Chapter Eleven
June 22nd, 12:47 AM
Panic ensued. Erin, Spaniel, and Sunny coughed as the smoke rose around them. A table tipped over, its contents clattering against the tile floor. "Fido!" Sunny screamed. "Fido! What the fuck is going on!"
Erin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "There's no way," she thought. "It can't be..."
"FIDO!" Sunny hollered. "SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE--"
Suddenly, a cry of pain. Then, the sound of a body toppling to the ground. Something skittering across the floor. And finally, a small, familiar voice in Erin's ear.
"Blue Lynx, it's me," Margot said. "I'm here to save you."
Erin almost screeched with joy. "Mar-- Black Bobcat!"
The smoke was clearing, and as Erin turned her head, she could see her friend, looking confident, athletic, and capable in her dark costume and mask.
"Surprised?" Margot said. "I was able to track you after Sunny called me. The stupid bitch."
Erin's grin quickly turned to a look of consternation. "Quick, Bobcat! You have to get me out of this thing!"
As Margot stepped in to loosen the leather straps, Sunny's pained voice called out from the floor.
"Dammit, Fido! Stop her! Get her! Get the other kitty!"
Erin turned her head as far as she could. In her peripheral vision, she could see the Spaniel charging at Margot. But just as he was closing in on her, Margot produced a taser from her utility belt. She sunk it into the Spaniel's abdomen, and the hero jolted with electricity. He yelped, stepped backward, and fell onto his ass.
"Great work!" Erin cried. "Now help me! Quick!"
Margot ripped through the first leather cuff, and then reached down to work at Erin's left boot. Seconds later, Erin had half her body free, and she was able to muscle her way out of the remaining restraints, finally pushing herself from the torture rack and landing on her feet.
She spun around to face Margot. "I just can't believe you're here," Erin said, on the verge of tears. "I thought I was... a goner..."
Margot smiled. "It's okay, babe. This is what I've been training for, and..."
"MARGOT!" Erin yelled. "BEHIND YOU!"
The Spaniel was up again, and before she could react, his arms were around Margot's body, lifting her off her wildly kicking feet. Thinking quickly, Erin went to her utility belt to retrieve her taser. But just as she removed it from its buttoned pouch, Sunny grabbed her wrist.
"No you don't!" she barked, throwing Erin's body against the wall. The stunned superheroine dropped her taser, instinctively bringing her hand to her head. The move exposed her abdomen, which Sunny instantly attacked with four rapid jabs. Her strength once more ebbing away from her, Erin slid down the wall, looking up at the Spaniel hugging Margot close, squeezing her, forcing her to scream.
"You are such an embarrassment," Sunny said. She moved in front of Erin and snatched her by the Blue Lynx's V-neck, dragging her back up and into a semi-standing position. "All this luck, and no idea what to do with it."
She socked Erin in the stomach, doubling her over. Erin tried to trip away from the wall, but Sunny anticipated the move and grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her back to where she was.
"God, I wish we were filming this," Sunny said, keeping Erin's body in place with her hands. "The final defeat of the Blue Lynx."
Margot was howling now, her body bobbing against the Spaniel's, her legs losing their willingness to kick. "Blue Lynx!" she cried, breathlessly. "I'm sorry!"
"It's not your fault, kid," Sunny said. "Erin Steele's got no one to blame but... HERSELF!" With that last word, Sunny brought her knee up into Erin's groin. Erin made a loud, keening noise, dropped her hands to her lower body, and rolled to the floor, where Sunny now allowed her to go.
"Now," Sunny said, slapping her hands together. "Where did that damn syringe roll off to?"
Erin wheezed, curled up in a ball, clutched at her groin. Sunny was... Right. Margot had saved the day... And the Blue Lynx had un-saved it. Through her carelessness, through her weakness, through her arrogance. After a long, excruciating struggle, this was how it was going to end. It was all her fault.
"Here it is," Sunny said, dropping to the ground and picking up something small. She strutted back to Erin and bent down to look her struggling nemesis in the eye. "You ready?"
She held the syringe upright by its plunger with two delicate fingers. It seemed... Reckless. It seemed...
Light suddenly flashed in Erin's eyes.
"I don't know, Sunny," she said, with a small, pained grin. "Are you?"
And then, with as much speed as she as she could muster, Erin drove her knee into Sunny's leg, pushing her body over. As Sunny winced, Erin shot her hand up, grabbed Sunny's hand, and plunged the syringe down and into the villain's chest.
Sunny gasped, her fingers falling away from the drug. "Wha-- Ahh....??"
Her eyes wide, her mouth gaping open, her arms swinging wildly, Sunny crashed to the ground, the syringe still standing tall just north of her right breast. Her body convulsed for several seconds, and then suddenly stopped. Her arms and legs fell around her limply. She was unconscious.
Just as Sunny's eyes closed, the Spaniel released Margot. He stumbled backward, catching himself on a nearby table. He held his head, sneering, as the two superheroines, Margot on her feet, and Erin still on the floor, watched his next move.
"What..." he said, rocking himself back up on his feet. "What happened?"
Erin rolled over onto her knees, pushing her body up from the floor. "Sunny..." she said, pointing at her knocked-out opponent, "She had you in a trance."
"I don't remember anything," he said, his hands racing back to his head. "It's all... a blur."
Margot looked at Erin and winked. "Good," she seemed to say.
"Who the hell is... Sunny?" the Spaniel said, now walking over to where she lay.
Erin clambered to her feet, her body feeling like a massive bruise. "She's a horrible person," she said. "But I don't know if she'll remember that, now."
"Do you think it'll work on her?" Margot asked. "Do you think... She'll forget... Who you are?"
Erin shrugged. "We can hope. We'll stick around for a bit. When she wakes up, we'll interrogate her."
"Wait," the Spaniel said, looking at Erin and Margot, completely puzzled. "Who are you people, anyway?"
"We're superheroines," Margot said, placing her hands on her hips.
"That's the Black Bobcat," Erin said, copying Margot's pose, which Margot had learned so long ago from her. "And me?
Erin looked around at the empty laboratory, at Sunny's lifeless body, at the toppled over tables, at the counters full of Hammerson's drugs, at the door leading into the hallway where she had been tortured for days. She took it all in, cleared her throat, and smiled.
"You can call me the Blue Lynx."
THE END
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