Chapter One
June 22nd, 1:52 AM
Erin Steele didn't want to be here anymore.
She looked around the laboratory, still in disrepair after the long, excruciating battle against Sunny and the Spaniel, and sighed. Yes, the Blue Lynx had won, largely thanks to Margot, who had intervened as the Black Bobcat just when all hope seemed lost. And sure, it seemed possible that her life might actually get back in order after months of secret identity panic: the Spaniel could barely remember who he was, and after a long interrogation of Sunny (they had tied her to the torture rack with great pleasure), they determined that her own injection had robbed her of at least three weeks of memories about the Blue Lynx. At long last, Erin was triumphant. And yet, she couldn't help but be anxious in... this place. This place where so many horrifying tortures had been inflicted on her.
"Margot," she whispered. "Can't we just take the laptop and go?"
Sitting in the desk chair behind the computer, the Black Bobcat raised a single purple glove. "It'll just be a couple more minutes," she said. "Be patient."
Erin shook her head. She was tired of waiting. What she wanted more than anything was to be home in bed-- to sleep for at least twenty hours-- to spend a whole day in front of TV-- to forget all about the last several weeks. Why couldn't Margot understand that?
"We have to do this now, Erin," Margot repeated, for at least the fourth time. "We have to know. This could be really bad."
Erin took a seat. The "this" her friend was referring to was the Sunny's Donator page. Margot had been trying to break into it for half an hour. The thing they "had to know" was if Sunny had released any images of the Blue Lynx's secret identity to the public. Of course Erin understand how important this was-- it was her life, after all. But in her exhausted, bruised, almost-mind-wiped-just-hours-before state, what mattered more was just getting some rest, as soon as possible.
She looked at Margot, sitting pertly at Sunny's desk, her costume snug against her newly muscular body, her mask a perfect replica of the Blue Lynx's own, and wondered if she was now more into superheroine life than Erin herself was. Even at two in the morning, in the confines of Sunny's massive maze of a hideout, Margot maintained her intensity. Of course, she hadn't been stripped and drugged and bound and imprisoned for days on end.
"So, what's happening?" the Spaniel said. He had been sitting silently in a chair at one of the center table ever since Margot had taken her seat behind the laptop.
Erin turned to face him. "You don't need to know that."
The Spaniel shrugged. "Okay."
Erin thought about what they would do with the Spaniel, with Brian, now that he was essentially a blank slate. They could recruit him as a sidekick-- he was still a strong, agile guy, and he seemed into fighting alongside the Blue Lynx when they were ripping through the hallway henchmen. But that didn't seem right. What the Spaniel needed was time alone. Years of memories had been taken from him thanks to Sunny's drug regimen. It was a sick fate, and Erin couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt when she thought about him no longer knowing who she really was.
"I'm in!" Margot suddenly exclaimed, typing furiously. "I got it!"
Erin leapt up from her seat. "Alright!" she said. "What's the deal?"
Margot stopped typing. She squinted. She scowled. And then she gasped.
"What?" Erin said, racing behind the desk. "What is it?"
Margot pointed at the screen. "It's... a list. Of everyone who donated. Their contact information."
Erin scanned the page. There were dozens of names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers. They were organized into tiers. Tier one had the largest amount of names by far.
"So who are those people?" Erin said, placing her finger against the screen.
"The small fries," Margot said, with a gulp. "The people who donated fifty dollars or less."
"And what did they get?"
"Umm, nothing much," Margot said, scrolling down. "Pictures of you tied and gagged, I think."
Erin blushed. She folded her arms across her body, as if to protect herself from the gaze of dozens of strangers. "That's not... so bad," she murmured.
"No, it's not," Margot replied. "Here's tier two."
It was a much smaller group. Apparently for people who donated between fifty and five hundred dollars.
"And what did they get?" Erin asked.
"Umm. A bunch of things," Margot said. "A couple of your Lynx darts. A video of you losing a fight. Pieces of your hair."
"Eww!" Erin said, recoiling. "What the hell is the matter with these people?"
"I don't know. But I don't think they're an issue, either."
Erin stepped back toward the laptop. "So... is there an issue?"
Margot rotated the chair to face Erin. "Yeah," she said, quietly. "There is."
Erin placed her hands on the desk and looked at the screen. The final group on the page, Tier Three, had five names in it. Each of its members had donated between five hundred and five thousand dollars. And each of them had received video footage of the Blue Lynx being unmasked.
On to Chapter Two
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