's "greatest" superheroine in weeks. Her published call for information regarding the Blue Lynx's sudden vanishing had flooded her answering machine only with dumb jokes, bad impersonators, and requests that she, Julia Wright, find another line of work, a job more suited to her trashy inclinations.
Nothing to say... But everything to say, too. There was no news, but that didn't mean there was no story. In Blue Lynx's void there appeared a bevy of questions. Like, why? Why did the Blue Lynx leave so suddenly?
Did she retire? Was she finally just sick of fighting crime? (Julia wouldn't blame her, in this crazy city.) Perhaps it was a thing in her personal life? The death of a friend or family member? Maybe she'd had a bad break-up with a longtime partner?
Where did she go? Did she move out of town? Young millennials were doing that, weren't they? (She was confident that the Blue Lynx was in her early twenties.) Maybe the Blue Lynx went to New York to find bigger, better criminals. (Young millennials were doing that, too.)
Or maybe she was injured? She had never seen the Blue Lynx hurt before. But all it would take is one bad jump and, boom, there's a sprained ankle. The Blue Lynx was a superheroine, but she was also human. She'd need time to recuperate if she had broken a bone or ripped a tendon or something.
Or was her long vacation driven by fear? She must've known about Julia's writing, about the great public interest in seeing the Blue Lynx unmasked. Maybe she felt like people were getting too close, that the theories developed in the newspaper had some truth to them.
This was the angle she'd work, today. The Blue Lynx was in hiding, she'd say, because we're getting warm. We're putting the pieces together and forming a coherent picture. It won't be long before we discover who she really is.
She sighed and smiled. This job was just too fun.
The telephone on the desk to Julia's right rang. Julia snapped out of her reverie and picked up the receiver.
"This is Julia."
A soft, clear, subtly powerful voice. "Julia Wright. Good afternoon. This is the Blue Lynx."
Julia gasped and almost dropped the phone. She scrambled her fingers back up the receiver and quickly pulled a pad of paper and pencil out of the drawer, flopping them on the desk. "Oh, Blue Lynx! You're finally getting in touch with me!"
"Listen up. I want to meet with you. Give you an interview."
Her voice was feminine, girlish even, but also terse and authoritative. It was a superheroine's voice, for sure.
"I want to meet with you, too," Julia said. "Let's set up a date."
"Just you and I," Blue Lynx said. "At a place where I choose. And a time when I choose."
Julia nodded. "Yes, of course."
"If I get any inkling of funny stuff, then it's off. You'll never hear from me again."
Julia smiled. "Oh, don't worry, Blue Lynx," she said, crossing her fingers. "There'll be no funny stuff."
"I need to set the record straight with you."
"Okay, alright," Julia said, impatiently. "Just tell me where you want to meet, and I'll be there."
There was a pause. And then, "Your office. Will it be empty tonight at midnight?"
Julia nodded. "Yes. I can definitely be here."
"Good. I'll see you then."
And the Blue Lynx hung up.
Julia put the phone back on the cradle.
She couldn't stop smiling. She couldn't believe her luck.
She had thought this was a slow day! And then, seconds later, who should call but the Blue Lynx herself! Asking for an interview! In the newsroom, of all places!
She wondered why the Blue Lynx would choose such a venue. It was Julia's home turf, after all. Probably just a signal of some kind, a message that the superheroine would not be intimidated. She was ready to meet the press and give them a story, providing there was no "funny stuff."
Julia smiled as she thought of this, and even let out a small laugh to herself.
There certainly would be "funny stuff" tonight.
She couldn't sit still. She had to get up, move around. She left her desk and went to the newsroom's kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee. She drummed her fingers on the counter, waiting for the pot to fill, thinking of all the wild possibilities a visit from the Blue Lynx might entail.
When she came back to her desk, the phone was ringing. She put down the coffee and picked up the receiver.
"This is Julia."
"I know that," a old voice rasped from the other end. "You're the reporter who does the Blue Lynx stories, right?"
Julia cleared her throat. What was this, now?
"Yeah, that's me. Can I help you?"
The old voice laughed. "You can, Ms. Wright. And I think we can help you, too."
"Help me with what?" Julia asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Why, with your little cat problem, of course," the voice said, erupting into laughter.
It almost made Julia want to laugh, too.
"Huh," Julia said. "It's funny you should mention it..."
On to Chapter Five
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Five
Chapter Five
February 21st, 11:50 PM
Margot pulled her car into the farthest corner of the new station's parking lot and put it in park.
"Well, here we are," she said. "Any idea how you're gonna get in, smart girl?"
Erin stared at her through the holes of her Blue Lynx mask. She knew that Margot wasn't a fan of this plan. She had said it was too risky-- that they had tried stunts like this before, and they had never gone well. And, truly, Erin's memories of her last direct encounter with the media-- in the back of a news fan, shooting that horrible PSA, so many months ago-- were not the finest recollections of the Blue Lynx's crimefighting career.
"But this is different," Erin had told Margot. "If I don't do this, Julia Wright will never stop hounding us." The long sabbatical of the Blue Lynx and the long recuperation period of Erin Steele was a coincidence too good to be just that. It was crucial that the Blue Lynx get Julia on her side: that she made an ally out of an enemy, before that enemy got any closer to a certain dearly guarded secret.
That snarky "smart girl" comment showed that Margot hadn't exactly warmed to Erin's bright idea. Oh well. It wouldn't be the first time the two young women would have philosophical differences about the Blue Lynx's work. Probably wouldn't be the last, either.
"I think I'll knock on the door," Erin said, with a smile.
"Oh yeah?" Margot said. "And they're just going to let you in, like the big bad cat?"
Erin laughed. "Julia said it would be just her in there tonight. She'll figure it out."
Margot shook her head. "God, Erin, I don't know. Doesn't this feel like a trap, to you?"
Erin nodded. "Of course it does. But it's just Julia, Margot. You don't think I can handle a dumb reporter?"
"I think you can," Margot replied. "But you know as well as I do that she's, umm, resourceful."
"Well, it's been months since I had a good adventure. I'll take whatever I can get, tonight."
Margot kneaded her forehead with her fingers. "Okay. Just be careful."
"I will," Erin said, stepping out of the car. "Bye!"
Erin shut the door and skipped across the parking lot. The February air was cool and crisp, and it felt good to once again be out, doing the superheroine stuff that really mattered. The Blue Lynx had been gone for too long. Every day that Erin dragged through without fighting crime had felt like a week. Julia Wright was the perfect little challenge to get back in the game.
Now she just had to get into the building.
Erin tried the back doors. She pulled on the handles, but they were locked. She looked through the glass panes of the doors at the empty lobby. She banged her fist on the glass. "Hello?" she said. "Anyone home?"
"Blue Lynx," a small, fuzzed-out voice said. "Good evening."
Erin turned to see a small speaker on the wall next to the door. Underneath the speaker was a 10-digit number pad.
"Julia?" Erin said, stepping to the device.
"I'm glad you made it," the voice said. "I've been waiting for you, looking out the window. I saw you pull up earlier."
Erin's heart almost stopped. Had she been watching them the whole time? That meant she knew what Margot's car looked like!
"I didn't know you had a driver, Blue Lynx," the voice continued.
Oh crap, oh crap. What could Erin say?
The small voice laughed. "But I guess a bigshot superheroine like you deserves to ride in style, right?"
Erin gulped. "It's an Uber," she lied. "I don't have a car."
"Really? Well, if you insist, Blue Lynx. Though it's pretty weird for a Uber driver to just stay parked after dropping off a customer."
Erin instinctively turned around. As Julia suggested, Margot's car was still sitting there, alone in the dark. Erin was pleased to note that she couldn't see Margot herself-- and if she couldn't, then she doubt Julia could. But the image of the unmoving car poked more than a few holes in Erin's story.
"Yeah, well, she said she was done for the night," Erin said. "She's got work to do, on her phone, and..."
Harsh laughter buzzed through the small speaker. "You're not a very good liar, Blue Lynx. But that's okay. Why don't you come up so we can chat?"
Erin sighed. Did she dodge a bullet? For now?
"Okay," she said. "How do I get in?"
"Simple," the voice said. "Just plug the passcode in, walk through the lobby to the elevators, and ride the elevator to floor 8. You'll see my see my office lit up once you get to the floor."
"And... What's the passcode?"
"88229928."
Erin typed in the code and heard a small, pleasing beep. She turned the handle of the door, and it opened.
"Thanks," Erin called into the speaker. "I'll see you soon."
"See ya, Blue Lynx."
Erin walked into the lobby, letting the door shut behind her. The room was spacious and well-lit, but completely empty of people. Looking at the unoccupied desks, it hit Erin that this plan was a big risk for Julia, too: she had already given the Blue Lynx the password to the door, and had allowed her to waltz into the building like she was just another reporter and not, well, a notorious masked vigilante. Erin saw security cameras in the corners of the room. Were they keeping track of all this? They didn't appear to be moving, or lit up. Had Julia turned them off to keep her little date a secret? It seemed to Erin that if the cameras did catch anything, then the blame was squarely on the reporter who had invited a superheroine for a late-night chat.
Erin found the elevator, pushed the button, and waited. She thought about Julia looking out her window, watching Margot's car pull up. Had she seen Margot's face? Her license plate? Was Julia calling other reporters? Was she calling the cops? There were many things that Julia could do right now to severely wreck Erin's night. Erin just hoped that Julia was as committed to conversation as she was.
The elevator landed with a ding. The doors slid open, and Erin walked in. She pressed the "8" button and watched the doors close. Once again, she was alone, waiting, and thinking. And she didn't want to think. When she got to thinking too much, her work as the Blue Lynx suffered. It was important to clear her head, and to not ruminate on cars, or license plates, or the cops, or the possibility of Margot getting out of her car for some reason, or if Julia had happened to catch a view of her without her mask, or...
"Stop," Erin told herself. "Get it together."
She had to admit that she was flustered. Julia had clearly won the preliminary bout, tonight. But the main event was still to come.
Another ding, and the doors opened up onto a newsroom, completely dark but for a dim light in the far corner. Erin looked to that corner and saw a shadowy figure waving its arms.
"Blue Lynx!" a voice said, in a sort of loud whisper. "Over here!"
Erin took a deep breath and started walking. She weaved through a maze of vacant desks and rolling chairs, moving carefully but confidently in the dark. As she came closer to the light in the far corner, the shadowy figure took on a feminine form. Erin saw a brown jacket, skirt, dark curly hair, and eventually, the face of Julia Wright.
"Good evening," Julia said, standing behind her desk, opening her arms to encompass Erin and the office in a sort of strange embrace.
"Good evening," Erin replied, sternly.
Julia pushed her chair from behind the desk and sat down. She pointed at another chair in front of the desk and nodded at Erin. "Take a seat, Blue Lynx. Please, take a seat."
Erin nodded, moving to the chair and elegantly dropping into its seat. She crossed her legs and clasped her gloved hands together, sitting them on her knee. She watched as Julia reached back to her desk, fumbled around, and eventually brought back a clipboard and a pen.
"I want to take notes," Julia said, with a smile.
"Naturally," Erin replied.
"Oh, and let's do something about this light," Julia said, setting her clipboard on the ground, and stepping to the lamp propped up on her desk. "It's just so horribly dark in here."
Erin blinked. "I think it's fine."
"I want to get a good, good look at you," Julia said, turning the dial on the lamp. With each click, the bulb grew brighter, until its light forced Erin to squint her eyes.
"That's enough," Erin said.
"Nonsense," Julia said, still clicking the dial, making the desk area brighter still. "A pretty girl like you demands to be well-lit."
"I said that's enough!" Erin cried, moving her hand to shield her eyes.
Julia laughed. "Okay, alright," she said, stepping back into her chair. She picked up her clipboard and set it in her lap. "The important thing is I can see you, now. Perfectly."
Erin frowned. Perfectly? What the hell did that mean?
She looked down at her body. Her skin was practically white against the light, her bosom almost glistening, her costume an even more brilliant blue than usual. Long shadows stretched backward from her legs and the legs of the chair. She felt... Exposed. Which was just how Julia wanted it, Erin imagined.
"Anyway," Julia said. "I'm so glad you could make it. Just so glad."
Erin nodded. "Yes, Julia. We need to talk. I don't think you understand what I'm about."
Julia scribbled something on her clipboard. "Oh? And what are you about, Blue Lynx? Truth, justice, the American way, etcetera?"
Erin shifted in her seat. The interview had just started, and Julia was already irritating the hell out of her.
"Our city is plagued by crime. Drug lords, dealers, goons," Erin said. "The cops have tried to stop it but they need help. That's what I'm here for."
Julia dashed off a note and looked up at Erin. "So what makes you think a little girl in a shiny outfit can do better than our city's police force?"
"Little girl?" Erin said. She could feel her face turning red, could almost hear her teeth grinding. And she couldn't help herself. "Really, Julia?"
"Well, look at you," Julia said, pointing at her with the pen. "You're pretty young, right? I'd estimate, say, early twenties? Yes?"
Erin stared at her. She was being so... Invasive. Trying to keep the Blue Lynx off balance. Erin loved a good fight, and her urge was to swing back. She had to remind herself that tonight's goal was to make a new ally. "Get Julia to join you," Erin thought. "Get the dumb bitch to..."
Stop. Focus.
"My age is irrelevant," Erin said. "The city's drug problem is huge. It goes beyond me or you. We all need to do whatever we can to solve it."
"Alright," Julia said, frantically writing on her clipboard. "I think I understand. But do you really think playing cat dress-up is going to help?"
Erin stomped her foot on the floor. "You're just trying to piss me off, aren't you?" she sneered. The combination of nerves, anger, and the intense light had made her begin to sweat.
Julia giggled. "I'm just asking simple questions, that's all."
"Like, do you know who's responsible for the drugs coming into the city? Do you, really, Miss Reporter?"
Julia looked at her with a sinister smirk. "Enlighten me."
"It's Brent Hammerson," Erin said. "The Speaker of the House. It all flows back to him. I personally have had several encounters with him. At drug houses, in abandoned factories. He's the kingpin. And we have to take him down."
Julia hadn't lifted her pen during Erin's revelation.
"That's a pretty serious allegation, Blue Lynx," Julia said.
"Serious, and one hundred percent true," Erin said.
Julia nodded in silence. Her face had become an unreadable blank.
What was she thinking? Was this news to her? Erin licked her lips. Maybe this was how she'd proceed. Keep attacking Hammerson. Win Julia over by putting down her biggest enemy.
"The first time I learned about it, I was as shocked as you," Erin said. "But, seriously, follow him around for a day. Go with him into the dark corners of the city, you'll see. There's no one more responsible for our community's suffering than him."
Julia closed her eyes. She put her pen down and brought her hands to her forehead.
"So?" Erin said. "What do you think? Julia?"
"I think," Julia said, running her fingers through her hair. "I think politics are pretty boring, actually."
Erin almost fell out of her chair. "What?"
Julia picked up her pen. "Did we really come here to talk about that? About Brent Hammerson? No. We came here to talk about you."
Erin glared at her. "Don't you understand?" she cried. "I am fighting him. You can't tell the story of the Blue Lynx without talking about Hammerson!"
Julia yawned. "Anyway, let's get back on topic. So, yeah, I guess you're a young girl in your early twenties. Pretty, and yet, marginalized. A freak, in a way. Maybe you've got some kind of psychological issue? An eating disorder? I don't know how else you'd get that physique, honestly."
Erin stood up from her chair and placed her hands on her hips. There was no hope, here. This mission would never succeed, not in a million years.
"We're finished," Erin said. "Goodnight, Julia."
"No!" Julia shouted, standing up and placing her clipboard on her seat. "We're not finished! You haven't told me who you really are!"
"That wasn't part of the deal," Erin said. "None of this was."
"What is your secret identity, Blue Lynx?" Julia cried, her eyes widening. "I have to know!"
Erin shook her head and turned around. Julia was a lost cause, and it was time to leave. But just as she began to walk away, she felt something slam into a lower back. An intense pain suddenly shot through her body. Her arms and legs felt like they were on fire; she arched her back, threw her head back, and screamed. Her body was convulsing as if electrocuted, and she cried out, again and again, as more and more waves of pain flowed over her. When the source of the shock was finally removed, she collapsed to the floor, nearly unconscious.
She summoned the strength to lift her head and look up. Julia was standing there, grinning, with a small device in her hand.
"You're not the only one with a special taser, Blue Lynx," she cackled.
Erin tried to get up, tried to crawl away, but every muscle in her body ached. "You... bitch..." she muttered. She placed her hands on the ground and pulled herself to her knees. Julia bent down, placed her hands on Erin's shoulders, and pushed her back to the floor.
"You shouldn't have turned your back on me," Julia said. She toed at Erin's sprawled, still shaking body with her high-heeled shoe. Erin moaned. She was too weak to turn herself over, too drained to do anything except stare up at the ceiling. Julia had got her, good. And now she was helpless.
"Let's continue with the interview, shall we?" Julia said, dropping to her knees, placing on hand on Erin's stomach, and the other on the crown of her head. She brushed back black locks from Erin's face. "Where were we? Ah yes. Your secret identity."
Julia's hand dropped down to Erin's mask.
"No..." Erin groaned. "Julia... Don't..."
She had to find a way to stall her, somehow. She could feel her strength returning, slowly but steadily. But she'd need at least a minute. And Julia didn't look like she wanted to wait.
"This is the moment I've longed for... For months," Julia said. "I have you here. Completely at my mercy. And now... It's time to learn your greatest secret."
"But..." Erin said. But what? What could she possibly say? Julia looked at her with expectation.
"Please... I..."
"Oh, stop whining," Julia said, slipping her hand down to Erin's temple. She slid her thumb beneath the mask and hooked her forefinger over, forming a loop around the blue fabric.
Erin's chest heaved with dread. She needed more time!
"Don't, Julia..." she whispered. "If you unmask me, I'll... tell everyone... your secret."
Julia laughed. "My secret? I have nothing to hide, Blue Lynx. I don't go around pretending to be someone I'm not, unlike you."
"You're... you're on Hammerson's side," Erin said, her voice strained. "You're helping him... distribute drugs..."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Julia said.
"That's why... you're so against me," Erin continued. "You're working for the enemy..."
Julia laughed. "I would if I could, Blue Lynx. If it meant taking your cocky ass down, I'd work for the devil himself."
Erin sighed and closed her eyes. There was simply no helping this woman.
"Enough stalling," Julia said. "It's time for this charade to end!"
And Erin winced as Julia pinched down on the blue fabric of the mask, pulled it up, and decisively tugged it off of the Blue Lynx's face.
On to Chapter Six
February 21st, 11:50 PM
Margot pulled her car into the farthest corner of the new station's parking lot and put it in park.
"Well, here we are," she said. "Any idea how you're gonna get in, smart girl?"
Erin stared at her through the holes of her Blue Lynx mask. She knew that Margot wasn't a fan of this plan. She had said it was too risky-- that they had tried stunts like this before, and they had never gone well. And, truly, Erin's memories of her last direct encounter with the media-- in the back of a news fan, shooting that horrible PSA, so many months ago-- were not the finest recollections of the Blue Lynx's crimefighting career.
"But this is different," Erin had told Margot. "If I don't do this, Julia Wright will never stop hounding us." The long sabbatical of the Blue Lynx and the long recuperation period of Erin Steele was a coincidence too good to be just that. It was crucial that the Blue Lynx get Julia on her side: that she made an ally out of an enemy, before that enemy got any closer to a certain dearly guarded secret.
That snarky "smart girl" comment showed that Margot hadn't exactly warmed to Erin's bright idea. Oh well. It wouldn't be the first time the two young women would have philosophical differences about the Blue Lynx's work. Probably wouldn't be the last, either.
"I think I'll knock on the door," Erin said, with a smile.
"Oh yeah?" Margot said. "And they're just going to let you in, like the big bad cat?"
Erin laughed. "Julia said it would be just her in there tonight. She'll figure it out."
Margot shook her head. "God, Erin, I don't know. Doesn't this feel like a trap, to you?"
Erin nodded. "Of course it does. But it's just Julia, Margot. You don't think I can handle a dumb reporter?"
"I think you can," Margot replied. "But you know as well as I do that she's, umm, resourceful."
"Well, it's been months since I had a good adventure. I'll take whatever I can get, tonight."
Margot kneaded her forehead with her fingers. "Okay. Just be careful."
"I will," Erin said, stepping out of the car. "Bye!"
Erin shut the door and skipped across the parking lot. The February air was cool and crisp, and it felt good to once again be out, doing the superheroine stuff that really mattered. The Blue Lynx had been gone for too long. Every day that Erin dragged through without fighting crime had felt like a week. Julia Wright was the perfect little challenge to get back in the game.
Now she just had to get into the building.
Erin tried the back doors. She pulled on the handles, but they were locked. She looked through the glass panes of the doors at the empty lobby. She banged her fist on the glass. "Hello?" she said. "Anyone home?"
"Blue Lynx," a small, fuzzed-out voice said. "Good evening."
Erin turned to see a small speaker on the wall next to the door. Underneath the speaker was a 10-digit number pad.
"Julia?" Erin said, stepping to the device.
"I'm glad you made it," the voice said. "I've been waiting for you, looking out the window. I saw you pull up earlier."
Erin's heart almost stopped. Had she been watching them the whole time? That meant she knew what Margot's car looked like!
"I didn't know you had a driver, Blue Lynx," the voice continued.
Oh crap, oh crap. What could Erin say?
The small voice laughed. "But I guess a bigshot superheroine like you deserves to ride in style, right?"
Erin gulped. "It's an Uber," she lied. "I don't have a car."
"Really? Well, if you insist, Blue Lynx. Though it's pretty weird for a Uber driver to just stay parked after dropping off a customer."
Erin instinctively turned around. As Julia suggested, Margot's car was still sitting there, alone in the dark. Erin was pleased to note that she couldn't see Margot herself-- and if she couldn't, then she doubt Julia could. But the image of the unmoving car poked more than a few holes in Erin's story.
"Yeah, well, she said she was done for the night," Erin said. "She's got work to do, on her phone, and..."
Harsh laughter buzzed through the small speaker. "You're not a very good liar, Blue Lynx. But that's okay. Why don't you come up so we can chat?"
Erin sighed. Did she dodge a bullet? For now?
"Okay," she said. "How do I get in?"
"Simple," the voice said. "Just plug the passcode in, walk through the lobby to the elevators, and ride the elevator to floor 8. You'll see my see my office lit up once you get to the floor."
"And... What's the passcode?"
"88229928."
Erin typed in the code and heard a small, pleasing beep. She turned the handle of the door, and it opened.
"Thanks," Erin called into the speaker. "I'll see you soon."
"See ya, Blue Lynx."
Erin walked into the lobby, letting the door shut behind her. The room was spacious and well-lit, but completely empty of people. Looking at the unoccupied desks, it hit Erin that this plan was a big risk for Julia, too: she had already given the Blue Lynx the password to the door, and had allowed her to waltz into the building like she was just another reporter and not, well, a notorious masked vigilante. Erin saw security cameras in the corners of the room. Were they keeping track of all this? They didn't appear to be moving, or lit up. Had Julia turned them off to keep her little date a secret? It seemed to Erin that if the cameras did catch anything, then the blame was squarely on the reporter who had invited a superheroine for a late-night chat.
Erin found the elevator, pushed the button, and waited. She thought about Julia looking out her window, watching Margot's car pull up. Had she seen Margot's face? Her license plate? Was Julia calling other reporters? Was she calling the cops? There were many things that Julia could do right now to severely wreck Erin's night. Erin just hoped that Julia was as committed to conversation as she was.
The elevator landed with a ding. The doors slid open, and Erin walked in. She pressed the "8" button and watched the doors close. Once again, she was alone, waiting, and thinking. And she didn't want to think. When she got to thinking too much, her work as the Blue Lynx suffered. It was important to clear her head, and to not ruminate on cars, or license plates, or the cops, or the possibility of Margot getting out of her car for some reason, or if Julia had happened to catch a view of her without her mask, or...
"Stop," Erin told herself. "Get it together."
She had to admit that she was flustered. Julia had clearly won the preliminary bout, tonight. But the main event was still to come.
Another ding, and the doors opened up onto a newsroom, completely dark but for a dim light in the far corner. Erin looked to that corner and saw a shadowy figure waving its arms.
"Blue Lynx!" a voice said, in a sort of loud whisper. "Over here!"
Erin took a deep breath and started walking. She weaved through a maze of vacant desks and rolling chairs, moving carefully but confidently in the dark. As she came closer to the light in the far corner, the shadowy figure took on a feminine form. Erin saw a brown jacket, skirt, dark curly hair, and eventually, the face of Julia Wright.
"Good evening," Julia said, standing behind her desk, opening her arms to encompass Erin and the office in a sort of strange embrace.
"Good evening," Erin replied, sternly.
Julia pushed her chair from behind the desk and sat down. She pointed at another chair in front of the desk and nodded at Erin. "Take a seat, Blue Lynx. Please, take a seat."
Erin nodded, moving to the chair and elegantly dropping into its seat. She crossed her legs and clasped her gloved hands together, sitting them on her knee. She watched as Julia reached back to her desk, fumbled around, and eventually brought back a clipboard and a pen.
"I want to take notes," Julia said, with a smile.
"Naturally," Erin replied.
"Oh, and let's do something about this light," Julia said, setting her clipboard on the ground, and stepping to the lamp propped up on her desk. "It's just so horribly dark in here."
Erin blinked. "I think it's fine."
"I want to get a good, good look at you," Julia said, turning the dial on the lamp. With each click, the bulb grew brighter, until its light forced Erin to squint her eyes.
"That's enough," Erin said.
"Nonsense," Julia said, still clicking the dial, making the desk area brighter still. "A pretty girl like you demands to be well-lit."
"I said that's enough!" Erin cried, moving her hand to shield her eyes.
Julia laughed. "Okay, alright," she said, stepping back into her chair. She picked up her clipboard and set it in her lap. "The important thing is I can see you, now. Perfectly."
Erin frowned. Perfectly? What the hell did that mean?
She looked down at her body. Her skin was practically white against the light, her bosom almost glistening, her costume an even more brilliant blue than usual. Long shadows stretched backward from her legs and the legs of the chair. She felt... Exposed. Which was just how Julia wanted it, Erin imagined.
"Anyway," Julia said. "I'm so glad you could make it. Just so glad."
Erin nodded. "Yes, Julia. We need to talk. I don't think you understand what I'm about."
Julia scribbled something on her clipboard. "Oh? And what are you about, Blue Lynx? Truth, justice, the American way, etcetera?"
Erin shifted in her seat. The interview had just started, and Julia was already irritating the hell out of her.
"Our city is plagued by crime. Drug lords, dealers, goons," Erin said. "The cops have tried to stop it but they need help. That's what I'm here for."
Julia dashed off a note and looked up at Erin. "So what makes you think a little girl in a shiny outfit can do better than our city's police force?"
"Little girl?" Erin said. She could feel her face turning red, could almost hear her teeth grinding. And she couldn't help herself. "Really, Julia?"
"Well, look at you," Julia said, pointing at her with the pen. "You're pretty young, right? I'd estimate, say, early twenties? Yes?"
Erin stared at her. She was being so... Invasive. Trying to keep the Blue Lynx off balance. Erin loved a good fight, and her urge was to swing back. She had to remind herself that tonight's goal was to make a new ally. "Get Julia to join you," Erin thought. "Get the dumb bitch to..."
Stop. Focus.
"My age is irrelevant," Erin said. "The city's drug problem is huge. It goes beyond me or you. We all need to do whatever we can to solve it."
"Alright," Julia said, frantically writing on her clipboard. "I think I understand. But do you really think playing cat dress-up is going to help?"
Erin stomped her foot on the floor. "You're just trying to piss me off, aren't you?" she sneered. The combination of nerves, anger, and the intense light had made her begin to sweat.
Julia giggled. "I'm just asking simple questions, that's all."
"Like, do you know who's responsible for the drugs coming into the city? Do you, really, Miss Reporter?"
Julia looked at her with a sinister smirk. "Enlighten me."
"It's Brent Hammerson," Erin said. "The Speaker of the House. It all flows back to him. I personally have had several encounters with him. At drug houses, in abandoned factories. He's the kingpin. And we have to take him down."
Julia hadn't lifted her pen during Erin's revelation.
"That's a pretty serious allegation, Blue Lynx," Julia said.
"Serious, and one hundred percent true," Erin said.
Julia nodded in silence. Her face had become an unreadable blank.
What was she thinking? Was this news to her? Erin licked her lips. Maybe this was how she'd proceed. Keep attacking Hammerson. Win Julia over by putting down her biggest enemy.
"The first time I learned about it, I was as shocked as you," Erin said. "But, seriously, follow him around for a day. Go with him into the dark corners of the city, you'll see. There's no one more responsible for our community's suffering than him."
Julia closed her eyes. She put her pen down and brought her hands to her forehead.
"So?" Erin said. "What do you think? Julia?"
"I think," Julia said, running her fingers through her hair. "I think politics are pretty boring, actually."
Erin almost fell out of her chair. "What?"
Julia picked up her pen. "Did we really come here to talk about that? About Brent Hammerson? No. We came here to talk about you."
Erin glared at her. "Don't you understand?" she cried. "I am fighting him. You can't tell the story of the Blue Lynx without talking about Hammerson!"
Julia yawned. "Anyway, let's get back on topic. So, yeah, I guess you're a young girl in your early twenties. Pretty, and yet, marginalized. A freak, in a way. Maybe you've got some kind of psychological issue? An eating disorder? I don't know how else you'd get that physique, honestly."
Erin stood up from her chair and placed her hands on her hips. There was no hope, here. This mission would never succeed, not in a million years.
"We're finished," Erin said. "Goodnight, Julia."
"No!" Julia shouted, standing up and placing her clipboard on her seat. "We're not finished! You haven't told me who you really are!"
"That wasn't part of the deal," Erin said. "None of this was."
"What is your secret identity, Blue Lynx?" Julia cried, her eyes widening. "I have to know!"
Erin shook her head and turned around. Julia was a lost cause, and it was time to leave. But just as she began to walk away, she felt something slam into a lower back. An intense pain suddenly shot through her body. Her arms and legs felt like they were on fire; she arched her back, threw her head back, and screamed. Her body was convulsing as if electrocuted, and she cried out, again and again, as more and more waves of pain flowed over her. When the source of the shock was finally removed, she collapsed to the floor, nearly unconscious.
She summoned the strength to lift her head and look up. Julia was standing there, grinning, with a small device in her hand.
"You're not the only one with a special taser, Blue Lynx," she cackled.
Erin tried to get up, tried to crawl away, but every muscle in her body ached. "You... bitch..." she muttered. She placed her hands on the ground and pulled herself to her knees. Julia bent down, placed her hands on Erin's shoulders, and pushed her back to the floor.
"You shouldn't have turned your back on me," Julia said. She toed at Erin's sprawled, still shaking body with her high-heeled shoe. Erin moaned. She was too weak to turn herself over, too drained to do anything except stare up at the ceiling. Julia had got her, good. And now she was helpless.
"Let's continue with the interview, shall we?" Julia said, dropping to her knees, placing on hand on Erin's stomach, and the other on the crown of her head. She brushed back black locks from Erin's face. "Where were we? Ah yes. Your secret identity."
Julia's hand dropped down to Erin's mask.
"No..." Erin groaned. "Julia... Don't..."
She had to find a way to stall her, somehow. She could feel her strength returning, slowly but steadily. But she'd need at least a minute. And Julia didn't look like she wanted to wait.
"This is the moment I've longed for... For months," Julia said. "I have you here. Completely at my mercy. And now... It's time to learn your greatest secret."
"But..." Erin said. But what? What could she possibly say? Julia looked at her with expectation.
"Please... I..."
"Oh, stop whining," Julia said, slipping her hand down to Erin's temple. She slid her thumb beneath the mask and hooked her forefinger over, forming a loop around the blue fabric.
Erin's chest heaved with dread. She needed more time!
"Don't, Julia..." she whispered. "If you unmask me, I'll... tell everyone... your secret."
Julia laughed. "My secret? I have nothing to hide, Blue Lynx. I don't go around pretending to be someone I'm not, unlike you."
"You're... you're on Hammerson's side," Erin said, her voice strained. "You're helping him... distribute drugs..."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Julia said.
"That's why... you're so against me," Erin continued. "You're working for the enemy..."
Julia laughed. "I would if I could, Blue Lynx. If it meant taking your cocky ass down, I'd work for the devil himself."
Erin sighed and closed her eyes. There was simply no helping this woman.
"Enough stalling," Julia said. "It's time for this charade to end!"
And Erin winced as Julia pinched down on the blue fabric of the mask, pulled it up, and decisively tugged it off of the Blue Lynx's face.
On to Chapter Six
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Six
Chapter Six
February 22nd, 12:12 AM
It happened in a second-- it had to happen in a second. The mask left Erin's face, and a shot of adrenaline rushed through her body. She whipped her head around, flinging her long, black hair over her face, and curled her body into a half-ball, bringing her knee up, fast and hard into Julia's side. Julia cried out and crumpled over, and Erin flicked her leg out, catching Julia's head with her boot. Julia spun around and crashed to the floor, face-first, giving Erin time to get to her feet. Without thinking, she darted to the desk and threw the lamp to the floor. It shattered, and the bright light was immediately extinguished, plunging the two women into darkness.
"My lamp!" Julia shouted. "You broke my lamp! You little cunt!"
Erin moved to kick Julia, but as she pulled back her leg, her opponent charged, leaping into her body and catching her by the waist. Julia's weight carried Erin to the floor with an "oof." Erin scrambled to get back up, only to feel Julia's bony fingers snatch her wrists and push her to the floor. Once again, Erin was grounded, only now she was straddled and held down in the dark.
"Don't worry, Blue Lynx, I can't see you yet," Julia laughed. "But once my eyes adjust, I've got the perfect view of who you really are."
Erin struggled, tried to push free from Julia's grip, but the reporter was much stronger than she had imagined. She guessed she had a minute, maybe a minute and a half, to escape. Her eyes were already becoming accustomed to the darkness, which meant Julia's eyes probably were, too.
"Come on, girl, use that super strength!" Julia cackled, putting additional pressure on Erin's wrists. "Don't let weak little Julia Wright pin you down!"
Julia lifted her bottom slightly as she pressed forward, and Erin immediately recognized the opening. She kicked up with her lower half, catching Julia in the groin and bucking her into the air. Julia released Erin's arms and fell to the floor. Now side-by-side, Erin rolled over and onto her foe, pinning Julia's arms to the floor, letting her long hair hang around her head and obscure her face.
"Where's my mask?" Erin shouted.
"Not telling," Julia said, with a giggle.
A moment later, Erin's fist shot out and blasted Julia in the face. She cried out in pain as blood coursed from her nose.
"Augh!" she yelped. "My face! Augghhh!"
"WHERE'S MY MASK?" Erin repeated.
"I threw it over there, Jesus," Julia cried, lazily gesturing with her hand.
Erin released Julia's other wrist, and Julia's hand instantly rushed to her face, trying to corral the blood coming out of it. Erin crawled along the floor, patting at the ground with her hands. She bumped into the chair where she had been sitting for the "interview," and underneath the seat, felt something small and soft. She picked up the mask and affixed it to her face, smoothing it out against her skin, and then turned around to look at Julia, who was still moaning, writhing around on the floor, holding her nose.
Erin stood up. "Did I break your nose?" she asked. She didn't sound too concerned.
"You did, you bitch," Julia muttered, her voice muffled under her fingers.
"Good," Erin said.
She gave Julia a small kick as she walked over her body.
"Good night, Julia," she said, strutting through the desks, eyes focused on the dark outline of the elevator where she had come in.
"No," Julia said, desperately. Erin could hear scrabbling sounds behind her. "No, you can't go."
Erin turned around. "I'm leaving. You can't stop me."
Julia laughed. "I can't," she moaned. "But my friends can."
And her voice jumped up in volume and intensity as she shouted, "CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE!"
There was a click, and the room exploded with light. Erin shut her eyes and winced. She put her hands out in front of her, instinctively. As she slowly opened her eyes, she could see two figures standing on the other side of the room, one short and squat, the other, tall and broad.
Erin heard giggling. She turned around, and Julia was still on the floor, almost rolling with laughter.
"It's a trap, Blue Lynx," Julia said, in between laughs. "It's a trap!"
Erin turned back to the two figures, and they were walking toward her. She could make out more details, now: the short figure walked with a slow, patient gait. Pieces of cloth hung from her body (Erin guessed she was a woman) in rags. The tall figure was dressed in all black, one big form-fitting outfit. His face was obscured by a mask...
Erin gulped. She knew these people.
"Blue Lynx," the short figure said, in an old, crackling voice, "Forgive us for our interruption."
She was the woman who had abducted her... The old woman... The one who had pulled down her pants, as if she were a child...
"I don't think we've been properly introduced," the old woman said. "My name is Lora."
Erin was speechless. Had they been here, in the newsroom, the entire time? Was this whole interview nothing but a set-up? She tried to puff up her chest, desperately wanted to look superheroinely. But all she could feel inside was a dark sense of dread. And deja vu.
"I think you've met my partner, Steve," Lora said, placing her hand on the small of the ninja's back. "I think you even let him borrow something, the last time you met."
The ninja nodded at Erin, and stuffed his hand in his pocket. When he returned his hand to Erin's view, it contained the Blue Lynx's mask, worn-down and crumpled up. Steve opened his fingers and let the mask drop to the floor. It landed with the tiniest of hollow sounds.
Erin shuddered. Her arm began to throb, as if in panic. She had to say something to distract herself...
"What... What are you doing here?"
It was weak. Erin knew it, and they knew it. Lora smiled.
"There's a contract out on your head, Blue Lynx," the old woman said. "And we're going to collect it, tonight."
Erin tensed up. Contract? Yes, she knew there had to be something like that. That was the reason why these goons had taken Erin Steele back in January.
"Steve would love to take you in the hard way," Lora said, pointing at her partner, who was cracking his knuckles. "But I prefer the lighter touch, myself."
Erin lifted her fists up. She took a deep breath.
"Ready, Blue Lynx?" Lora said.
And before Erin could respond, Lora flung her hands out. A dozen small pellets flew from her fingers, floating through the air momentarily, and then dropping hard around Erin's boots. As the pellets hit the ground, they burst into smoke, not unlike the Blue Lynx's own smoke bombs. Plumes of gas rose around Erin's body, encasing her in white and gray vapors. Erin coughed, and tried to brush away the smoke, but the gas seemed to wrap itself around her, binding itself to her wrists, her arms, her shoulders, her neck. Erin could feel it creep into her, tasted its burn in her mouth and nostrils. She stumbled to one side, and then the other. Her ankles buckled, and she fell to her knees. She coughed, placed her hand to her chest, fell over onto her free hand. The gas cocooned her, imprisoned her, finally drove her face first to the ground. Her muscles relaxed. Her eyes closed.
And when the smoke cleared, the Blue Lynx lay on the floor in an unconscious heap.
On to Chapter Seven
February 22nd, 12:12 AM
It happened in a second-- it had to happen in a second. The mask left Erin's face, and a shot of adrenaline rushed through her body. She whipped her head around, flinging her long, black hair over her face, and curled her body into a half-ball, bringing her knee up, fast and hard into Julia's side. Julia cried out and crumpled over, and Erin flicked her leg out, catching Julia's head with her boot. Julia spun around and crashed to the floor, face-first, giving Erin time to get to her feet. Without thinking, she darted to the desk and threw the lamp to the floor. It shattered, and the bright light was immediately extinguished, plunging the two women into darkness.
"My lamp!" Julia shouted. "You broke my lamp! You little cunt!"
Erin moved to kick Julia, but as she pulled back her leg, her opponent charged, leaping into her body and catching her by the waist. Julia's weight carried Erin to the floor with an "oof." Erin scrambled to get back up, only to feel Julia's bony fingers snatch her wrists and push her to the floor. Once again, Erin was grounded, only now she was straddled and held down in the dark.
"Don't worry, Blue Lynx, I can't see you yet," Julia laughed. "But once my eyes adjust, I've got the perfect view of who you really are."
Erin struggled, tried to push free from Julia's grip, but the reporter was much stronger than she had imagined. She guessed she had a minute, maybe a minute and a half, to escape. Her eyes were already becoming accustomed to the darkness, which meant Julia's eyes probably were, too.
"Come on, girl, use that super strength!" Julia cackled, putting additional pressure on Erin's wrists. "Don't let weak little Julia Wright pin you down!"
Julia lifted her bottom slightly as she pressed forward, and Erin immediately recognized the opening. She kicked up with her lower half, catching Julia in the groin and bucking her into the air. Julia released Erin's arms and fell to the floor. Now side-by-side, Erin rolled over and onto her foe, pinning Julia's arms to the floor, letting her long hair hang around her head and obscure her face.
"Where's my mask?" Erin shouted.
"Not telling," Julia said, with a giggle.
A moment later, Erin's fist shot out and blasted Julia in the face. She cried out in pain as blood coursed from her nose.
"Augh!" she yelped. "My face! Augghhh!"
"WHERE'S MY MASK?" Erin repeated.
"I threw it over there, Jesus," Julia cried, lazily gesturing with her hand.
Erin released Julia's other wrist, and Julia's hand instantly rushed to her face, trying to corral the blood coming out of it. Erin crawled along the floor, patting at the ground with her hands. She bumped into the chair where she had been sitting for the "interview," and underneath the seat, felt something small and soft. She picked up the mask and affixed it to her face, smoothing it out against her skin, and then turned around to look at Julia, who was still moaning, writhing around on the floor, holding her nose.
Erin stood up. "Did I break your nose?" she asked. She didn't sound too concerned.
"You did, you bitch," Julia muttered, her voice muffled under her fingers.
"Good," Erin said.
She gave Julia a small kick as she walked over her body.
"Good night, Julia," she said, strutting through the desks, eyes focused on the dark outline of the elevator where she had come in.
"No," Julia said, desperately. Erin could hear scrabbling sounds behind her. "No, you can't go."
Erin turned around. "I'm leaving. You can't stop me."
Julia laughed. "I can't," she moaned. "But my friends can."
And her voice jumped up in volume and intensity as she shouted, "CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE!"
There was a click, and the room exploded with light. Erin shut her eyes and winced. She put her hands out in front of her, instinctively. As she slowly opened her eyes, she could see two figures standing on the other side of the room, one short and squat, the other, tall and broad.
Erin heard giggling. She turned around, and Julia was still on the floor, almost rolling with laughter.
"It's a trap, Blue Lynx," Julia said, in between laughs. "It's a trap!"
Erin turned back to the two figures, and they were walking toward her. She could make out more details, now: the short figure walked with a slow, patient gait. Pieces of cloth hung from her body (Erin guessed she was a woman) in rags. The tall figure was dressed in all black, one big form-fitting outfit. His face was obscured by a mask...
Erin gulped. She knew these people.
"Blue Lynx," the short figure said, in an old, crackling voice, "Forgive us for our interruption."
She was the woman who had abducted her... The old woman... The one who had pulled down her pants, as if she were a child...
"I don't think we've been properly introduced," the old woman said. "My name is Lora."
Erin was speechless. Had they been here, in the newsroom, the entire time? Was this whole interview nothing but a set-up? She tried to puff up her chest, desperately wanted to look superheroinely. But all she could feel inside was a dark sense of dread. And deja vu.
"I think you've met my partner, Steve," Lora said, placing her hand on the small of the ninja's back. "I think you even let him borrow something, the last time you met."
The ninja nodded at Erin, and stuffed his hand in his pocket. When he returned his hand to Erin's view, it contained the Blue Lynx's mask, worn-down and crumpled up. Steve opened his fingers and let the mask drop to the floor. It landed with the tiniest of hollow sounds.
Erin shuddered. Her arm began to throb, as if in panic. She had to say something to distract herself...
"What... What are you doing here?"
It was weak. Erin knew it, and they knew it. Lora smiled.
"There's a contract out on your head, Blue Lynx," the old woman said. "And we're going to collect it, tonight."
Erin tensed up. Contract? Yes, she knew there had to be something like that. That was the reason why these goons had taken Erin Steele back in January.
"Steve would love to take you in the hard way," Lora said, pointing at her partner, who was cracking his knuckles. "But I prefer the lighter touch, myself."
Erin lifted her fists up. She took a deep breath.
"Ready, Blue Lynx?" Lora said.
And before Erin could respond, Lora flung her hands out. A dozen small pellets flew from her fingers, floating through the air momentarily, and then dropping hard around Erin's boots. As the pellets hit the ground, they burst into smoke, not unlike the Blue Lynx's own smoke bombs. Plumes of gas rose around Erin's body, encasing her in white and gray vapors. Erin coughed, and tried to brush away the smoke, but the gas seemed to wrap itself around her, binding itself to her wrists, her arms, her shoulders, her neck. Erin could feel it creep into her, tasted its burn in her mouth and nostrils. She stumbled to one side, and then the other. Her ankles buckled, and she fell to her knees. She coughed, placed her hand to her chest, fell over onto her free hand. The gas cocooned her, imprisoned her, finally drove her face first to the ground. Her muscles relaxed. Her eyes closed.
And when the smoke cleared, the Blue Lynx lay on the floor in an unconscious heap.
On to Chapter Seven
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
February 22nd, 12:22 AM
"You got her!" Julia cried, still holding her face, her hand red with her nose's blood. "You really got her!"
She watched from the floor as the ninja and the old woman walked toward the Blue Lynx's unconscious figure. They were silent, steady, obviously brimming with confidence. They seemed like exactly the sort of people Julia wanted to work with.
"Well done!" she said, bringing her hands together in front of her face, clapping.
They didn't acknowledge her compliment, or even look at her. The ninja and the old woman were only watching the Blue Lynx. They were inches from her now, looming over her. The old woman used her toe to poke the superheroine in the butt. Aside from the tiny ripple in her skin, there was no reaction.
"She's out," the old woman said.
The ninja nodded in response.
"Okay, let's get out of here."
She pointed at the Blue Lynx, and the ninja bent down. He scooped the girl up into her arms with ease, and held her close as if intending to carry her across a puddle. Julia looked at the Blue Lynx's arms and legs, completely slack, swinging slightly in the air, and admired the cascade of dark hair tumbling from the ninja's arm.
This was it. She was helpless. Theirs. They had beaten her.
Julia rolled over onto her knees, keeping her hand close to her nose, and looked to the old woman.
"So what are we going to do with her?" she asked, her eyes shining.
The old woman smirked, looking once at the ninja, and then back at Julia.
"You're not doing anything," she replied. "You're going to stay right here."
Julia blinked. "No," she said. "That's not right. We had a deal."
"Did we?" the old woman said. "And what deal was that?"
"You said you'd help me. That we'd help each other. That we'd find out the Blue Lynx's secret, together."
The old woman shook her head. "That might be so. But my partner and I agree that you can't be trusted. You're too wild for us to work with."
Julia tried desperately to get up, but pain prevented her from getting further than a crawl. "Too... wild? You work with a fucking NINJA!"
The old woman nodded.
"I invited you here!" Julia shrieked. "I set this up! I laid the trap! You don't get to just... fucking... TAKE my prize!"
The old woman sighed. "Let's go, Steve."
They turned around, the ninja carrying the Blue Lynx, and began walking to the elevator.
"No!" Julia cried, pulling her body along the floor, dripping blood, "You don't get to do that! You bitch! You fuckers! The Blue Lynx is MY STORY! I got the interview! I caught her!"
But they didn't hear her, or they didn't care. They just kept walking, the two villains who were supposed to be on Julia's side, until they reached the elevator. They got in, turned around, and the old woman raised her hand to wave. Julia emitted a long, wordless howl as the elevator doors closed on the ninja, the crone, and the Blue Lynx hanging in unconscious limbo.
On to Chapter Eight
February 22nd, 12:22 AM
"You got her!" Julia cried, still holding her face, her hand red with her nose's blood. "You really got her!"
She watched from the floor as the ninja and the old woman walked toward the Blue Lynx's unconscious figure. They were silent, steady, obviously brimming with confidence. They seemed like exactly the sort of people Julia wanted to work with.
"Well done!" she said, bringing her hands together in front of her face, clapping.
They didn't acknowledge her compliment, or even look at her. The ninja and the old woman were only watching the Blue Lynx. They were inches from her now, looming over her. The old woman used her toe to poke the superheroine in the butt. Aside from the tiny ripple in her skin, there was no reaction.
"She's out," the old woman said.
The ninja nodded in response.
"Okay, let's get out of here."
She pointed at the Blue Lynx, and the ninja bent down. He scooped the girl up into her arms with ease, and held her close as if intending to carry her across a puddle. Julia looked at the Blue Lynx's arms and legs, completely slack, swinging slightly in the air, and admired the cascade of dark hair tumbling from the ninja's arm.
This was it. She was helpless. Theirs. They had beaten her.
Julia rolled over onto her knees, keeping her hand close to her nose, and looked to the old woman.
"So what are we going to do with her?" she asked, her eyes shining.
The old woman smirked, looking once at the ninja, and then back at Julia.
"You're not doing anything," she replied. "You're going to stay right here."
Julia blinked. "No," she said. "That's not right. We had a deal."
"Did we?" the old woman said. "And what deal was that?"
"You said you'd help me. That we'd help each other. That we'd find out the Blue Lynx's secret, together."
The old woman shook her head. "That might be so. But my partner and I agree that you can't be trusted. You're too wild for us to work with."
Julia tried desperately to get up, but pain prevented her from getting further than a crawl. "Too... wild? You work with a fucking NINJA!"
The old woman nodded.
"I invited you here!" Julia shrieked. "I set this up! I laid the trap! You don't get to just... fucking... TAKE my prize!"
The old woman sighed. "Let's go, Steve."
They turned around, the ninja carrying the Blue Lynx, and began walking to the elevator.
"No!" Julia cried, pulling her body along the floor, dripping blood, "You don't get to do that! You bitch! You fuckers! The Blue Lynx is MY STORY! I got the interview! I caught her!"
But they didn't hear her, or they didn't care. They just kept walking, the two villains who were supposed to be on Julia's side, until they reached the elevator. They got in, turned around, and the old woman raised her hand to wave. Julia emitted a long, wordless howl as the elevator doors closed on the ninja, the crone, and the Blue Lynx hanging in unconscious limbo.
On to Chapter Eight
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
February 22nd, 12:16 AM
Margot sat in the car, waiting. Watching her phone and its Blue Lynx tracker. Waiting. In a dark parking lot outside of an office building, minutes past midnight. Alone. And waiting.
She sighed.
She loved Erin, and she was willing to do anything to assist in the Blue Lynx's crimefighting mission. It was an honor to be tech support in the war against Brent Hammerson and his goons, even if she didn't quite agree on every detail. (Like, accepting an "interview" from the reporter most obsessed with taking off your mask.)
But on nights like this, where she was just sitting in a car by herself for hours, she thought about the times when she was so much more than the dweeby girl who made Blue Lynx's gadgets. The times when she, Margot, got to be the real hero. The times when the mild-mannered twentysomething became... The Black Bobcat!
Margot smiled and almost blushed just thinking about her silly alter ego. But there was no question that she had helped Erin-- had even saved her life-- several times in the past year.
There was that first time the Blue Lynx was really in a jam, strung up in a barn and unmasked by those horny hillbillies. If Margot hadn't distracted them and fought off Erin's captor, well... The unmasking was the last thing Erin would've had to worry about.
She thought too of the night when she debuted her true Black Bobcat outfit, of that time when Erin was sick, and the Blue Lynx as at the mercy of those frat boys in that gross alley. They were seconds away from taking off her mask, and probably just minutes away from taking off a whole lot more. But then, just when everything was fading to black, in swooped Margot. A few smoke bombs later and the day was saved.
Not every night has been so successful, though. Like when Margot had gone to Todorov's house and turned her back on him. Rookie mistake! She had been knocked out, tied up, stripped down, unmasked. She had never felt less in control than that moment. Thank God Erin had been there to rescue her. And that night when Margot herself had put on the mantle of the Blue Lynx... it seemed like a good idea, but it almost immediately went south. And once again, she had to be bailed out by Erin.
Margot shook her head. As much as she wanted to do something other than, well, what she was doing at that moment, she had to admit that she just wasn't cut out to be a superheroine. She wasn't brave like Erin. She definitely couldn't fight like Erin. And when the going got tough, she just didn't have that special stuff that Erin had.
For Margot, being the Black Bobcat was a lark, a fun game. But for Erin, being the Blue Lynx was something more. Being a superheroine was Erin's life.
Margot looked up from her tracker at the news building. It was impossible to know where Erin was. Her tracker had shown movement, and then a pause-- Margot assumed Erin was being interviewed, in that moment-- and then more small movement. Nothing to be concerned about.
And then, light burst from the windows on the eighth floor.
What was going on in there?
She rolled down her window and stuck her neck out into the cold night air. She could see shadows cut through the eighth floor light. But she couldn't see any people. She couldn't see Erin.
Margot looked back at her phone. The red dot that represented Erin was still.
"Why isn't she moving?" Margot wondered. "Something's happening."
She continued to look at the tracker. Five seconds went by. Ten. Fifteen. Still no movement.
"Do I go in?" Margot thought. "Is this another night for the Black Bobcat?"
Just when Margot was ready to suit up, the red dot moved. It shook slightly, and then traced a slow, straight line. The path of a steady, confident walk.
Margot breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, so she's leaving," she thought. "Thank God."
The red dot paused-- Margot assumed for the elevator-- and then traced another slow, almost perfectly straight line. She was almost out of there.
Margot looked up from the tracker at the building's entrance. Her jaw dropped.
Emerging from the door were three figures. The first was a short old woman-- she couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall-- covered in tattered rags. The second was a massive man clothed in a black costume-- a ninja of some kind. And the third was Erin, the Blue Lynx, unconscious or dead, draped over the thick arms of the second figure.
"Oh God!" Margot thought. "Erin!"
She looked again at the man in black, and knew immediately that this was the same ninja who had broken Erin's arm. The only man who had ever truly bested the Blue Lynx in combat, and now here he was, cradling Erin like she was nothing more than a child.
"Shit, shit," Margot thought. "What do I do? What do I do?"
She didn't even know if Erin was alive.
Margot's mind raced to come up with a plan. She's drive the car over, jump out, take Erin, and...
But then, another car seemed to drive out of nowhere. A black van shot through the parking lot and came to an abrupt stop in front of the building. Squinting her eyes, Margot could see the broad outline of the driver. It was a woman, a white woman with bleached blonde hair...
Margot gulped. She knew who it was.
The old woman and the ninja walked to the back of the van and opened its doors. They jumped into the back, Blue Lynx in tow, and slammed the doors behind them.
The van accelerated.
Margot turned around and ignited her car. She would follow them. She had to.
It wouldn't be hard as long as Erin's tracker stayed on. She wouldn't even have to tail them. She just had to be close enough to keep the red dot glowing.
Adrenaline pumped through her body.
She'd follow them. She'd find Erin. And then, she'd save the day.
But how?
She put the car in drive and left the parking lot.
How could she possibly win, this time? She could take on the old woman, surely. But Sunny? And that ninja?
And where were they going, anyway? Would she even be able to infiltrate wherever they ended up? Would there be even more thugs to deal with? Would there be Brent Hammerson, himself?
As she drove through the night, hundreds of questions darted through Margot's head. None of them had simple answers-- most only led to more questions. By the time she'd reached the city limit, maybe a quarter-mile behind Sunny's van, she was a nervous wreck.
"This was supposed to be an easy night," she thought.
She kept driving. She passed through the suburbs, through the boonies, and once again through the forests around the city. The red dot on her tracker led her up winding roads, up and down hills, way out to where there were only scattered cabins and lodges.
And then, it stopped.
Margot braked near a long dirt pathway. She could see tire tracks from the van in the mud. She turned off the car and sat still in the darkness.
The red dot remained motionless.
They had arrived.
Margot wiped sweat from her brow, trying to control her breathing.
"Okay," she thought. "I'm here. Now what?"
She turned around and grabbed her pack from the back seat. She figured the very least she could do was get in costume.
As she unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied them down her legs, the red dot moved.
They were moving Erin. Taking her somewhere. Inside?
She looked up at the muddy pathway, but whatever in led to was totally encased in darkness.
"Dammit," she thought, continuing to watch the tracker. The red dot moved north, then doubled back, then went west, and then went south, again. It was a small path of movement suggesting that they had, in fact, brought her inside.
Suddenly, it came to halt.
Margot looked at the tracker. No movement for ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds. One minute. Two minutes.
"Oh, Erin," she thought, peeling her shirt off in the dark. "What are they doing to you, in there?"
On to Chapter Nine
February 22nd, 12:16 AM
Margot sat in the car, waiting. Watching her phone and its Blue Lynx tracker. Waiting. In a dark parking lot outside of an office building, minutes past midnight. Alone. And waiting.
She sighed.
She loved Erin, and she was willing to do anything to assist in the Blue Lynx's crimefighting mission. It was an honor to be tech support in the war against Brent Hammerson and his goons, even if she didn't quite agree on every detail. (Like, accepting an "interview" from the reporter most obsessed with taking off your mask.)
But on nights like this, where she was just sitting in a car by herself for hours, she thought about the times when she was so much more than the dweeby girl who made Blue Lynx's gadgets. The times when she, Margot, got to be the real hero. The times when the mild-mannered twentysomething became... The Black Bobcat!
Margot smiled and almost blushed just thinking about her silly alter ego. But there was no question that she had helped Erin-- had even saved her life-- several times in the past year.
There was that first time the Blue Lynx was really in a jam, strung up in a barn and unmasked by those horny hillbillies. If Margot hadn't distracted them and fought off Erin's captor, well... The unmasking was the last thing Erin would've had to worry about.
She thought too of the night when she debuted her true Black Bobcat outfit, of that time when Erin was sick, and the Blue Lynx as at the mercy of those frat boys in that gross alley. They were seconds away from taking off her mask, and probably just minutes away from taking off a whole lot more. But then, just when everything was fading to black, in swooped Margot. A few smoke bombs later and the day was saved.
Not every night has been so successful, though. Like when Margot had gone to Todorov's house and turned her back on him. Rookie mistake! She had been knocked out, tied up, stripped down, unmasked. She had never felt less in control than that moment. Thank God Erin had been there to rescue her. And that night when Margot herself had put on the mantle of the Blue Lynx... it seemed like a good idea, but it almost immediately went south. And once again, she had to be bailed out by Erin.
Margot shook her head. As much as she wanted to do something other than, well, what she was doing at that moment, she had to admit that she just wasn't cut out to be a superheroine. She wasn't brave like Erin. She definitely couldn't fight like Erin. And when the going got tough, she just didn't have that special stuff that Erin had.
For Margot, being the Black Bobcat was a lark, a fun game. But for Erin, being the Blue Lynx was something more. Being a superheroine was Erin's life.
Margot looked up from her tracker at the news building. It was impossible to know where Erin was. Her tracker had shown movement, and then a pause-- Margot assumed Erin was being interviewed, in that moment-- and then more small movement. Nothing to be concerned about.
And then, light burst from the windows on the eighth floor.
What was going on in there?
She rolled down her window and stuck her neck out into the cold night air. She could see shadows cut through the eighth floor light. But she couldn't see any people. She couldn't see Erin.
Margot looked back at her phone. The red dot that represented Erin was still.
"Why isn't she moving?" Margot wondered. "Something's happening."
She continued to look at the tracker. Five seconds went by. Ten. Fifteen. Still no movement.
"Do I go in?" Margot thought. "Is this another night for the Black Bobcat?"
Just when Margot was ready to suit up, the red dot moved. It shook slightly, and then traced a slow, straight line. The path of a steady, confident walk.
Margot breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, so she's leaving," she thought. "Thank God."
The red dot paused-- Margot assumed for the elevator-- and then traced another slow, almost perfectly straight line. She was almost out of there.
Margot looked up from the tracker at the building's entrance. Her jaw dropped.
Emerging from the door were three figures. The first was a short old woman-- she couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall-- covered in tattered rags. The second was a massive man clothed in a black costume-- a ninja of some kind. And the third was Erin, the Blue Lynx, unconscious or dead, draped over the thick arms of the second figure.
"Oh God!" Margot thought. "Erin!"
She looked again at the man in black, and knew immediately that this was the same ninja who had broken Erin's arm. The only man who had ever truly bested the Blue Lynx in combat, and now here he was, cradling Erin like she was nothing more than a child.
"Shit, shit," Margot thought. "What do I do? What do I do?"
She didn't even know if Erin was alive.
Margot's mind raced to come up with a plan. She's drive the car over, jump out, take Erin, and...
But then, another car seemed to drive out of nowhere. A black van shot through the parking lot and came to an abrupt stop in front of the building. Squinting her eyes, Margot could see the broad outline of the driver. It was a woman, a white woman with bleached blonde hair...
Margot gulped. She knew who it was.
The old woman and the ninja walked to the back of the van and opened its doors. They jumped into the back, Blue Lynx in tow, and slammed the doors behind them.
The van accelerated.
Margot turned around and ignited her car. She would follow them. She had to.
It wouldn't be hard as long as Erin's tracker stayed on. She wouldn't even have to tail them. She just had to be close enough to keep the red dot glowing.
Adrenaline pumped through her body.
She'd follow them. She'd find Erin. And then, she'd save the day.
But how?
She put the car in drive and left the parking lot.
How could she possibly win, this time? She could take on the old woman, surely. But Sunny? And that ninja?
And where were they going, anyway? Would she even be able to infiltrate wherever they ended up? Would there be even more thugs to deal with? Would there be Brent Hammerson, himself?
As she drove through the night, hundreds of questions darted through Margot's head. None of them had simple answers-- most only led to more questions. By the time she'd reached the city limit, maybe a quarter-mile behind Sunny's van, she was a nervous wreck.
"This was supposed to be an easy night," she thought.
She kept driving. She passed through the suburbs, through the boonies, and once again through the forests around the city. The red dot on her tracker led her up winding roads, up and down hills, way out to where there were only scattered cabins and lodges.
And then, it stopped.
Margot braked near a long dirt pathway. She could see tire tracks from the van in the mud. She turned off the car and sat still in the darkness.
The red dot remained motionless.
They had arrived.
Margot wiped sweat from her brow, trying to control her breathing.
"Okay," she thought. "I'm here. Now what?"
She turned around and grabbed her pack from the back seat. She figured the very least she could do was get in costume.
As she unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied them down her legs, the red dot moved.
They were moving Erin. Taking her somewhere. Inside?
She looked up at the muddy pathway, but whatever in led to was totally encased in darkness.
"Dammit," she thought, continuing to watch the tracker. The red dot moved north, then doubled back, then went west, and then went south, again. It was a small path of movement suggesting that they had, in fact, brought her inside.
Suddenly, it came to halt.
Margot looked at the tracker. No movement for ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds. One minute. Two minutes.
"Oh, Erin," she thought, peeling her shirt off in the dark. "What are they doing to you, in there?"
On to Chapter Nine
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
February 22nd, 2:08 AM
This was supposed to have been an easy night.
A simple interview with a stupid reporter. A way to get back into the game.
And then, suddenly, she had found herself unmasked. And then, fighting for dear life for the sake of her secret identity.
And then, once she got her mask back, who should show up but Steve and Lora. The very two goons who had humiliated her so thoroughly just months ago. Armed with gas.
And now, she was trapped, bound to a wooden slab by freaking tree branches, all spreadeagled and ready-to-go in some kind of a creepy basement forest.
"So... Why do I do this superheroine stuff, again?" Erin thought.
She looked out at her foes. Sunny stood near her, grinning, clad in her signature black leather outfit, practically a picture of an irritating, indefatigable nemesis. Behind her, standing silent and stock still, were the ninja and the old woman, as mysterious as ever, the green glow of the room making their presence even more eerie and inscrutable.
What the hell was this place? And why, of all the places in the city, did they bring her here?
She figured she'd ask.
"So whose sick fantasy nightmare do I find myself in, now?" she said.
Sunny laughed. "This is Lora's house. Have you met Lora?" She pointed to the old woman.
Erin Steele had, in fact, met Lora. Lora had got to know her quite well, actually, pulling down Erin's panties and insisting that she go to the bathroom. But until tonight, the Blue Lynx hadn't had a run-in with the strange old woman.
"I don't believe we've been formally introduced."
"Welcome to the garden, Blue Lynx," Lora whispered. "I hope you like it. I don't anticipate you leaving for a long, long time."
Hearing this, Erin instinctively pulled at her bonds, but the branches held tight, even seeming to curl around her wrists slightly more.
"There's no escape, I'm afraid," Lora continued. "And the more you fight my plants, the more they fight back."
Erin grimaced, eliciting a chuckle from Sunny.
"I knew you were on the team for a reason, Lora," Sunny said.
Erin blinked. "Team? What team?" But she knew a second later what was coming next.
"The Fearsome Five, my dear pussy," Sunny said, stretching her arms out. "A supervillain team dedicated to one thing: your ruin."
"That's great, or whatever," Erin said. "But it looks like there are just three of you."
Sunny paused. "You're right," she said. She tapped her toe. "What the hell happened to the others, again..."
"And this is Hammerson's plan, I assume?" Erin said.
"Todorov!" Sunny yelped. "Todorov makes four!"
Erin rolled her eyes.
"Alright, so if that dumb doctor is involved, then Brent Hammerson definitely is, too."
Sunny glared at her. "We don't have to tell you anything, Blue Lynx. But yes, the boss has put a reward on your head. Bonus money if we can get you to him alive."
It was coming together in Erin's head. "So that's why you kidnapped that girl a couple months ago? To try and capture me?"
Sunny smiled. "Bingo."
"And that's why you were working with that reporter, tonight? To set up another trap?"
Sunny nodded. "Clever girl. Yes, Mrs. Wright was more than happy to join forces with us. She apparently did great work, too."
Julia Wright. That bitch. How could she work with these maniacs? Erin was glad she had broken her nose. Though she did wonder what they ended up doing with her. There's no way she would've voluntarily skipped on the chance to see the Blue Lynx tied up this this.
"So what now?" Erin asked. "I take it you're going to get Hammerson out here."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Blue Lynx?" Sunny said. "No, we're not going to get the boss. Not yet. It seems like every time we invite him somewhere, the plan goes haywire. And we're not giving you any time tonight. We're getting straight to the point."
Erin's eyes widened. She had not been expecting this.
"And... what's the point?"
"It's simple," Sunny said, with an evil grin. "We're taking off your mask."
Erin winced, once more pulling against the branches on her wrists and ankles, and once more feeling them tighten.
"There'll be no fuss this time, either," Sunny said. "No waiting around for the boss to show up. No games."
"But you can't do that," Erin objected. "Hammerson won't like that at all. He wants to unmask me himself."
Sunny placed her hands on her hips. She hadn't stopped smiling. "Well, at this point, Blue Lynx," she said, "He doesn't really care who does it, so long as someone does. You've been a thorn in everyone's side for far, far too long. Once we know your face, it'll be all over for you."
Erin gulped. Sunny was right, of course. And it didn't look like the Blue Lynx could do anything to stall her.
Suddenly, the old woman spoke. "She's right, you know."
Sunny turned around to face her. "What? Who? What are you talking about?"
Lora cleared her throat. "The boss would want to do the job himself."
"Are you arguing with the plan, Lora?" Sunny asked. "Didn't we talk about this already?"
"We did," Lora said. "And as I recall, you said you'd let me experiment on her before we unmasked her."
Sunny waved at the Blue Lynx, tightly wrapped in woody vines. "Right," she said. "And that's what this thing is, right? Your experiment?"
"It's part of it," Lora replied.
"Part of it, whatever," Sunny said. "You can have your fun after we take her mask off."
She turned back around to face Erin.
"I say we do it right now," she sneered, stepping toward the Blue Lynx and placing her hands on either side of Erin's waist.
"You should listen to Lora," Erin said. "Hammerson won't pay you if you take his prize from him."
"Brent doesn't have to know about it," Sunny said, clamping her hands on Erin's hips, jiggling the superheroine's utility belt. Erin grimaced, and Sunny laughed.
"Brent doesn't have to know about any of this."
She slid her fingers up Erin's sides, running them along the seams of her spandex outfit, up to Erin's wet armpits and then up her arms.
"We'll take it off, get a picture, and put it right back on again," Sunny continued. "You'll be ruined, and Brent will have no idea."
Sunny's hands were now caressing Erin's throat, her fingers pushing through dark locks of hair.
"I am going to miss this, though," Sunny said. "Seeing you tied up. Our banter. It's a real turn-on, I gotta say."
Erin couldn't think of a response. Her thoughts were entirely focused on a way to escape, but none of those thoughts were forming around anything resembling a plan. Every time she moved, the branches strengthened their grip. She was stuck. So she had to find a way to delay Sunny, whose fingers were now on her cheek, poking at the places where her mask met her face.
"Maybe we can turn you into a slave, or something," Sunny said. "So that the fun will never end."
She turned her head around. "Lora! You have any idea how to brainwash someone?"
Lora sighed. "That was my goal, actually."
"Oh boy," Sunny said, once more facing the Blue Lynx. "You hear that, cat? We can keep having fun together. Maybe we can even re-enact this scene, over and over again. The scene of your superheroine career's end."
Erin was trying not to listen. It was all too horrible, and there was no way out.
"But enough talk, let's do this," Sunny said.
She leaned into Erin, pressing their lower bodies together, and pinched the bottom edge of the blue mask.
"Ready, Blue Lynx?" Sunny giggled, her face just inches from the Blue Lynx's, her lips almost smacking against Erin's.
"Sunny! Don't!" Erin shouted.
"Stop!" Lora yelled. "There's someone here!"
Sunny immediately stepped back, and Erin's body went slack with long sigh of relief.
"Who? What?" Sunny yelled. "What's going on?"
Erin looked up. Sunny was still close to her, but facing away, and looking around frantically. Lora turned around in a slow circle, while Steve watched with his typical silent menace.
"I can feel... a presence," Lora whispered. "A fifth person in this room."
Erin scanned the boxed-in forest from side-to-side. It was difficult to see much beyond the three villains: the eerie green glow and the dark shadows combined to obscure most of the room's secrets.
And then, there was smoke. From an explosion. Plumes of grey smoke covering everything in sight. Erin coughed, and heard more coughing: a high hacking from Sunny, a breathy wheeze from Lora, and the low kind of pounding sound from Steve. There was muttering, and movement, and a loud "What... the... fuck" pushed out between coughs by Sunny.
Erin squinted through the smoke, felt tears forming in her eyes. She could vaguely see three forms stumbling around. And then, suddenly, one of them fell, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Soon after that, a second body collapsed, this once emitting a breathy cry on the way down. And then, finally, the figure closer to Erin hit the floor.
The smoke began to clear, and Erin could see them: Steve, Lora, and Sunny, all lying around amidst logs and branches and moss, all apparently knocked out. She saw too a small figure standing upright in a skintight black and purple costume, a girl with glasses and reddish-brown hair.
On to Chapter Ten
February 22nd, 2:08 AM
This was supposed to have been an easy night.
A simple interview with a stupid reporter. A way to get back into the game.
And then, suddenly, she had found herself unmasked. And then, fighting for dear life for the sake of her secret identity.
And then, once she got her mask back, who should show up but Steve and Lora. The very two goons who had humiliated her so thoroughly just months ago. Armed with gas.
And now, she was trapped, bound to a wooden slab by freaking tree branches, all spreadeagled and ready-to-go in some kind of a creepy basement forest.
"So... Why do I do this superheroine stuff, again?" Erin thought.
She looked out at her foes. Sunny stood near her, grinning, clad in her signature black leather outfit, practically a picture of an irritating, indefatigable nemesis. Behind her, standing silent and stock still, were the ninja and the old woman, as mysterious as ever, the green glow of the room making their presence even more eerie and inscrutable.
What the hell was this place? And why, of all the places in the city, did they bring her here?
She figured she'd ask.
"So whose sick fantasy nightmare do I find myself in, now?" she said.
Sunny laughed. "This is Lora's house. Have you met Lora?" She pointed to the old woman.
Erin Steele had, in fact, met Lora. Lora had got to know her quite well, actually, pulling down Erin's panties and insisting that she go to the bathroom. But until tonight, the Blue Lynx hadn't had a run-in with the strange old woman.
"I don't believe we've been formally introduced."
"Welcome to the garden, Blue Lynx," Lora whispered. "I hope you like it. I don't anticipate you leaving for a long, long time."
Hearing this, Erin instinctively pulled at her bonds, but the branches held tight, even seeming to curl around her wrists slightly more.
"There's no escape, I'm afraid," Lora continued. "And the more you fight my plants, the more they fight back."
Erin grimaced, eliciting a chuckle from Sunny.
"I knew you were on the team for a reason, Lora," Sunny said.
Erin blinked. "Team? What team?" But she knew a second later what was coming next.
"The Fearsome Five, my dear pussy," Sunny said, stretching her arms out. "A supervillain team dedicated to one thing: your ruin."
"That's great, or whatever," Erin said. "But it looks like there are just three of you."
Sunny paused. "You're right," she said. She tapped her toe. "What the hell happened to the others, again..."
"And this is Hammerson's plan, I assume?" Erin said.
"Todorov!" Sunny yelped. "Todorov makes four!"
Erin rolled her eyes.
"Alright, so if that dumb doctor is involved, then Brent Hammerson definitely is, too."
Sunny glared at her. "We don't have to tell you anything, Blue Lynx. But yes, the boss has put a reward on your head. Bonus money if we can get you to him alive."
It was coming together in Erin's head. "So that's why you kidnapped that girl a couple months ago? To try and capture me?"
Sunny smiled. "Bingo."
"And that's why you were working with that reporter, tonight? To set up another trap?"
Sunny nodded. "Clever girl. Yes, Mrs. Wright was more than happy to join forces with us. She apparently did great work, too."
Julia Wright. That bitch. How could she work with these maniacs? Erin was glad she had broken her nose. Though she did wonder what they ended up doing with her. There's no way she would've voluntarily skipped on the chance to see the Blue Lynx tied up this this.
"So what now?" Erin asked. "I take it you're going to get Hammerson out here."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Blue Lynx?" Sunny said. "No, we're not going to get the boss. Not yet. It seems like every time we invite him somewhere, the plan goes haywire. And we're not giving you any time tonight. We're getting straight to the point."
Erin's eyes widened. She had not been expecting this.
"And... what's the point?"
"It's simple," Sunny said, with an evil grin. "We're taking off your mask."
Erin winced, once more pulling against the branches on her wrists and ankles, and once more feeling them tighten.
"There'll be no fuss this time, either," Sunny said. "No waiting around for the boss to show up. No games."
"But you can't do that," Erin objected. "Hammerson won't like that at all. He wants to unmask me himself."
Sunny placed her hands on her hips. She hadn't stopped smiling. "Well, at this point, Blue Lynx," she said, "He doesn't really care who does it, so long as someone does. You've been a thorn in everyone's side for far, far too long. Once we know your face, it'll be all over for you."
Erin gulped. Sunny was right, of course. And it didn't look like the Blue Lynx could do anything to stall her.
Suddenly, the old woman spoke. "She's right, you know."
Sunny turned around to face her. "What? Who? What are you talking about?"
Lora cleared her throat. "The boss would want to do the job himself."
"Are you arguing with the plan, Lora?" Sunny asked. "Didn't we talk about this already?"
"We did," Lora said. "And as I recall, you said you'd let me experiment on her before we unmasked her."
Sunny waved at the Blue Lynx, tightly wrapped in woody vines. "Right," she said. "And that's what this thing is, right? Your experiment?"
"It's part of it," Lora replied.
"Part of it, whatever," Sunny said. "You can have your fun after we take her mask off."
She turned back around to face Erin.
"I say we do it right now," she sneered, stepping toward the Blue Lynx and placing her hands on either side of Erin's waist.
"You should listen to Lora," Erin said. "Hammerson won't pay you if you take his prize from him."
"Brent doesn't have to know about it," Sunny said, clamping her hands on Erin's hips, jiggling the superheroine's utility belt. Erin grimaced, and Sunny laughed.
"Brent doesn't have to know about any of this."
She slid her fingers up Erin's sides, running them along the seams of her spandex outfit, up to Erin's wet armpits and then up her arms.
"We'll take it off, get a picture, and put it right back on again," Sunny continued. "You'll be ruined, and Brent will have no idea."
Sunny's hands were now caressing Erin's throat, her fingers pushing through dark locks of hair.
"I am going to miss this, though," Sunny said. "Seeing you tied up. Our banter. It's a real turn-on, I gotta say."
Erin couldn't think of a response. Her thoughts were entirely focused on a way to escape, but none of those thoughts were forming around anything resembling a plan. Every time she moved, the branches strengthened their grip. She was stuck. So she had to find a way to delay Sunny, whose fingers were now on her cheek, poking at the places where her mask met her face.
"Maybe we can turn you into a slave, or something," Sunny said. "So that the fun will never end."
She turned her head around. "Lora! You have any idea how to brainwash someone?"
Lora sighed. "That was my goal, actually."
"Oh boy," Sunny said, once more facing the Blue Lynx. "You hear that, cat? We can keep having fun together. Maybe we can even re-enact this scene, over and over again. The scene of your superheroine career's end."
Erin was trying not to listen. It was all too horrible, and there was no way out.
"But enough talk, let's do this," Sunny said.
She leaned into Erin, pressing their lower bodies together, and pinched the bottom edge of the blue mask.
"Ready, Blue Lynx?" Sunny giggled, her face just inches from the Blue Lynx's, her lips almost smacking against Erin's.
"Sunny! Don't!" Erin shouted.
"Stop!" Lora yelled. "There's someone here!"
Sunny immediately stepped back, and Erin's body went slack with long sigh of relief.
"Who? What?" Sunny yelled. "What's going on?"
Erin looked up. Sunny was still close to her, but facing away, and looking around frantically. Lora turned around in a slow circle, while Steve watched with his typical silent menace.
"I can feel... a presence," Lora whispered. "A fifth person in this room."
Erin scanned the boxed-in forest from side-to-side. It was difficult to see much beyond the three villains: the eerie green glow and the dark shadows combined to obscure most of the room's secrets.
And then, there was smoke. From an explosion. Plumes of grey smoke covering everything in sight. Erin coughed, and heard more coughing: a high hacking from Sunny, a breathy wheeze from Lora, and the low kind of pounding sound from Steve. There was muttering, and movement, and a loud "What... the... fuck" pushed out between coughs by Sunny.
Erin squinted through the smoke, felt tears forming in her eyes. She could vaguely see three forms stumbling around. And then, suddenly, one of them fell, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Soon after that, a second body collapsed, this once emitting a breathy cry on the way down. And then, finally, the figure closer to Erin hit the floor.
The smoke began to clear, and Erin could see them: Steve, Lora, and Sunny, all lying around amidst logs and branches and moss, all apparently knocked out. She saw too a small figure standing upright in a skintight black and purple costume, a girl with glasses and reddish-brown hair.
On to Chapter Ten
The Fearsome Five: Bad News : Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
February 22nd, 2:23 AM
"Margot!" Erin cried, her body heaving with joy.
"Shh..." Margot said, placing her finger on her lips. "It's the Black Bobcat."
"Yeah, of course," Erin laughed. She couldn't believe what was happening.
"How..." she muttered. "How did you find me? How did you get here? How did you take them out?"
Margot smiled. "Your tracker's on. I followed you in my car. And I've got smoke bombs just like you, Blue Lynx." She was beaming with excitement. "And, I've been working on some of my moves."
Erin looked out in the room. "You beat all of them, girl! You took out Sunny! Lora! And that ninja!"
"Yeah," Margot replied, looking at Steve's unconscious body. "He wasn't quite as tough as you made him out to be."
Erin chuckled. "I could learn a thing or two from you."
Margot flipped her hair out of her face, placed her hands on her hips, and smiled.
"Okay," she said, inspecting Erin's bonds. "Let's get you out of this thing."
Erin watched her as she took a step toward her. She stopped. She frowned as she looked down at her boots.
"What's with this floor?" Margot said. "It's so sticky."
Erin saw them first. The roots. Bubbling through the mud, peeking out of the ground like tentacles.
"Margot! Move!" Erin yelled.
But before Margot could take another step, the tendrils had burst through the floor and snatched her. Margot cried out and tried to pull away, but the roots were already in control, wrapping themselves first around her feet, and then up her boots. They climbed up past her boots, twisting around her calves, creating dense piles of dirt and wood that held her knees in place.
"Augh!" she cried. "What's happening?"
Margot bent forward, reaching down to her ankles, trying to rip that roots away. But as she dug her gloved fingers into the tendrils, smaller vines sprouted out and crept up her hands. Margot panicked and tried to pull her hands back, but the trap was already sprung: the root piles were now wrapped around her hands, binding her gloves and boots together, leaving her bent over in front of Erin, her purple-spandex-clad butt rising high.
"No!" she yelled, twisting her hips, but unable to budge her hands and feet.
"Margot!" Erin cried. "Stop moving! The vines react to movement!"
But Margot didn't hear her, or at least didn't listen. She kept shaking, and the roots kept climbing her body, moving up her thighs and arms. She was now half-covered in woody, dirty foliage.
"Stop, Margot!"
"Yes, child," a small voice said. "Listen to your friend. You can't fight them."
Erin looked around the half-human, half-plant mound that was her partner and saw, standing calmly with her hands behind her back, Lora.
"Lora!" Erin said. "Make the roots stop! Please!"
Lora smiled, walking up to Margot. "They'll stop when she stops," she said, patting Margot's butt with a muddy, bony hand. Her touch brought Margot to an immediate halt.
"But... I knocked you out," Margot muttered, her face looking in her thighs, small sprouts of branches pulling at her individual hairs.
"Nothing lasts forever in the garden," Lora said. "The plants brought me back."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Margot said.
"Shhh..." Lora said, still patting Margot's behind. "You've fought valiantly, child. But I think you've had enough."
She dropped her hand to her pocket, brought it back up, and released a powder into Margot's face. Margot coughed and blinked and, in seconds, fell into unconsciousness. She remained in an awkward, bent-over position as her muscles went slack.
"Lora!" Erin cried. "What have you done to her?"
"You needn't worry about your friend, Blue Lynx," Lora replied. "She's merely sleeping. I used the same extract on her as I did on you, earlier tonight."
Erin gritted her teeth. Margot had been so, so close, infiltrating Lora's lair, surprising the villains, even managing to knock them out. But now, she was as helpless as the Blue Lynx, wholly at the mercy of this strange, dangerous little woman.
"Now that that little distraction has been taken care of, we can get down to business," Lora said.
"Oh yeah?" Erin said, trying to get her confidence back. "What are you going to do? Plow me? Hit me with a rake?"
Lora smiled slightly as she ambled up to the Blue Lynx. As she walked, the ground beneath her seemed to rise, creating a ramp up to Erin. She was now just inches away from Erin's face, looking her in the eyes.
"I admire you, Blue Lynx," Lora said. "You're human. A mere, mortal human. And yet you possess incredible courage and strength. You're not like most of your kind."
Her kind? What was she talking about? Who was this lady?
"The boss, Sunny... They want to destroy you. But you have too much potential to simply be weeded out. What I want is to cultivate you. To make you truly blossom."
"So I was right," Erin said. "You want to hit me with a rake."
Lora didn't smile. "No. That would never do. The best thing to do is do give you over to the garden. Let the plants do their work. Let the plants show you the way."
"What kind of hippie shit is this?" Erin spat.
Lora reached up and placed her bony hand on the side of Erin's face. Erin instinctively tried to pull away, but Lora's fingers seemed to stick to her, as if they were covered in sap.
"You will find out soon enough, child," Lora said, calmly.
And then, Erin felt them: the branches on her wrists and ankles. They were growing, stretching across her forearms and climbing up her thighs, winding around her muscles and clenching them tightly. Erin looked side-to-side, and then down, watching the brown branches turn green and sprout leaves, watching them slowly but surely coil around her body.
"Lora! Stop this!" Erin cried.
Lora shook her head. "There's no stopping them now. They want you, Blue Lynx. They want you bad."
Erin squirmed, but her arena of movement was already constricting. She stared ahead at Lora, a look of pure terror in her eyes.
"Shall I give you something else to think about?" Lora asked. "Something to take your mind off the plants, while they do their stuff?"
And with that, Lora slid her fingers underneath the Blue Lynx's mask and, with a slow, steady, menacing hand, peeled the fabric off of Erin's face.
On to Chapter Eleven
OR
On to Chapter Eleven (Explicit Ending!)
February 22nd, 2:23 AM
"Margot!" Erin cried, her body heaving with joy.
"Shh..." Margot said, placing her finger on her lips. "It's the Black Bobcat."
"Yeah, of course," Erin laughed. She couldn't believe what was happening.
"How..." she muttered. "How did you find me? How did you get here? How did you take them out?"
Margot smiled. "Your tracker's on. I followed you in my car. And I've got smoke bombs just like you, Blue Lynx." She was beaming with excitement. "And, I've been working on some of my moves."
Erin looked out in the room. "You beat all of them, girl! You took out Sunny! Lora! And that ninja!"
"Yeah," Margot replied, looking at Steve's unconscious body. "He wasn't quite as tough as you made him out to be."
Erin chuckled. "I could learn a thing or two from you."
Margot flipped her hair out of her face, placed her hands on her hips, and smiled.
"Okay," she said, inspecting Erin's bonds. "Let's get you out of this thing."
Erin watched her as she took a step toward her. She stopped. She frowned as she looked down at her boots.
"What's with this floor?" Margot said. "It's so sticky."
Erin saw them first. The roots. Bubbling through the mud, peeking out of the ground like tentacles.
"Margot! Move!" Erin yelled.
But before Margot could take another step, the tendrils had burst through the floor and snatched her. Margot cried out and tried to pull away, but the roots were already in control, wrapping themselves first around her feet, and then up her boots. They climbed up past her boots, twisting around her calves, creating dense piles of dirt and wood that held her knees in place.
"Augh!" she cried. "What's happening?"
Margot bent forward, reaching down to her ankles, trying to rip that roots away. But as she dug her gloved fingers into the tendrils, smaller vines sprouted out and crept up her hands. Margot panicked and tried to pull her hands back, but the trap was already sprung: the root piles were now wrapped around her hands, binding her gloves and boots together, leaving her bent over in front of Erin, her purple-spandex-clad butt rising high.
"No!" she yelled, twisting her hips, but unable to budge her hands and feet.
"Margot!" Erin cried. "Stop moving! The vines react to movement!"
But Margot didn't hear her, or at least didn't listen. She kept shaking, and the roots kept climbing her body, moving up her thighs and arms. She was now half-covered in woody, dirty foliage.
"Stop, Margot!"
"Yes, child," a small voice said. "Listen to your friend. You can't fight them."
Erin looked around the half-human, half-plant mound that was her partner and saw, standing calmly with her hands behind her back, Lora.
"Lora!" Erin said. "Make the roots stop! Please!"
Lora smiled, walking up to Margot. "They'll stop when she stops," she said, patting Margot's butt with a muddy, bony hand. Her touch brought Margot to an immediate halt.
"But... I knocked you out," Margot muttered, her face looking in her thighs, small sprouts of branches pulling at her individual hairs.
"Nothing lasts forever in the garden," Lora said. "The plants brought me back."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Margot said.
"Shhh..." Lora said, still patting Margot's behind. "You've fought valiantly, child. But I think you've had enough."
She dropped her hand to her pocket, brought it back up, and released a powder into Margot's face. Margot coughed and blinked and, in seconds, fell into unconsciousness. She remained in an awkward, bent-over position as her muscles went slack.
"Lora!" Erin cried. "What have you done to her?"
"You needn't worry about your friend, Blue Lynx," Lora replied. "She's merely sleeping. I used the same extract on her as I did on you, earlier tonight."
Erin gritted her teeth. Margot had been so, so close, infiltrating Lora's lair, surprising the villains, even managing to knock them out. But now, she was as helpless as the Blue Lynx, wholly at the mercy of this strange, dangerous little woman.
"Now that that little distraction has been taken care of, we can get down to business," Lora said.
"Oh yeah?" Erin said, trying to get her confidence back. "What are you going to do? Plow me? Hit me with a rake?"
Lora smiled slightly as she ambled up to the Blue Lynx. As she walked, the ground beneath her seemed to rise, creating a ramp up to Erin. She was now just inches away from Erin's face, looking her in the eyes.
"I admire you, Blue Lynx," Lora said. "You're human. A mere, mortal human. And yet you possess incredible courage and strength. You're not like most of your kind."
Her kind? What was she talking about? Who was this lady?
"The boss, Sunny... They want to destroy you. But you have too much potential to simply be weeded out. What I want is to cultivate you. To make you truly blossom."
"So I was right," Erin said. "You want to hit me with a rake."
Lora didn't smile. "No. That would never do. The best thing to do is do give you over to the garden. Let the plants do their work. Let the plants show you the way."
"What kind of hippie shit is this?" Erin spat.
Lora reached up and placed her bony hand on the side of Erin's face. Erin instinctively tried to pull away, but Lora's fingers seemed to stick to her, as if they were covered in sap.
"You will find out soon enough, child," Lora said, calmly.
And then, Erin felt them: the branches on her wrists and ankles. They were growing, stretching across her forearms and climbing up her thighs, winding around her muscles and clenching them tightly. Erin looked side-to-side, and then down, watching the brown branches turn green and sprout leaves, watching them slowly but surely coil around her body.
"Lora! Stop this!" Erin cried.
Lora shook her head. "There's no stopping them now. They want you, Blue Lynx. They want you bad."
Erin squirmed, but her arena of movement was already constricting. She stared ahead at Lora, a look of pure terror in her eyes.
"Shall I give you something else to think about?" Lora asked. "Something to take your mind off the plants, while they do their stuff?"
And with that, Lora slid her fingers underneath the Blue Lynx's mask and, with a slow, steady, menacing hand, peeled the fabric off of Erin's face.
On to Chapter Eleven
OR
On to Chapter Eleven (Explicit Ending!)
The Fearsome Five: Bad News: Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
February 22nd, 2:31 AM
Erin had no time to move, and no space to move to. When the mask left her face, all she could do was blurt out a pained, hopeless "NO." But that was hardly enough to keep Lora from seeing her naked, or from recognizing her.
"You're the mayor's daughter," Lora said, flatly. "Erin Steele. The one we kidnapped."
Erin squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears that were desperate to escape. Lora knew who she was. The Blue Lynx's superheroine life was... Over.
"I had a feeling," Lora continued. "Your smells are similar. And your voices. It really all lines up perfectly."
Erin had lost all her will to fight, all her will to even look her opponent in the face. She had gotten lucky earlier tonight, freeing herself just before Julia had a chance to discover her secret. Her luck had run out. She could only hang her head now, could only try to prevent the further embarrassment of crying in front of her foe.
"Now, now," Lora said, patting Erin on the shoulder. "You'll be okay. You'll forget all about this once the plants take you."
Erin sniffled. The plants. She had forgotten about the plants. But she could still feel them, the vines rolling up her legs. They were wet and sticky, leaving residues that dripped down her calves. It was gross, and wrong, but it was nothing compared to being unmasked.
"You really are an impressive young woman, Erin Steele," Lora continued. "You truly had Brent Hammerson on the run. I don't think a twerp like him deserves a superheroine like you."
Erin heard this and let out a single, chest-shaking sob. Why was Lora doing this to her? This was worse than any gloating she'd ever been the target of. Because it reminded her that she wasn't quite good enough. That, in the end, she had failed. That she had let herself, Margot, her father, the whole city... Down.
Lora placed her bony hand on Erin's stomach, fingering the pockets of her utility belt. "There, there," she said. "It will all be over soon. All be over..."
She turned around, looking back into the forest.
"Is there someone there?"
Lora hopped off her earth-ramp and wandered away from Erin.
"I can smell someone..."
Suddenly, an explosion burst through the room. A gunshot.
Erin lifted her eyes to see Lora stumble backward, twist around, and fall to the floor.
Was she dead?
"Stupid bitch!" a familiar voice called out.
And Erin dropped her eyes again when she saw its source. Standing there in the woods, beyond the half-Margot, half-plant statue, just yards away from the fallen bodies of Sunny, Steve, and Lora, was Julia Wright, a smoking pistol in her hand.
"That ought take care of you," she yelled, poking Lora's inert body with her stiletto.
Erin hung her head low, trying to drape her hair over her face. "No, no, no," she thought, her body trembling. "How did she get here?"
"What's this?" Julia said. Erin lifted her brow slightly and saw the reporter bend down and pull something from Lora's hands. "Oh my," Julia said, a laugh in her voice, bringing the Blue Lynx's mask to her face. "So they actually did it."
Julia looked up. "I guess it's my turn to see who you are, Blue Lynx."
Erin remained silent. Maybe she could play dead? She tried to slow her breathing. But all of the stress of the last hour had made her body a heaving, shaking mess.
"I see you friend took care of the rest of them for me," Julia said, stepping around Steve and Sunny. "She's a good partner, Blue Lynx. She definitely fared better against them than you did."
She had arrived at the place where Margot was glued to the ground. She set her hand on Margot's butt, still rising in the air, a purple peak emerging from a dense jungle thicket.
"I followed her the whole way," Julia said. "The poor girl didn't even notice. She was probably so worried about tracking you that she didn't think about herself being tracked."
Erin couldn't think of anything to say. At the moment, she only felt sadness: for herself, for her brave partner, and maybe even for Lora. Had Julia Wright really just... killed her? It seemed well beyond anything the reporter was capable of. But Erin had been underestimating Julia all night. She was a surprising, dangerous, terrifying woman. And now she was just yards away from uncovering Erin's secret.
"Your hair won't protect you for long, superheroine," Julia said. "And it looks like they've got you tied real tight over there."
Erin instinctively tugged at her bonds. She knew it wasn't the smart thing to do: that it would only encourage the plants to wrap her up even tighter. So she was surprised when the branches on her wrists seem to crackle, just the tiniest bit.
She gazed down at her legs. The vines that had been so steadily climbing her thighs were retreating, slithering down to her boots, dirt and leaves flaking off along the way. The branches covering her boots, once a powerful-looking shade of brown, had acquired a slight tinge of yellow.
"Are they... dying?" Erin wondered. In killing Lora, had Julia cut off the life supply to the garden?
She took quick, furtive glances around the basement. Sure enough, all of the plants seemed to be wilting: leaves drooping, roots receding, healthy colors turning into sickly ones. Margot seemed to be leaning over, too, as if the thick root base holding her up had begun to disintegrate.
It was all falling apart.
For the first time in hours, Erin felt something like hope.
"I still have to do this just right," she thought. "I'm not out of the woods yet."
Julia was almost on her now. Erin could hear her quiet, wheezing laughter underneath her breath.
"It's been a wild night, Blue Lynx," Julia said. "We had a nice chat. I took your mask, and you broke my nose. And then, they took you, and they took your mask. And now, I get some revenge."
She leaned up against Erin's body, flicking the ends of Erin's hair with her index finger.
"Anything you'd like to say before your superheroine days are done, bitch?"
"Yeah," Erin muttered.
And then, putting every ounce of her strength into her right arm, she ripped free of branch shackle, bringing her fist down and across Julia's face, catching her square in the nose.
"Sorry!" she yelled.
Julia cried out and stepped back. Her hands immediately flew up to her face, which was already gushing blood. As she paced around, ducking her head in pain and screaming, Erin pulled her left hand free. She bent down and tore at the roots covering her feet.
"You... bitch!" Julia said. Still clutching her nose, she ran back at Erin, slamming her shoulder into the Blue Lynx's exposed upper back. Erin yelped in pain, her fingers losing hold of her leg's bonds. She hadn't expected to Julia to recover so quickly. And now she was stuck in a position not unlike Margot's: bent over, her butt in the air, her fingers scraping at her boots. It was a helpless place to be, especially without her mask.
"Come on, Blue Lynx," Julia said, sinking her fingernails into Erin's scalp. "Let's see that pretty face."
Erin winced as Julia pulled at her head, craning her neck up, slightly. She tried desperately to hold on to her boots, and so keep her face concealed, but once again, Julia was tougher than she had anticipated. She was winning this fight, and inch by inch, she was dragging Erin's face from the shadows.
"Augh!" Erin cried. "Stop!"
Julia's fingernails had begun to draw blood. Her grip was getting stronger and stronger, motivated by mere centimeters separating Erin's secret from being revealed.
"Did you really just tell me to stop?" Julia said. "Really?"
Erin had made progress on the roots, but not enough. At this rate, Julia would have her face exposed in ten or twenty seconds.
"Think, Blue Lynx, think!" she thought.
She could feel Julia's body next to hers. They were quite a picture, at the moment: the frumpy, jacketed reporter bleeding from the face, pulling at the back of a shackled superheroine's head. Julia's crotch was just inches from her face.
So Erin formed one glove into a fist, lifted it from the branches, and pushed it into Julia's lower body.
It wasn't a particularly powerful punch, but it was definitely a surprise. Julia immediately released Erin's scalp, falling away from the superheroine with a series of "Ohs!." The separation gave Erin the chance to dig deep, and seconds later, she had broken through her root manacles.
Erin stepped off of the wooden slab that had imprisoned her for so long, sinking her head into her shoulders, letting her hair obscure her face. She stared at Julia through her locks, at her opponent dancing around, clutching her privates, and smiled.
"Time to end this!" Erin declared.
She took her tazer from her pocket, crept over to Julia, and brought it down hard on Julia's shoulder. Electricity flooded through the reporter's body. She shook and smoked and, after several seconds of pure agony, seemed to pass out. Erin removed the tazer from her shoulder and Julia fell backward, kicking up a cloud of dust from the moss-covered floor.
Before she even thought about celebrating, Erin darted over to Lora, bent down, and picked up her mask. The feeling of its blue fabric on her skin pushed out a long sigh of relief. Somehow, she had kept her identity a secret tonight. Only Lora had seen her face, and the old crone wouldn't be telling anyone about it now.
Erin looked around, from Lora's corpse to the unconscious bodies of Steve, Sunny, and Julia. They were all here, defeated: all of her foes. What had Sunny called them? The Fearsome Five? It wasn't a good name: there weren't even five of them, and at this point, they didn't exactly inspire fear.
Erin stepped over to Margot and patted her friend on the head. "Margot?" she asked. "Margot? Wake up."
Margot's eyelids began to flutter. "What?" she mumbled. "What's going on?"
"It's a long story," Erin said, tearing at the roots encasing Margot's legs, which were now mostly pale and brittle.
"Why am I bent over and covered in dirt?"
Erin laughed. "Because sometimes being a superheroine means getting down and dirty."
Erin freed her friend and they both sat on the floor, their arms resting on their knees, amazed by where they were, and all that had happened tonight.
"So Lora was the garden's lifeline?" Margot asked.
Erin nodded. "I think so."
"Is that why everything in here is wilting?"
"Yeah."
"So we should probably leave before the ceiling caves in?"
Erin blinked and looked up. Leaves and branches fell from the ceiling, which, on further inspection, seemed to be shaking.
"Oh shit," Erin said, jumping to her feet. "We gotta go! Now!"
She grabbed Margot's hand and tugged her to her boots. The girls dashed through the forest, leaping over logs, pushing through vines, eventually stumbling on a staircase. As they climbed, the steps crumbled beneath them. They jumped from the final step through the door, finding themselves in a dirty, dark kitchen.
"Follow me!" Margot yelled.
The walls around them were shaking. As Erin sprinted through the house, she saw hundreds of potted plants, many of them crashing to the floor. A massive chunk of drywall broke from the ceiling and nearly hit Margot, creating a crater in the ground. The floor they ran on broke into cracks.
"There! The front door!"
Margot stepped aside and Erin dove at the front door, breaking it open with her shoulder. The girls scrambled down some stairs into a thickly wooded yard. They could hear the house creaking, snapping, falling apart, and they kept running. Once they were several hundred yards out, standing amidst the tall, dark trees, Erin turned around. The house's roof seemed to slide into its walls, and the walls fell over themselves like dominoes. The building almost howled in pain; thick clouds of dust suddenly swarmed around it. Erin shielded her eyes against the debris, her mouth gaping open.
Within seconds, Lora's shack had become a massive pile of wood, dirt, plants, and rubble.
"Holy shit," Margot muttered. "That was a close one."
Erin wiped the sweat from her eyes and placed her hands on her knees. "Yeah," she replied. "Real close."
It wasn't a cool response, but Erin was too tired, too sore, and too plain weirded out to be a superheroine right now.
"Do you think... They're dead?" Margot asked.
Erin looked at her. "Who?"
"You know. Julia. The ninja. Sunny."
Erin once again looked at the massive pile. "Well I don't know how they could've survived."
Margot smiled at her friend. "You don't seem to upset about it."
Erin laughed. "You know what? I'm not."
And the girls giggled as they walked with exhausted, clumsy steps up the path to Margot's car.
THE END
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February 22nd, 2:31 AM
Erin had no time to move, and no space to move to. When the mask left her face, all she could do was blurt out a pained, hopeless "NO." But that was hardly enough to keep Lora from seeing her naked, or from recognizing her.
"You're the mayor's daughter," Lora said, flatly. "Erin Steele. The one we kidnapped."
Erin squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears that were desperate to escape. Lora knew who she was. The Blue Lynx's superheroine life was... Over.
"I had a feeling," Lora continued. "Your smells are similar. And your voices. It really all lines up perfectly."
Erin had lost all her will to fight, all her will to even look her opponent in the face. She had gotten lucky earlier tonight, freeing herself just before Julia had a chance to discover her secret. Her luck had run out. She could only hang her head now, could only try to prevent the further embarrassment of crying in front of her foe.
"Now, now," Lora said, patting Erin on the shoulder. "You'll be okay. You'll forget all about this once the plants take you."
Erin sniffled. The plants. She had forgotten about the plants. But she could still feel them, the vines rolling up her legs. They were wet and sticky, leaving residues that dripped down her calves. It was gross, and wrong, but it was nothing compared to being unmasked.
"You really are an impressive young woman, Erin Steele," Lora continued. "You truly had Brent Hammerson on the run. I don't think a twerp like him deserves a superheroine like you."
Erin heard this and let out a single, chest-shaking sob. Why was Lora doing this to her? This was worse than any gloating she'd ever been the target of. Because it reminded her that she wasn't quite good enough. That, in the end, she had failed. That she had let herself, Margot, her father, the whole city... Down.
Lora placed her bony hand on Erin's stomach, fingering the pockets of her utility belt. "There, there," she said. "It will all be over soon. All be over..."
She turned around, looking back into the forest.
"Is there someone there?"
Lora hopped off her earth-ramp and wandered away from Erin.
"I can smell someone..."
Suddenly, an explosion burst through the room. A gunshot.
Erin lifted her eyes to see Lora stumble backward, twist around, and fall to the floor.
Was she dead?
"Stupid bitch!" a familiar voice called out.
And Erin dropped her eyes again when she saw its source. Standing there in the woods, beyond the half-Margot, half-plant statue, just yards away from the fallen bodies of Sunny, Steve, and Lora, was Julia Wright, a smoking pistol in her hand.
"That ought take care of you," she yelled, poking Lora's inert body with her stiletto.
Erin hung her head low, trying to drape her hair over her face. "No, no, no," she thought, her body trembling. "How did she get here?"
"What's this?" Julia said. Erin lifted her brow slightly and saw the reporter bend down and pull something from Lora's hands. "Oh my," Julia said, a laugh in her voice, bringing the Blue Lynx's mask to her face. "So they actually did it."
Julia looked up. "I guess it's my turn to see who you are, Blue Lynx."
Erin remained silent. Maybe she could play dead? She tried to slow her breathing. But all of the stress of the last hour had made her body a heaving, shaking mess.
"I see you friend took care of the rest of them for me," Julia said, stepping around Steve and Sunny. "She's a good partner, Blue Lynx. She definitely fared better against them than you did."
She had arrived at the place where Margot was glued to the ground. She set her hand on Margot's butt, still rising in the air, a purple peak emerging from a dense jungle thicket.
"I followed her the whole way," Julia said. "The poor girl didn't even notice. She was probably so worried about tracking you that she didn't think about herself being tracked."
Erin couldn't think of anything to say. At the moment, she only felt sadness: for herself, for her brave partner, and maybe even for Lora. Had Julia Wright really just... killed her? It seemed well beyond anything the reporter was capable of. But Erin had been underestimating Julia all night. She was a surprising, dangerous, terrifying woman. And now she was just yards away from uncovering Erin's secret.
"Your hair won't protect you for long, superheroine," Julia said. "And it looks like they've got you tied real tight over there."
Erin instinctively tugged at her bonds. She knew it wasn't the smart thing to do: that it would only encourage the plants to wrap her up even tighter. So she was surprised when the branches on her wrists seem to crackle, just the tiniest bit.
She gazed down at her legs. The vines that had been so steadily climbing her thighs were retreating, slithering down to her boots, dirt and leaves flaking off along the way. The branches covering her boots, once a powerful-looking shade of brown, had acquired a slight tinge of yellow.
"Are they... dying?" Erin wondered. In killing Lora, had Julia cut off the life supply to the garden?
She took quick, furtive glances around the basement. Sure enough, all of the plants seemed to be wilting: leaves drooping, roots receding, healthy colors turning into sickly ones. Margot seemed to be leaning over, too, as if the thick root base holding her up had begun to disintegrate.
It was all falling apart.
For the first time in hours, Erin felt something like hope.
"I still have to do this just right," she thought. "I'm not out of the woods yet."
Julia was almost on her now. Erin could hear her quiet, wheezing laughter underneath her breath.
"It's been a wild night, Blue Lynx," Julia said. "We had a nice chat. I took your mask, and you broke my nose. And then, they took you, and they took your mask. And now, I get some revenge."
She leaned up against Erin's body, flicking the ends of Erin's hair with her index finger.
"Anything you'd like to say before your superheroine days are done, bitch?"
"Yeah," Erin muttered.
And then, putting every ounce of her strength into her right arm, she ripped free of branch shackle, bringing her fist down and across Julia's face, catching her square in the nose.
"Sorry!" she yelled.
Julia cried out and stepped back. Her hands immediately flew up to her face, which was already gushing blood. As she paced around, ducking her head in pain and screaming, Erin pulled her left hand free. She bent down and tore at the roots covering her feet.
"You... bitch!" Julia said. Still clutching her nose, she ran back at Erin, slamming her shoulder into the Blue Lynx's exposed upper back. Erin yelped in pain, her fingers losing hold of her leg's bonds. She hadn't expected to Julia to recover so quickly. And now she was stuck in a position not unlike Margot's: bent over, her butt in the air, her fingers scraping at her boots. It was a helpless place to be, especially without her mask.
"Come on, Blue Lynx," Julia said, sinking her fingernails into Erin's scalp. "Let's see that pretty face."
Erin winced as Julia pulled at her head, craning her neck up, slightly. She tried desperately to hold on to her boots, and so keep her face concealed, but once again, Julia was tougher than she had anticipated. She was winning this fight, and inch by inch, she was dragging Erin's face from the shadows.
"Augh!" Erin cried. "Stop!"
Julia's fingernails had begun to draw blood. Her grip was getting stronger and stronger, motivated by mere centimeters separating Erin's secret from being revealed.
"Did you really just tell me to stop?" Julia said. "Really?"
Erin had made progress on the roots, but not enough. At this rate, Julia would have her face exposed in ten or twenty seconds.
"Think, Blue Lynx, think!" she thought.
She could feel Julia's body next to hers. They were quite a picture, at the moment: the frumpy, jacketed reporter bleeding from the face, pulling at the back of a shackled superheroine's head. Julia's crotch was just inches from her face.
So Erin formed one glove into a fist, lifted it from the branches, and pushed it into Julia's lower body.
It wasn't a particularly powerful punch, but it was definitely a surprise. Julia immediately released Erin's scalp, falling away from the superheroine with a series of "Ohs!." The separation gave Erin the chance to dig deep, and seconds later, she had broken through her root manacles.
Erin stepped off of the wooden slab that had imprisoned her for so long, sinking her head into her shoulders, letting her hair obscure her face. She stared at Julia through her locks, at her opponent dancing around, clutching her privates, and smiled.
"Time to end this!" Erin declared.
She took her tazer from her pocket, crept over to Julia, and brought it down hard on Julia's shoulder. Electricity flooded through the reporter's body. She shook and smoked and, after several seconds of pure agony, seemed to pass out. Erin removed the tazer from her shoulder and Julia fell backward, kicking up a cloud of dust from the moss-covered floor.
Before she even thought about celebrating, Erin darted over to Lora, bent down, and picked up her mask. The feeling of its blue fabric on her skin pushed out a long sigh of relief. Somehow, she had kept her identity a secret tonight. Only Lora had seen her face, and the old crone wouldn't be telling anyone about it now.
Erin looked around, from Lora's corpse to the unconscious bodies of Steve, Sunny, and Julia. They were all here, defeated: all of her foes. What had Sunny called them? The Fearsome Five? It wasn't a good name: there weren't even five of them, and at this point, they didn't exactly inspire fear.
Erin stepped over to Margot and patted her friend on the head. "Margot?" she asked. "Margot? Wake up."
Margot's eyelids began to flutter. "What?" she mumbled. "What's going on?"
"It's a long story," Erin said, tearing at the roots encasing Margot's legs, which were now mostly pale and brittle.
"Why am I bent over and covered in dirt?"
Erin laughed. "Because sometimes being a superheroine means getting down and dirty."
Erin freed her friend and they both sat on the floor, their arms resting on their knees, amazed by where they were, and all that had happened tonight.
"So Lora was the garden's lifeline?" Margot asked.
Erin nodded. "I think so."
"Is that why everything in here is wilting?"
"Yeah."
"So we should probably leave before the ceiling caves in?"
Erin blinked and looked up. Leaves and branches fell from the ceiling, which, on further inspection, seemed to be shaking.
"Oh shit," Erin said, jumping to her feet. "We gotta go! Now!"
She grabbed Margot's hand and tugged her to her boots. The girls dashed through the forest, leaping over logs, pushing through vines, eventually stumbling on a staircase. As they climbed, the steps crumbled beneath them. They jumped from the final step through the door, finding themselves in a dirty, dark kitchen.
"Follow me!" Margot yelled.
The walls around them were shaking. As Erin sprinted through the house, she saw hundreds of potted plants, many of them crashing to the floor. A massive chunk of drywall broke from the ceiling and nearly hit Margot, creating a crater in the ground. The floor they ran on broke into cracks.
"There! The front door!"
Margot stepped aside and Erin dove at the front door, breaking it open with her shoulder. The girls scrambled down some stairs into a thickly wooded yard. They could hear the house creaking, snapping, falling apart, and they kept running. Once they were several hundred yards out, standing amidst the tall, dark trees, Erin turned around. The house's roof seemed to slide into its walls, and the walls fell over themselves like dominoes. The building almost howled in pain; thick clouds of dust suddenly swarmed around it. Erin shielded her eyes against the debris, her mouth gaping open.
Within seconds, Lora's shack had become a massive pile of wood, dirt, plants, and rubble.
"Holy shit," Margot muttered. "That was a close one."
Erin wiped the sweat from her eyes and placed her hands on her knees. "Yeah," she replied. "Real close."
It wasn't a cool response, but Erin was too tired, too sore, and too plain weirded out to be a superheroine right now.
"Do you think... They're dead?" Margot asked.
Erin looked at her. "Who?"
"You know. Julia. The ninja. Sunny."
Erin once again looked at the massive pile. "Well I don't know how they could've survived."
Margot smiled at her friend. "You don't seem to upset about it."
Erin laughed. "You know what? I'm not."
And the girls giggled as they walked with exhausted, clumsy steps up the path to Margot's car.
THE END
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