The Peculiar Predicament of the Pilfering Pink Pussy – Chapter 20

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Chapter 20 – Tying it All Together

Liz (or was she officially going by Black Cat in the heroine circle now?) didn’t know whether to be impressed by Cyber Seer’s mastery of her magic or terrified.  On the one hand neither she nor her much bigger and heavier friend seemed to have any clue about what it was they were doing.  Mecha Musume seemed to be an accomplished artificer, her armor radiating with intense magic, the same with her weapon, and Cyber Seer herself was capable of conjuring equipment and pulling off simultaneous planar shifting and teleportation.  Though Liz had worn the bondage hood at the time, she had sensed what was going on, and could see the magic weaving about them as they had traveled.  The two spells had been weaved together flawlessly and quickly, effortlessly, even, and the pair had a short jaunt through another realm, before they had come out somewhere else.  Liz couldn’t do that kind of magic yet; it was simply beyond her experience.  Only the masters of the Order could perform such a feat, or so she had thought.

And yet…they didn’t understand it was magic.  They thought they were super powers, and seemed to be using them intuitively, as if their talents were second nature.  Though she had been a member of the Order for only a few decades, Liz had never heard of such a thing before.  Sassy and Chrona may have; she would have to find out when she finally returned to the Sanctum.  She understood that there may be savants from time to time, but this many at once?  A fairly significant amount of the planet’s population seemed to have such abilities.  Even the maid moving at such high speed  at the bank was using magic, tapping into a level of enhancement magic Liz could only dream of accessing at her current level of ability.

The plane-shifting teleportation came to an end in seconds, the sound around Liz changing from a bustling city filled with sirens to the dull echoing of a much smaller enclosed space.  Through the leather of the hood, she heard beeping, smelled grease and solvents.  She wiggled her toes, feeling cool, smooth concrete beneath them.

Liz blinked, shifted her arms and wiggled her body for a moment, the bell of her collar jingling.  “Where are my clothes?!”  The hood hadn’t included a gag, though the tightness of it around her jaw distorted her speech somewhat.  But she felt cool air on he naked skin now.

“Huh…must have been, like, packet loss or something,” replied Cyber Seer in that valley girl way of hers.  She gave Liz a push, urging her forward.  “If you like, don’t mind and stuff, just have a seat here for a few ticks, and we’ll totally be right with you.”

Though she had no idea what ‘packet loss’ was and was immediately on edge, her tail swishing, Liz nodded and followed Cyber Seer’s guidance.  The sounds around her changed after a dozen or so steps, taking on a muffled, dulled quality, the concrete floor softening slightly, like it was covered in…rubber?  She was led forward a few more steps, then turned around and guided to a padded chair, which, she noted, didn’t scoot in the slightest when she sat down.  Liz felt Cyber Seer’s hands on her legs, running over her thighs.  Just when Liz was about to ask if she was being felt up, Cyber Seer’s hands shifted, and leather straps were secured over Liz’s thighs.  Another pair went over her ankles.  “Ummm…I thought we were having a conversation…”

“We totally are, babe,” said Cyber Seer, placing another, wider belt around Liz’s waist.  She leaned against Liz, reaching around her to uncuff her hands, then guided them toward the armrests of the chair, where another pair of straps went around her wrists, and another her biceps, the mittens staying upon her hands.  A final pair of straps went around Liz’s breasts, above and below.  “It’s like, for our protection, yeah?  You can like, do real magic and stuff, and that’s totally awesome, like wow!  But we have to protect our secret identities and stuff, and I’ve played like, enough Dungeons and Dragons to know you don’t take the wizard lightly.”

So D&D was still a thing at least… “Okay…I can’t exactly fault you on that I guess.  I’m not going to be a prisoner in a kinky sex dungeon or something, am I?”

“Uh, no, totally not!” Cyber Seer replied quickly.  Liz seemed to think Cyber Seer sounded truthful, but there was something that went unsaid there, something she’d gotten tripped up about.  “Mecha Musume will be back in a flash.  I’ll like, bring snacks and stuff when we come back.  Don’t, like, go anywhere, ‘kay?”

Liz grunted.  “Sure.”  Liz wiggled her hands, shifted around on the large, strap-covered chair, listening as Cyber Seer’s big boots walked away and heard a heavy door swing shut on squeaky hinges a second later, a bolt sliding into place outside.  The noise from beyond had mostly vanished.  She sighed into the hood.  

She was locked into a kinky sex dungeon.  

Focusing her mind, Liz began concentrating on casting a spell.  Though her hands were basically useless, balled up into fists inside the mittens, with her familiar bond, she should be able to do it.  “Especially since Sassy isn’t paddling me and tickling me in all my sensitive spots at the same time…”  Somewhere outside the cell, there was a rumble of something big moving, the grinding of metal, a whoosh of a jet engine, then the grinding and rumbling again.  There were some heavy thumps outside, some echoing metallic clangs.  Mecha Musume must have returned.

Liz whispered her spell’s power words, that half of the equation much easier to deal with not being gagged this time, and successfully completed the incantation.  Visually there would have been no signs that she had done anything, but now her senses had become much sharper.  She had to admit, given the situation, she was glad for Sassy’s insistence on that particular training.  Not that she’d ever let Sassy know that.

Liz suddenly saw magical energies glowing around her through that of the conjured hood, a square-shaped room, multiple small and large objects of very questionable intent throughout…had this room just been created?!  

Shaking her head, putting the inconceivable feat out of her mind for the moment, Liz shifted the focus of the spell and moved it all to her ears.  Her already impressive hearing only got better, and everything beyond her cell was suddenly clear as if the walls and hood weren’t there at all.

“Ummm…Cyber Seer…why is there a sex dungeon in the corner of the workshop?” asked a new voice, in a tone that was both questioning and accusatory.  She had an accent too…Japanese.  Of course she was Japanese!  They made all the cool robots, it made perfect sense.  The big question was, where was all the Japanese ads and marketing and stuff filling the city like the movies had said there would be by now?

The reply was more muffled, coming from where further beyond the large workshop.  “We like, didn’t have any holding cells, and I like, had to improvise and stuff!”

“Okay…why is Black Cat naked and strapped to a chair?” Mecha Musume asked in that same tone.

“Packet loss!” came the quick reply.  “And like, we have to secure the wizard, you know?  For protection and stuff!  Oh, and she might’ve had a weapon on her!”

Mecha Musume muttered something in Japanese, annoyance or amusement in her tone.  “Strapping guests to chairs is not a good way to make friends!” she said in English a moment later.

“She didn’t like, resist or anything!  I was on the spot!  Like, what else was I going to do?”

“Maybe just have created the room without all the bondage stuff?  Maybe have themed it after an interrogation room at a police station?  Or a hotel room?  Is this the prototype for that ‘home improvement’ project you were talking about before?”

“Uhhhh…maybe.  Looks totally awesome over there, right?”

“It’s not permanent is it?”

“Nope…it’s totally taking most of my system resources right now to maintain it.” Cyber Seer replied, her voice having grown louder, the sound of her boots clear on the concrete beyond.  “What’s the big deal?  We both totally promised that if we ever had the chance, we’d chain up a catgirl and do naughty things to her.”

That comment gave Liz pause.  Were these two heroines some kind of sex perverts on the side?

“What?”  Mecha Musume spat, sounding more shocked than Liz actually felt.  “That was in college!  And we were both a little drunk and looking at too much hentai!  And catgirls didn’t actually exist back then!”  

“Well, yeah, but you know…they do now, so…”  Cyber Seer replied, sounding a little sheepish.  “You’re…like…going to let me have it later aren’t you?”

“You bet I am!  I might ask Black Cat if she wants to have first swats with the paddle!”  Mecha Musume said.  “I can tell you’re smiling behind that mask!  Whatever happens, you won’t enjoy it!”

“Challenge accepted,” Cyber Seer replied, her voice sounding huskier.  “I’d totally love to have a catgirl and a hot Japanese woman doing naughty things to me!”

“You’re too kinky for your own good!  Come on, let’s not keep her waiting any longer; she’s probably freaking out already.”

“Oh, like, here, put this on before you go in; I whipped it up when I did the dungeon.”  Cyber Seer snickered.  “You can wear that and be my ‘Mecha Mistress’ later.”

There was a pause before Mecha Musume finally replied.  “I’m not even going to go down that road right now.”

“You’re totally blushing!  You liked that idea!”

“Hush!  Let’s talk to our guest, shall we?  And do something with the bondage gear in there before we unmask her!”  

“Aww…but I love the bondage gear in there!”

“But she won’t!”

Liz let go of her sensory enhancement spell, shaking her head and suppressing a chuckle.  What had she gotten herself into?  And would Sassy be upset if she took them up on the offer?

The door to Liz’s hastily formed cell unlocked and swung open, and two very different sets of footsteps entered:  Cyber Seer’s heavier, thumping footsteps, and a pair of very soft, deliberate footsteps, with a very faintly clicking heel growing fainter once it had entered the room.  Even without her enhanced senses, Liz could see the structure of the room shifting around her as the conjured material was altered, the glowing outlines of the bondage furniture and kinky implements seeming to dissolve into thin air, replaced with more normal-looking tables, chairs, and couches.  

“You know, you really didn’t have to redecorate just for me; yours isn’t the first punishment room I’ve been in,” Liz said when the door had closed behind the pair of heroines.  

That got both of them to stop dead in their tracks, Cyber Seer halfway to having a tray sat upon the newly formed table between them.  “Y-you like, saw that?”

“There is so much magical energy swirling around me right now, it’s a wonder I’m not blind,” Liz replied, her tone more joking, but she wasn’t lying.  She blinked behind the hood, opening her eyes to darkness, just the afterglow of the magic she had viewed with her arcane sight active.  “You can pick your jaws off the floor and take this hood off if you want to talk.  I wouldn’t mind those snacks, either; I’ve been scouting around the city all day and haven’t had dinner.”

“I’m sorry about this; my partner is a little…overzealous sometimes,” Mecha Musume said.  The way she said it, Liz could imagine her bowing as she spoke.  

Liz shrugged as Cyber Seer’s hands found the hood’s laces and started loosening them.  “Hey, I get it; you have to be careful doing what you’re doing, otherwise the cops’ll be busting down your door, right?”

“They like, might anyway if they found out you were here,” said Cyber Seer, her tone more serious.  “I kinda sorta peeked at the police databases and junk, and I saw that there’s a warrant out on you.  No name, just a description that totally matches with yours, and some camera footage, and a detailed description of all the tricks you pulled to escape the station.  That’s totally cool, but totally uncool.”

Liz frowned as the hood loosened.  “Heard about that already, huh?”

“News travels fast online,” Mecha Musume replied, her tone neutral.

Crap, I keep forgetting about that internet thing…would it be weird if I asked for a lesson on how that worked?”  Liz thought, then sighed when Cyber Seer lifted the hood from her head, the cool air immediately telling her just how hot she’d been inside the hood. She blinked in the light, seeing that the room was fairly simply laid out, with a leather couch now, and a moderately fancy wooden table.  The only remnants of the bondage furniture was the one she was currently strapped to.

“What’s even more interesting to us is like, how did you clear your records?  The cops couldn’t find anything about you, Black Cat, no fingerprints anywhere, and you didn’t have an ID on you or anything.  Totally impressive,” said Cyber Seer as she started unstrapping Liz.  “You aren’t gonna, like, drop a fireball on us when I unstrap you, right?”

“No, I’d use a delayed blast version so that I had time to escape.”  Liz grinned, but when she got a frown from Cyber Seer and she stopped undoing the straps, Liz she shook her mittened hands.  “I was joking!  Geez, I thought you were a D&D geek.”

“We’re just being cautious, you understand,” said Mecha Musume, finally stepping away from the door.  

Liz saw that she wore a form-fitting black bodysuit, her arms crossed beneath her breasts.  Upon her head she wore a hood that covered most everything except her lips and ears, her dark hair poking out in a ponytail from the rear of the hood.  Her eyes were covered by a glowing green visor.  Liz glanced down when Cyber Seer started unbuckling her again, and noticed how long Mecha Musume’s legs were…and then saw the severe heels that she wore; she had to be walking on her tiptoes!  “Woah, holy shit, how do you wear those heels?!”

For her part, Mecha Musume seemed to be handling them well, walking easily to the table and slipping into one of the seats facing Liz. “A lot of practice,” she said, not really managing to hide her grimace.  

“Hey, I just had a totally awesome idea!  What if I leave the mittens on, and we can like, put her food in a bowl, and she can like, eat like a cat!  That’d be totally hot!”  Cyber Seer yelped a second later, her hands going to her ass.  “Ow!”

“Try it, goth girl, and I’ll do a lot worse when your friend asks if I want to paddle the shit out of you later,” Liz said, glaring at Cyber Seer, then looking towards her friend.

Mecha Musume’s gaze was on Liz, and she was already halfway out of her seat, but had stopped.  “How did you know about that?!  You were listening?”

“How can you still use magic, though?” Cyber Seer asked, obviously stunned.

Liz rolled her eyes.  “D&D got a lot wrong, okay?  Rules of magic in the real world are a lot different.”  When neither of her hosts moved, Liz tilted her head and sighed.  “Look, you can keep unstrapping me or I can finish up.  I really do need to talk to you about the Pink Pussy situation, and have no intention of doing anything crazy right now, alright?  No need to go all spaz on me.”

There was a moment of silence between the pair as they looked at one another, then Mecha Musume shrugged, sitting down again.  “Okay, get her off that chair.”

A couple minutes later, the three of them were seated at the table, and Liz was greedily gulping down a bottle of water and chomping through a candy bar, not even caring that she was naked now that her stomach was getting filled.  Her hosts had joined her in the snacks, Musume being especially greedy with the water.  It took Cyber Seer a moment to join them, though, as she seemed to be pondering how to eat and drink through her respirator.  Finally she tugged it away, and Liz saw that she had somehow created an illusion that resembled a censor bar over the lower half of her face, which earned a laugh from Liz.

“It amazes me how you do that so easily,” Liz said after gulping down the last of her candy bar.  “No effort at all; to do that little trick without hand gestures and an incantation takes decades to master.”

“About that…” Mecha Musume started, seeming as if she were trying to find the right words.  “You said that we had magical essences…and seemed pretty annoyed when we didn’t know what we were doing.”

Liz blew out her breath, took another drink from the water bottle.  “I’ll give you the short version, because I don’t think we have time for a full rundown on this.”  She paused, finished off the water, then took a deep breath.  “Magic is real, and for a long time, it was on the decline in the world.  Then, something happened, and the dam burst, and now there’s a whole lot of people tapping the source of it without even realizing it.  You’re an artificer of no small talent,” Liz said, pointing at Mecha Musume, “and have built something that is very close to a golem, only with more magical capacity than any golem I’ve seen at the Sanctum on that big gun alone.”

“But…my armor has a miniaturized nuclear reactor and the cannon has multiple high-capacity-”

“Call it what you want,” Liz said, cutting off the technobabble before she got a headache, and turned her finger at Cyber Seer.  “You’re something else; the ability to teleport and plane shift at the same time is incredible; I still have to travel through a leyline unless I can actually see where I’m going; it’s the only way to make the transition from the Sanctum to the material world.  And to conjure all of this,” she said, holding up her hands to gesture at the room around them, “and then change its composition on the fly?  That’s a master-level conjuration specialist right there.  And yet, neither of you, nor anyone else I’ve encountered in this city, knows a thing about proper techniques for crafting spells or interacting with the fabric of reality.  This flies in the face of everything I’ve ever been taught; I’ve been at this for at least forty years and I’m still considered an apprentice.”

The pair of heroines were silent for a moment, but then Cyber Seer chewed a handful of chips.  “So…what you’re saying is…like…you’re that old?  Wow, that’s super awesome that you still look so young!”

Liz felt her left eye and ear twitch, but she stopped short of slapping her forehead.  “You…that’s what you got out of that?!  Are you blond under that wig?!”

“Nah, dude, this is all natural,” Cyber Seer replied with an air-headed giggle, tugging at a few of the thick bundles of her color-shifting hair.  “One hundred percent homegrown Cali fiber optics!”

“I’m sorry,” Mecha Musume said, standing quickly and giving a low bow to Liz, holding her balance remarkably well in those crazy heels.  “Please forgive Cyber Seer; with the nature of the internet so ingrained upon her personality, she sometimes finds it difficult to focus on what matters.”  She stood straight, shot Cyber Seer an unreadable look behind that visor, then sat back down.  “Can we discuss what you know about Pink Pussy?”

Liz considered Mecha Musume for a moment.  She seemed to have a more serious look on her face now, if Liz read the focus in her eyes and the way her lips were set correctly.  Maybe it had something to do with that respect due to an elder that the Japanese so revered?  “Oh crap…am I being considered an elder?  I don’t know if I like that or not…I’m not that old…

Snatching another bottle, this time some kind of bright green soda that was supposedly lime flavored, Liz finally nodded.  “I assume since you knew about me that you’ve accessed everything the police have on the case?”

“We did no such thing,” Cyber Seer said quickly, her voice finally sounding serious.  “That’s totally a federal offense.  Although…we are aware of the details, yes.”

“Right…” Liz replied, reading between the lines.  “Okay, so that last thing she stole, what do you know about that?  Those bracelets?  You know those aren’t just a fancy display piece for some rich guy uptown?”  Liz was going out on a limb and hoping that maybe these two had gone beyond what the police had on the items, especially since Cyber Seer seemed to be something of a wiz when it came to the whole internet thing.  Liz probably should have gone back to the Sanctum and did the research herself, but she hadn’t wanted to risk Sassy putting her under lock and key if she had known about the incident at the police station.  With what she had experienced just reading the lingering aura of those bracelets, she knew with absolute certainty that something bigger was in motion. 

“We know they’re quite ancient, dating back to the Dark Ages at least, origins somewhere in the Middle East,” Mecha Musume said.  “And thus, quite valuable; strange that they aren’t in a museum somewhere.  Before we get further…why did you come to us?”

“A hunch,” Liz replied quickly, but when neither of her hosts continued, she rolled her eyes and spoke up again.  “You’re the only other ones I know of who have been involved in anything relating to Pink Pussy; I kinda snooped around that jewelry store after you did your thing with the maids.  I’m on the cops’ shitlist right now, so I can’t do anything with them.  I had been looking to reach out to that woman calling herself Shadow Lynx since all the news stories about her say she’s got a beef with Pink Pussy, but do you know how hard it’s been finding a phone booth, hell, a phone book?  And then there’s that thing that happened earlier with the light pole.  So…that left the two of you.  I saw you flying around while I was walking about thinking on what to do, and followed your trail to the crime scene.  And now I’m sitting here bare-assed in your conjured sex dungeon.”

There was a pause, the two shared another unreadable look between visor and goggles, then Cyber Seer shrugged.  “Totally works for me.  Here, peruse these,” Cyber Seer said, waving her hand over the tabletop.  Several glowing images flickered into existence, floating a few inches over the surface, showing various pictures and blocks of text.  “Just like, take it with a grain of salt and stuff, ya know?  I kinda like, think I got onto someone’s D&D campaign journal or something.”

Eying the floating images, Liz’s eyes focused immediately on the most prominent name on the page, her mouth falling open.  “Scheherazade?  You’re…these things were made by her?!”  Her eyes darted from one side of the pages to the other and back again, moving so fast she wondered if her hosts might think magic was involved; it wasn’t, Liz had spent decades studying and reading ancient tomes of knowledge after all.

“Is…that bad?” asked Mecha Musume slowly.

“Maybe, yeah,” Liz replied, focusing on the collected drawings and images of the jeweled bracelets.  She felt her stomach tighten, and her tail swished behind her, her mind flashing back to the strange visions she had experienced in the room where they had been kept.  Was that person she’d seen floating above the ruined landscape, who may or may not have noticed her in said vision, Scheherazade?

“So like…was Scheherazade a real person?” asked Cyber Seer.

Nodding, Liz snatched the drink she’d started on, not particularly caring for it’s too-sweet taste, but taking a long swig of it regardless to try and fix her suddenly dry mouth.  “I don’t know the full story, mind you, but I do know that Scheherazade was one of the most powerful arcanists in the history of the world.  I’d have to verify the specifics with the archivist and a few hours of research, but yeah, she was real.  She was beyond a grandmaster when it came to conjuration, could create anything so the legends say, and often did when she told her stories.  And, if I’m not mistaken, she created the jinn as well, only this particular creation didn’t fade out when the tale ended; they’re still roaming around.”

“Told you that wasn’t someone’s D&D game!” Cyber Seer said triumphantly, giving Mecha Musume a playful punch on her arm.  

“Whoever wrote all this knows the craft,” Liz said, moving from the bracelets to the staff.  “There are terms and phrases here that regular people just wouldn’t know these days, and the way this reads, whoever wrote this has been tracking these objects for a long time.  Who’s the author?”

“It’s anonymous, dude,” Cyber Seer replied with a shrug.  “That’s like, just how it is with the internet.  I had to go total darkweb to find that; it wasn’t on any Google search.”

“I’ve seen the staff before, though, at least a picture of it; it was in a flyer for the history museum,” Liz said, just playing along like she knew what a dark web or a google was.  “I was going to stop in and take a look, but got…arres…uh…in a disagreement with the cops.”  Trying to ignore any harsh glares that may have come from visor or goggles, Liz tapped the image of the ritual dagger.  “The flyer said this dagger was coming soon, too.”

“Right; it’s coming to town in a couple days, and will be on display next week,” Mecha Musume said.  “Do you think they’re connected?”

“Most objects of power created by the same person, especially someone like Scheherazade, certainly are,” Liz said.  She decided then that a brief arcane lecture was in order.  “See how everything has gems?  Those are for storing vast amounts of magical energies.  Crystal and glass are the best storage vessels for magic; it’s how you create the most powerful artifacts.  Now, the ritual dagger and the bracers are both set with rubies, which implies fire, so that could be destructive or creation, depending on application.  The staff is set with a majority of rubies, though there are other gems, which means it has multiple functions.”

“And the other items listed?  This sword is in Sentinel City as well right now,” said Mecha Musume, her finger tapping the floating image.  

“No, that’s not connected to the other three, besides their creator,” Liz said.  “It shares sapphires with the staff, but the magic within it would clash with the type of energies the rubies of the other objects would store.”  Liz paused, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully.  “Someone has a ritual in mind; what it does, I can’t say with any certainty, but gathering up objects of power like this means they have a plan.”

Mecha Musume turned her head toward Cyber Seer.  “Is there any way you can contact the person who has been tracking these things?  Maybe they would know.”

Cyber Seer shrugged.  “There’s really no contact info there.  Like, the pages haven’t been updated in months, and they like, didn’t put their email or social media links on there. I kinda get the impression that this was a more personal kinda thing, ya know?  And I’m like, not totally convinced that whoever made it knew what they were doing.  Like, this is old school HTML and stuff, totally 90s era coding.”

“Nothing else on the server that we could use?”

“There’s a webpage, but…”  Cyber Seer waved her hand, and another floating image appeared, showing the picture of a rather nondescript building, just a badly aligned shot of a flat brick wall with a single door, and some blocky text proclaiming “Dannon Detective Agency”, an address in New York City, and a phone number.  Several images were broken, and the page counter was showing just over five thousand hits.

“…when was that updated?” Mecha Musume asked, sounding a bit surprised.  “That looks horrible!”

“Like, 1999, dude.  Pretty sure the same person who made that page made the docs I found based on the coding errors and stuff, but like, that’s all I could find.  I’m not even sure the detective guy knows his server is being used to store the magic stuff.  Phone number went to an answering machine…yeah, like, totally not a voicemail, and apparently this detective is still working, somehow, even though I can’t find any tax records or licenses or anything for this Richard Dannon.  Plenty of mentions in police reports for snooping around and getting in the middle of investigations though.”

Before either could speak more, Liz leaned forward.  “Whoever made that isn’t just a detective; they’re an arcanist.”

“Like, how do you know that?”

“It’s pretty obvious if you…right, you don’t know the basics,” Liz replied, shaking her head.  She could see the signs in the layout of the page, in the design and layout of the building in the image, but they had bigger concerns right now.  “How about I save that for another lecture down the road, and we focus on what matters?  We need to secure the two remaining artifacts in the set before Pink Pussy snatches those.”

“Heh, snatch,” Cyber Seer snickered.

“Calm down,” Mecha Musume said to Cyber Seer, only slightly admonishing, looking at LIz.  “The staff is secured in the history museum right now; they’ve got a constant guard presence there, lots of surveillance and electronic alarms.”

Liz crossed her arms.  “And is any of that going to matter when your literal cat burglar sneaks in with magic?  Like she did when she stole the bracelets?  What if one of those guards confronts her? Think one of their guns is going to stop her?  I’ve seen footage of her on the news; those claws don’t seem to get slowed down by much.”

“You make good points, but we can’t exactly just walk in and take the staff for ourselves.”

“I totally could!” Cyber Seer replied immediately.  “I could totally ghost their feeds and like, send false ‘all clears’ to the alarms and stuff, and then I can just whoosh right in from cyberspace and take it out from under Pink Pussy’s nose!  I could even make a fake to replace it with; I’m totally awesome at the 3D-printing thing,” she added, looking to Liz.

“I don’t know if breaking and entering is exactly in the spirit of the law, but if it’s for the greater good…”  Mecha Musume replied, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Still trying to puzzle out what ‘3D-printing’ was exactly, Liz’s mind was suddenly thinking of another question.  “Why hasn’t she taken the staff already?  It’s right there, in the open, and there’s nothing that you’ve mentioned that could stop her.”

“I’ve totally been scoping their surveillance since I found the info on the thing,” Cyber Seer replied.  “Nobody’s even like, stepped over the velvet rope to get a closer look.”

“Perhaps they’re waiting until the dagger is at the location as well, taking both at the same time?” Mecha Musume said.  “Security would be less than if one was taken before the other, and if they took the staff first, they would cancel the transfer of the dagger.”

“Like, totally great points, MM!”

“That…does make sense,” Liz said, though something was still bugging her about the situation.  It was just too…simple.  “And the dagger is due to arrive when?”

“Day after tomorrow,” Cyber Seer replied, waving her hand to display a world map with a glowing red dot over Cairo, Egypt. A red line came from the dot, tracing the proposed flight plan from Cairo to Sentinel City, before zooming in to street level to show the most direct route from the airport to the museum.  “They’re getting ready to transfer the dagger from a museum there now.”

The whole display reminded Liz of that Indiana Jones movie she’d watched decades ago.  She’d been hyped for the sequel, but that was about the time Sassy had taken her into the fold at the Order.  “Wonder if that was any good?  It’d take a lot to top the first one.  You’d need Sean Connery levels of talent to make a movie better than Raiders…”  Liz pushed the sudden nostalgia away and focused back on the map.  “And there’s been no hints that Pink Pussy has even been sniffing around the staff?”

“Not that I’ve seen, dude.  I’ve like, not even seen any of those weird camera anomalies that have been around her either.”  

Liz knew what she had referred to from her brief visit to the police station.  “That was someone else with her; she’s got a partner for these crimes.”  Before either of them could ask, Liz explained.  “Certain types of magic can distort cameras, namely magic that prevents detection via other magical means, or magic that can affect light spectrums.  I used to make my old man spaz out all the time when he got that new camcorder, which happened to be about the same time I’d started learning I could do magic.  He went through a whole pack of tapes thinking something was wrong with them before he realized you could record over them.”

“Neat,” Cyber Seer replied.  “So, how does this sound, dudes?  We like, keep an eye on the staff like we’ve been doing, and I track the dagger’s location.  I can like, do the ‘virtual’ tour of the museum, and then we can be ready to pounce the pussy once she shows up to snatch’em both.”

“It sounds good…but perhaps we can clue the police in on what’s going on?  Instead of just showing up after the fact this time, maybe they could be there to make the arrest once we stop Pink Pussy?” Mecha Musume offered.  “I kind of feel bad for them not being able to do much of anything in all of this.”

“Two problems with that,” Cyber Seer replied, holding up her index finger.  “They’d like, need a credible tip before they’d do much of anything than a cursory investigation, and two, they might lose their shit if they see Black Cat there.”

Liz frowned.  “I don’t care much for the cops, but maybe I could just wear a mask or something.”  Why not go all the way with the hero bit?  Liz noticed Cyber Seer had suddenly started staring at her, and from the feeling she got, it was the hungry, lewd kind of stare behind those goggles.  “What?”

“I can totally whip you up something to wear!  I made my costume and Mecha Musume’s flight suit!  Oh, I’m already getting ideas, dudes!”

“Oh no…” Mecha Musume muttered, putting a hand on her forehead.

“Oh, oh!  Also, another brilliant idea!  Black Cat, you can totally just shoot the FBI an anonymous email; I’ve like, got a contact in their cybercrimes division, and they can like, forward it to the police through official channels and stuff, since that’s sorta kinda not what they do, you know?  And since it’s from an official law enforcement office, then like, they’ll take it more serious!”

“I don’t know about that…” Liz replied, not sure what to make of the comments about making her a costume, or about her doing anything with computers.

“Oh, it’ll be super-simple!  Just log on from like, a local internet cafe, and like, make a G-mail or something, and I can give you the details to put in there and where to send it.  Totally anonymous and stuff!”

Liz grimaced, bit at her lower lip.

“What’s wrong?  Don’t worry about it; I’ll make totally sure they can’t trace you!” Cyber Seer said excitedly.

“It’s not that, I…” Liz blew out a sign, looking at both of them with a deepening frown.  “What’s an email?” she said, completely serious.  “And they have cafes that serve ‘internet’? How’s that work?”

Cyber Seer laughed, then cocked her head, the laugh dying off suddenly.  “Wait…you like…serious, dude?” she said slowly.  Seeing that Liz wasn’t offering a smile or a laugh in response, only a somber nod, Cyber Seer cocked her head the other way.  “Huh…”

Liz was about to say something to elaborate when she heard a strange ‘bong’ sound come from all the floating windows, which then turned blue and flickered out of existence. Even the room and table seemed to flicker for a few moments, though for a wonder nobody was thrown from their chairs

Mecha Musume whipped her head toward Cyber Seer, reaching out to touch the other woman’s shoulder, giving it a little shake.  “H-hey, did you just…crash?”

“Huh?” Cyber Seer said after a few moments.  “What…?  No I…I…uh…”  Cyber Seer shook her head slowly, and the images that had been floating above the table winked back into existence, the room and furniture solidifying again.  “That just, like, caught me off guard.  Like, wow…I thought everyone knew that kinda thing these days.”

“Look, I’ve been busy studying the mysteries of the multiverse for the last forty years; I didn’t exactly have time to slip in and keep up on the state of the world aside from whether it was still here or not,” Liz replied, cheeks heating.  It’s not like she enjoyed being mostly clueless about how things worked now, but that was the price she had to pay for where she’d decided to apply herself.  “I’ve only been in Sentinel City a few days; it’s…changed a lot.”

“I’m sorry,” Mecha Musume said, bowing her head.  “I guess it just didn’t click what you’d told us earlier.”

“So like, you’re really like, from the 80s?  That’s so awesome!” Cyber Seer said, suddenly much more excited.  “The 80s were the best, dude!  Entertainment is totally crap nowadays.  Oh, I’m starting to get some, like, serious ‘Back to the Future II’ vibes here!”

Feeling that a whole new can of worms was just opened, Liz blew out a sigh.  “I don’t know what that is either, but can we save this for later?  I feel like we should be focusing on coming up with a plan for stopping Pink Pussy from stealing these artifacts.”

“She’s right,” Mecha Musume said.  “Will a phone call work instead of an email?”

“Sure,’ Cyber Seer said with a shrug, sounding disappointed that the subject had gotten back to current affairs.  “I’ll just like, give her a note with everything she’ll need to say and a number to call, and a burner phone.  No worries!”  Cyber Seer waved her hand, clearing the floating images.  “You like, know how to use a cell phone?” she asked, looking at Liz.

“That I can probably learn pretty fast, if I’m just making a phone call anyway,” Liz replied, having seen hundreds if not thousands of phones being used since she’d first set foot in Sentinel City.  “I’ll want to scope out the museum tomorrow,” she added, wondering if she would experience the same kind of reaction to the staff that she had with the bracelets.  If she were to be involved in a fight with Pink Pussy, she didn’t want to be dazed like she had been around the bracelets. 

“Sure, dude, I can like, drop you off on the way to work,” Cyber Seer said, giggling.  “You are spending the night, right?”

Liz shrugged.  “I don’t have anywhere else, and if you’re offering the couch, sure.”

“Can you make this room more acceptable for Black Cat, Cyber Seer?” Mecha Musume asked before she turned her eyes toward Liz.  “You understand our need to keep our identities secret, yes?”

“Of course,” Liz replied easily.  She didn’t have the heart to tell them that she could pick them out in a crowd of a million in an instant thanks to having studied their auras outside of their heroic personas via her magical sight; they were taking the superhero thing so seriously after all.  Besides, it might be fun to play along now that she had joined in. 

“Totally!  Should I do like, the normal kind of guest room, or something a little more exciting?”  Cyber Seer seemed to have that excited, playful tone in her voice again.  “Maybe we could like, try out some of these ideas I have for your costume!  I’ve got like, a couple dozen already.  Lace, leather, latex…”

Liz smirked, crossing her arms as Mecha Musume shook her head.  “Tell you what, Cyber Seer.  If you can get me some tapes of Pink Pussy in action, how she fights, stalks, whatever, that I can study before we finalize plans at the museum, and a VCR and TV to watch them with, I’ll let you play dress up with me.  But,” she said, holding up a finger, “you have to make good on giving me first swats with the paddle afterward.  And I get to join in on whatever Mecha Musume has planned after that to teach you a lesson on proper treatment of guests.”

“Done and done!” Cyber Seer said immediately, before Mecha Musume could even get her mouth open to protest.  Cyber Seer swept her hand across the table as the room shifted back to its previous dungeon-like appearance, though instead of the big strap-covered chair, there was now a clothing rack filled with various outfits in the materials that Cyber Seer had mentioned, or combinations of all three.  On the table, Liz watched as a small TV appeared, the screen alight with static, a big silver VCR and a stack of unlabeled tapes constructing themselves next to it.  “That’s totally the best Pink Pussy footage you could ask for, scoured from all corners of the net.  How’s that for making our guest comfortable, huh?”

“I didn’t honestly expect a stack of VHS tapes,” Mecha Musume replied, sounding surprised.

“More like big plastic housings for SSD storage drives, but the interface is totally accurate for a VCR,” Cyber Seer replied, going over Liz’s head again.  She looked at Liz, securing her mask again, dropping the censor bar that had been covering her face.  Standing, she held a hand toward Liz.  “Are you ready to have your mind totally blown by my ‘leet costuming skills, kitty cat?”

Liz took the offered hand and stood, her grin widening.  What was she getting into?  “Lay it on me, valley girl.  Just don’t be surprised when I blow your mind with my ‘leet skills with a paddle.”  She was using that word right, wasn’t she?  

“You’ve done it now,” Mecha Musume said as she too stood, her mouth curling into a grin.  “Okay, let’s see what you’ve cooked up, and whether any of it’s decent for public viewing.”

“Hey!  There’s like, at least half of them that you could wear on the street!  Almost… More if you’re like, particularly kinky…”

This is turning into a pretty wild night,” Liz thought as Cyber seer pulled the first outfit from the rack, though it looked more like a bunch of lacy strings, with no real substance or ability to cover.  “Wonder if Sassy would be glad that I’m meeting new people or upset that I’m taking crazy chances?

“Is that really something you consider a costume?” Mecha Musume asked.

“Well, kinda…like a harem slave costume maybe.  But it’s got a mask, so she would totally have her identity hidden!”

Liz snatched the hanger, holding the stringy thing up in front of her, raising her eyebrow.  “You’ve already seen me naked; I don’t see what the point of something like this is.  How do you even put this on?”

Cyber Seer cracked her fingers then wiggled them, her goggles glowing brighter for a moment as she gave a lewd chuckle.  “Like, I’ll totally show you!”  As Cyber Seer stepped forward, she yelped when there was a sudden loud smack against her backside, her hands going to her ass.  “What was that for!”

Mecha Musume’s grin turned wicked.  “Keep the creepy perv stuff under control, please.  Or I’ll be forced to get your special hood and keep you in it the rest of the night.”

“Geez, fine!” Cyber Seer replied, and Liz could imagine her sticking her tongue out at Mecha Musume.  “I’ll totally be the respectful kind of pervy!”

Liz snorted, waving the stringy thing in front of her.  “Don’t hold back on my account.  It’ll all be returned in kind afterward, I guarantee.  Maybe if you ask really nicely afterward I’ll tell you all about the magical punishment rooms in my Sanctum.”  She flashed a toothy smile.  “Now show me how to get this thing on!”

Mecha Musume raised a finger and tutted.  “Let’s get the call out of the way first before we forget.  Things may get a little…exciting later.”

* * *

“Hey, you alright?”

Laura jerked, snapping back from the edge of a deeper slumber than she had already fallen into.  Blinking her eyes, she glanced at the clock in the corner of her computer screen.  Had she really been dozing for half an hour?  “Don’t tell Sullivan about my extra lunch break?” she asked Walsh, yawning.

“My lips are sealed,” he replied, gripping Laura’s shoulder for a moment.  “We’ve officially been off the clock for a while now anyway.  What say we head out and get some actual sleep tonight.  We’re going to have a busy day trying to deal with that call from the FBI tomorrow.”

“Right; Agent Dodgers of the Cybercrimes Unit,” Laura said, shaking herself awake as she quickly started saving documents on her screen before shutting it down.  The call had come in not long after she and Walsh had gotten back from a late dinner from the shop across the street.  It had been out of the blue, kind of like how the southern woman on the end of the line had told her about the anonymous tip they’d received regarding a possible target for the Pink Pussy’s next crime.  “Seems kinda convenient, don’t you think?”

Walsh shrugged, then pulled his suit jacket from the back of his chair.  “At this point I’m willing to accept anonymous help over our floundering around in the dark.  I mean, with the bracelets she just stole, why wouldn’t Pink Pussy go for the whole set?”

“I guess so,” Laura replied, standing and stretching, grabbing her gun and magazine carrier from her desk, attaching them to her belt.  “Though that file Dodgers sent over looks sketchy as hell.  Occult stuff?”  Laura paused, blowing out her breath.  “Well, I guess after that show the mystery girl gave us the other day, maybe we need to start expanding our horizons.”

Walsh secured his own weapon, nodding tiredly.  “I’ll try to corroborate the details as best I can, tomorrow, but I doubt I’m going to find much else besides the official history on those artifacts.”

“I’ll see if I can get us an interview with the museum director in the morning, maybe have a look at the layout over there.  Get ready for some long nights,” Laura said, knowing that if anyone was going to stake out the museum, it’d be the two of them.

As Walsh started for the door, he paused, smirking.  “Think we should call Shadow Lynx and bring her in on this?  She was pretty fired up on that last announcement she made.”

Laura shook her head with a grin, trying to suppress her own biases against the stuck-up heroine.  After the bout with Pink Pussy had left Shadow Lynx tied to a lamp pole, the heroine had announced in a profanity-filled livestream her intentions to not rest until Pink Pussy was captured and brought to justice.  That had been the most fired-up Laura had ever seen the shadowy woman.  Granted, she couldn’t exactly say she’d disliked seeing the heroine bound and brought down a few notches, but the situation did seem a bit cruel, even for Pink Pussy.  “She’ll just make a mess of things as angry as she is.  She’s got enough on her plate trying to clear up all those sites showing off her assets.”

Walsh managed a chuckle.  “True enough.  Let’s get outta here and get some sleep.”

A few minutes later, Laura drove toward her apartment, wishing again that Catherine was waiting there for her and not out in the city potentially plotting breaking into a museum.  How had she fallen into the occult stuff?  And what was it with that mask Shadow Lynx had said she’d been wearing?  And trying to kill someone?  That wasn’t Catherine’s way, even when she took on her Pink Pussy persona.  

Her mind still tried to sort out the details, reaching for some kind of detail that she had missed, something that would cause everything to come into focus and start making sense.  Laura was still deep within her thoughts when she stepped off the elevator and dug out the apartment keys, and nearly walked right into the large shipping box that rested beside her apartment door.  She blinked, noticing the shipping label, and that the box very nearly took up half the hallway.  She snatched her phone from her pocket, tapping quickly through the screen, frowning once she’d pulled up the shipping company’s app.  It still showed in transit, so she’d never gotten a confirmation of delivery.  “Really should stop using that company…” she muttered, giving the box a shove with her hip.  It was heavy, and barely budged, and metal rattled inside.

Laura got the apartment door open, turned on the hall light and deposited her keys and phone, tossed her coat aside, then went back to stare down at the box, then at her door.  She bent over, grabbed the thing, tried tugging it along, but even with all her weight, she barely moved it.  Sighing, she rolled up her sleeves, pulled her knife from her pocket, and started cutting at the plastic wrap and tape.  She’d have to do it piece by piece…and if that was the case, she might as well go ahead and start putting the thing together.  Thankfully the late hour meant that her neighbors probably wouldn’t be coming by and asking what she’d ordered.  

Opening the flaps of the box, Laura pulled away some of the packing materials, looking over the black-coated steel metal bars and slats that were packed tightly inside.  She smiled, thinking of Cat, and the image of her inside her new play area once she was safely back home.  Laura had specifically ordered the heavy-duty, reinforced model just to make sure that Cat couldn’t wiggle her way out of it.  She might be paying it off for the better part of a year, but it would be worth it.  Cat might not appreciate it at first, but that’s what she had earned for sneaking off and getting involved in crime and the occult. 

“She’ll just have to work it off with her tongue,” Laura mused, hauling the first of the wide, barred panels from the box to take inside.  

* * *

“You can’t be serious!  This is crazy!” Shadow Lynx protested, pointing at the pile of equipment her manager had laid out before her.  “I won’t wear any such thing!  It’s humiliating!” she added, feeling the heat on her face.

Marcelina’s scowl and the way she narrowed her eyes behind her glasses told Shadow Lynx that she wasn’t going to be convinced to alter her plans.  “More humiliating than what Pink Pussy did to you?  I think not!  Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take to wipe that stain from your reputation?  We’ll be hearing about this for months, and once the pics and vids hit the net, it was over; that stuff is there forever!”

“But she surprised me, and-”

“No excuses!” Marcelina snapped, slamming her hands down atop the table, leaning forward and looking up to Shadow Lynx.  Her deep green eyes, framed by the forelocks of her dark, straight hair, bored into Shadow Lynx over the tops of her glasses.  “You must become stronger so that you can best Pink Pussy and get her caged!  No more bluster!  Your audience expects you to make good on your boasts, and after you went off on that ill-advised tirade afterward, you have no choice but to do exactly as I say to make it happen.  Since you said that you had trouble teleporting when Pink Pussy had you by the neck, we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Get. Dressed.”

“Marceline, I-” Shadow Lynx started, feeling her resolve crumbling beneath her manager’s intense stare. 

“Get. Dressed. NOW.” Marceline growled, slamming her palms against the table again for emphasis.  “The longer you resist, the more intense this training session will be.  It’s already set for two hours.  I’ll double it.”  She raised up, straightening her glasses, and looked down her nose at Shadow Lynx, the glare from the overhead lights making it impossible to see her eyes behind the lenses.  “Unless you want Pink Pussy to win?  Do you want her to flaunt what she did to you?  Did you…enjoy the humiliation of being displayed to the public, tied up and naked?  Should we consider moving you to another line of work?”

Shadow Lynx lowered her head, feeling her fingernails biting into her palms as she squeezed her hands into fists.  Her teeth ground together, and she snarled.  Then she slammed her fists on the table, shooting her own glare at Marceline.  “No, damn it, I don’t want that!  Fine, fine, I’ll do your stupid training!  If it means teaching that puta her place, fine!  Whatever!”

“Excellent decision, Lynx,” Marceline replied, crossing her arms beneath her breasts, though her scowl remained upon her lips.  “Expect at least three sessions a week from here on out to build up your endurance and enhance your focus.  Now, hurry up!”

Fuming, Shadow Lynx began removing her costume, her eyes glaring at the pile of gear on the table, her manager’s gaze lingering upon her as if she expected Shadow Lynx to teleport away at any moment.  Not that she could; the lights in the gym room were far too bright for that right now, though they could be turned down to allow her to use her powers. 

“Leave the boots and your mask,” Marceline said in a cool tone.  “I’ll be generous enough to leave you with more than Pink Pussy did.”

Growling, Shadow Lynx slapped her gloves on the table once they were off, her vision clouding with flashes of memory from the fight she and Pink Pussy had been involved in, of her defeat and humiliation on that street corner.  Shaking with fury, Shadow Lynx soon stood naked but for her boots and mask, and snatched the leather harness from the table.  She knew exactly what the harness was for from Marceline’s description of the new training, but that didn’t stop her from thinking that it looked like something someone would use in a sex dungeon.  It only took her a couple of minutes to step into the harness and get it situated over her torso and between her legs, her face burning with more than anger once she had tugged several of the straps tighter.  The web of leather did little to hide her modesty, the straps pressing tight to either side of her pussy lips, and around the base of her breasts.

Marceline was behind her once the harness was in place, and tugged a few of the straps tighter, making Shadow Lynx wince.  “Is it really supposed to be that tight?”

“Of course it is,” Marceline replied.  “At least as tight as the ropes Pink Pussy used.”

The mention of the ropes had Shadow Lynx’s anger flaring again, and she barely noticed as her manager picked up the heavy weights from the table, holding them out.  Shadow Lynx snatched the first one, raised her leg, and rested her foot on the edge of the table, then strapped it around her ankle, tugging the strap, made sure the weight was aligned properly, then repeated with her other leg.  

The wrist weights Marceline applied herself before picking up what looked like a wide, rubber strap from the table, a pair of straps dangling from one end.  “Turn around.”

Shadow Lynx sighed, shaking her head as she turned her back to Marceline.  “What is that supposed to do again?”

“It’s supposed to emulate Pink Pussy’s hands on your throat of course,” Marceline said, bringing the collar to Shadow Lynx’s neck.  She placed it carefully, then pulled the straps through their matching buckles, jerking them hard enough that Shadow Lynx gagged before easing off a notch.

“I don’t like this,” Shadow Lynx said, her chin raised due to the collar, and unable to be lowered.  

“You’re not supposed to; you’re supposed to learn from it,” Marceline said.  

Shadow Lynx heard her manager pick up something from the table, felt it click at the back of the collar, and heard the faint hiss of air flowing for just a moment.  The collar tightened as the internal air bladders partially filled.  “I really don’t like this.”

“Stop complaining!” Marceline snapped.  “You have to beat Pink Pussy now; you made that stupid video without thinking, and you have to save face, so I’m going to make sure you do exactly that.”  She stepped beside Shadow Lynx, a hand held to the heroine’s shoulder in a firm, unyielding manner as she turned Shadow Lynx toward the gym mats.  “Stretches, then Routine One.  Then we tighten the collar a bit more, add weights to the harness, and move to Routine Two, tighten, more weights, then Routine Three.  Then we repeat it all again with the gas mask.”

Shadow Lynx’s eyes widened, glancing at the black rubber of the mask resting on the table, seemingly staring back at her.

“If you refuse, then Pink Pussy has already won.  I can’t do anything about you being a coward, and will just have to move on to representing someone else,” Marceline said, her phone in her hand, tapping quickly at the screen.  “Time is wasting, Shadow Lynx.  Is Pink Pussy going to beat you again?”

“No…”

“What was that?”

“I said she’s not going to beat me again!” Shadow Lynx snapped, balling her hands into fists.  “I’m going to find Pink Pussy and string her up from a lamp post!” she snarled, stomping toward the exercise mats with a less graceful gait than she typically used.  “I’ll show you, pink bitch…I’ll show you!”

* * *

Liz awoke with a start at the sudden sound that filled her ears, and it took her a couple seconds to process that it was an alarm.  She looked around blearily for a clock, but couldn’t find it.  Then Mecha Musume stirred beside her.  The heroine’s arm reached over Liz, her naked breasts pressing into Liz’s as she plucked a cell phone from the nightstand.  The alarm ended a moment later.  “I keep forgetting those phones can do everything.”

“Mmmm…not quite everything, but a lot,” Mecha Musume said groggily, the visor’s glow slowly increasing.  She reached up to rub her eyes, hit the visor, and grunted, seemingly still half asleep.  “Morning came way too early.”

“I can help with that,” Liz said, grinning up to Mecha Musume, “but you’re gonna have to undo the cuffs.”  She could probably get herself free in a few moments, but it was a little too early for magic, her head still feeling stuffy from their scant few hours of rest.  She did have a spell for that, though; it had helped her many times when she had to cram before a test.

After their impromptu fashion show with Liz as the model, she and Mecha Musume had teamed up on Cyber Seer, delivering on the promised paddling once the heroine had been properly restrained, and had then left her hooded, gagged, and under several layers of rubber and leather inside a large cage she had constructed inside the ‘dungeon’.  Then Mecha Musume and Liz had indulged their baser desires as Cyber Seer’s grunting and struggling filled the tiny room, much to Cyber Seer’s consternation.  Somehow Liz had wound up chained to the bed with a pair of handcuffs on each of her limbs, with Mecha Musume sixty-nining her before they’d passed out for the night.  

A grunt and a squeal came from the cage, which shook as Cyber Seer kicked at the side panel again.  

Liz could just barely see the cage when she raised her head and shoulders and looked down.  Though she couldn’t see Cyber Seer’s eyes behind the dark lenses of the gas mask she wore, from the way she tugged at the straps wrapped around her and kicked at the cage again, she was ready to be set free.  “Is…she going to be okay?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Mecha Musume said, still sounding tired.  “Maybe a little grumpy that she didn’t get any orgasms, but that’s what she deserved with how badly she behaved during our little dress-up game.  You might want to double check you still have your clothes when she takes you to the museum this morning, though; she can be a little vengeful sometimes.  Now, where did I put those keys?”


Well, this is, I think, the longest single chapter I’ve written for this story.  It’s a lot of plot elements coming together, as the chapter title implies, and perhaps I should have broken it up into a couple of chapters, but then things would just have felt a bit lopsided.  This was definitely a hump to get over, but I think it works pretty well, though admittedly the last bit with the trio waking up in the dungeon could have been more fleshed out with a lot more details about what happened, but the chapter is already long in the tooth, so I had to cut things down a bit or it may never have gotten done, lol.

The pace should be back to a quicker rate going forward as the story approaches climax!  Hope you’ve enjoyed things so far, and are looking forward to the conclusion!  I know I am; this story has been one heck of an experience!

Would love to hear any feedback you might have!  Hit me up here or over on DeviantArt, or on my Discord server!

Till next time, y’all!

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Urban Sniper

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Urban Sniper