Tales of Marvelous Girl and the Heroines of Pageant City

Marvelous Girl and Tales of Pageant City

Episode 2: The Rescue

Chapter 1

Everything seemed to change quickly for Leigh. Unlike some heroes, quick changes for her did not mean in and out of some costume, she was not one of these who had a second secretive life outside of crime-fighting. There was no disguise that turned her into a journalist or a painter or anything of the sort. She had no need of a regular job to make ends meet because of family money she had come into when she turned eighteen. Rather it was constant and swift life changes that had become a problem, the same sort that had plagued her life going back to the very beginning.

Her grandfather was the third in a line of rich businessmen in her family and though his was the last in the line of their successful companies, it was only because he sold the business for a sum that now after a couple of generations of proper investing was worth well over a billion dollars. Leigh was lucky enough to have a ton of money stashed away for herself so that she could live better off of the interest alone than most others in the city lived running their own successful business, plus the generations passing meant that nobody knew or cared who Roscoe Blair was or what his company had been. It was a good thing she learned a lot about money and how to properly manage it early in life. Despite having money, she was unable to keep life's drastic changes from happening to her.

Leigh Blair was a name she never heard because nobody who had been in her life when she was a little girl growing up two states away was anywhere near being in her life anymore. Life had been going in one direction and had simply flipped itself around and her young world flipped upside down in the process. Now, it had happened to her again, this time as her new-self: Marvelous Girl. For her, life's latest shocking twist was far from being only the second time her life flipped upside down and even though the public saw Marvelous Girl as their heroine who had never been defeated, Leigh had been through a ton of down times since coming to Pageant City all those years ago.

She had been a loner, an orphan of sorts, when she came to town. Her young teen years had been spent jumping from one home to another until her life quickly changed once again. Though her former family could never find her, few can return from the grave after all, and nobody around her knew all of who she was because of false names and a practiced ability to be just deceitful enough to survive, the government always had a way of finding people. Most of the time the general public viewed that as a bad thing but for her, back then, it was awesome. Someone had been searching for the heir to the Blair family fortune because she had just turned eighteen. The government being who they are and what they are, found her without a problem. She said goodbye to the world of fighting and clawing to survive, put into practice what she had been taught about money all those years ago, and formed a new life for herself, using her practiced ability to mislead and come up with false names to her advantage.

Having spent some parts of her life on the streets, developing a sense of adventure as well as the element of survival had helped her hone her fighting skills through the years and she didn't lose many fights with people her own size or even those a little larger. When her super-powered abilities manifested themselves during her upper teens, she put them to good use to survive and made damn sure to never lose another fight again. Soon after she had seen news coverage of the way the city was going down since their heroine, the beloved Glory, had been forced into retirement through some means unknown to the public. Leigh knew what the whispers of the street kids were at the time but that didn't make it true. What was true however was the fact that Pageant City, the place she had finally settled in and grown into a fiercely powerful woman, needed a new beloved protector.

Once again, the ability to create a false persona came in handy as did her natural beauty as she combined these with her super powers to create Marvelous Girl, the new protector of Pageant City. Most figured she was a spoiled rich kid with a ton of money when they tried to figure out why she wasn't hiding who she was. They were only half right of course but that did not matter to many as she cut a line through the criminal underworld of the city and helped set the city on the right path for the first time since the retirement of Glory. That was the wave of momentum she rode for years until the sneaky villain referred to as Mage along with his friend Viper defeated her with a perfectly timed series of attacks. It was more than just a simple defeat however as it would stand as the latest in a long line of drastic life changes.

This change included double the number of lessons that quick changes of life generally came with. She finally had to face the legendary villain known as Nightcide and found him to be both exactly and nothing at all like what she had expected. He was powerful to say the least, with those steel arms adding to the amount of power he naturally had. He was huge as well but he was not nearly as old in appearance as he should have been. It made her wonder if he had changed more than just his arms when he was rebuilt after the supposed defeat he suffered long ago that cost him his natural arms or if perhaps he was in some way ageless.

For all the great and fearsome things about their leader however, Leigh had little doubt that she, as Marvelous Girl could have defeated the classic villain because they matched up quite well. It was that irritating little bastard Mage that she was completely unprepared for. It had all been a plan she now realized, to draw her to a heist that was only a fake so that Mage could pose as a reporter in the back alley and blow something into her face. It was all downhill from there. Flashes of what that little man had done with her body, dangling nude from the ceiling, would never leave her completely. Were it not for the argument started when Viper interrupted him, she couldn't say for certain if she would have found the perfect window of opportunity to escape the twisted wizard.

As it happened, she had been able to escape with some dignity after putting a small measure of defeat on Nightcide in a one on one confrontation. She only wished she could stand to see that costume without thinking about what all had been done to her the last time she wore it. But, alas, she could not and that was why she was standing in her bedroom staring at two new costume options to wear when she went out to patrol and gain measures of revenge as Marvelous Girl. They were both very attention getting in two completely different ways. First was the one piece with three cutouts, one just below where the outfit gathered to hug her neck, another just above her nether region and a third very large cutout that led to the piece being very revealing.

Leigh would not usually dress in a way that revealed most of her body but as Marvelous Girl, it sometimes helped to distract villains and if she was completely honest, it just felt damn good to show off how good she looked at times. When better to do that than when she was wearing a mask? The main one-piece part of the outfit as well as the boots that came to just below her knee and the forearm-length gloves was red trimmed in gold with the addition of a gold short-cape and a red mask.

Her other outfit option was much more covering but just as attention-getting as the first. It consisted of a corset-type top that was gold with red over her breasts that buttoned down the front and stopped in time to reveal her belly button and mid-drift in the front as it angled down to each side. The gloves exposed more of her hands than those of the other outfit but covered all the way up to her biceps and were red trimmed in gold. For boots she wore red thigh-highs with gold at the top and at the toe and a long red cape and red mask rounded out the more regale look for her. Both were awesome in one way or another and both should work fine to get her the attention she desired as Pageant City's protector.

Generally, she would have just thrown on her costume but now that she had two brand new pieces, she had to think of a better way to choose which one to wear. After trying each on a few times the main differences she could think of between them was how they made her feel. It seemed the one with the corset and thigh-high boots was perfect when she felt regal and almost royal before going out and would probably be the easy choice of what to wear to any ceremony where she was either supposed to speak or expected to meet with someone. The more revealing option was perfect, complete with shorter cape, for when she was looking to get into heavier action. Considering how pissed off she was at her recent defeat and how much she wanted to wipe some vile miscreant off the streets, the compact and revealing costume was the choice to make.

All the negative things that had happened to Leigh through the years turned her into the strong young hero she was. Nothing inside of her expected this minor setback, or not-so-minor setback at the hands of Mage to be any different. She slid the glass door open and stepped out onto the balcony of the penthouse she owned and stared out at the city she protected with pride. The wind whipped through her blonde hair and her short cape snapped as it was flung to one side. Just as her time on the streets had given way to a life lived in a penthouse high-rise apartment, her defeat at the hands of Mage would only make her stronger and better.

With the strength of dozens of men, she lifted off the balcony. As was her practice, she free-fell for fifteen or so stories before stretching her arms out to the side and lifting into a flight high above the city. Most of her patrols came during the nighttime hours but this time around she was headed for the worst area of Pageant City, the slums, looking for and praying for a group of thugs to mash heads with. She knew exactly where to go and figured she would not have to look for very long.

Quickly she pulled up and hovered as she heard a commotion below. She didn't have super-hearing but she heard a faint rumble of speaking that was interesting enough, given the area of town it was in, to warrant her landing on a rooftop and listening in closer. After quietly landing she eased to the edge of the building and stared down three stories to a group of about a dozen men who were laughing and talking with each other. Even without the intertwining snakes and black roses which made up the black logo against the red leather background of their jackets, Marvelous Girl would have easily known that this was The Crimson Reapers.

“Yo, man, we had to, there weren't no choice.”

“Ace, you haven’t even been to the last four jobs we did, bro, how can you say what we had to do?”

“Hey, I know the Reapers, what we do, and that shit is what we do!”

“Both of you can shut your holes. What is done is done, now we just have to get on to the next bit of business.”

“Like where we partying tonight!”

“In time, Froggy, but first we have a contract to fill. Whether Kid likes it or not, Ace is right, we had to do that job and we have to do this one too.”

“Axle...”

“Kid, if you don't like it you can stay home and babysit. Those damn heroes have dried up a lot of the small time stuff. If you want the cash to flow in, we have to do these jobs.”

“Yeah, Kid, it ain't like we're out to save the world or nothin'. We a' goddamn gang.”

“I ain't fucking babysittin' Axle, count me in.”

Marvelous Girl shook her head at having nothing big to go on. The Crimsons were a nasty bunch of guys who generally liked to party hard and rough up people in bars. They didn't usually get into big crimes but recently street talk had them getting in with some big boys and even taking part in slave trade. She knew that much of course because as usual she had gone over reports and rumors of what was going on around the city before coming out tonight. Not as usual, this time it was less for the greater good of the city and more in hopes of having a good reason to start a fight and take somebody down in a big way. Sadly, they hadn't given her a good reason yet and she would just be picking a fight for nothing if she did so now.

“Right, glad you're in. Kid, Ace, and the rest of you, listen up. Tonight, we got two ladies to bag. Same deal as the last few, nobody dies, both have to be unharmed but completely unconscious and chloroformed when shipped to the Dealer.”

Bingo, Marvelous Girl thought and took a step forward onto thin air, letting herself drop solidly to the pavement, the gang looked in her direction as she had hoped they would. She lifted her fingers towards her mouth and blew across her nails, looking up as if she were bored to tears. “Say, fellas, I hear you all are looking for some ladies,” she winked as she took on a sultry stance, “I'd bet a heroine of my stature would bag a good bit of coin and might even be worth several normal girls,” she paused a bit and then shrugged, “Just sayin'.”

One of the Crimson Reapers surged forward with a scowl of determination but was stalled by the hand of their leader.

“No, Johnny, don't take the bait.”

“Axle, she's worth ten regular bitches!”

“Johnny, that's because she's not a regular bitch. Run over there and you're trip to a secure jail cell will be delayed by a week's stay at Pageant City Memorial. Just relax. She obviously wants us to do what you were about to do but why?” He directed his attention to Marvelous Girl with a suspicious stare, “Why would you do that?”

“Well boys,” she shrugged and ran a finger down her chest, “Why not? I clearly am begging for a beating so why not come on over here and show me what a bunch of big boys you really are?”

“I'm fucking in!”

“Butch, no!” the leader, Axle cried out too late, “Nobody else move!”

The pipe that the fool threw at her spun towards her as if he had thrown one a billion times but she caught it with a quick snatch of her left hand, smiled widely as she rotated it in her hand like a baton and slung it back towards him at about a quarter of the strength she could have used. The pipe slammed into the shins of Butch and knocked him down as hard as a seven-year-old being drilled in the feet with a dodge-ball thrown too hard. When he failed to pop back up and blood began to slip slowly from underneath his face, she knew he was out of the fight that was about to blow up.

“Butch!”

“You had to do that didn't you super bitch?” Axle stepped in front of the eleven remaining Reapers. “You fuck with one of us,” he flipped a switch-blade out in his hand, “You fuck with us all.”

Marvelous Girl shrugged, “Well then, boys, consider yourselves fucked!”

Before any of the group could even draw back a fist or take more than a step, she was directly in the middle of them, standing right behind their leader. She tapped him on the shoulder, ducked his punch and drilled him in the face so hard that blood spattered across his face and his nose was flat before he fell unconscious to the ground. “Next?”

Chapter 2

Standing outside of an oddly shaped but imposing building in a dark area of what otherwise was a decent area of town, Glory felt the proverbial bad feeling about what they were about to go through. She and her best friend, some call her a sidekick, Red Panther, were about to enter what their information told them was the hideout of one of Pageant City's greatest criminal masterminds, a mysterious man only known as Nightcide. Nobody knew his real name, where he was from, how old he was, whether he was human or somewhat mutant with his incredible strength and ability to seamlessly incorporate steel arms as replacements for his more natural pair, or basically everything else about him. He appeared young but Glory herself had a long enough history with the imposing villain to know he had to be at least middle-aged.

“We going to stand around staring at this door or blow the bastard open?”

As she so often did with her stunning looks and sometimes risqué costume, Glory's friend was ready to bring this situation to a head fast. The girl had no super-powers to speak of but the way she fought, used her utility belt and even her body to take down villains made her a hero worth the attention she received. Unlike Glory's lone bad day, Red had been defeated several times through the years and put into all manner of perilous situations by short-sighted villains who thought provoking the city's most legendary heroine was a good idea. Every time that had happened, it was a mistake by the villain but this time was different. They were here to rescue the young phenomenal heroine known as Marvelous Girl, who per the word they had heard, was currently captured and at the mercy of Nightcide.

Glory shrugged, “Blowing this door open might pull some attention off the kid – assuming she is still here and in danger – but some of that attention could be from the big boys. Still, it seems like as good of an excuse as any to get a little vengeance on my old nemesis.”

“Yes, speak for yourself. I won't cry any tears if we don't see Nightcide.”

“Not much chance of that Red.”

“Doesn't hurt to hope.”

“Guess not. Want to knock or what?”

“You're leaving it up to me? Heck, we blow it.”

Glory grinned and stepped back a few paces as Red Panther pulled a tiny explosive off her belt and placed it near the locking mechanisms of the door then walked a few steps away and pressed a button on her belt with a wink. Glory's long blond ponytail stood parallel to the ground for a few seconds and she was more than a little glad that she had stepped back a bit as the door blew apart at the lock so powerfully that there was a foot and a half diameter hole where the large handle had been. She glared at Red Panther.

“What? I asked if you wanted to leave it up to me, warned you it would be blown open, it’s your fault you assumed the little explosive was weak, not mine.”

Glory followed her smaller but much more dynamic partner inside and stood just a few yards inside with one hand on her hip, “Nobody is in this large room after that loud explosion, Red.”

“Yeah, it's a trap of some kind but isn't it always? They must just keep a trap set near the door. It doesn't mean for sure that they heard the boom.”

“Still willing to hope I see.”

“Always,” Red Panther said and slid the zipper on the front of her costume down below her navel. “Without hope, what do you have?”

“Cleavage, apparently.”

Red Panther glanced back with attitude, “Oh, don't give me that ‘Ms. Tattered-Flag’ costume. You show a lot more skin than I do Girl.”

Glory glanced down at the costume which resembled a tattered flag in many ways with the American theme throughout the design and nodded, “Okay but it's more about where the skin is shown than how much Red. You just stand here and open up from your collarbone all the way to candy-land.”

“I'm hot,” Red Panther shrugged, “Plus, this body is so stunning it would be a shame not to show it off now and then.” She finally shook her head, “Fine,” and zipped it up to just below her breasts, “Happy?”

Glory ignored the question because she heard distant footsteps from two different sides of the room. The area was like a huge cube at least one-hundred yards across any distance with two large bay-type doors on the sides. With the kind of tunnels that were likely beyond the doors, footsteps didn't necessarily mean an attack was imminent. She glanced at her partner and saw that she was paying close attention to the footsteps as well. Red really did have a point about her body, she had even done some modeling at one point in her life before becoming a hero. The girl was quite attractive even if Glory did say so herself and from what she heard about Red's supermodel-caliber niece, it must run in the Hawke family DNA. As the footsteps grew closer on each side, it was Red Panther's ability to fight and not her looks that were about to matter most.

“Here we go. Footsteps getting closer Glory; you ready?”

Glory didn't even blink through her large designer blue mask, “Born so, girl.”

“You know what I mean,” Red said glancing from one doorway to the next.

“I'm ready, Red. Forget about the past, it is far behind me now and yes, I am more than ready to kick villainous butt once again.” Glory was truthful in her response to her good friend, who had been there to drag her out after captivity at the hands of Nightcide, so she would know how badly Glory had been taken down back then. It had been talked about in papers and dreamed about over the internet for years. Would Glory ever return to action and if she did, would she be able to battle at the same level as before? Some hoped she could regain her form of the past, before Nightcide took her down and forced her into retirement while others clearly hoped she would be taught a lesson if she ever dared fight again. The fact that she was calm and ready to begin fighting crime again was not a surprise to her but the fact that she was doing so in the supposed lair of the same villain who took her from her lofty perch and was still calm did surprise Glory. It didn't matter anymore because the first group of henchmen, four of them, had just rushed from the now open doorway on her side of the room.

“Three over here.”

Glory nodded, “I've got four. Meet you back in the middle in five.”

“Check,” Red Panther said and walked towards the henchmen standing in the doorway.

Glory walked only a few paces before she stopped and planted her legs, adorned in her red-white and blue thigh-high boots that completed the tattered flag look, shoulder width apart. “You boys might want to just turn Marvelous Girl over to us now so you can avoid getting destroyed by yours truly. I am Glory!”

“Marvelous Girl,” a goon said, “She's g...” he stopped mid-sentence as a larger henchman slapped him in the chest. That one simply pointed at Glory and yelled, “Get her!”

Glory kept her hands on her hips as the group ran towards her with reckless abandon as if they had just left henchman school after the first semester. With a shake of her head she lifted her boot to drill the leading member of the four then surged forward to clothesline the next two. By that time the fourth one was having second thoughts and stopped but did not stop far enough away as Glory lifted her right foot, slamming it into his chin. He was out before he hit the floor. She wondered briefly if the price of henchman was going up. These were the biggest losers she could remember. With a glance back towards Red Panther to confirm that she was also finished battling the group of three she was faced with, Glory said, “That was easy enough.”

“Too easy?” Red asked.

Before Glory could agree, a hidden partition began to rise out of the floor. Glory cursed under her breath and took flight, trying to aim for flying over the make-shift wall before it separated she and her partner but a second partition was coming down from the ceiling at the same time. They crossed each other to create a double wall that combined was about ten inches of solid steel. She hovered in the air for a moment and wondered what they should do after clearly being split up on purpose but Red Panther took that brief indecision away.

“I'm going in. See you inside after you fight your way through that side.”

Glory yelled, “Red, no!” as the partitions slammed shut. She settled back to the ground with a sigh, “Too late. Come on Red, you know better than to charge into a trap like that.” Glory ignored the fact that she had been about to suggest the same thing with the slight change that she was planning to fight through the trap while wanting Red to stay put on the other side of the partition and out of danger. Now they were both walking into traps. She gave a mental shrug, may as well start this second round off the wrong way, then stepped through the doorway where she was greeted by six more of the same thugs. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Red Panther unwound her tether cable from the feet of the final two henchmen to fall, attached it in the pouch on her belt and allowed it to zip back into place. As soon as she walked through the doorway she had run across half a dozen baddies but they were easy enough to take care of, so easy in fact that she really began to wonder if they were in the right place. Maybe the wall trick was just an odd happening in the hideout of an otherwise lackluster villain.

Walking into the next room she saw that things might indeed be changing a tad for the worse. There were only three in the small room but they were all dressed differently, clearly villains in their own minds at the very least. She stopped and ignored the door slamming shut behind her. So this was the real trap then. No matter, they still left one way out of the room, she just would have to go through these three to get there.

“Hello, its Red Panther, isn't it?” a tall and thin villain asked. “Allow me to introduce ourselves. My name is Myst, spelled with a 'Y'. The short and stocky one to my right is Hammer and on the left we have Kat, with a K.”

Red shook her head at his arrogance. Clearly Myst was accustomed to people caring how to spell his name, perhaps he was from a prominent bloodline somewhere. The green and black bodysuit he wore did little to hide how thin his frame was. Hammer was the complete opposite, with a red and black bodysuit showing clearly how thick and muscled he was. As if that weren't enough strength he also had gloves on that appeared to be laced with metal or something around the knuckles, like he had brass-knuckles included. Kat looked to be a darker and taller version of her, though with a tail, without a cowl and her cat suit was a deep green. She smirked as she fiddled with a certain pouch on her belt, “Well, now that we all know each other you can just step aside and let me through. I have no problem with any of the three of you so I'll just be on my way. Good day, Myst with a 'Y', Hammer with a 'Ham' and Kat with a 'K'. You might just let me move along before I have to whoop your collective asses, with an ‘A’.”

She walked halfway across the room before Hammer was the first to race towards her with his right fist already pulled back and ready to strike. With the quickness that some called a super-power, Red Panther stopped and backed up one step then swept her leg around like lightning, catching Hammer's feet at the mid-point of her sweep. He plunged into the wall so hard that he almost literally went through it. She figured Kat to be next to move as Myst was just slowly drifting around the side walls for some reason and she was right. A type of gun was in the green villainess' grasp and she fired it at Red Panther a second after she faced her.

After leaning hard to her left to dodge the dart, she charged hard at the girl who responded by launching a grappling cord of her own towards Red Panther's feet. She kicked out earlier than she had wanted to simply to avoid the cord wrapping around both of her feet and it cost her a solid blow. Instead Kat caught her right foot, pulled her forward and then jerked the cord which was now wrapped around Red's left foot. The result was a hard fall onto her back and Kat held now both of her feet. The villainess spread her legs, glanced down and with a lifted boot winked at Red Panther.

“This might hurrrrrt quite a lot,” Kat said with a purr.

Red Panther pulled her legs to a slightly bent position quickly and with drastic speed, spun her body around like a break-dancer. As she spun around, allowing Kat to hold her legs made her twist but it was nothing her toned and flexible body couldn't handle. She found Kat's feet now within her grasp and grabbed each of them with her arms as she jerked downward with her feet, plunging the feline villainess face first onto the hard floor. She sat up, pulled her feet from under Kat and pulled back on her ankles, plunging her boot hard between the villainess' thighs. She leaped to her feet, “See how you like it witch, with a 'B'.”

A quick glance around the room told her that Hammer was on his knees and slowly rising but she had no idea where Myst was. She took a moment to unwrap the cord from her left foot but it almost cost her big time as Hammer was back on her when she looked back up. Luckily, she still held the grapple cord in her hand and wrapped the strong cable around Hammer's neck as she ducked another wild punch. He fell to the ground clutching his neck and coughing. Still seeing no sign of Myst, she decided to get on into the other room and worry about him later but when she turned to run towards the open door she suddenly tripped to the ground.

At first, she figured she had tripped over Kat but when she looked at her feet there was a green fog around her that she had not noticed on the floor before. Suddenly the fog turned into two hands grasping her ankles and she understood. It wasn't fog, it was mist. No wonder he was trying to get hidden from the battle, she thought. Red Panther fought to free her feet but the hands continued to materialize into large fists about three times the size of the villain's normal hands and she couldn't get free for any amount of struggle. As she wriggled like crazy, the mist-fists slung her slender and shapely body into the air.

“Ugh!” she grunted as she slammed back-first into the wall and fell dazed to the floor. Her breath was caught but she still found a way to her shaky legs and struggled to find Myst but once again he was gone so she looked for the green mist instead and found it too late. Once again, the mist began to materialize around her legs and this time wrapped around her lower legs, holding her in place. Red reached down to try and pry the large mist-type rope but that was a mistake. Suddenly two fists appeared and grabbed her wrists, pulling them out to the side.

“Duck this one super-bitch,” a voice said from in front of her.

When Red Panther looked up she saw Hammer coming straight for her once again but this time she could do nothing but watch as his metal-laced fist slammed into her jaw as everything went black.

“Finally,” Glory said with a wave of her hand back towards the rooms she had come through, “I thought I would have to go all the way to Nightcide before I fought someone I had heard of before. How do you boys like it? Your butt whippings, I mean. Let me guess,” she walked into the center of the room which was plenty large enough for a two on one battle, “Mage, the little one, you want to show the world just how good you are and that you can do it all by your little self, we could call you the Little-Villain That Could. Viper,” she shook her head at the mutant, “You see yourself as the best of the best and all you really care about is refusing to allow anyone else to take any credit for something you know you are good enough to do on your own.”

“Glory,” Viper said, “You like to flap your pretty little lips so the two of us don't hear your knees shaking and rattling together.”

Glory shrugged and turned her back to him, “I'm sure you're right inside your own mind Viper. Isn't that what he always sounds like Mage? How badly do you want to be the one who brings the famous Glory in to where Nightcide is waiting, draped over your shoulder proudly so you can proclaim to be the second person to ever defeat me?” She saw a quick look in his eyes and Viper clearly saw it too.

“Don't listen to her Mage,” Viper said, “She's trying to get us against each other so she can take you out fast and then focus on me.”

“What makes you think she would take me out fast?”

“Oh, come on,” Viper threw his hands up, “Look, we can take her together if you want. Would that make you feel better? Seriously, I'd let you help me.”

Glory smirked towards Mage, “My word. I guess that's why Viper is the second in command and you are the lackey that rides around shotgun. You want to take a shot at Glory little buddy?” At the same time, she saw the blood rush to Mage's face, Glory heard Viper move from behind her. She had walked around speaking to one and then the other so that she remained in the middle and they were facing each other. Using her instincts to tell her when, Glory leaped into the air at just the perfect moment.

Screams filled the air as Mage's magical dust flew into Viper's face and the venom from the larger villain hissed all over Mage's face. The attack from Mage was powerful enough that Viper was clawing at the floor while on his hands and knees but Mage was doubled over clawing at his eyes as if they were going to burn out screaming that he was blind. Glory landed one foot to Viper's left and kicked him solidly in the side of the head. He hit the floor quietly as Mage stood up and wildly began to chant something in her general direction. Before he was finished with one sentence however, her fist slammed into his jaw, his head turned violently since he had not seen it coming and he hit the floor in a heap. She shook her head, “Rookies; I honestly expected better of you.”

“You're disappointed in the resistance you have faced thus far? Perhaps we can be of assistance on that matter.”

Glory turned to the doorway she had been about to walk through to find only one villain standing there and while the voice she had heard was smooth and clearly male, the villain standing there was female. The girl was only a few inches shorter than her and wore nearly nothing on her trim frame. There was something odd about the way she was looking towards Glory but of more worry was where the male voice had come from. She began to look around the room with a careful guard in place.

“Don't worry yourself sick about it honey,” the villainess said with a southern drawl, “You're not gonna be awake all that long anyway.”

Suddenly Glory began to feel a little tired and a great deal suspicious. A slight grin appeared on the scantily clad girl's face as she sauntered forward but this was far from Glory's first round. She put her arm to her forehead and her eyes rolled into her head as she fell to her knees.

“What a shame. Slumber has already brought down the legendary Glory. Perhaps you should not underestimate one such as me.”

Glory rolled forward onto her hands and knees as the villain closed in on her. Just as she was within two feet of her, Glory groaned, “No...” and drove from her recoiled legs upwards, driving her fist so hard into the chin of the villainess that she did a complete back-flip, landing in a heap face down on the floor with blood seeping from her mouth. “No, your problem is that villains are too sure of themselves.” Despite her cocky words Glory was already making sure she was more careful because the effect of the mysterious villainess’ powers was still crashing down upon her. She felt a great deal more tired than she should but she knew it was just something she had to overcome, be more careful and watch for anything that could turn the tide of this battle against her.

Suddenly she felt a hand grip first one leg then the other. Glory tried to pull away but was only able to move a few inches while looking around and seeing nobody. The only visible thing were the two large fists that were clamped onto the bottom of her legs but there was no body to go with them. Glory figured it must be the source of the disembodied voice that she had heard recently, possibly a type of shape shifter or something of the sort. Struggling against the grip of the two hands was not working very well so Glory decided instead to stand perfectly still and see what the attacker was planning next and she did not have to wait long.

Quickly a fog or mist started to rise from the floor and she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face more than six inches out. She knew what that probably meant so she closed her eyes and listened. A slight creaking sound in the floor towards the door betrayed the movement of someone who had just run into the room. There was no way to tell what the attacker was planning because she couldn’t see but she could drop into a crouch. When she did she felt the wind from the nearly missed attack blow by above her and heard a crunch of something heavy into the wall. Rising back up, Glory executed a perfect back-bend planting her hands on the floor and arching her body so she could see behind her. There kneeling on the floor was a stocky villain with metal covered fists and she was very glad that she had ducked. Thinking quickly as the attacker came around, she allowed her body to fall awkwardly to the floor with her feet still held tightly by the other villain so she could grab the stocky one behind her. She grabbed his feet, one in each hand, and threw him towards her feet. Two grunts sounded as her feet suddenly were freed and she wasted no time rising from the floor into the air several feet.

There were two figures below her wrapped up in each other’s limbs this time and she knew she must act fast to take both down. Just moments before she could dive into both, the misty villain shoved the stocky one across the room so Glory was forced to settle for her super-powered fist slamming into the jaw of the more mysterious of the two remaining. While it wasn’t as good as taking them both out like she wanted to, it was very satisfying to see the one who could apparently shape-shift crumple to the floor at her feet. It wasn’t satisfying for long however.

“Ah!” she yelped as a heavy fist pounded into her lower back and she felt like her kidneys were going to explode. Shortly another fist connected with her back before another ham-hock slammed into the back of her head and she stumbled two steps forward as a thick hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Just as she was spun around in a very slight daze, Glory barely saw the thick fist coming from the other direction towards her face. With the grace of a bowling ball falling into the gutter she dropped just low enough for the powerful blow to swing passed above her and slam into the wall. His fist was actually stuck in the wall and Glory shook the cobwebs enough to rise and grab his arm. It was like wrapping her strong but thinner arms around a tree limb but her super powers provided enough strength to hold the arm as she planted her sharp boot into his back, figuring to give him a taste of bruised kidneys for his trouble.

The villain grunted twice more as she repeated the boot into his back then she kicked wide into the other side of his body from the arm she was holding. When his opposite arm reached instinctively to grab that side Glory grabbed it and pulled both arms painfully behind him. She planted her boot into the back of the shorter villain’s head and pulled his arms so she basically stomped his face into the floor. He, like the other four villains in the room would not be getting up any time soon. She groaned at the pain in her back, rubbed her eyes to try and shake the sleepy feeling and slowly walked into the next room. Her stomach sank the moment she walked inside at the two people she saw. On the floor, motionless and spread-eagle lay her beloved partner Red Panther with the front of her leotard unzipped down to her crotch and pulled wide enough to reveal both of her breasts. Above and just in front of her was someone much more sinister. Glory crunched her face into a scowl and spat the creature's name, “Nightcide!”

Chapter 3

“Thanks for bagging these boys for us Marvelous Girl,” the younger police officer said, “The Crimson Reapers are usually just small-time thugs but if you say they are worth a big spotlight then we'll take your word for it. Make sure to let us know if you need any help with anything. If in the future...”

“Oh, Jennings, get your nose out of her ass for the love of god!” The older officer was a seasoned – where seasoned means wrinkly, crotchety, and old – detective and had a clear reputation of taking down the best criminals and hating when a caped crime-fighter took one down before he could. “Would you be up my ass if I put a cape and a mask on or is it her tits that draw you in?”

“Ahem! Standing right here fellas.”

The older detective glared at her from roughly the same height, “I see you sweet cheeks. Why don't you put some goddamn clothes on and get a real job? I have the streets wrapped up here all right? I don't need your help and PCPD doesn't need the blood trails you leave behind. If you and the other Ding Wings out here would get the hell out of our way, we'd already have this slave-trade shit wrapped up. Stay out of my way, understand?”

Marvelous Girl rolled her eyes slowly as the old coot spoke to her like she was a piece of meat instead of someone who had just taken down an entire gang single-handedly as well as gaining evidential witnesses to the big slave-trade problem that was growing on the slums like a well-worn wart. She smirked at the thick detective, “You're welcome Detective Meanderings,” she winked at Jennings who was licking his wounds in the background, “Stay sweet Jennings.”

“Mannings! Detective Mannings, you big-titted bimbo!”

The aggressive detective grabbed a handful of Marvelous Girl's arm to turn her around. She turned slowly towards him and followed his gaze down towards her bicep where his hand clinched. Apparently, something about the look in her eyes or the rock-hard arm he was clasped onto did something to his attitude and the detective released his hold and cleared his throat. “You just stay out of my area, all right?” The scowl on his face was just barely unable to mask the shock that her strength had put into him but he was determined to remain an angry old fart until the very end. “Stop sticking your nose in my business, Marvelous Girl, and we'll get along just fine okay?”

She tilted her head to one side as if she were giving the idea serious thought before quickly winking at him, “Nope!” and simply turned to walk away leaving him in a rage of cursing and snorting. Marvelous Girl truly wished that the Pageant City Police Department were made up more of those as accepting as Officer Jennings, even though he clearly was smitten with her as part of the reason for that understanding, than the holier than everyone old asses like Mannings. The truth of the matter was that more would support Mannings' view than that of any officer who was okay with a vigilante doing what many of them saw as their job alone but then she wouldn't be needed in Pageant City if they did that damn job.

She couldn't exactly blame anyone but herself for the way most police officers viewed her however because she was far from a friend to the department. After all, it was just a short few years ago, when she hopped from one group home to the next, with time on the street in-between, running from the law more times than not. It wasn't her job to be a role model for the city or to carry the banner of the department. If they wanted her to have less to do with bringing in bad guys, they would have to get off their collective asses and get it done first. Until that time, she wanted to bring the city that had finally accepted her as a middle-teen with trouble in her past and present to a place it had never been before: one with no crime to worry the kids on the street or in shelters. Until that time she would do what she could to make it a better place even if she had to do it all alone.

The truth was of course, as she flew onto a familiar rooftop which served as a popular meeting spot, that she was not alone in her quest to better the city. One little helper was meeting her here like he often did to assist with rumors and street-level information of the type that she had grown accustomed to a few years ago, but was now unable to keep up with. He was not exactly a vigilante in the making with his plastic-rim glasses including lenses as thick as she had seen and he was a momma's boy with only one friend in the world but that one friend was powerful.

He was waiting on her when she arrived on the rooftop which was covered nicely by the trappings of a community garden of all things. It made for good eating for the occupants of the building as well as good cover for a meeting such as the ones she had up here. Most figured she was a complete loner and she was to some extent. This one most-unlikely fellow was her lone constant extra source of information outside of her own investigating.

“How's it going Tangy?” she said with a slap on his back that sounded and felt like she had slapped a ten-pound bag of flour. He turned his much shorter but fluffy twenty-something frame around and rubbed his shoulder around.

“You have to prove your super-strength each time you slap my back, don't you Em-gee?”

Marvelous Girl shrugged, “What can I say? I guess I don't know my own strength.”

“You lie.”

“Eh, maybe I just like getting a reaction from you.”

“Maybe you like to lie to yourself to practice lying to me.”

“Okay,” she propped her foot on the wall behind her and crossed her powerful arms in front of her chest, “Fun as always Tangy but what's the word on the street about this slave-trade business? I took down the Crimson Reapers several minutes ago, but I assume they were just a small part.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Tangy said with a nod of his round head, “Just a spoke on the wheel for sure. Hold on,” he looked down at his tablet and punched in several words, “You sprang that one on me before I heard about it. Just have to add it here,” he looked up finally, “Good work but I have to say it might only serve to anger whoever is really behind it all.”

“Still no idea?” Marvelous Girl asked.

“There are thousands of ideas and hundreds of suspects,” he replied, “Just no ideas from smart people and no suspects from reliable sources.”

“Have you considered the group I suggested?”

“I have,” he looked down to pull up notes on his electronic partner, “But as best I can tell Nightcide and his cronies are up to their own tricks and as usual are very good at covering their tracks. From what I hear and have been able to decipher, they have nothing to do with the slave-trade ring at all.”

“Damn,” she said in disappointment.

“I have heard a mention of a few names that I had not heard of before digging more this week however, maybe you have heard of one of them?”

“Shoot.”

“Let's see,” he scanned with his forefinger across several pages of electronic notes, “Reaver?”

“No,” she replied quickly.

“Blue Man Band?”

“Aren't they a Vegas act? No,” she corrected herself as she remembered their name was slightly different, “That's not one I've heard of.”

“Daleron?”

“Inside the city?”

“You've heard of him I take it?”

“Last I heard he was running a pimping operation but way outside of the city. I haven't even messed with his situation out there because I don't know if he is doing harm outside of the normal pimping business – might as well leave something to the state boys outside of town to busy themselves with – and secondly, I am busy enough inside the city. Is he here? Inside Pageant City?”

“Unconfirmed rumors at this point Em-gee but if he is in town it could be as a big part of this slave-trade stuff you are worried about,” Tangy clarified.

Marvelous Girl lifted herself off the wall with a sigh, “I see no reason to mess around with a small-time pimp like Daleron if he is just the police department's problem. I did just get a sermon on leaving their shit alone after all. Find me something concrete on him inside the city and connected with the slave-trade ring and I'll pay closer attention. For now, just give me a locale on the Blue Balls Men and Reacher. I'd like to crack a few more heads before I call it a night.”

Tangy laughed as he searched quickly, “I do love your intentional mispronouncing of the bad guys; it shows that girl I knew back in Babatelle’s hallowed halls is still inside the legendary heroine somewhere.”

“You know it Tangy,” she smiled, “I remember those who took care of me back then, even though it’s really just you. The least I can do is repay you as you continue to watch out for me in your own little way.”

“There is something else,” Tangy added with a slightly troubled expression, “Something unrelated to the slave-trade ring.” He went back to pulling up locations as he waited for her response.

The furrowed brow on his face was enough to pull her attention towards whatever he had waiting for her, “What's going on?”

“You remember Glory and Red Panther?”

Marvelous Girl smirked, “The most legendary heroine duo in the history of this region of the country? No, Tangy, never heard of them.”

“Well, if you are that big of a fan then you will really want to know what the word is on them. Per the tale I hear, they suited up and went out tonight.”

“Bullshit! No way!”

“Swear to big-g,” Tangy retorted, “Rock-solid source saw them moving in on a target that apparently was important enough to pull them out of retirement for a day.”

“What target is that?” Marvelous Girl asked as she calmed herself.

“They were seen in Nightcide's area of town.”

Marvelous Girl's grin that had come to her face upon recalling memories of seeing the duo fighting crime when she had lived all over the streets and foster homes of Pageant City evaporated as she understood quickly what Tangy's information meant. There was only one good reason they would be going after Nightcide. “Why? Do you know why or have any guesses why?”

“I don't know Em-gee but I think they might think you were there and in need of rescue.”

“Fuck!”

“Hey,” Tangy said with as stern of a voice as he could manage, “They are legends in their own right. If they want to tangle with the big boys, let them. You have plenty on your plate with this other stuff and have nothing to prove to Glory or Red Panther. Forget them.”

“That's not in the job description Tangy,” Marvelous Girl said with a sour expression, “You know that.”

“Still...”

“No,” Marvelous Girl interrupted, “I won't leave them to deal with Nightcide and his crew by themselves, not for long anyway. She is capable, or at least was before she lost a step, and deserves the respect of me letting her go it by herself for a while. I'll give them long enough for me to run down these other two – Blue Man Band and this Reaver character – but after that I'm going after them. Keep an eye out Tangy and an ear to the ground.” She walked towards the edge of the rooftop and stopped at the very edge with her boots hanging over, “I'll be done by three in the morning with these two groups and by that time I want to know what you've found out. I'm counting on you Tangy. Be there for me all right?”

She saw him nod as she dropped off the roof and was out of earshot by the time his last words to her escaped as he said, “Always, Em-gee.”

It didn't take Marvelous Girl long to reach the place where the Blue Man Band were supposed to be and she was preparing herself for at least a small fight because Tangy's information was always good. Who could know what kind of fighting situation this would be with people stupid enough to call themselves something like that but she would deal with it and try to figure out if there were connections between them and the slave-trade ring.

After hovering around the building for a while she found a spot where she thought she could perch and listen in good. When she arrived at the perch, she didn't have to wait for long. Two girls were bound and gagged, getting prepared for shipment in the same crate that was about to be placed in the back of a cargo van. Moving like a bird swooping in for her prey, Marvelous Girl dove downward, aiming directly for the crate to stop the lid being placed on. The two blue guys holding the lid saw her just a step too late and she crashed through the lid and both gang members.

At least she assumed this was a gang.

When she rose to her feet there were eight of them left standing, each wearing what appeared to be head to toe blue leotards. Two had blue nightsticks while two others had nun-chucks, the rest only had their hands and feet. The eight were circling her like a dance team within moments. She stood unafraid of their antics as they took each step in perfect time.

“I don't know why this slave-trade mess is so worth it for you blue boys but you're about to regret every single young woman you kidnapped in about a minute and a half.” When she finished her taunt, they all moved towards her two steps and she lifted her arms in a guard position but they stepped back out again. Suddenly they were moving in and out as if they were a ribcage around a pair of lungs. Their timing was incredible but it wouldn't save them.

Abruptly they came in but instead of only coming in two steps they came all the way to her faster than she was prepared for them to and it cost her. She felt at least two pair of legs sweep her feet from underneath her but instead of hitting the ground, she felt two pair of hands on each leg, one group of hands on each arm, and one pair of nun-chucks wrapped around the front of her neck trying to choke her out. She struggled at first but quickly found out that she was wrapped in a way that only tightened when she did so and chose to simply be still and wait for an opening. At least none of them had reached for her chest or anything worse.

Then like a machine they moved as one unit, twisting her body one way only to quickly flip her the other and slam her face down onto the floor. It was a stunning blow and hurt like hell but she already figured out that these guys were more than a group to laugh at and had no plans to lay there and wait for their next machine-like attack. Marvelous Girl shoved off the floor with a rush of desperation and flew fifteen feet into the air, snatching one weapon on the way up. The group all looked up at her as if they had the same mind except the one who was suddenly aware that he had lost a night stick. She scowled down at them, “You know what they say boys, 'Fool me once...' and all of that.”

Like a bullet, she began to spin as she dropped back down towards them, landing in the middle of them she kept her spin going and gave everyone a taste of the stick held in her powerful grasp before leaping backwards. On her back-flip she grabbed the leotard of one blue guy right at the shoulders so she would have the most leverage. She held on so that when she flipped down to the floor she had plenty of power to pull the man over and slam him hard into the floor. He wasn't dead but more than likely would be hearing voices for a long time after that head trauma. Marvelous Girl held him limp in a one hand grasp. This time when they came towards her it was not as one body. She kicked sideways to the head of the first attacker, switched feet to kick the second and then wound up with the limp man and threw his like-dead body at the remaining three. They all landed in a heap and were more than primed for a quick punch to the temple to put them completely out cold before the fight could begin again.

The two original she had taken down finally rose to their feet and began looking around. Upon seeing the rest of their team unconscious, they came at her one slightly in front of the other. Marvelous Girl rolled her eyes and waited a beat before taking a step and leaping into a twisting roundhouse kick that flipped the first attacker. Her feet landed solidly just as she slammed a hard fist into the chin of the final attacker who dropped like a bad habit to the floor at her feet.

It took a few moments to revive the chloroformed beauties in the crate who were shocked but more than grateful to their saving grace and perfectly willing to call the proper authorities to pick the group up. It was the perfect end to that mix-up with a captured group and two saved girls who could all witness to whoever oversaw this city-sweeping problem. It was odd that she had started the night just wanting a fight and stumbled onto a way to clean a few active members out in the slave-trade ring.

Maybe it was dumb luck or providence but either way, her wrath was having a decent effect on the city tonight so she saw little reason to stop and headed towards the spot where the Reaver guy was supposed to be. Maybe she would severely piss off whoever was in charge during her quest for a few fights tonight and they would find her instead of her having to seek them out for months on in. Either way, there was at least one more bad guy between her and having to possibly tangle with Nightcide and his bunch again so she planned to make short work of Mr. Reaver. Maybe she should start every night by simply looking for a fight, she wondered, since this one had turned out so well.

Chapter 4

Glory had dreamed about that moment for what seemed like forever and most of the time those dreams turned into nightmares with her on the terrible losing end to Nightcide once again. For all of that to be running through her head as well as the memory of the defeat she suffered at his hands the last time they met, she figured to have almost no chance and yet she didn't feel anything but confident when the moment finally came. To her shock, she was far from the timid heroine trying not to lose when the battle arrived at long last, but instead found herself launching towards the vile man of mysteriously great power with fists outstretched.

This was far from her first fight of course, let alone her first with this villain so she knew well how his mind worked. He was a bruit, proud of his strength and in love with using it to bring down anything or anyone in his path. That was why the full-on, mid-air charge was a faint. When she got close enough that Nightcide started to move his huge arm towards her, Glory quickly changed her tactic by dropping to the floor and into a slide that took her directly between his legs. The man was close to seven feet tall so it wasn't difficult to slip through and spring up to her feet before he turned around.

The moment he turned, there was a super-powered foot ready to meet his jaw, boot-point first. Glory kicked through the way she had been taught decades ago and spun to deliver a follow-up back kick to his head as well. When she planted her feet again he appeared dazed so she planted her hand on her hip and reached for his head with the other but this time she had been too confident. His large fist swung forward and drove into her stomach. The air left her lungs as she doubled over and Nightcide wasted little time grabbing her arm and slinging her with great strength into the wall on the other side of the room. Her vision was hazy after the powerful blow but she saw him charging just in time to avoid what might have otherwise been the end of the fight.

Without enough clear energy at that moment to leap into the air, Glory instead spun to one side as Nightcide charged into the wall. He was dazed for a moment and she was still clearing some cobwebs but was clear enough to plant a hard kick into his stomach which drew a grunt of pain from the huge villain. Glory followed with another kick but Nightcide was ready and snatched her ankle out of mid-air.

He glared sideways at her as he used his grip to drag her close enough to clamp his metal fist around her neck and Glory could only close her eyes and wait as he used his grip to slam her bodily into the wall and then onto the floor. Dazed was too light of a word for what she felt as she groaned and turned over slightly at the pain ringing in her head but Nightcide was far from finished. She soon felt a double-fist slam into her mid-section once and then into the small of her back as she tried to roll away from the pain. As she continued her roll away from where she thought the next blow would land, his fists landed again into her stomach and sent her into a curled ball of pain. A heroine such as Glory rarely felt pain at all in a fight like this but with Nightcide’s natural strength and his metal arms to back him up, pain was a given. The issue was withstanding the pain and finding a way to first, survive and second, win the fight.

Most of those goals were far from her mind as he lifted her from the floor and propped her against the wall of the large room. Her eyes opened to see him smiling at her from a mere foot away. He was gloating over his victory which made all the pain she had gone through after her last defeat at his hands swim back into her mind, but instead of defeating her spirit like he probably hoped it would serve to do, it motivated her to fight harder and find a way to beat his big metal butt.

With her in such a clearly pained state, Nightcide likely expected many things before he would have expected a terribly hard right hook landing on the point of his chin. His surprise showed in his reaction as he stumbled to one side two full steps. Glory was motivated even more by his stumble to the side and charged from the wall with renewed desire to take him down. She flew in a dive towards him, aiming for his legs and drove her fists into the back of both knees so hard that he fell hard to the ground on both knees. Standing behind him with him on his knees, Glory grabbed his big pig head and dropped herself to the ground, slamming his head down hard in the process.

She knew he was stunned so she took the time to walk around his downed frame to grab his feet and once she had them she started spinning. Her spin went on for a solid thirty seconds before she released his huge vile body and he spun into the far wall so hard that he went through it and into the next room. Glory put her fists on her hips in satisfaction and took a moment to check on Red Panther. She wasn't moving at all but was somewhat responsive in a reflexive way so Glory zipped her costume back up to her neck and proceeded after Nightcide, planning to end the fight for hopefully a final time.

Reaching through the hole in the wall, Glory dragged Nightcide through by his underarms into the larger room once again. She had dragged him almost to the center when he seemed to regain his understanding of the situation. In what could be called a panic or either a wonderfully great job of playing possum, Nightcide suddenly jerked and wriggled free of her grasp enough that he had room to get to his feet. Still feeling confident when she charged back towards him, Glory was stunned when he spun in time to deliver a devastating punch right to the side of her head.

One knee hit the floor instantly as her vision swam with darkness. Where he had come with that punch could either be desperation or perfect planning but it didn't matter. Glory had gone from winning this fight to trying not to fall unconscious in a matter of about ten seconds. She had little time to rest as another large fist came towards her face but she barely ducked as it flew by over her head. Figuring to take advantage of his being off-balance, Glory leaned forward to try and take him down at the legs but it was a mistake as his knee bent and caught her flush on the forehead.

This time she was down on all fours with a grunt of pain and try as she might she couldn't get the cobwebs out of her head. Visions of what happened before started to come back to her and Glory knew she had to move. Unfortunately for her, Nightcide knew that as well and had no intention of allowing it as his big foot crashed down on her back, stomping her onto the floor. As the pain was setting in from that blow, he dropped what had to be an elbow on her back and she arched in pain, rolling away to one side of the room, scrambling to try and find a way back into the fight.

She saw him charging for her at about a normal rate of speed and figured she might be able to catch him off guard. Just as he got close enough she timed her jump from the floor and tried to spin and scissor her legs to kick him off to one side. To her surprise, the big villain sped up when he saw her in the air and caught her feet before she could turn all the way around or kick him. His grip on her lower legs forced her to turn back to face him as he held a calf now under each powerful arm. Before she could decide how best to get out of the bad situation, he grabbed the front of her costume, lifted her up with the sound of a rip of the tough fabric and slammed her down on her back, the back of her head bouncing off the floor. Glory was stunned the first time but he followed it up by lifting again and slamming her onto the ground again.

His deep voice rang out, “Its over Glory and you know what I want.”

Her arms now were unable to grasp him in any form of desperation as he flung her into the air once again, preparing to slam her down once more in a move that would surely end the fight in a bad way.

“Glory!”

The familiar sound of Red Panther's voice forced her from a near slumber and she saw her friend's grappling gun in her hand. It took Glory a moment to realize that the end of it was wrapping around her waist as Nightcide attempted to slam her back down. The gun pulled from Red Panther's weakened grasp but the tug was enough to turn Glory's body and mess up the body slam that Nightcide was planning. Instead she landed badly but was able to stumble onto her feet as the big villain looked up in surprise. Glory was determined not to allow him another chance to win the fight and already had spent whatever reserves of energy to leap and spin into a hard kick to the side of his head.

She heard him grunt in pain as she landed and that confirmed she had hit him flush with the kick so she followed with a hard punch to his forehead that snapped his head backwards. His huge arm threw forward in a punching motion and Glory was lucky enough that his aim was off and the fist went passed her. She grabbed his arm and swung him farther off balance, circling around him in the process and delivering a hard straight kick to his back which drove him into the wall. She knew he was turning around swiftly so she was already in the air when he turned and her double-fist blow struck him perfectly on the tip of his nose. His knees buckled and Glory saw victory in her future.

She shouted, “You want something from me?” Quickly, like a boxer with his opponent on the ropes, she delivered punch after punch to his face and some to his torso as his arms slowly dropped to his side.

“You can have it, you bastard!” She struck him again and again, accenting each blow by screaming the word at the end of her sentence.

“Every ounce of pain!” A right slammed into his jaw.

“Every bad dream!” A left burst into his chin.

“Every single tear!” Right.

“Every lonely night!” Left

“Yes!” Red Panther yelled emotionally from behind her.

“All of my doubts!” Right.

“All of my fears!” Left.

“You can have it ALL, damn you!”

Glory paid little attention to anything but Nightcide's big head bouncing off the wall as his gaze became dim. Finally, after what must have been two minutes of punching at speed and her most powerful strength, she spun for added velocity and slammed her knuckles on his chin. The vile man's head snapped violently to one side and he began to fall to the ground. Glory wanted to take nothing for chance so she planted her foot on the back of his head and assisted his trip to the ground, accenting it by crushing his face into the floor.

“Glory!”

She turned to see what Red Panther needed and was shoved in the back for her troubles. Stumbling across to where her partner was, Glory turned to see a few minions she had not fought gathering a limp Nightcide and taking him farther into the compound extremely quickly. At first Glory, still full of emotion and adrenaline from exercising her demons on Nightcide's face, stood to her feet and planned to follow but Red Panther stopped her with a hand on her thigh.

“No,” she panted, “Glory, no, not this time. We don't know what he has waiting inside this place but we need to chalk this up as a win and get out. I have a feeling Marvelous Girl was gone when we got here anyway. Take me out of here and let’s let the bad guys deal with a defeat the slow way.”

Glory clinched her fist for a moment, not wanting to allow Nightcide to get away, but they had already sealed doors behind them as they went and Red was right that there was no way to know what kind of traps were waiting deeper within the place. She softened her stance and allowed her adrenaline to drop at last and almost collapsed, would have if Red Panther hadn't of steadied her. It had been a terrible battle but she won in the end. She had done it, beaten Nightcide one on one, with a little assist from Red Panther and felt darn good about it. Looking down she nodded with a grin, “I think I'm getting too old for this Red, what about you?”

“Heck no,” Red Panther answered as they carefully helped each other outside, “I was just laying down here for the fun of it and a front row seat you know? I didn't get my ass kicked or anything. We won at their place,” she added with satisfaction at last, “That is all that matters.” Within minutes the famous duo was outside and a few streets away, their return to action considered a victory by both and their heads held high in satisfaction.

Chapter 5

When Marvelous Girl walked to the skylight that proved after much investigating to be the best view into the warehouse, she was only hoping to gain some insight as to how many thugs she was going to be dealing with and to what kind of a thug this Reaver character was. He was one she had not heard of before and that at least led her to being a little excited about putting another new face behind bars. She was surprised that there weren't more people inside as all she saw were two thugs and one rather large guy dressed like a character from a video game – complete with shiny armor and all the trimmings.

“All right, Reaver,” she said aloud, “I don't know how you got involved with the slave-trade crap but you are about to wish you weren't.” She simply stood and walked to the edge of the building where she stepped off, lowered herself easily to the ground and demolished the heavy door with a stern foot to the locking side. All three men inside glared at her, Reaver doing so through a shiny helmet. She shrugged confidently, “Don't look at me. You're the idiots who thought it was a good idea to trade humans for profit.”

Reaver pointed in her direction with what looked like a chrome-plated sledge hammer, probably the five-pound variety, “Get her!”

Marvelous Girl half expected a dozen more thugs to come running from some secret room but all that attacked were the two thugs she had seen. They looked like they were confident in their ability and didn't just run at her like morons. Still she was far from worried as they circled her, keeping her arms relaxed at her sides and her feet shoulder width apart. A glance towards Reaver showed that he was not moving so she focused on the thugs as one lunged forward. Something in his motion seemed hesitant so on a hunch Marvelous Girl blocked the other way. The first thug stopped his bluff attack just as the second attempted a blind right hook towards what had been the back and left side of her head. Only, it wasn't anymore. She glared at him as she caught his fist in her hand and squeezed. The man yelped in pain as she heard a crack in his fist and she swung him past her to take down the other thug. They were both on the ground as Marvelous Girl leaped over and put them down with two swift but non-deadly kicks to the side of their heads.

“Most impressive Marvelous Girl,” a deep voice said from her far left.

It was Reaver who was still standing in the same position and pointing that sledge at her. As she walked closer, she saw that it was not a sledge hammer but something different. Maybe he had crafted his own little hammer or maybe he bought it at the hardware store and painted it. Either way, she was about to end their little time together. “You can still give up Reaver. We can do this the easy way and maybe you'll even get less prison time by turning evidence over on your boss.”

“Oh, I do not intend to go to prison my little heroine.”

“You don't?” Marvelous Girl asked with a chuckle, “I'd love to see you talk your way out of it after I come over there and break your jaw.” She lifted off and shot over towards him through the air, aiming to end the fight quickly with a strong punch to the face. She was closing with super-human speed that would make her appear more like a bullet than a person. Something odd happened just before impact and suddenly she drove her fist into the wall.

I missed? How did I miss?

Marvelous Girl turned around quickly to see Reaver standing in full armor now holding two of the same hammer-like weapon. It was then that she remembered what she had seen. He had pulled the second weapon and slapped them together just before she missed. Now she was circling with a look of mild irritation on her face.

“Missed me,” he taunted.

Now that she was within feet of the villain, Marvelous Girl wasted no time in attacking again with blinding speed. Her fists slammed hard, at speed and full power – into the wall. She spun around to see Reaver behind her again and shot towards him on the ground at speed but she missed again. This time she turned around and eyed the villain with pure anger.

How do I keep missing?

“What's wrong Marvelous Girl? I thought this was going to be a simple win for you.” Reaver held the chrome weapons up and taunted her forward with them, “Here I am, couldn't miss me if you tried. What are you waiting for?”

Before she could answer he slammed the hammers together and disappeared. Marvelous Girl stopped in shock but before she could look around, the hammer-like weapons appeared in front of her. Reaver had somehow appeared behind her and reached around her with his large frame to hold the hammers in front of her. She went to grab them from his hands but they avoided her grasp as if of their own accord. Stunned couldn't begin to explain her reaction when the things suddenly transformed themselves into chrome-plated hands about twice normal size. She was confused and actually didn't know what to do as the hands, still held in Reaver's grasp, clasped to her breasts tightly enough that they may as well have been plastered on with ultra-powerful glue.

“Agh!” she grunted as a current that felt like electricity but slightly different somehow began to shock her breasts where the hands grasped her. Marvelous Girl reached for the weapons but could do nothing to push them away. At first, she wondered if they were stronger than her but that was far from the truth. Her left arm felt weak as her legs threatened to buckle and she knew.

“No!” Marvelous Girl said weakly pushing with her weakened hands at the large weapons, “Weapons are draining my power! Making me weaker.”

“Yes,” Reaver said from behind her, “You probably wondered how I captured so many women for trading by myself with a couple of henchmen. These little babies are how I do that. They are draining your strength. With them in my hands, even the powerful Marvelous Girl is no match for Reaver!”

“No...” Marvelous Girl wanted to argue more and struggle but she could do nothing to stop her right arm from falling to her side. Her left arm soon followed as she finally dropped to her knees. She thought she would have dropped all the way to the floor but Reaver grabbed her cape and held her in a kneeling position with it. Incredibly the weapons were still clasped to her chest even though his hands were no longer holding them. One was on her cape and the other was pulling her costume hard upwards – giving her a wedgie.

“How about I make you my latest contribution to the boss? You'd gain a hefty price no doubt.”

“No... ugh... you can't...”

“I can't?” Reaver asked from behind her, “You dare tell me – from your knees – what I can and cannot do? Marvelous Bitch, with these weapons in my control I can make you suck my cock if I want to right now.”

“N... n...never...” Marvelous Girl couldn't even feel her feet anymore she was so weak but she clamped her lips shut and refused to even consider allowing anything into her mouth. Suddenly however, one of the weapons came off her chest and approached her lips. The thing transformed again, this time into a sliver that looked like paper or water. The thin material slipped between her lips and she felt it slither into her mouth and onto her tongue. To her shock, the weapon then changed again, this time turning itself into a large phallus. Reaver turned her head around just as the weapon came out of her mouth and jammed his swollen cock into her mouth.

“Never tell me what I cannot do Marvelous Whore!”

Fear began to creep into Marvelous Girl's mind as she wondered what she could do to get herself out of this helpless mess. Just then she heard sirens not far away and Reaver cursed. Faster he pumped his cock into her mouth, faster and faster. He grunted as he got close and then a sound came that she never expected.

“Unhand Marvelous Girl!”

That couldn't be who it sounded like, not with her in this position. No one would be that unlucky. She could still do nothing but wish she had planned more for this little fight as he held her head by a fistful of hair and slammed his cock into her. She felt him swelling inside her mouth and he grunted as he pumped his load into her. A stream of cum dragged away from her mouth as he pulled away. She wanted to rise and fight but she could do nothing when he released her but drop to the floor with cum dripping from her lips and watch. Worse than the fact that the rescuers at the door had seen her like this was the warmth she felt between her thighs. She must be hazy-minded because there was no way she enjoyed being helpless and having a villain's shaft shoved down her throat.

Sure enough, it was Glory and Red Panther who had walked in. They were apparently going to save her instead of the other way around, only she couldn't warn them about the weapons. Marvelous Girl watched in shock as the thing transformed into a fist and sped away from Reaver's grasp. Glory was unprepared as it slammed into her chin at speeds that would rival any superhero in the world. Glory's head hit the floor before the rest of her body as she was slammed onto the floor by the heavy, magical fist. Red Panther ducked a similar attack as the red and blue lights flashed outside of the warehouse.

Reaver drew the weapons back to his hands somehow or they flew there or something and he clapped them together. With the spark that arose from the slamming of them together, Reaver was gone, transported somewhere nearby Marvelous Girl guessed. He may as well be in another solar system as the officers walked into the door. There were two good things at that moment. None of the officers at the scene had come across her yet and she was able to get to her knees and unsteadily onto her feet quicker than expected. Red Panther headed off the police officers and explained the situation. Marvelous Girl knew the famous partner of Glory couldn't tell the entire story but she didn't care. Running over to Glory, she gathered the unconscious legendary heroine into her grasp and flew away.

Once they were far away from the prying eyes of the cops or anyone else who could have made a huge mess of the situation, they finally settled down onto a random rooftop that protected them from any on-lookers. It was quiet because Glory was clearly pissed off that she had been sucker-punched by some unknown magical device and was not in the mood to talk. Marvelous Girl of course was also not in the mood to talk because she had been much more than just sucker-punched by them. The fool Reaver had drained her strength and forced her to suck his cock and she still didn't understand quite how. If Glory, Red Panther and the cops had not shown up, she was certain Reaver would have taken even more liberties with her.

“It could have been worse.”

“Red,” Glory replied from a leaning position against the far wall, “Neither of us want to hear that right now. I defeated Nightcide just to get my head knocked off by a flying fist, for god’s sake. What the heck was that thing anyway?”

Marvelous Girl shrugged but said nothing. She had finally been in the same battle with the legendary Glory and had been totally humiliated for it.

“You might as well speak to us Marvelous Girl,” Glory said, “We've all been there.”

“Don't tell me where I have been Glory!” Marvelous Girl yelled. “I know you well enough but you don't fucking know a think about me!”

Glory grinned in spite of her situation and clear irritation, “Look, I get it. Take it out on me if you want but it won’t take away what you are feeling. You have to just get on with fighting crime and put it behind you.”

“Says the heroine who got her ass handed to her once and quit,” Marvelous Girl quipped.

Glory shook her head, “Okay, fine you're right. You're right about everything. Is that what you want to hear?”

It wasn't at all what she wanted to hear. What Marvelous Girl wanted to do was bash her fist into Glory's face for acting like she understood her but something inside stopped her. It was probably the simple fact that she knew deep down that Glory was right and that she was acting like a damned idiotic teenager. With a sigh, she took things back to the subject at hand, “I don't know what they were and basically have no idea why they were able to transport a no-name villain quickly around the room and from the world of the unknown low-lifers to someone for me to pay a lot more attention to. Happy?”

Glory smiled as she walked slowly across the roof, “Make fun all you want Marvelous Girl but I had to get past getting beaten you know? Take it from me, don't let one defeat take you down for good or even make you doubt yourself – not that you are doubting yourself. You are the best heroine going today in this entire region of the world. What more could you do? If I had gotten over getting beaten earlier, maybe this slave-trade ring would never of even gotten started. Can you imagine both of us,” she glanced at Red Panther, “All three of us patrolling Pageant City?”

“It would be a force all villains would've had to take notice of to be sure,” Marvelous Girl said.

Red Panther stepped forward between she and Glory, “Why are we talking in what-ifs here girls? Seems to me that we all had each other’s backs pretty well tonight. Glory would have been in a bad way if I hadn't of swung things back in her direction with one timely move.”

“True,” Glory said with a firm nod.

“I would be out of my mind with pain or something like it as a captive of those guys if she hadn't of been there to take Nightcide on in the first place.”

“True.”

“You,” Red Panther continued, pointing at Marvelous Girl, “You would've been in all kinds of trouble if we hadn't of shown up when we did and Glory's cold-cocked self would have been a sight many wanted to see if I hadn't of distracted everyone and if you hadn't of gotten the both of you out of there.”

“What are you getting at here?” Marvelous Girl asked with her arms crossed in front of her.

Red Panther shook her head, “Don't you see it? We need to form a team! All three of us need to be on a team together so that we can always have each other’s backs!”

“I work alone,” Marvelous Girl chimed in.

“No,” Glory said, “She's right. It would be a force to be reckoned with now, just like you said Marvelous Girl. Maybe we could find someone trustworthy to help us out with information as well.”

Marvelous Girl took a moment to consider it and had to admit that it made sense. Still, it was not something she could really say she wanted. It was something that would be stupid to ignore completely though so she chimed in about the information king she knew. “I know somebody who knows a lot of stuff and has always been reliable. His name is Tangy. I can get in touch with him and see if he is in but I still need to think it over.”

“Tangy?” Red Panther asked. “Short fellow with glasses and knows everything?”

“You know him?” Marvelous Girl asked in confusion then put it together in an instant of clarity, “Oh, he told you where I was didn't he?”

“He did,” Glory said, “Cute little guy said you were long overdue to help us out and figured you might need some assistance. He seems to be the perfect choice. Can you get in touch with him soon? We should find somewhere secure to meet.”

“I can,” Marvelous Girl answered, “Tangy probably would have a good idea of a place to gather, providing I agree to join in with this.”

“We're going to watch your back anyway,” Red Panther said with a smirk, “You were watching ours tonight. Even if you don't join you'll be doing the same thing. Might as well add a meeting now and then and call it a group of heroes to scare the small timers away.”

Marvelous Girl agreed to think it over and left it at that.

Once she arrived back at her lofty apartment she hopped in the shower. Her mind briefly swam back to feeling completely helpless in the magical hands and Reaver's strong grasp, how it felt to have his cock forced into her mouth. Part of it was revolting, most of it was revolting and made her want to scrub her tongue with a wire brush. Some small part of her, though she was fighting with the feeling, liked the way it felt.

The moment she was made helpless, she was extremely turned on and even in the shower so much later, it still turned her on. Each time upon getting turned on she felt weaker instantly. She managed to refuse herself release in the shower but went to bed wondering why she felt the way she did even in the smallest way. Could it be traced back to that bastard Mage and his spells? She might could learn something about it by talking to Glory or Red Panther but then, she couldn't really admit to them that a miniscule part of her may have enjoyed being helpless. In the end, she knew she just had to get over it and trusted herself to do so as she wrapped herself in her covers and went to sleep.

Chapter 6

Winds change, money comes and goes and the sun always rises on the same side of the planet. Those things just happened but getting defeated twice in two consecutive fights was something that just did not happen; not to Nightcide. That was the topic all were avoiding as Mage and Viper stood in front of his desk in his office. The room was dark, outfitted with deep tones of blue steel that adorned not only the ceiling and walls but also his desk and the floor. He was a bit obsessed about metals and all forms of steel since his successful surgery so long ago. It had actually been that long since he came up on the short end of any battle, much less two in a matter of days against Marvelous Girl and Glory.

Marvelous Girl had bested him one on one, fair and square but had left when she got the opening instead of remaining to finish the fight. The fight against Glory was more than irritating because he had her exactly where he wanted her. That damned sidekick of hers, Red Panther stuck her fucking nose in at just the right moment to save Glory's red, white and blue ass.

“We keep getting the same requests over and over again,” Donovan said.

Nightcide glanced at the man who served him in many ways and had done so for a very long time. He was gray now with a receding hairline but his mind was as sharp as ever, as were his other abilities. The man was short and chubby but he could look at facts and predict future events almost to the point of being clairvoyant. He also was great with spy networks and finding out the best information that the underworld had to offer. He was glad for something besides Glory or Marvelous Girl to talk about so asked, “The slave-trade ring?”

“Yes, sir,” Donovan replied, “They are offering a twenty-five percent cut of the house, if you get my meaning, if we join in. Nobody else is getting that offer, not even Daleron. Then again, these are mostly rumors because we cannot really be certain of what has actually been offered to anyone since they are off the grid.”

“Of course, they aren't offering anyone else what we would get,” Viper said in his familiar cocky tone of voice, “They are all small-time compared to us. Even Daleron is only a glorified pimp. There is a reason he keeps his ass out of the city. He can't handle the heroines in town and he knows it. We are right here among them, they know we are here and they still can't get rid of us.”

“What the snake says is true,” Mage said, “It’s a good deal if we wanted to dip into a smaller pool for the sake of causing a stir and making a buck or two. Could even get us a few new agents in the process.”

“Do not assume how small the operation is when we do not know for certain. But no,” Nightcide ordered flatly, “We are staying out of it for now. I get what they are doing but whomever is calling the shots has yet to show himself in any way and I don't work with people who keep their identity from me.”

“You want me to officially refuse them?”

“No, Donovan, just ignore it. It’s not worthy of our time right now and I want them to know it. Maybe if we sit back and watch for a while, we will learn enough to take advantage of information. Who knows? They might even take a notch or two out of our enemies. For now, we stay put and keep a low profile.” Nightcide glared at each in turn, “Get out of my office gentlemen. Before you leave, Donovan, get me the plans and any inside sources from the Halen Ogden Prison Complex.”

“The HOG?” Donovan asked, “I might risk asking why? Are you building your own version of their meta-human prison for Glory and the girls?”

Nightcide shook his head, “Nothing of the sort. Just get me what I asked for and then follow the other two out of my office. I have plans to make.”

In Pageant City there was the so-called criminal underworld and then there was the actual underworld. Theirs was not a city that had an area underground in the downtown area, there was nothing underground at all except a basement in most homes around town. Rules were made for exceptions however and this one was no different.

Morris Heights was the richest neighborhood in the city and had the best crime rate in that area of the country. Literally, the residents could leave their doors unlocked and didn't even have to be cautious. Little did any of the rich wigs know that about half of a mile below their precious Heights was the well-guarded and very secure headquarters for what was already the biggest criminal operation in the city and soon would grow to the largest in the state that no one knew anything about.

Nobody involved knew more than two people above their rank, making it impossible for anyone to really get to the boss without going through every single level of rank and file. The chances of them getting all the way through those villains was remote at best and the chances of even the greatest heroes of getting through all of the layers without the big boss knowing were absolute zero. Another rule the boss had set in place was that all communication, every single form of communication above street level conversations was to be done via paper folded in a triangular fashion, like a flat paper airplane, and placed in a brown envelope. Anyone who was anyone had a tech guy who could get all of the dirt on any organization just because everyone was in love with technology. That was not the case for this crime organization. But then, the boss had no need to be popular and was very accustomed to doing without technology. There wasn't even any power in the lower four levels of the underground compound, only lanterns kept aflame.

Lucien Thorn, known to many in the criminal underworld by various other names, was just climbing up a ladder that led him finally back to level two and the light pierced his vision he had been in lantern light for so long. His job had been to take a message to his superior who according to what Thorn knew was just only two ranks away from the boss. Still, that meant that Thorn would have to climb one rank higher before he actually was allowed to see or talk directly to the boss, a person or being who Lucien knew nothing about, not that he wanted to.

The group of people working directly with the boss never got to leave because they had seen the boss and were a risk of exposure, or so they were all told. The truth of the matter was that nobody other than the boss and those close to him or her knew what went on down there. It could be a video game and porn film fest for all he knew. He decided to take it at face value however because he liked the money and the spot he was in. Also, Lucien liked the sun just fine and promotions around Sedem Regni, as the boss had named the compound, came around whenever somebody pissed off the wrong person and Lucien had no interest in climbing high enough that his smart mouth could end his job or life. Lucien rounded a corner and walked directly into the first room on his right. It was a meeting room of sorts and waiting inside was a courier who would take the response that Lucien had with him back in the other direction.

“Do you have it?” the squirmy little fellow asked.

Lucien held up the envelope in his left hand, “Of course but it’s nothing special.”

“Oh? I expected more noise since this happens to be news of Nightcide himself refusing to work with us.”

He laughed at the courier's misunderstanding. “My dear little man, this is not a big deal for Sedem Regni. You know that is the Latin version of Seat of Power, right? These little gangs that get picked off here and there by the cops or even heroes, are like dirt under our fingernails. Nightcide, his boys and his reputation are grand but they would still be nothing more than a left hand compared to who we are. This is where the power in this town lies. The response is likely a blank page, from what I understand of others like it. The boss simply does not care. It’s a non-issue.”

“It was a big enough issue that you were required to take it to the lower levels,” the little man retorted. “That's better than most.”

“You need to leave,” Lucien said and he used a magically enhanced left glove to pull the door open with a thought. “Go, now.”

“Oh, yes sir, but one more thing. Sorry, I forgot to give this to you earlier. May I wait for a response?” A shaky hand laid another brown envelope down on the table.

Lucien's eyes became slits as he pondered killing the man where he stood but he decided to wait at least until he read what had been brought. He opened the envelope because it was addressed to his rank which was probably why the courier hadn't sent it with him. He knew Thorn would be the one dealing with it. The letter was from a small-time thug who had just gotten a great deal of attention from the boss first of all and then apparently from a few heroes.

S.R.

I received the shipment and they are grand! It is unbelievable what they can do and I appreciate the favor that the gift shows me. However, there is one problem. Recently I was visited by two heroines, and good ones, well, no there were three actually. First there was Marvelous Girl, yes the Marvelous Girl and later Glory and her sidekick. I... defeated Marvelous Girl soundly thanks to the weapons you sent me and their incredible power but Glory and her red girl walked in before I could finish the job. I could have packaged her up real nice if not for that but now... now, I'm worried they will come for revenge. If you want continued shipment from me, I am afraid I need some more protection or more henchmen, security or at least a few good fighters.

Reaver

Lucien motioned for the courier to wait and leaned over to write and quickly packaged it up and gave it back to the man, “Send this back in his direction. You may go now.” He watched the courier scoot quickly out the door and he gladly went back to his own business. Things were busier than ever. After all, even Sedem Regni couldn't organize a successful criminal organization on simple slave-trade. They had a ton of things going on and as of yet, nobody was coming close to slowing them down at all; not Glory or Red Panther, the cops or even Marvelous Girl.

A few of the thugs that he had been able to hire to work for him thought it was odd that he dressed up like a Roman soldier most of the time. They were entitled to their opinion as long as they didn't mind him kicking them out on their asses. The two he had fighting for him at the moment were good for putting off the cops if they were to come calling for one reason or another. He couldn't very well let them know he was here or who he was after all or he would never be able to gain a higher cut from his new bosses at Sedem Regni.

“Mr. Reaver, sir?”

Reaver glanced up at the door with a look of pure hatred at the thug who had the ability to fight well enough but certainly couldn't fight one of those heroines and he had the brain of a ball-peen hammer. “For the last fucking time, it’s just Reaver! What is it?”

“This was slipped under the back door. It’s one of those envelopes that you told us to bring you right away if we got them. Can I just leave it right here?”

Reaver shook his head, “Give it to me.” The young man did so and just stood there. Reaver glared up at him and exploded, “GET OUT!” He jumped and stumbled out the door while Reaver opened the envelope to find the same thing he sent out with a short scribbled bit below what he had written.

Agent,

You are only one of countless agents we have. Either handle the attention working for S.R. gets you or get out of the way so someone else can do it. If you cannot handle it of course, we will need to make arrangements to pry the weapons we gave you out of your cold dead fingers.

Trusting you understand,

S.R.

Reaver stood from his chair and slammed his fists onto the table in front of him, “Bastards!” The heavy wood cracked from the force of his blow but didn't break as he began to pace from one side of the room to the other. “You're going to give me these fucking super-weapons and then treat me like I'm a second rate thug? Fucking bastards! Seat of Power, my big ass! Deal with it huh? How would they like it if Marvelous Girl and Glory and friends came calling on their home base? Fucking trolls, living under the damn ground somewhere probably. Don't have the balls to face a single cop, let alone a real heroine or hero but I am just expected to deal?”

He sat, leaning over the counter at the back of his large office and glanced at his reflection in the helmet that he wore. He scowled at himself, “They want me to prove myself when these bitches come after me? Fine, I'll show them just exactly who they are dealing with! Boys! Come to my office now!” He added under his breath, “We have plans to make.” Before they arrived, he took a moment to write up another little note to his supposed bosses. This one was not to be quite as friendly as the last.

Chapter 7

It took over a week for everyone to come together again but by the time they did, they were all ready to agree on most everything it would take to work together. Tangy, Glory, Red Panther and Marvelous Girl were meeting in a location that they all figured would be as safe as any other. The random rooftop was one of many where Tangy felt comfortable speaking about secret matters. They would keep their different hero schedules for the most part and would not interfere in each other’s battles except for under two special circumstances.

They would each agree to come to the assistance of the other if Tangy or anyone else gave them reliable information that another was in trouble. The other circumstance for working together was the one they planned on putting into action one night after the meeting; when they were going to take down Reaver in a three on one shellacking. The poor bastard and his pretty weapons would have no chance.

“So,” Tangy was saying, “We agree that no one is in charge. I am the information person and each of you now have a communication device that you will wear in your ear. Em-gee, it will not be on all the time so don't worry about that. It will only activate when someone says one of the codes programmed into it: M911, G911 or R911.”

“Right,” Red Panther said, “When we hear one of those, we are agreeing to wrap up whatever we are doing as quickly as possible, contact you via the communicator to find out the location of the emergency, and get there to help out.”

“Exactly,” Tangy said, “Is everyone cool with that?”

“Sure,” Marvelous Girl said quickly with her arms crossed in front of her.

“Yes, that should work just fine,” Glory agreed.

They all were happy with the arrangement, or as happy as they could be. Marvelous Girl still didn’t really like it but she knew better than to admit it out loud just yet. She was walking towards the edge of the roof to make her normal exit when Tangy yelled.

“Wait! Hold on, we have a problem.” Marvelous Girl and the others looked at him to finish. He finally looked up from his electronic pad, “Its Reaver. He has put out a message over black market channels that he has four pieces of cargo ready for transport.”

“Shit,” Marvelous Girl said as she walked back towards the center of the room.

“Okay,” Glory commented in a calm voice glaring towards Marvelous Girl's profanity, “Remain calm. It looks like we are about to move up our planned assault. Is the location the same?”

Tangy glanced down and back up, “Same one, yes. Are you certain you want to go tonight? It seems a little out in the open, even on the black market, to announce it like that.”

“He is probably just looking for new takers on the slave-trade business,” Red Panther said, “Maybe trying to drive the price up or something.”

“Look,” Marvelous Girl said, “It doesn't matter what he is doing or why. If four innocents are at stake, he has to be stopped tonight. Doing it tomorrow means nothing if more girls go down. I'm going even if I have to go by myself. Stay here if you like.”

“Wait,” Glory said loudly, “I don't like this either but you are right. We have to go but let’s make sure we are ready with the same plan we had in place for dealing with those dreaded fist weapons.”

Everyone agreed and despite the empty sinking feeling in her stomach, Marvelous Girl knew they had to go. There was simply no other option. She led the charge by announcing she would wait for the other two near their target as she dove off of the edge of the roof.

After she dropped off, Red Panther watched the roof edge and said, “Lord have mercy. That girl has it all, Glory.”

“Has what? A cocky attitude, overriding confidence that has already and will continue to get her into trouble and a serious problem with authority?”

Red smiled at her partner, “Yeah, add a smokin' hot body and you have everything this city needs in a hero. She reminds me a lot of you from a while ago.”

“Oh, she does not!” Glory said loudly. “She couldn't hold a candle to what I was at that age. Well, I bet if we were too...” Glory stopped and glanced at her partner with a shake of her head.

Red Panther winked, “Uh, huh, see what I did there? You still have all the same qualities Glory, my girl. Let's go bag us a thug or two. Hey, give me a ride would you? For old time’s sake? You bunch of cheaters, flying all over the place.”

Glory smirked and waved, “Come on.”

The place was much the same as Marvelous Girl remembered it as she waited on the rooftop of an adjacent building. She saw a spec flying towards her in the distance and knew that Glory was on the way. That was a good thing for sure because she didn't think she would be able to wait much longer before going inside and while she felt confident for the most part, those damn hand/hammer weapons were a wild card that neither she or Glory were excited about facing again even though neither of them had admitted it. Fear was not what she felt inside however it was much more rage and the need to get revenge on the bastard for what he had done to her in his surprise victory recently.

Glory landed nearby, “Let's do this.”

Marvelous Girl led the charge as they approached the door and she had no problem being the one to blow the door off of its hinges with a huge kick. Immediately upon walking inside she knew the place was set up differently. Whereas it had basically been an open warehouse before, this time around there was a square room about twelve feet from wall to wall, just inside the door. She held her hand up to tell the others to be cautious as she peeked around the corner of the doorway. It wasn't even a doorway really, more like a square hole cut into a metal wall.

“The whole place must be cut up into these metal walls now. What has been? A week? How could he have changed it so fast?” Marvelous Girl asked as she returned to the others.

Glory checked around the corner herself and shrugged, “Beats me. Maybe he got a little more help after we left the last time. I can't believe he is still at the same place anyway after the cops came by here last time.”

Red Panther chimed in, “Probably is the last place any of us would expect him to be. Makes sense in that way.”

“I guess,” Marvelous Girl said with a tentative step through the door with her long red boot. She had chosen her second outfit for this outing because she thought she would really just be talking on that rooftop instead of getting into an actual battle. It didn't matter though; she was able to fight in this one as well as the other. “Let's go. Should we split up?”

“No!” Glory and Red Panther said in unison.

Marvelous Girl turned around, “How about we scream and let them know exactly where we are?”

Red Panther snickered, “I don't mean to tug your cape lady but kicking the hell out of that door probably let them know we are here.”

Marvelous Girl pointed at her absently, “Yes, forgot about that. Okay, so if they know we are here, why no attack yet?”

“It must be a trap,” Glory said.

“Well, well, I never expected the three of you to show up at the same time,” a deep voice said from nearby. “Even more surprising than that is one of you actually using your brain. Of course it’s a trap.”

“Reaver!” Marvelous Girl yelled, “Show yourself!”

“Oh, now where is the fun in that?” Reaver asked teasingly, “I'll give you a hint. I am somewhere in the warehouse. Does that help?”

“Coward!” Glory yelled as Red Panther glanced upwards and motioned towards the ceiling. Glory shook her head and mouthed, He might not know where we are either.

Marvelous Girl noticed as they made their way through the maze of metal walls that they were all different materials and colors as if they had been put up in a rush with every scrap piece of metal he could find. She saw some walls that were shorter than the others. She too had thought of flying above the walls to see where the villain was but figured that probably was the most obvious trap for him to set. They kept taunting and talking back and forth until at last Red Panther spoke up from the center of a cutout on the left side of the small room they had been standing in.

“Here!” she yelled, “I found him.”

Marvelous Girl went through the door just before Glory and stood to the right of Red Panther while Glory stood on the left. She looked around because there was no henchman to speak of, just Reaver standing about ten feet away. The metal he had put up here had apparently run out because the walls were sticking out just a foot or two and were not that tall. She glared at the vile Reaver, “What? No thugs to fight for you this time?”

Reaver shook his helmet-covered head as he stood in the shiny metal suit of armor, “Why? I didn't need them last time and they cost money. I can take all three of you down all by myself.”

“Cut the act Reaver,” Glory said from the left.

Red Panther said from the middle, “Yeah, villain, we can clearly see you shaking like a leaf in the rain. You seem nervous for someone who is pretending to not be afraid.”

Reaver shrugged, “Oh, well, you know how it is. You spend all this time creating a plan that you think is perfect but you just never know if it will work until you press go.” His posture changed and all three heroines braced themselves for an attack but all the vile man did was say, “Like this,” and clap his armored fists together.

Marvelous Girl saw too late what the real trap really was as the short walls on either side suddenly removed themselves from the spot where they were pretending to be walls and flung towards her and Glory. She saw the shape-shifting weapon on the left wrap itself around Glory's entire head and cover all the way down to below her chest and did not have time to move. Marvelous Girl didn't know what suffocating was like but it probably felt like what she felt as the blasted weapon wrapped around her head and chest.

She clawed at the thing trying to peel it away but it was like trying to wash a peanut butter sandwich away with water. The more she tried to remove the thing the worse it got. Worse than that, it made her weaker by the moment and that coupled with her inability to breathe correctly with the thing wrapped around her head made her unable to fight as the weapon suddenly flung her to the floor. All she could do is gasp for breath, roll desperately around and claw at the weapon as darkness threatened to claim her.

Reaver pumped his armored fist in celebration as Glory and Marvelous Girl were both taken down by his sneak attack. He couldn't have had it go any better if he sat down and drew it up frame by frame. The most powerful heroines in the city, much less in the room, were writhing around on the floor, weakening by the moment as they struggled with the shape-shifting weapons that were taking them down. He felt confident that neither would be able to free herself from the weapon attacking them which led him to realize he had to fight Red Panther in an honest one on one battle. He looked upon her as a sidekick but he also knew enough about her to know she was crafty. Just the way she looked around behind her, somehow able to remain calm while her best chance to walk out of the warehouse a victor both were taken down bit by bit, led him to respect her a little bit more than he had moments before.

She directed her attention towards him directly and began to ease towards him inch by inch. Reaver stood still and waited for her to make a move, trusting that he would be able to counter whatever attack she threw at him. He was wrong about that. Smoke filled the room as she threw a smoke pill down onto the floor. Reaver was on his guard thinking that Red Panther would attack from in front of him when a boot connected with the back of his helmet, sending him stumbling forward into the smoke.

He spun around trying to wildly swing and catch the quick heroine attacking but his fist swung through empty space just before another boot connected, this time with his right side, forcing him to spin that way in pain. As he spun that way another boot connected with his helmet, this time almost taking the helmet off Reaver's head as he stumbled over to one side of the room, losing his balance along the way and ending up on the floor. He sat there shocked at how capable the sidekick was and thought that maybe she really was better than a sidekick. For the first time, he thought that he might have to up his game a little bit in order to defeat her, though he knew there was no option of using the shape-shifting weapons since they were successfully keeping the more powerful heroines down and out of the fight.

By what he was comfortable admitting was luck, Reaver saw a glimpse of Red Panther's red boot coming towards his head. Moving quickly, he brought his arm up and deflected the kick to one side, forcing her off balance with her legs slightly spread. He lifted himself quickly to his feet but was unable to strike before she used her quickness to regain her balance and turn an attack back towards him. Unlike before however, he could see her attack, a slightly telegraphed right hook, which he blocked with his left arm and then hooked so that her forearm was held under his left armpit.

Not willing to allow her to use her other quick limbs to regain her advantage, Reaver saw her moving and jerked her arm, forcing her off balance towards him. He slammed a head-butt directly into her cowled forehead. She grunted and stumbled off to one side as he released her arm. He could reach out and grab her wrist again however and jerk her back around where his right fist slammed hard into her jaw. Her knees buckled and she went down to one knee. Reaver pressed towards her, aiming to cement his advantage but she rolled underneath him, tripping him well enough so that she could escape behind him.

Luck was on his side again as he assumed she would be attempting an attack from behind so he planted his left leg and shot his right foot out to the side and behind him. A solid object bounced off his foot as he heard Red Panther shout in pain and he knew he had kicked her probably in the stomach. He heard her grunt in pain again and relaxed a little bit, knowing that he had her right where he wanted her. As he turned towards where he knew she was going to be however, a cord wrapped itself around his feet multiple times. About the time, he knew it was a grappling cable of some sort, Red Panther pulled the other end of it hard enough to jerk his feet out from under him and he hit the ground hard.

He felt himself get dragged across the floor fast enough that he marveled at the strength of the much smaller and weaker heroine. The boot that she planted on his chin was powerful as well and his mind was swimming as he tried to wriggle free of the cord that held his feet. Unable to do that, he fell victim to another kick combo, this one to his chest and head, the last of which laid him down flat onto the floor. Her viciousness surprised him next as she took his head, still swimming with delay, and slammed it twice onto the floor. Darkness nearly claimed him but he just managed to fight it off.

Being so in and out of it, clearly defeated, he had not noticed when she removed the cord from his feet but he did notice faintly that he could move his feet as he felt her turn him over. She wasn't cursing his name or grandstanding in any way such as most heroines in her position might. She wasn't even gloating. Red Panther was focused on finishing him off but she was grunting as she tried to pull his arms behind his back. His shoulder popped in pain as she stretched the ligaments to try and make sure he had little movement. It was then, as she began wrapping it around one of his forearms, that he became fully aware that she was about to use the cord to bind his hands. Reaver knew if she was able to do that, he would not be able to break them and the fight would be over, so he did something desperate and spun wildly to his right like an animal trying to avoid capture.

The move caught her by surprise and jerked the cord out of her hands as she reached out for it. Reaver was thinking quickly by that point and used the cord which was still wrapped around his wrist to fling back towards her. The cord, clearly created to wrap around limbs quite easily, quickly wrapped around her wrists and bound them together with Reaver holding the other end of the cord.

“Oh, crap,” Red Panther spoke for the first time during the fight as her eyes grew wide, knowing what had just happened.

Reaver nodded with a scowl beneath his helmet and jerked her towards him. When she was near enough he planted his boot in her chest and stomped downward. Since she was unable to brace herself with bound wrists, Red Panther's head bounced off the floor and Reaver felt her pulling of the cord stop as the cord went slack and her eyes nearly closed. He straddled her stomach, put her arms above her and held them there with one hand while the other reached down the front of her red and tight costume. He slapped her face lightly to shake her from her nearly unconscious daze enough that she could see him clearly. “I want you to be conscious just long enough to know what I am about to do to you.” He smiled as her eyes grew wide and he lowered the zipper.

Red Panther weakly protested, “No...”

Reaver smiled as he freed her breasts from her unzipped costume one at a time, “Oh, yeah!” He grabbed her breast and squeezed as she closed her eyes and tried to protest and free herself. Then Reaver pulled an armored fist across her chin, her eyes closed and her struggles stopped as she fell unconscious. He left her arms above her head and bound together as he began massaging both of her breasts. She was out cold for now but he wanted her body to feel pleasure like crazy by the time she woke up.

He was suddenly glad that his helmet had been knocked off as he lowered his teeth to nibble on her tit hard, pulling it out as her body moved this way and that in the process. The more she moved slightly, the more turned on Reaver was and the quicker this had to be. It would be great to take his time but he wanted to take the other two down for good as well. It would be the best way to prove his point to his supposed bosses.

Right then however it was all about the sexy sidekick. He had squeezed, teased, and tasted her tits until they were more pink than normal and he figured it was time to move on south. He shifted her arms to where they were bound in front of her and pulled her costume down her shoulders to where it was around her elbows and just below her luscious tits. That allowed him to jerk the bottom part of the costume down far enough that the zipper was open well below her black panties. It was a thong of course, he thought as he pulled them out hard enough to snap them.

By then his cock was rock hard and he adjusted his armor so that he could set it free. Shifting her hips just so, he positioned his cock at her pussy and shoved inside hard. After pulling out and pushing in twice more she was wet enough for the movement to become easier and she was beginning to moan softly. He plunged his shaft into her almost perfect body harder still.

“Hmmm...” she moaned in pleasure as her head shifted from one side to the other.

“That's it sexy sidekick,” Reaver taunted her, “You like it. I know you do, you all do.” His hips were slapping against her as he began to moan a little louder. Damn she was tight and it felt damn good. He only wished he had done this to Marvelous Girl before but he would get his chance soon. Just then he felt her hips buck slightly and her arms shifted as she tried to move them. He reached down and toyed with her clit with his thumb and that was all it took to push her over the edge.

“Agh!! Oh, god yes...” she was still semiconscious as her body bucked hard in orgasmic bliss. He figured she must be quite the hard-up slut if it was that easy. He kept pushing until he was ready and pulled out to blow his load over her tits and her face. She opened her eyes slightly but before she could even get a look at him, his back-fist sent her into unconsciousness again and he rolled her to one side of the room.

He stood up, the site before him enough to make him snarl in victory. Red Panther was laying out cold to one side of the room with cum all over her face, in her hair and on her tits. Her own love juice was covering her pussy after he forced her to orgasm. Across the room a few feet lay Marvelous Girl and Glory, the two most legendary heroines anyone had ever heard of, and there they were. Their bodies were still covered from head to stomach with the weapons but he knew it was time for them to rest. After all, what nobody else besides he and his bosses knew was that they could not be used indefinitely. They needed a little bit of down time now and then to gather strength.

He tapped each of them and they unwound from the faces and bodies of the two most popular heroines in the world as far as he knew. Glory was in her standard costume with the high boots and long ponytail and Marvelous Girl was wearing a red and gold top with gold panties and red boots. They were both barely moving their heads from one side to another. Reaver tossed the weapons to one side where they gathered themselves into a hammer-like state and remained still.

He turned around and grabbed Glory's right boot and Marvelous Girl's left boot and began dragging them out into the middle of the room. Despite the odd movement here and there, they were both still basically out so Reaver spread their legs as he dropped their boots to the floor. He'd heard from one of two of his henchman over the years that it was wrong to touch all over unconscious girls but he said fuck that. If he was a good fucking guy he wouldn't be a fucking criminal.

Still, as he knelt between their two super-bitch bodies, he felt his breath quicken as he ran his hands along the thighs of each heroine, both legendary in their own right. Marvelous Girl's thighs were completely exposed which was nice but Glory had just as much going on with her long thighs even if they were covered sparingly by her tattered-style costume.

He moved his hands from their legs to their stomach, enjoying how the most powerful of women still had a softness to their skin. They were too magnificent not to sell for profit. Glory grunted and her fist twitched, making Reaver still his hands for a second and then decide he had no time to play around. He had to get right down to business.

One thumb notched just under the side of the crotch of Glory's flag costume and the other thumb did the same to Marvelous Girl's gold panties. Each one was moved to the side at the same time, exposing their gorgeous and mostly shave pussies and Reaver's shaft was about to throb out of his body. Enjoying the double assault, he put one finger of each hand under the lips where their clits were and inserted his thumb into their warm slits. He was giddy with their low moaning reaction and didn't notice Glory's fists twitching more with each passing moment.

Consciousness was like a light at the end of a dull and pleasure-filled tunnel for Marvelous Girl. Something was going on, she couldn't quite remember what but she knew it was supposed to be bad. For the life of her she didn't know what was bad about what she was feeling though. In that proverbial tunnel, she began to walk away from the light that was consciousness as her hips slowly moved with the stimulation she felt. Part of her thought she might have been defeated again and that she should wake up and fight or call for help but the other part screamed for more.

As she was at war with her desire, her new partner lay beside her, hips only slightly moving as Glory was still more out than Marvelous Girl was. The younger heroine's eyes fluttered open briefly but a rush of pleasure closed them once again and she finally decided that whatever was going on was better than her waking up and stopping it. She would just have to deal with it later.

It was then that a strong and thin hand grabbed hers, shaking her from her semi-conscious state. She opened her eyes more this time and saw Glory lying beside her, glaring at her with a look of pure hatred. At first Marvelous Girl wondered what in the world she was doing there, and then she wondered why she was angry. Finally, everything came rushing back, the mysterious weapons disguised as walls had taken she and Glory out of the fight. Marvelous Girl spared a quick glance and saw Reaver gawking at she and Glory as he molested them. She still thought he was doing a pretty damn good job but that was the foggy part of her mind talking. The other part of her mind saw the ruined Red Panther crumpled to one side of the room and knew that this would not end with a glowing slumber in the bed somewhere.

Finally, she became more aware, or more obviously aware and glared at Glory who nodded quickly and blinked three times. Marvelous Girl assumed she was meaning to count and nodded. Glory then squeezed her hand once, twice and glaring with hatred squeezed a third time. Each of them moved at the exact same time. Marvelous Girl twisted to one side and brought her boot around to slam Reaver in the side of the head. She kicked hard because she still felt that she was weakened from the weapons' effects.

Reaver twisted to one side as Glory grabbed his hand and twisted hard one way as Marvelous Girl's kick spun his body in the other direction. A sickening crack filled the warehouse followed closely by Reaver screaming in pain.

“Ah! My wrist! You broke my fucking wrist!”

Glory sat up then stood up and adjusted her costume as Marvelous Girl glared in surprise at Reaver's destroyed wrist. She watched as the older heroine leaned over and grabbed the other wrist and held it up, “Did that hurt?”

“Please! Ah! Yes, it hurt, please don't break the other one! Please!”

Glory glared at him, “Let this be a lesson to you, villain. You don't touch me or my partner like that and if you do, prepare to pay a price. The first wrist was for touching me.”

“No!” Reaver screamed and then screamed louder as Glory broke the other wrist. Marvelous Girl was probably the second most shocked person in the room next to Reaver himself as Glory finished by leaning down and grabbing his hair.

“That one is for touching her. Pass the word creep!”

Marvelous Girl looked on in shock as the classic heroine walked towards her, “I cannot believe you did that. You didn't have to break one of the slime's wrists for me. I don't consider myself your partner to that extent.”

“You? I heard you moaning before I came fully back to consciousness Marvelous Girl and you seemed just fine with what was going on. I told you to deal with what had happened to you but you didn't listen to me and now look at you. Can't get enough can you?”

“How dare you!” Marvelous Girl glared at her, “If you think that lowly of me why did you break his hand for touching me?”

“Don't get a big head, girl. I didn't break the other wrist for you!” Glory shoved Marvelous Girl backwards a few steps and walked passed towards the still unconscious Red Panther. She pointed down at Red Panther and glared back at Marvelous Girl, “I broke it for her! I need to get help for her and you need to get the heck out of my general area.”

Marvelous Girl felt rage rise up inside of her and she rushed over and snatched Glory out of her kneeling position, pushing her against the wall hard, “If you have something of a problem with me, you need to tell me now. Say something if you have something to say, dammit!”

Glory looked at her like she was looking at a common whore and put her finger in her face, “You want to be a partner with me and Red Panther, you better deal with your issues. I won't put myself and Red Panther at risk by trusting someone who likes defeat -- the way you seem to -- with our fate. Deal with your issues if you want to be my partner in any sense of the word!”

Marvelous Girl slapped Glory's finger away, “I never said I wanted a goddamn partner!”

Glory glared back, “I already have one,” and knelt back down to tend to Red Panther.

Marvelous Girl wanted nothing more than to pull Glory's hair out by the roots and feed it to her but she decided to turn away without another word. She was surprised to see Reaver gone by that time and walked out of the warehouse, waiting impatiently for her powers to come back so she could fly off at top speed towards her penthouse home. She knew that Glory hung around only long enough to gather her beloved partner and get her out of there, probably heading back to Tangy's spot of safety.

Lucien looked down at the stocky man in disbelief. There was no reason to bind the fool villain before him because someone with two broken wrists couldn't do much damage after all. He glared at him after pacing back and forth a few times, “Reaver, is it? How is it again that you managed to get all the way to me when the chain of command is supposed to prevent anyone from getting near me?”

Reaver glared at the sledge hammer-like weapons still laying on the table. “Those are very versatile weapons you loaned me, friend. When the heroines had their little spat, Marvelous Girl was too pissed off to care that I was just hiding a few partitions away and Glory was all worried about Red Panther. Neither of them bothered to grab the weapons which were still recharging at the time so I was able to command the things to attach to my arms. That helped me keep them in use though it did hurt like hell. I went to the first few connections that I knew and used the weapons' unbelievable power to, let’s say, influence them to show me the next person up the chain of command until I got to you. It didn't work on you of course.”

“That's because they are my weapons, Reaver. I hope you know that I wouldn't have loaned something as dangerous as these to you without keeping their most powerful and amazing secrets to myself. I could have taken them from you at any time. You claim to have a reason not to have them taken from you?”

“Yeah,” Reaver said wincing from the pain of the Sedem Regni doctors setting his broken bones, “Ah, shit, that hurts. Uh, yeah I have information on both heroines.”

“If you are going to tell me that Red Panther is Glory's biggest weakness, I need to show you about one-hundred blogs dedicated to every real and pretend weakness she has ever been shown to have. The woman has only been defeated once, one time ever. We know her weakness is Red Panther, but as you found out, getting the upper hand on her, even knocking her down or out and actually defeating her completely are two very different things.”

“No,” Reaver pleaded, “I did defeat her! She was out cold!”

“Been there, done that, friend,” Lucien said, “You aren't listening. Out cold and defeated are different things when it comes to Glory. I am glad to hear that my little invention works well on her however. She defeated you and broke your damn wrists in the process.” Lucien laughed, “That should teach you to play with the big boys Reaver. You are out of your league with Glory and Marvelous Girl. Take some time off, get healed up and maybe we can find a spot for you somewhere. You're done bringing in girls though.”

“Why?”

“Because the best heroines in the city know you and what your idiotic face looks like. Because the only reason you beat them once was because of these two weapons which you are not getting back now or ever. Because I don't like the way your ears are slightly different sizes. Because you stink. I'm outta here.”

“Wait!” Reaver yelled, “I know Marvelous Girl's weakness!”

Lucien turned around, “Now you just sound crazy. That girl is a hard one to crack. She will do anything to anyone. She acts more like a street thug than a beloved heroine and doesn't care enough about another person on Earth to have a weakness towards them. She also has shown no real weakness outwardly yet known to anyone. Save your fantasy for the showers kid, you aren't getting the weapons back. Goodbye Reaver, you will not see me again.”

He could hear Reaver yelling something as he left but soon those screams were replaced by the pain of his other wrist being set by the doctors. Lucien held his two beautiful weapons tight in his grasp and glanced at them, “Well, well. Maybe I will get another chance to take down Glory after all and it’s all thanks to you two babies.” He whistled happily as he continued about his planning for another wave of attacks to bring in more girls for a large sex slave shipment.

Chapter 8

After repeated attempts from Tangy to convince her to join a normal planning session with her supposed fellow heroines, Marvelous Girl finally decided to tell him to shove off and leave her the hell alone. The simple fact of the matter was that she was better by herself. She would be listening now and then when she had time to and if Glory or Red Panther needed some help when she was in a place where she could offer it, she would have little issue pulling their capes out of the fire. As far as meeting and pretending that she was okay with Glory being her normal holier than thou self and preaching about what Marvelous Girl needed to do to get over what she was going through, Em-Gee, as Tangy so lovingly called her, wanted nothing at all to do with it.

Part of that was because she knew if she saw the legendary heroine right at that moment, before she had time to calm down, there would be some kind of confrontation where Glory put her finger in Marvelous Girl's face again and that would lead to said finger being slapped away or snapped off. Basically, Leigh just decided that it was much better to avoid all of them, even if they were supposedly meeting someone new who might be able to help them.

The fact was that Leigh had learned a long time ago that when she wound up in a growing group of supposed friends, it was doomed to fail. Basically, with every person that joined claiming to be able and willing to help, the chances of betrayal grew that much larger. Was she damaged? Did she have problems trusting because of a foster-child type upbringing? Hell yes, but that had been one of the main things that led to her becoming the greatest heroine in Pageant City at that moment and she was not going to turn her back on her gut feelings now, after trusting them for so long.

Marvelous Girl continued to council herself just a little bit too much however and came down to another truth of her irritation with Glory. What made the older heroine so angry and put out with her, what had apparently been the kicker that led to Glory attempting to put her in her place was the fact that Glory seemed to think she was enjoying being assaulted sexually; that she somehow liked getting beaten and taken advantage of by villains. The worst part about that charge was the simple fact that Glory was right. Marvelous Girl had absolutely no plans to verify that Glory was correct of course but rather planned to stay away and stay pissed off until she found out what the hell was wrong with her and found a way to get passed it all by herself. Unfortunately, there was only one lead to one vile person who might know what had changed, what had been done to her normal solid resolve against such assaults and that was the little greasy wizard named Mage.

After much thought, Marvelous Girl decided to check in under secret identities with some underground contacts and what she found out was both puzzling and promising. Per the word on the street, Nightcide and his crew had decided to lay low for a while. That might verify the fact that the group was somehow not tied in with the slave-trade ring as hard as that was to believe. The fact that the group was not actively moving towards some goal that was known was good in one way and bad in another. First, it showed that they were not trying to come after anyone high profile like her but on the other hand it also meant that whatever they were doing was being done under the radar of all the normal contacts of the under city.

Finally, she found someone who claimed to know of a meeting that was supposedly going to take place between Mage and some contacts regarding objects that were being purchased off the black market. She felt sure that it was likely because the little wizard probably got most of his magic dust and other tricks from secretive channels. If she could find a way to confront him, it should be easy enough to defeat him and then she would be able to make him tell her what was going on after his underhanded defeat of her. It was dangerous and it certainly seemed like a bad idea which is why Marvelous Girl decided that it was something she had to do.

She also decided that it would be idiotic for Marvelous Girl to parade around the under city showing her skin off to everyone, basically asking for something bad to happen. After all this was about her trying to get passed the supposed enjoyment of being defeated sexually, so she went with a completely different outfit. Going back to the days when she was a street kid, she put on some blue jeans that had rips in them at the knee and one along the right thigh. She wore a pair of stern, steel toe boots that she had kept for a while, a studded black belt with fake silver around the sides and on the buckle, a white t-shirt that said something nasty about the proper authorities and a black leather jacket which she left open in the front.

She pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail, pulling the hair through the hole in an old Chicago White Sox baseball cap. Sunglasses to be worn in the cover of night completed the ensemble which might make her look suspicious at the grocery store but it should allow her to blend in at least a little bit with the filth of the world she once frequented. Luckily, unlike many heroines, nobody knew what it took to act like a thug of the under city and the street like Marvelous Girl. She was fully in undercover mode so she walked down the stairs from her penthouse apartment instead of her normal plunge off the balcony. The first time someone looked at her in an odd way she moved towards them and shoved them off their feet, trying not to harm them. When the other people on the sidewalk at the late hour crossed sides of the street, a smirk formed on her face. Sometimes it felt good to go back home.

“So, what?” Glory said with irritation easily seeping into her voice, “She just isn't going to show?”

Tangy shook his head, “Nope.”

“What kind of heroine is she? I mean you cannot just claim to be the best and the brightest and then just abandon all that you hold dear. If that is how she is going to be then who needs her anyway?”

“Hey!” Tangy yelled much louder than he intended with his stubby finger directed towards Glory, “You are a legendary figure in this town but when you are talking to me you don't get to run down Em-Gee like that. You have no idea what she has been through in her life. I was there! I have always been there for her and I will tell you this from watching her keep all the rest of us safe back then. She is amazing! She is tougher than you think and stronger than she thinks. Her willpower should be the stuff of legend just to have made it out of where she came from. Above all of that, even though she has rough edges because of her upbringing – or lack thereof – she has a purer heart than anyone standing on this roof tonight.”

Tangy motioned wide with his hands, “If there is anyone breathing in this city that can stop the filth from taking over and shut down this slave-trade ring, it is her! You want to ask who needs her? I need her, you and your partner need her and this entire forsaken goddamned city needs her more than it needs any of the rest of us. She'll come out the other side of what she is dealing with or my nickname isn't Tangy! I don't know how she will do it but for her to refuse my invite in the way she did, she is on the move, not stewing in the shower somewhere. Now you can introduce your new friend over there and I will listen but keep running down Le...” he stopped himself from using her real first name and then continued, “Em-Gee and I will dive off the roof in perfect Em-Gee style before I give you one more piece of information.”

The three people on the roof with him were easily three of the most capable crime fighters he had heard or read about in his entire life. Red Panther and Glory's reputation spoke for itself and the hero standing behind them was nearly as impressive if he had his references correct. Before any introductions could be made he waved the stranger forward, “Right, so why don't we get this out of the way. You are Titan, a respectable hero from Riverville which is across the state line two point three four hours. Despite having several great things written about you in a few Riverville publications, very few real-life witnesses give you the same credit. Riverville is a fairly clean place now however, per those same publications, so maybe that is why we don't hear much of you anymore.”

“Are you saying,” the tall hero paused with a smirk, “Tangy is your name, isn't it? Are you saying, Tangy, that you do not believe what you have read about me?”

Tangy shrugged, “That is exactly what I am saying, Titan. I'm so glad that reports of your intelligence are at least on the money. I mean no disrespect but I have pledged to helping the heroes of Pageant City and just because they trust you in Riverville does not mean I have to trust you standing on one of my rooftops.”

Titan put his hands out in surrender, “Hey, fair enough little man. I understand where you are coming from but I really should insist that you check your references for anything negative to be said about me.”

“I did check. There is nothing negative.”

Titan smiled widely, “Yes, I know.”

“Okay,” Red Panther spoke up, “Why don't we get on with the point behind this little fluff and stuff meeting before I puke my freaking guts up.”

“Red!”

The attractive partner clothed in red glared at Glory, “What? I can't take much more of that smile of his.” She pointed at the ever-present cliché hero smile on the large man's face, “See, tell me that doesn't make your skin ache.”

“It doesn't make my skin ache,” Glory said matter-of-factly.

“See?” Titan said motioning towards Glory, “She trusts me, so; why shouldn't you?”

Red Panther glared up at the smile directed towards her, “Don't do that. I don't know you that well, I don't trust you that well and clearly you don't know me because if you did you would know how close I am to using one of my pretty little gadgets to knock you out, if for no other reason, than to see if that will wipe the stupid smile off of your face.”

Glory finally stepped into the middle of the circle of arguments, “Okay, stop it. Love him or hate him...”

Titan interrupted, “Most people love me of course.”

Glory turned towards him with an irritable look, “Oh, go kiss a mirror for god’s sake. Nobody here likes you, including me. This is all about the information you claim to have, Titan and nothing else. I want the information so that we can go investigate the leads on the slave-trade ring.”

“You have a lead on the slave-trade ring?” Red Panther asked. “I like you more already.”

“Spill it, tall stuff,” Tangy demanded.

“It is obviously not that simple ladies and gentleman or I would have just sent an email to Glory here.” Titan continued, “This is not so much a solid lead as it is information on where the base might be, the real base. That means real danger and a lot of it. I cannot just give you the location and send you off, someone must accompany me so that we can all go investigate the findings and keep each other safe.”

“Oh, stuff it,” Red Panther said, “You don't care about keeping anyone but yourself safe. Just tell us the location already.”

“Yes,” Glory demanded, “Tell us.”

Titan straightened his shoulders, “I will not! You will either come with me so we can attack the place together or I will investigate it alone.” He looked around and saw none of them willing to say anything or give an inch so he turned on his heel, “Very well,” and walked towards the stairs.

Tangy was more than willing to let him walk away if he was that stupid but Glory put her palm to her forehead and said, “Wait, Titan, I will go with you. You can't run something this big down by yourself.”

He turned with a knowing smile, “Splendid, I think the two of us will be able to make a nice dent in the organization.”

“Two of you?” Red Panther laughed, “Oh, you are stupid, aren't you? You aren't taking Glory to the water fountain without me, much less some huge criminal organization.”

“Oh, Red Panther it’s nothing personal, we really do not need a sidekick slowing us down dear.”

Glory shook her head, “Oops.”

Titan said, “We can just... hey! Umph!” Suddenly the large man's legs were wrapped together and swept out from under him and he zoomed across the roof.

He came to a stop just in front of Red Panther and the red clad heroine planted her boot on his chest just above his neck as her grappling gun wound up and said, “You are a pompous ass Titan but unless you want me to throw you off this roof, you will not call me a sidekick again.”

“Okay!” he said with his hands up.

“I am going with you!” Red Panther said.

“Okay!”

She flicked the gun in some odd way and his legs were quickly freed. While she was walking with Glory towards the stairs she said, “At least I finally wiped that stupid smile off his face.”

“Keep in contact!” Tangy yelled towards them and made sure that Titan saw him laughing at him as they all walked away. When they were all out of earshot his brow furrowed severely, he pulled up his pad computer and began a thorough search for anything else on this Titan friend of Glory's.

“So,” Red Panther said as the three of them walked along the well-dressed streets of Morrison Heights, “Tangy is a little bit sensitive about Marvelous Girl.”

“Yeah,” Glory said with a quick laugh, “Note to self: Do not bad talk the kid around Tangy. Good god. I wish I had somebody that loved me that much.”

“Don't we all,” Red Panther added.

“Well,” Titan said proudly from behind them but he never finished.

Both heroines turned on him and yelled, “Don't!”

He held his hands up, “Hey, okay, don't shoot me or anything. Not that it would do any good.”

“Stop it Titan, you are far from bullet-proof,” Glory said. “Have a bit of a glass jaw if I remember correctly.”

“Yep,” Red Panther added, “Right on the left side of the chin and he drops like a sack of potatoes.”

Titan laughed as he flexed his fists, “I have gotten better since we last worked together Glory, changed a lot in fact.”

Glory didn't turn around but said, “Let's see, you are overconfident, self-loving, still wear blue and red from head to toe with that cute little T across your chest, plus you still have the same full face red and blue mask. Even your gauntlet-like gloves are the same, heck you probably haven't even changed the kind of socks you wear.”

“What's wrong with my socks?”

“Exactly,” Glory said, “You haven't changed at all. Speaking of which, if this is another one of your dead end leads I am going to tie your arms in an oriental square knot, I swear.”

“Relax,” he said, “I know the area appears to be too nice for a base like this but trust me this is the place. Actually,” he stopped and pointed down a thin alley between two businesses, one of which appeared to be the only closed business in the area, “This is the spot.”

“Seriously?” Red Panther asked. “The only closed shop in this area of the city and this is where you think the big hideout is?”

“My source is very reliable,” Titan replied as he walked down the alley and around to a rear door into the closed business. “Stay there if you don't believe me. Go shopping if you want, I don't care. This slave-trade crap needs to stop and I'll do it by myself if I have to!”

“What and take all the credit for yourself?” Red Panther asked, “I don't think so hot shot.”

The three of them entered through the rear door and then through a hatch in the floor. There were several hatches in the floor and so far, they had only run into four guards. Glory had taken out three of them and Titan was proud to have gotten the other one. The big hero motioned from one hatch to the next as they went down one level after another. Finally, they were down far enough that he knew they should be getting close to trouble. “Okay, Glory, through that next door there might be a larger portion of guards.”

“Speaking of that Titan,” Glory asked, “Why have there been so few guards? Maybe this is the right place but if it is, shouldn't it be guarded better than this?”

Titan said, “My informant said that one of the lead guys took a lot of the guards with him on some special mission to the bad part of the city.” He shrugged, “We'll know soon if it is indeed the right place or not. Blow the door Glory and let’s find out.”

They stood back as the legendary heroine kicked the door in, swinging it open by terrible force. As soon as the door opened there were a dozen guards running towards them with weapons drawn and ready. Glory ran directly into the midst of them, taking blows left and right but dealing damage just the same. Titan was in front of Red Panther and went towards the door. Just as he was near it however two guards came through, one of them landed a straight punch and he fell backwards into Red Panther. The second one charged through and Titan rose, swinging passed, his back connected with the door which he grabbed and forced shut behind him.

It was just him and Red Panther with two guards with about ten on the other side against Glory. He moved towards one guard as Red Panther attacked one nearest her. Slamming his fist into the guard's cheek dropped him to the floor while Glory's partner sent the other guard in his direction with a hard kick to his stomach. Titan stepped to the side and flung the guard passed him towards the door before turning and standing in front of Red Panther again. The hot little heroine forced her way around him.

“What are you doing? That was a slam dunk knock out you just passed up!” She glared at him from the side, “We have to get through door and help Glory! Let’s go!” She turned away from him. Titan grabbed her wrist, pulled her back around towards him, and drove his fist into her jaw as hard as he could.

Red Panther never knew what hit her and dropped out cold in a fraction of a second. He leaned down close to her face and removed part of his mask, “How's that for a glass jaw bitch?” He flexed his weaponized gloves that adorned his fists. “It looks like you like my little weapons as well as your friends did the last time they saw them. This time they aren't being used by an amateur though. These babies are my weapons, not Reaver's! I can't wait to let Glory in on the surprise but I still need her for now.”

“What the hell?!”

He looked up at the guard who was surprised, smiled wickedly and put his finger to his lips to quiet him, “That's our little secret. When you wake up there will be many more guards arriving. Guard this door and keep little red bound and under your control, do you hear me? Glory already busted the lock so you must keep her away from it at all costs.”

The guard nodded and he lifted Red Panther's unconscious form and tossed her over and pulled his mask back down to cover his face. The guard caught Red Panther and didn't know what to do. Behind him the door swung open with a stern Glory glaring at them. He moved in to the guard, shoved Red Panther to the side and clocked him just hard enough to knock him out.

Glory rushed in and surveyed the situation, “What the heck happened? I took out ten by myself and you got my partner knocked out when facing two?” She bent down to tend to Red Panther.

Titan heard the door to the far chamber at just the perfect time and knew that they had to battle their way through them for real for this plan to work. He yelled, “Glory! Red Panther will be fine when she wakes up. Let her follow on her own! I can't take this next group without you!” He rushed through and began fighting for all he was worth, using his precious gauntlets which unbeknownst to Glory were much different than the ones she remembered.

Glory quickly cursed and ran passed him into the crowd of guards, clearly willing to fight on without her beloved partner even if she hated having to do so. Titan smiled and backtracked far enough to shut the door once again. Before it shut he saw the guard beginning to wake up slowly and Red Panther still out stone cold. He smiled as he turned back towards the battle.

“Titan! Where are you!?”

“Glory! Hang in there, I'm here!” Titan, or so he was calling himself for now, smiled widely at how well the plan was going. Titan was a fun name but temporary as it always had been. After all, many in the criminal underworld knew him by various other names.

Tangy had been looking for hours without seeing anything to lead him to believe something was wrong with this Titan fellow. Everything he read appeared to be on the up and up. He was just about to stop looking when he noticed something in one of the publications that looked familiar. Quickly he checked it against other things written about Titan to instantly troubling results. After checking a few other phrases that should not be copied by different news organizations and finding them duplicated to the letter and punctuation, he knew something was wrong. The other thing that was wrong was that Titan was right that there were zero negative articles on the man anywhere. At first that didn't seem odd until he remembered that there were negative things about Glory, Red Panther and Marvelous Girl all over the place. If Titan were a normal hero, there would be those who did not like his meddlesome involvement but there was nothing.

On a hunch and a bad feeling Tangy double checked the transponder trackers he had activated in Red Panther and Glory's ear piece and found something else odd. For the first time since he met them the two of them were apart. Combined with his worries about Titan, it was more than enough to trouble Tangy greatly. He checked Marvelous Girl's ear piece and transponder but it was at what he had come to understand was her residence, though he never actually tracked where the girls lived, he did understand the coordinates that they tended to be in after the fighting ended on a weekly basis. He also knew Em-Gee well enough to know she wasn't sitting at home resting when she had something to get herself passed. So, she was off the grid and would be until she wanted them to know where she was again.

Tangy, unwilling to settle for leaving Glory and Red Panther in whatever situation they now found themselves surrounded by, began to look at other notes and finally found something in what Red Panther had told him. Quickly he ran the numbers and used a secure phone to call.

“Yes?” a female voice with a delicate southern drawl answered.

“Taylor Hawke?” Tangy asked.

“Maybe,” the southern belle retorted, “Who wants to know?”

“I can't tell you just yet but I need you to meet me somewhere in Pageant City.”

“Why?” she asked. “If this is some kind of prank, I'll hunt your ass down and...”

“It’s not a prank!” Tangy said sternly, “Red Panther is in trouble. I don't need you to meet me here Ms. Hawke...”

“Aunt Carly is in trouble?” she asked in a knowing way. “Trouble her gal pal can't get her out of? Then you don't need me, you need Tempest.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Tangy said. “I will send a message to this line with the coordinates I need to meet you near. It is a rooftop.”

“I'll be there.”

Tangy didn't know anything about Taylor Hawke, or Tempest as some areas knew her but what he did know was that some said her power was quite substantial and she was fearless. That is exactly who he needed. He didn't know how long it would take the girl to get to the location but he left immediately to be there when she did. He only hoped that whatever trap Glory and Red Panther had walked into wouldn't be too severe yet. Upon checking his pad again, he noted that Glory's little dot was constantly on the move back and forth and maybe downward since the signal was growing weaker. Red Panther's signal had not moved in twenty-four minutes. He kept watching as he made his way to the meeting place.

Chapter 9

Things were pretty uneventful for Marvelous Girl for the first hour and a half or so and she began to wonder if the odd intimidation or shoving here or there would be the only fun she was going to have for her efforts that evening. Sure, it was good for her to get back to her roots a little bit and feel how things were down here in the slums but at the same time, she really was here for a reason and that was to find out information about what that turd Mage had done to her and then to force him to undo it.

She figured it would be easy enough to get even a bound and tied villain to brag about what he had done to her so the first part was probably going to be simple after she found and captured him. After that she would have to wing it as she tried to figure out how she was going to force him to undo it. She made her way to a spot where she could watch for the secretive meeting to take place between Mage and whomever he was coming down here to see but nothing was happening. Of course, he would be disguised but he likely would not wear stilts or lifts in his boots to make himself taller and the body type that matched him is what she was searching for to confirm his identity.

The information she had followed down into these parts was good but not perfect. Lucky for her, Marvelous Girl had spotted a group of thugs she knew to be representatives of the group Mage was rumored to be meeting with. All she had to do at that point was to draw them towards her, playing on their stupid macho need to take advantage of a hot girl in these parts and the rest was simple. It was a little bit tempting to harm them permanently for trying to take her down because she knew it meant they would do it to someone else but she was not here officially as Marvelous Girl so she had to let them go after she drew the information out of them.

With their info and the other info, it was pretty much a guarantee that the meeting was going to take place around the time they said, in the area they said and between the parties suggested. Yet they had not arrived and it was ten minutes passed the supposed beginning. Something suddenly caught her attention over to one side of the street. People were staring down a stairwell that led to one of the long-abandoned subway tracks of the town. Some of them were yelling that someone needed help and some were yelling in excitement.

Marvelous Girl was a little bummed out at what she felt. She was so enjoying the undercover work she was doing and how bad she got to be in this frame of mind but the tight-fitting outfits and strong poses were not all that made her a hero. It was literally almost impossible for her to hear trouble going on like that and not at least check in on it. At the risk of missing the meeting she planned to listen in on between Mage and his contacts, she made her way confidently to the other side of the street.

She began to push and shove her way through the crowd when she got closer and still could see nothing but a sea of people. Using tactics she had once used to find her way through crowded streets as a teen, she made it to the floor level where only two lights still worked. As run down and abandoned as the old station was, it looked like it had been used for something in the last several years, surely criminal workings. That did not appear to be what was going on right then however.

The crowd of people finally gave way to a large circular open area where four people were fighting. It might have been something worth watching for a minute if it had been two on two but it was three on one instead with three larger guys standing against a much smaller man who appeared to be old and probably homeless from the look of him. After two punches landed, Marvelous Girl couldn't stand by and watch it anymore. She only hoped it wouldn't look too strange to see someone helping someone out in that area of town at that hour but there was no way she was going to let these guys kill the old man even if he had stolen something from them.

“Hey!” she yelled as she stepped into the circle, “Leave the man alone!” A few people in the crowd voiced agreement with what she said but most of them just grew quiet as the three men looked at her.

“Mind your business bitch!” the biggest one said.

“Leave the man alone or I am making your business my business,” she paused as she walked towards them, “Bitch!”

One of them laughed as the three of them began to walk towards her, “Oh, sweetie, you about to regret running that pretty fucking mouth.” They made a semicircle around her and began closing in on her little by little.

Marvelous Girl fixed her sunglasses in place, adjusted her cap and dropped her leather jacket to the concrete floor. “I will warn the three of you one time. Walk away now or else.”

“Bitch!” one of them yelled, “You walk away now or you won't be able to walk away after we make you our whore!”

She smiled and took on a fighting stance as she stared between the three of them, watching all of them peripherally. One last time as she stood perfectly still while they circled around her she said, “I warned you to walk away but if you want to get nasty, then you just fucking bring it on bitches.” The way she could never speak as Marvelous Girl but often spoke on the street growing up felt damn good as the larger one moved towards her with a punch.

Marvelous Girl used a little of her speed and strength to dodge slightly to the right as she guided his fist passed her, planted her left foot, and swung her right around in a powerful kick to the back of his head. He dropped like somebody jerked out his spine and she directed her attention to the other two, one of which was already moving. He was charging straight at her back, trying to take her by surprise. Marvelous Girl spun quickly and took his charging head under her right arm, dropping him head first into the floor with the help of his own momentum.

He was out cold but also on top of her. His final cohort took advantage of that fact and grabbed her boot, dragging her around and tossing her to one side of the circle. Marvelous Girl rolled over on the floor like she was stunned and he walked quickly towards her, taking the bait. When he was close she sprang to her feet and planted her knee into his crotch hard enough to do damage. He dropped to his knees and she directed a kick to the side of his head to take him out of the fight as well. Taking them all in with a look of disgust she walked over and grabbed her jacket before throwing it back on.

The crowd was a little irritated that she had taken the fun out of the one-sided battle but some also enjoyed the girl beating ass. Either way they began to go back up the stairs to street level and Marvelous Girl was about to turn around to check on the old man.

“Wow,” he said from behind her, “Thanks little lady. Here I thought I'd have to get ugly with those boys.”

At once Marvelous Girl's heart jumped into her throat and she froze.

“I am already late for a meeting so I'll be going upstairs. Thanks again.”

He walked to the side of her and extended his hand out in a faint wave. Marvelous Girl grabbed his wrist and spun him around to the ground on his back. She planted her knee in his chest and her right fist grabbed a fistful of his tattered robes. She snarled down at him, “I don't think you're going to make it; Mage!”

“Wha...?” Mage stared at her as if he was trying to figure out who had been crazy enough to save his skin and then turn around and attack him. She knew he was curious as to why she had done such a thing so she chose to give him as good of an answer as she could.

“Don't be too surprised fool,” she sneered and lifted her fist high above him, “I just wanted you all to myself.” She pounded her fist into his face just hard enough to knock him silly, making sure not to use any of her super strength in the blow. After that she lifted him and basically drug him across to the far side where the restrooms were located. It would have been ideal if they had one of the family restrooms but they had nothing of the sort so she forced him into the partially opened janitors room. After tossing him onto the dirty floor sink she pulled the string above her so that the dim light illuminated the small room. It was covered in bathroom tile which was so terribly dirty that there was no way to be sure what color it was. Along the wall to her left and behind her were hooks where various mops, brooms and chemicals were hanging. Basically, it seemed to be the best place imaginable to force the vile man to come clean with the information she wanted.

He slowly came around and pushed himself up into a sitting position before he realized where his hands were planted and jerked them up with a start. Staring up at her he questioned, “Who the hell are you?”

A faint smile formed on her lips at his voice, “A bit of your native accent is coming through Mage.” She reached down and jerked him up into standing position and pushed him back against the wall. “If I didn't know better, I would think you were a little bit scared. Are you?” she teased with a sultry voice, “Are you scared of little ole me?”

“No!” Mage spat out, “I just want to know who you are so I will know which stupid slut to make my next victim!”

Purely on reaction, Marvelous Girl threw her arm out and slapped Mage across the face just as his arm was coming up. His head snapped to the side and slammed into the wall and his hand opened, spilling powder out and onto the floor. Both had moments of shock as Mage tried to recover from the hard slap and Marvelous Girl stared at the smoke rising from the now clean spot on the floor where the powder had come to rest. The tile was brown.

Mage was already staring at Marvelous Girl with a stunned expression when she looked back to him. Before she could mention the powder he had apparently planned to surprise her with, his hand came up and he punched her as hard as he could in her left jaw. Her sunglasses flew off her face but that was the only damage that was done as she returned a steely gaze to him.

His jaw dropped for a moment and he sneered at her, “Marvelous Girl!”

The disguise had not really been to keep him from noticing her in the first place – how else was she supposed to demand to know the damage he had done if she didn't admit who she was – so she nodded quickly and surged forward towards him. Her head connected with his and he dropped to the seat of his pants. After picking him back up the only look on Mage's face was one of terror as he held his hands up in defense.

“Okay! Stop!” he pleaded, “Whatever you want me to do, turn myself in, anything, just don't hit me again.”

Marvelous Girl studied the slick villain carefully, knowing he was laying it on a little too thick. For the moment, she simply stood back and nodded, “Fine, for now you can remain conscious. You will tell me what I want to know though because if you do not, I am going to knock your creepy little ass out and drag you somewhere much nastier than the Pageant City Police Department. Clear?”

“Crystal,” he said breathing hard with his hands still up.

“You defeated me before with trickery,” she said refusing to take her eyes off his even as he smirked. “Something is different, something has been done to me by you and you are going to tell me what.”

“Why don't you ease out of those clothes pretty heroine and I'll show you why you are so different.” He smirked but as she raised her fist said, “No! Okay, you are a little different, yes. I defeated you by superb planning and perfect timing with an assist from your overconfidence. It has been touted that you have no weakness.”

“I don't,” Marvelous Girl said flatly, “No belt to remove, no crystal to expose me to, not even a secret identity to hold over my head.”

“You didn't have a weakness before my pretty and powerful pet,” he put a finger up to pause her threatened attack again, “But you do now.”

“Bull!”

“I assure you it is not bull, as you so bluntly claim.” Mage eased away from the wall with a little too much confidence this time around. “Don't pretend you have not noticed the way you feel.”

“What are you talking about?” Marvelous Girl was so curious, even desperate to know what he had done to her that she was allowing his confident stare and strut to continue as she now stood still in the tiny room.

“You know what I am talking about Marvelous Girl,” he stated.

“I do not but you are about to explain it or you'll find we have swamps just outside of this city.”

“Oh, please, I am the villain here,” he smirked, “I know all of the hiding places for bodies within a two-hundred-mile radius. Nonetheless, I will explain myself just to hear the words for myself. Notice how the leverage has shifted in our current situation my dear,” he dared come closer to her. “You need to know the answer to this question. We both know I am but a gnat next to your power but you are allowing me to not only walk in confidence back and forth a step or two but even to taunt you. Why? Why would you do that if you did not know what has been done.”

“Spit it out Mage! I am curious enough to hold myself back for now but I swear I will end you if you don't stop this little act of yours.”

“Oh,” he laughed lightly, “You are angry; so very angry. That's not very heroic of you dear. What has you in such a foul mood? What is it you want to know?”

“What did you do?” she yelled and exploded towards him, backing him into the wall. His confidence faded for a few seconds as he was shocked at her outburst but quickly the cocky smirk returned to his face.

“I am not going to say it,” Mage taunted, “I want to hear your voice say what the problem is or I am not talking without a price.”

Marvelous Girl considered it but she could not lower herself to a point where she begged the vile man to tell her why she was so susceptible to a sexual attack now when she was not before. She shook her head, “No way! You are going to tell me what you did or I am going to drag you out of here like yesterday's trash!”

“Oh, I will tell you but at a price!”

“I am not paying any price or jumping through any hoops at your command!” Marvelous Girl steamed.

“You don't have a choice!” Mage glared at her in the evilest grin she could imagine him displaying, “Marvelous One!”

She felt it in an instant. Marvelous Girl's knees buckled as she felt juices beginning to work through her and her blood begin to pump faster. The powerful arm extended out to pin Mage to the wall suddenly felt weaker and she looked down to her pants, thankful they were not the type that would show a damp spot between her legs.

“Marvelous One,” Mage said more quietly this time.

Marvelous Girl's knees buckled completely, an orgasm threatened to explode all over her and she went to her knees, holding her crotch with her hand as the only way to try and physically hold back the wave that would weaken her even more.

Mage swatted her now very weak hand away and jerked her head back to force her to stare into his eyes, “See, now that is a weakness!” He brought a knee up to her chin and she fell back with her upper body draped across the floor sink. “That is power Marvelous Girl and it is power only I hold over you!”

She was trying everything she could to not be turned on by the situation. Part of her was repulsed at what her body was doing but another part of her was on fire with anticipation of being touched in any way. Basically, she was in dire trouble but she still needed to know why if she ever hoped to find a way passed it. Weakly she groaned, “Wha... what did you do to m... me? Why am I so… turned…turned on?”

“It's really such a great story,” he put a finger to his chin, “Perhaps I should write a book about it? Anyway, where was I?” Oh right, how I gave you this weakness. See, I defeated you as I said before and when I did, I trussed you up as naked as you were the day you were born. I then proceeded to use some of my best oils and magical components in a combination that would light your nerve endings on fire for sexual release.”

“Bastard.... god...” Marvelous Girl groaned and then closed her eyes from the effort to control the flood of sexual energy flowing through her. There had to be a way to master it, some way to overcome it.

“After that I woke you up and fucked your sexy body silly. My god, do you remember how many orgasms you had? I didn't count them but I could just watch the video of it and get back to you. So anyway, at the height of your sexual arousal, when your mind was open to me completely, I hypnotized you. I probably shouldn't tell you but damn I love to brag; plus, it’s not like I am in any danger from you now.

“While you were under my spell, I took the time to make sure you would always be predisposed to getting aroused, even before a fight began. Even walking down the street or in your shower wherever you live, getting turned on is very easy for you now and you have me to thank. You're welcome. Oh, and, I figured I would be in some danger from you if you ever got out so I made sure to add that you instantly get into this state of arousal whenever you hear my voice say that little name I said earlier for you. Brilliant, no?”

It was; damn his vile black heart and empty soul but it was stunningly brilliant. It did help to understand what was going on and why it was happening though. Mage started to bend down with his hand out and she knew he was going to touch her and that when he did, this little fight would be over for good. Fighting the sexual energy as she was, it was difficult to even think but she quickly decided she had to do something. She was much weaker but maybe still strong enough to try and fight him off. There was only one way to find out. As his hand grabbed one foot and stretched that leg out to the side, Marvelous Girl twisted her body and kicked him as hard as she currently could in the side of the head with her other foot.

Instantly he crumbled to the floor holding the side of his head. Marvelous Girl forced herself to get to her knees. He was far from knocked out and she was far from normal strength. If she fought him long enough he was bound to use that damn name for her again and that would end it as easily as a stiff kick to the crotch would. The only option she had was to do something, anything to try and get away and fight him another day.

She reached her hand towards the knob of the closet and was within an inch of grabbing it when Mage turned around and jerked her around by her shirt. It ripped a little bit in the process and his eyes and hands went straight for her breasts. Just before he touched her she kicked him in the crotch. He went down and her hand reached for the knob again.

His fingers wrapped around her leg but not before she turned the knob and the door opened. She stumbled down as Mage tried to pull her back into the closet. She was doomed to lose to this fool and she knew it. It was a mistake to come after him and she was about to pay for it big time. As he dragged her back towards him, his hands climbing up towards her thigh, she had images of what he had done to her before flash through her mind. Was her career as a heroine finished?

“Hey! What the fuck is going on?” a deep voice rang out.

Marvelous Girl glared up in hope and saw a group of three large men running towards her. They could take her out if they wanted to but they probably would not know who she was so she decided to play it up, “Help! He's attacked me, dragged me in the closet... please help...”

One of them grabbed her arms and forced her out of the grasp of Mage. She turned as the man carried her away and saw the other two drag Mage to his feet.

“I had you! I defeated you Marvelous...”

His mouth was open to finish saying the name again but it was filled with a fist before Mage could finish. Soon the two thugs cried out in pain and Marvelous Girl could see Mage was using magical attacks against them. “Go!” She said to the man carrying her away after she worked her feet to the floor. “He is powerful, some kind of villain or something... go help them.”

“You okay?”

“I'm fine,” she said, “Thanks to you. Go help your friends. Get them away from him, don't try and take him down.” The man nodded and ran to help in the fight. Marvelous Girl knew it was going to be a close battle one way or another but she would not be around to find out who the victor was. She was at the surface in a matter of minutes, fighting the wave of pleasure still flowing through her with every step, noticing that it slowly faded over time. She won. It had been close and she needed help from strangers but she had found out what she needed to know and escaped without being captured. Within a few blocks she was walking normal and with purpose, her strength slowly returning. There was no way to know when but whenever the time came that she did meet that vile wizard again, she would be ready. Now that she had finally successfully overcome this new weakness, she felt powerfully that she could defeat it again. Maybe in time she could wash the programming out of her mind but until then, she would fight it with every fiber of her being.

When she got back to her large penthouse apartment she picked up the earpiece and yelled, “Tangy!”

“Marvelous Girl?” he sounded like he had heard from god himself, “Is that you?”

“What's going on Tangy?”

“Oh god, Em-gee,” he pleaded, “Everyone is in trouble and I mean big trouble. Meet me at the normal spot and I will get you up to speed.”

“I'll be there,” she nodded, feeling suddenly empowered by being what sounded like the only hope for the other heroines. They had pulled her out of the fire even when she was hateful about it. She would return the favor this time and prove why she was already the leader that the others thought she should be.

“And Em-gee?” Tangy said weakly.

“What?”

“Hurry,” he said even weaker, “It may already be too late.”

Marvelous Girl glanced at the city below her as she dove off the balcony and surged to full speed flight. “Half way there Tangy. See you soon.”

Chapter 10

Titan, or Lucien as the thugs in this bunker would have known him if he were dressed in a slightly different way, could not have been happier with the way things were going. He was doing his best to struggle through fighting guards when he really wasn't trying that hard at all. He was purposefully making Glory do most of the fighting, forcing her to save him from guards on several occasions as they worked their way through the underground compound.

They had battled through three waves of guards of increasing ability as they approached the area that even he had not been to yet. He needed Glory to be able to fight her way through the guards but he wanted her to be tired, or at least as tired as someone as impressive as Glory could be. He would be lying if he said he was anything other than impressed by the slightly older heroine. By his account, she was even tougher now than she was before the famed Nightcide defeat. It was as if she had found a completely new lease on crime fighting and was ready to take on the world all over again. He didn't know much about Marvelous Girl other than she was nearly, if not completely indestructible but however impressive she might be; she would have a tough time matching the strength and endurance of Glory. He almost felt bad for having to take her down.

“You need to retire!” Glory said with her hands propped on her hips.

Lucien laughed, “I hear that,” he pointed behind her, “That should be the final door before we drop down through to the inner area of the compound, the final level where the boss of bosses is. Let's go, shall we?” He started to walk passed her but she bumped his shoulder as she walked the other direction. “Where are you going?”

“Back,” she said without looking back.

“Where?” he asked but he already knew where she was going and removed the gauntlets, the super powered hands and held them in his grasp as he gave her one final chance to fall the rest of the way into his trap before he had to change plans on the fly.

“To get my partner,” she said with a confident stroll towards the door, “That's what. Whoever is behind that final door can wait a few minutes until I rescue my partner. That's the way it’s going to be.”

He shook his head and threw the powered weapons towards her fully linked with them in his mind so they turned into large hands and grabbed at her forearms. “No,” he said as they grabbed her arms, pulled them out to one side and lifted her off the floor, “That is not the way it’s going to be.”

“What the?” she struggled, “Feeling weaker, god these are the same... ugh!”

He watched her kicking but finding no leverage to take off, fly or do anything else. They were just hands so she couldn't do anything to hurt someone who was standing behind her. Keeping his distance, he said, “Yes, those are the same weapons and they are mine. That fool who defeated you or nearly defeated you before with them was using them on loan from me. They are all mine and yes, this is the way it is going to be. I would have loved for you to fall completely into my trap but you must be a bimbo and go save your partner. Two problems with that Glory, old friend.”

“Bastard!” she said as she clearly began to tire of her struggles, “I trusted you!”

“Yeah,” he nodded as he walked within a few yards of her, “Thanks for that by the way because it made this a lot easier. I was going to use you to help double-cross the boss down there and then turn on you. See, I would take the most powerful criminal organization in the city and the most legendary heroine all in the same night. Now I must adjust again. But no matter. I like to adjust. Back to those two problems with you wanting to help your partner.”

Lucien walked around in front of her and loved the sight of helplessness in her eyes. He imagined that look had only been seen by one other man and it was Nightcide himself. Now Lucien was seeing it for the first time and it was just as great as he figured it would be. “You shouldn't have left her in the first place because there were quite a few reinforcements on the way to make sure she stayed put even after she woke up from me knocking her out cold. That is problem one.”

“Bastard! How good you?” Glory weakly protested.

“Oh, it was easy,” he flippantly said. “She had no idea I was a bad guy until my fist connected with her jaw. Well, maybe a small idea. Anyway, she dropped like a sack of rocks. Oh, you mean how could I be so devious? That was easy too. Money talks pretty lady. Nothing else matters in this life. I learned that a long time ago and have been living a double life ever since. On to problem two,” he smiled and then let his smile fade away into the severe gaze of Lucien, “You should be worried about yourself!” He swung his fist and drilled her right in the stomach.

Quickly he followed that with a punch to her breast which made her whine and then another to her stomach. She reached out with her legs and first tried to wrap them around his waist but he held his ground against the weakened attack and punched her solidly in the jaw. Her entire body went slack but he hit her again in the chin then once more. Finally, he called one of the weapons back to his fist where he wore it like a super powerful glove. Glory was dangling from the one arm that was being held by the other weapon. He mentally commanded the weapon to lift her so that her chin would be right in front of him. Reached forward with his left hand and grabbed her chin, “Wake up Glory. Come on.” Her eyes fluttered open weakly and he got right into her face, “This is about to get fun lady.” He kissed her fully on the lips, pulled back and hit her hard with the super fist right across the jaw, commanding the other weapon to release her just at the same time. She flew unconscious into the side wall, fell to the floor, and didn't move a muscle.

“Nightcide has nothing on me! Lucien is now the second to defeat Glory! Somebody write it down!” He realized that nobody was there to see it but it was still the biggest moment of his villainous life. He walked over to the unconscious legend, grabbed her costume, and began to pull it off of her one bit at a time. Lucien couldn't wait until he had the chance to do the same to Marvelous Girl. When Glory was completely exposed except for her boots and mask, he lifted her to his shoulder and walked into the room where the boss was supposed to be. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he arrived in that final room: Nothing.

Having a power such as the one she did, Tempest was accustomed to kicking ass in a fight where she was outnumbered. Being able to siphon the powers of another meta-human however was no help when all she was fighting were a bunch of no-power thugs. That is why she trained and trained and trained some more; to turn her feet and fists into lethal weapons in situations just such as this one.

Two were already down and completely out of the fight and there were six more standing around her. They were still overconfident that they could take Tempest down but she knew they were wrong. She was eighteen and had already been doing secretive heroine work for a couple of years. She'd taken her defeats here and there but being someone who loved the wild side of life kind of made that part of being a heroine a tiny bit easier to take.

What she was doing now was hard. Two came at her at the same time but they were on opposite sides which allowed her to kick one while punching the other. She tucked into a crouch and centered the balls of the one on her left with a hard fist then whipped her head around to see her other target arriving just in time for a boot to his jaw which sent him tumbling into another thug. Four were down, three of them out cold and three were left standing. She ran after the one who was off-balance from the other thug running into him and snatched his head under her arm so that she could ride his face down into the concrete floor. He tried to get up but she had kipped up quicker and stomped her boot on the back of his head to keep him down.

Tempest looked up to see one thug and before she could find the other one who was left standing she felt his arms wrap around her, pinning her arms to her side. He yelled for the other thug to take her out and he came rushing in like the biggest idiot on the planet. She easily lifted her feet and shoved that one backwards, shoving the one holding her back into the nearby wall in the process.

Quickly she head-butted him twice and he released her which she answered by a snap elbow back across his nose that dropped him like a bad habit. The boots she had laid on the final one left him a little unsteady as he stumbled forward. She measured him and took two steps before leaping into a dramatic spin kick that crushed his jaw. Landing on her feet above his head in a crouch only led her to wish someone was alert enough to have seen it.

She found Red Panther in the same place she had been for the entire fight: out nearly cold on the far side of the room and bound simply. On the way across she saw the only one left conscious moving and kicked him in the side of the head to turn his lights out too. That was not the hard part. The fight was fairly easy as long as she knew what she was facing and kept her feet under her. The hard part was having to battle through eight thugs just to save her aunt from peril.

Quickly but calmly she made her way over and started to wake her life-long idol from her slumber. “Aunt Red! Wake up girl! Come on now,” she said with a southern drawl that she couldn't get rid of even if she wanted to, which of course she didn't. “Aunt Karly!!” Her aunt's eyes popped open at the use of her real name. Karly Hawke was something nobody would ever call Red Panther except for possibly Glory and her favorite niece, Taylor Hawke; aka Tempest.

“Tay...” Red Panther's long time as a heroine came into play even as groggy as she was and stopped her from using her niece's real name. “Tempest! What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious Aunt Red? I'm saving your ass.” She looked around, “Speaking of saving your ass; where is the gal that usually does that job?”

Something popped clearly into her aunt's mind at that moment and Red Panther sat up quickly to shout, “Glory! That bastard double-crossed us! She doesn't know yet and she is in danger! Tempest, we have to go save her!”

“Hold on there,” Tempest said as she steadied Red Panther to a standing position, “You're in no shape to save anyone.”

“Don't tell me to hold on! Someone must warn Glory or rescue her. We are the only ones available so I am going and you are coming with me! Let's go!”

Tempest knew better than to argue with an elder such as Red Panther when she had that tone to her voice so she followed behind her. Several times she had to catch her or help her up after stumbling and it made Tempest wonder just how bad of a punch or lick to the head her aunt had taken. The doors were tricky to open but the two of them figured it out with the gadgets they had between their belts.

They followed the trail for a while before Red Panther stopped and saw signs of a struggle. “They fought here!”

Tempest propped her hands on her hips, “They fought in every room Red. What makes this one different?”

“The other rooms had signs of a normal struggle and they left bodies behind but there are few in here and there are signs of a huge struggle. This is where he got the drop on her.”

“Maybe she figured it out and kicked his ass,” Tempest said trying to be optimistic.

“She defeated him and then carried him into the next layer down instead of coming back for me?” Red stormed forward and began to work on the door to the next section, “I don't think so.”

It took as much time as all of the other doors combined but they finally busted the thing open. Red Panther ran in with Tempest running so quickly behind her that she ran into her aunt when the small red clad heroine stopped abruptly. Glancing up, Tempest saw exactly what had given her pause. “Holy hell,” she said, “He's screwing her!”

She didn't know what to call the guy really but Glory was stripped nearly completely nude and laying on the floor completely unconscious. He was on top of her with his pants pulled down, plunging his shaft into her repeatedly. Red Panther lost it and ran forward before Tempest could stop her. “Red, no!”

Despite her warnings, her aunt ran forward to try and pull the thug off her partner but she never made it all the way across the floor. Somehow the glove the man had on his arm and forearm flew off his arm then across the room and slammed hard into Red Panther. Another followed suit and the second blow took her down for the count.

The thug walked over to the easily defeated heroine, grabbed her by the zipper of her costume and ripped it open all the way to her crotch. He quickly fondled Red Panther while keeping an evil eye on Tempest and then tossed the small heroine across the room where she landed on top of her partner; now both were out cold.

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap,” Tempest said quietly as she took quick stock of the room and the man standing before her. He called the super gloves or gauntlets or whatever the heck they were back to his hands magically so that was something super powered to be sure. Could she absorb the powers of an object? She honestly didn't know but there was no better time to find out.

He didn't move like he was an agile fighter and she figured that meant he was more of a power puncher, especially with those fists. Apparently, he enjoyed talking because he was running over at the mouth about how he was going to add her young body to the pile. Tempest had no intentions of allowing that to happen.

They circled each other for a few moments before Tempest moved in a burst of speed forward. It wasn't super speed of course but it was fast enough to get him to move. When he surged forward to meet her, Tempest leaped into a dive over him and rolled up to her feet behind him. By the time he turned around there was a foot waiting on him and it caught him solidly under the chin. He fell back and Tempest pressed forward to try for an early finish to the fight but he wasn't as hurt as she thought.

He grabbed her and pulled her towards him in a move that surprised her even more. As she struggled to free herself or get a solid blow in, one of his fists with the super gauntlet connected with her cheek. She was shocked she could move her jaw at all as she stumbled to one side, her vision cloudy from just the one blow. He followed up with a kick to her ribs and she rolled with the impact trying to gain room to mount a comeback.

Thankfully he was cocky from the good shots he had landed and came in slowly so she could plan a move to change the flow of the fight back in her favor. She kipped up when he was just within range and executed a quick and powerful kick to his ribs. It stopped him but only barely so she followed with another kick to his gut that backed him up farther. Finally, she decided to go for a knockout blow and spun in the air to deliver a kick but she was premature in her move and his fist, completely super powered, connected with her chin as she came around.

When she hit the ground, she thought she was done for and was shocked to find that she was not out cold. The fight might have been hers already if not for those damn special gauntlets he had. It was time, she decided to try and take over their power. It was easy enough to pretend like she was hurt enough that she couldn't move because she almost was. When he came over and turned her over, she knew his next move would be to remove her clothing. She let him take off her jacket before taking the chance to grab onto both of his gauntlets.

Her pupils went completely white as she began to feel the incredible power inside the gauntlets flowing into her. She could feel the shock and hear the gasp from the villain as she began to drain power from the super powered weapons into her body. Then something happened she was unprepared for once again. The thing changed shape completely. Suddenly they had oozed up her forearm and were firmly holding onto her instead of the other way around. Usually the power would continue to flow through contact but in this situation, she could feel the power shift back in the direction of the weapons and very quickly. Her arms were quickly pulled above her head so that her feet were lifted off the ground.

Apparently when the object was super powered, she could drain its power but this one could also grasp onto her and drain the power back out. Plans were forming in her mind but almost as if he expected her to be able to regain her advantage with her dangling legs, the weapons changed again. This time one swelled to the point that it was basically one huge bracket wrapping and holding her arms above her while the other did the same to her legs. Then she was unable to do anything but spit on the vile man which she did. He merely wiped it off and smiled and that was when she knew the fight was about to end badly.

The first punch was a left hook to her jaw and he followed that with a hard right. Two quick jabs to her breasts hurt like a bitch but not as bad as the kick he executed right to the side of her head. At best, she was groggy at that point so that she could barely see him pull back for another punch. When it connected, her world went completely black.

Lucien kept his weapon on the young heroine’s arms, binding her above the ground as she dangled there unconscious and helpless before him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Glory still out cold and Red Panther as well. Eyes focusing once again on the new girl in front of him, he reached forward and ripped her shirt, tearing it completely off her. The little belt she wore was interesting but easy enough to remove and shortly he was able to drag her tight pants and panties down to her knees. Her powers were scary from what he had seen of her; she was nearly able to drain the power from his weapons. She was only another trophy for the pile right then however. He instructed his weapons to toss her over to the other two and create one big pile of naked and helpless heroines.

Making his way over there he unstacked them enough to be able to fondle Glory's breasts and reached down to shove his finger into Red Panther's pussy. Both were getting wet from what he had done to them and he began to work on the new young heroine as well. He laughed aloud, “This is the best day any villain has ever had! I am invincible!”

“Well, that is a very interesting theory,” a familiar and fierce female voice said from the area of the door behind him, “I hate to think how badly you will feel when I kick your ass anyway.”

Lucien cursed quietly to himself and turned around with an expression that betrayed none of his sudden caution. Fear just seemed like too big of a word. “Marvelous Girl,” he said with a sneer as if the name stunk coming out of his mouth, “How nice of you to join my little slumber party. Here I was thinking that I would have to wait and defeat you on another day.”

“Not that lucky today pal,” she said brimming with confidence, “Why don't you step away from my friends so they don't get messy when I flatten your nose.”

“How can you be so confident Marvelous Girl?” Lucien asked. “I have just defeated Red Panther, a young heroine whom I do not know but who was very capable and the vaunted Glory. What makes you think I cannot defeat you?”

“Tempest is the young girl's name and from what I hear she is good,” Marvelous Girl swung her arms loosely around her as she walked slowly around the far side of the room. “Red Panther may be legendary but she was already in bad shape when she got to you from what I hear. Glory was blindsided by you if my guess is correct but even at that, even having defeated all of them on their best day wouldn't equal defeating me. I am Marvelous Girl. What makes you think you can defeat me?”

Lucien wanted his weapons to be a secret but he couldn't resist defending himself against her words. She was right of course but he didn't want her feeling that confident going into the fight. “I may not have defeated you before Marvelous Girl,” he produced the weapons as gauntlets that rose off the floor as if by magic, “But these have.” He saw her eyes narrow as she recognized what the weapons were and added, “Yes, that is correct dear girl. That lackey that took you down and claimed to have made you suck his cock only did so because he had these but they are not his; they are mine! I will defeat you Marvelous Girl and when I do, I am going to take your costume off you and shove my shaft so far inside you that you will wonder what rabid animal has hold of you.”

There was a glimmer of something in her eyes and despite his desire to pretend that it was, it was not fear. She was wary of the weapons now which made him think it might have been a mistake to brag about them. At the same time though she was more cautious now which could play into his favor.

She stopped and planted her hands on her hips before removing one and motioning for him to come forward, “If you're so tough, just bring it on then you bastard. I'll enjoy taking you down for what you have done here today.”

Lucien decided that he would do just that and took a running step towards her, planning to use his super weapons to his advantage when he got closer and put her on guard, but he never got there. When his second foot touched the floor, Marvelous Girl turned into a streak and suddenly he felt a great amount of pain in his stomach and slammed into the wall. Before he had known it, she had surged forward to take him down. This was going to be a harder fight than he thought and he already thought it was going to be impossible.

Two punches slammed against his jaw and he kicked towards her stomach in desperation. It was like kicking a steel column but she did actually move backwards a little bit which gave him time to get to his feet quickly. He ducked a kick attempt and tried to hit her hard in the face with his weapons but was unable to hit the target. She spun as she avoided his strike and executed a lightning fast back kick to his stomach that left him breathless. Before he could do anything else to regroup, her fists slammed against his cheek in a double fisted blow and he hit the floor with bleary eyes.

“Damn,” he heard her say, “I think I broke a nail. Now you're really getting your ass kicked.”

He knew she was being cocky because she was about to win the fight but he still had one trick left up his sleeve. Waiting until she was right about to finish him off with a boot to his face, he clanged the weapon gauntlets together and with their incredible power moved so fast it looked like he teleported behind her.

She kicked through the space he had been and cursed at missing him. As she tried to turn Lucien planted a hard fist with super strength granted by the weapons right into the small of her back. She was raised off the ground by the shot and as her feet touched the ground again he slammed another fist into her back. The next one fired into the back of her head, slamming her face into the wall. He followed that up with two more and saw her knees relax and knew he had her. The amazing Marvelous Girl was about to be his.

Wanting her to see her own destruction he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, “You're not so fucking cocky now are you bitch? I want you to know that I already shoved this cock into Glory and now I am about to take it to you too so badly that you will start screaming in pleasure. Get ready Marvelous Girl. This is the end of you.” He reared back to finish the fight once and for all with a punch into the foggy eyed face of Marvelous Girl.

Her eyes suddenly lit up like fire however and she lifted herself off the ground, flying into the air high enough that his super powered fist slammed into the wall. Before he could wonder where she flew to, he felt her hard grip on the side of his head and felt himself being lifted from the floor. The room seemed to spin as he was thrown several yards away and slammed into the wall on the other side. He was still awake as he hit the floor but Marvelous Girl had learned her lesson the first time and instead of strolling in and talking about her final blow, she flew from her hovering position and delivered two feet straight into his stomach.

The force of that blow alone did damage internally he figured but the punch she reared back to throw next was the end of the fight for good. Sure enough as her fist slammed against his chin, the lights went out and Lucien's great day as a villain came to an end. He just hoped it wouldn't be his last day of freedom.

Marvelous Girl raised up to a standing position after kneeling onto the floor. The punches that those damn gauntlets had delivered to her were incredible and she was still reeling from their power. He had her or would have had her if he hadn't of bragged about making her like his shaft being shoved into her. That brought back all the hell that Mage had put her through, all of the hell she had to still go through to get passed the damage the little wizard had done and lit a fire under her.

Now as she walked back across the room to check on the group of naked heroines, she stumbled once and wondered if the earth hadn't just moved. Maybe she was woozier than she thought but it damn sure felt like it was moving or even quaking. Glory, Red Panther and Tempest were stirring at last and she was more than happy about that. They could gather the vile fool who had done all of this and get the hell out of here.

Before she could get all the way over to help them up and explain what had happened however, a loud rumble shook the wall to the far right of the room. It began to crack and Marvelous Girl wondered if it wasn't an actual earthquake and if so, how fast she could get everyone out of here to safety and in the villain's case, to jail. Just then however a drill bit, a huge tunnel boring drill as it turned out, drilled through the far wall and reduced it to dust on the floor.

It looked like something from a construction site and Marvelous Girl couldn't wait to find out how it got down here to this point. Was it something Nightcide had pulled off? Maybe it was a stupid construction worker who had just screwed up for the last time. The truth, as it turned out, was much stranger than any of those options.

The huge tunnel boring drill clattered to the floor and behind came a light, shaking like it was being carried by someone walking down the narrow, newly bored tunnel. To her shock, a diminutive woman in tight black leather pants, matching boots, a red halter top, a black mask and wild black hair with what looked like a gray streak at the front walked into the room.

The little woman smiled, “Hi, girl. What are you doing down here?”

“Do I know you?” Marvelous Girl asked in confusion.

“Oh, hell no,” the woman smirked, “If you did you'd be shaking in fear right now instead of standing there all confused.” She glanced over at the pile of heroines, all naked, who were sitting up. “Oh, I don't think so! Nobody has a group heroine orgy without inviting me!”

Marvelous Girl watched as the small masked woman reached towards Glory and the other two with her hand and made a gesture like she was pulling an invisible window shade down. To her shock, rubble from the floor above broke free in huge chunks and fell on Glory, Red Panther and Tempest. The first floor wasn't where it stopped though as more rubble from above crashed down on them until they were completely covered and unmoving.

“That'll teach those bimbos,” she glanced back at Marvelous Girl, “Am I right?”

Marvelous Girl was fuming and it showed in her expression. To her surprise, the small woman didn't seem to be afraid even a little bit. “You are about to pay for that little bitch!”

The small but apparently powerful woman shrugged and gestured at herself, “Who me? Darling, I can clearly tell that you have no idea who I am. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mentis. I am a villainess,” she walked two steps towards Marvelous Girl and shoved outwardly with her hand, throwing the most powerful heroine in Pageant City twenty feet across the room into the far wall, “And I am about to whip your little blonde ass just because you tan well. Well, that,” she shrugged, “And because I hate heroines.”

Across the room, pained and in shock from the powerful telepathic thrust that threw her, Marvelous Girl tried to gather herself together but the previous cobwebs from the villain's punches were aggravated by her head slamming into the wall. She held her forehead and stumbled away from the wall, trying to get a bearing on where Mentis was. Suddenly she felt herself fly backwards again and slam into the wall again but this time she was three feet off the floor and was not falling. Try as she might, she couldn't move herself from the wall at all and she knew it was about to get bad.

“Why don't you just stay up there?” Mentis said, “Yeah, you'd make a decent wall hanging you know?”

“Hey!” a groggy male voice said and Marvelous Girl swung her head to see that it belonged to the villain she had just defeated. “Who are you? Are you the boss?”

Mentis planted one hand on her hip and spun around, still somehow able to hold Marvelous Girl against the wall, “Oh, I'm the boss sweetheart but not the one you're talking about. I'm pretty much the boss any time I decide to be but the boss you are talking about is gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” he said, “Maybe we can work something out? I was going to take the boss out today once I turned on the heroines and run the operation myself. We could work together.”

“What is your name?” Mentis asked.

“Lucien,” he answered, “What's yours.”

“You can just call me boss for now because you were too weak to be awake when I told Marvelous Gal here what my name was,” she said and smiled as the villain gawked at the helpless Marvelous Girl on the wall. “Yeah, pretty impressive, isn't she? Why couldn't I be that damn tall? Oh well, at least I'm stronger. Anyway,” she glanced back at the villain, “The boss you are talking about is gone, meaning she is gone forever, six feet under – well six feet under the surface – you know what I mean. I took every single dime that this organization had made from her, forced her through fear to give it all to me, and then killed her and tossed her into the river. So I guess she wouldn’t be six feet under then, more like adrift or sinking to the bottom of the,” she waved her hand and the villain was shocked to feel himself rise off the floor and be sat back down. “Oh, whatever. She’s dead.”

“We could run the...”

“You're not listening Lucien!” Mentis said, “I don't play well with others and I damn sure do not want to run an organization that I already have all of the profits from. You are about to get the chance to leave here but if you don't stop pissing me off, I'll put you halfway through a wall and leave you stuck there until some creature comes to eat your ass off.”

Lucien nodded after a moment, “Yes, I understand. Can I go?”

Mentis shrugged, “Sure.”

Lucien broke for the door and then looked back at Marvelous Girl, “Can I stay to watch...”

“No!” Mentis said, “She's mine to do with what I please. Wait, I’ll tell you what. Maybe Marvelous Girl here needs to be humiliated a little bit in front of someone else to take her down a notch or two.”

“Yes!” the villain said, “Use me! Let me humiliate her!”

Mentis seemed to think about it for a moment and then walked up to Marvelous Girl. Still somehow pinned to the wall, Marvelous Girl was furiously trying to move something, anything, but couldn't. Mentis reached out and dragged the crotch of her costume to the side, revealing her shaved pussy and Marvelous Girl closed her eyes in rage. God help this bitch if she could manage to get down off the fucking wall, she thought.

Mentis reached to one side and to Marvelous Girl's shock, a piece of rubble roughly cut and shaped like a huge phallus began to float over towards her. She began to shake with rage as she struggled to free herself but she still couldn't move. The large thing hovered right underneath her exposed pussy and Lucien began to smile widely as he watched. Suddenly however the villainess waved her hand dismissively.

“Nah,” she shrugged, “Too easy. If I humiliate her it'll be in front of more than just a sorry moron like you. Get lost.” She glared at the villain who hadn't moved yet and shoved towards him, throwing him through the door, “Now! Where was I?”

The woman was a scary powerful telepath to be sure but she was limited. Marvelous Girl knew that now because when Mentis used some of her power to shove Lucien away, she was able to move. And move she did. With lightning speed, she dived towards Mentis, aiming to rip her funny little head off her shoulders. She delivered a powerful double punch to her back and the villainess surprisingly yelped and was thrown forward.

Using quickness that Marvelous Girl would make a note of, Mentis rolled away from any follow-up attack and scrambled with her hands. Marvelous Girl sped towards her but before she could lay a fist on her again was struck in the side of the head with something hard. She felt around as she fell to the ground and felt a large piece of concrete rubble around her. It hurt badly and she raised herself onto her hands and knees to try and get back in the fight but she was too late.

She suddenly found that she couldn't move once again as Mentis was somehow holding her right where she was. Just as shocking was the fact that Marvelous Girl felt like something was squeezing her ribcage dangerously tight so that she could barely manage to breathe. She was so worried about breathing that she barely noticed the powerful villainess pull her costume to one side again and expose her crotch again.

Marvelous Girl felt Mentis snatch her long hair and drag her head back painfully, “Nice punch super bitch but next time you get a shot in on me you'd better make fucking certain you knock me out of the fight. Bad things happen when I stop having fun Marvelous Bitch!”

“AH!!” Marvelous Girl yelped loudly in pain as something she assumed to be the large concrete phallus shaped thing was shoved deep into her pussy. She was in such pain that she thought she might pass out simply from that but she didn't have to worry about such things.

“Make a note of it Marvelous Girl for the next time you tangle with Mentis! Nighty Night!” Mentis said and a huge weight slammed down onto Marvelous Girl. She was out cold before she knew what hit her and didn't even see Mentis make her escape.

Epilogue

“So, that was a bad day for us then,” Tangy said with his arms folded.

“It was,” Glory said, “But it would have been way worse if Marvelous Girl hadn't of shown up.”

“True,” Red Panther said, “We woke up enough to see that she had taken down Lucien, which is his real name by the way. That was before the new girl showed up.”

“She sounds tough,” Tempest said.

“Her name is Mentis,” Marvelous Girl said from nearby, “She's the strongest telepath you could even imagine. I’ve never even read a fantasy novel about a person with such power. You saw how I was when you all came to. She did that by herself. I don't know where she went or when she will show up again but that girl is bad news. We need to find out everything we can about her and soon, Tangy.”

“I already have people on it but nobody knows much,” he said. “The good news is that we took down the biggest organization operating criminally in Pageant City.”

“Did we?” Glory asked, “It seems like this Mentis did that herself.”

“She apparently did it just because she wanted to have fun with the money or something but Glory is right,” Marvelous Girl said, “Mentis gets most of the credit there.”

“So,” Tempest spoke up, “What do we do now?”

“Take some time to recuperate for starters,” Glory said. “We all could use a day or two after the way that went down.”

“I agree,” Red Panther said.

“No argument here,” Marvelous Girl said, “I volunteer to be on any minor patrols we need to get someone working on. The rest of you can take a rest for a few days or even a week. It’s not a win to be sure but the result leaves a vacuum in the criminal underworld of this city and we will all need to be on our best game when things get rolling again.”

“Why you?” Glory asked, “I don't mean that badly but are you sure you're up for it?”

“I know what you mean and I appreciate the thought but I assure you that I am better and I am ready for action,” Marvelous Girl answered sternly. “The main reason is because I am the leader. If someone skips the time off, it’s going to be me. Go get some rest. Tangy will let you know if I need you.”

“See that you do that Tangy,” Glory said and Tangy nodded.

“Don't expect a call,” Marvelous Girl said as she walked towards the edge of the rooftop, “I won't need you for what I will be doing. Call me when something needs cleaning up Tangy.” With that she dove off the roof and was gone.

“Damn,” Tempest said, “I'm not usually all that into girls but that was sexy as hell the way she took charge and dove off the roof. I wish I could do that.”

“Don't,” Red Panther said with a finger wagging towards her niece, “Even think about it.”

“What?” Tempest said with a grin.

Tangy nodded towards Glory, “She wants to be the leader and wants to prove she is strong enough to be the leader. I'll watch out for her.”

Glory stood and walked towards the stairs, “She doesn't just want to be the leader Tangy; she is the leader and she proved why without a doubt. It didn't end well for any of us but it would have been worse if she hadn't of come in and taken out the trash with Lucien. Keep looking for him too.”

“I will,” Tangy said as they all left, leaving him alone on the rooftop. Things were just picking up for the group of heroines and he couldn't wait to find out where they would be needed next. As he walked off he was already checking reports from sources all over the city and even outside of the city. Somehow he didn't expect their downtime to last very long. END OF EPISODE 2

Tales of Marvelous Girl and the Heroines of Pageant City

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Work, School, Stories Oh My!

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Marvelous Girl Episode 2: The Rescue

Glory

Red Panther

Nightcide

Mentis