Themes: Run, Embarrassment, Exposed
“So…have you heard from the boys? They’re like fifteen minutes late, and that’s not like Kyou.” Laura said, quickly stepping from one foot to the next beside the park bench to keep her body warmed up. She wore dark gray yoga pants and a matching sports bra along with her socks and running shoes, long platinum blond hair pulled back in a ponytail that still reached below her ass.
“Probably traffic; you know how this town is better than anyone, chica,” Cat replied, continuing her stretches, showing off her toned, tanned, muscular form to anyone who happened by. Her shorter, blond hair contrasted quite well with her darker Latina complexion. And it certainly didn’t bother her in the slightest when she got some lingering looks. She was dressed similar to Laura, though in a more eye-catching neon-green and black, and with her build, pretty much all eyes went to her first. Just as she liked it. She stood up straight, then arched backward, pressing her chest against the snug fit of hte sports bra more noticeably. “We’ll give them five more minutes, then get going. Think you can keep up with me today?”
Laura shook her head, shooting Cat a grin. “Not in a million years. You’ve done this for how long now? I’m on like my second month of actual training; I’ve got a long way to go.”
“We’ll get there; you’ve done amazing so far. And can I say? Your legs are looking amazing. Bet you could jump a building with legs like that.”
Laura rolled her eyes, shook her head. “Yeah, right. Just like you could climb right up the side of one with those muscular mitts of yours, huh?”
Cat met Laura’s gaze, the two grinning for a moment before bursting out into laughter. They both knew each other’s secret identities (sharing an apartment tended to make it hard to keep secrets, even if they hadn’t been best friends since childhood), that of Pink Pussy and Gun Bunny, two of Sentinel City’s more famous superheroines.
“Girls! We’re coming!” Heading toward them at a jog from the direction of the parking lot were Kyou and Kinzie, Kinzie being the one waving and yelling toward the pair. “Sorry we’re late!”
“Es nada,” Cat said, waving her hand dismissively, eyeing Kinzie with a hungry grin. He was dressed in a similar outfit to her own, a bright pink top with black yoga pants, pink hair pulled back into a loose tail. He turned looking back toward Kyou, showing off his shapely rear to Cat.
Kyou was walking at a more relaxed pace, his light blue hair likewise tied back in a tail. He too wore a tight top in dark blue and skin-hugging pants in black, though his attire made accommodations for his feline tail. He gave a little wave as he sauntered up to them. “Sorry for being late. Someone made a mess and had to change their pants,” he said, glancing over at Kinzie.
Cat looked him over as well, and had trouble deciding which one of the pair was hotter.
Kinzie gave a nervous laugh, running a hand over the top of his head. “Yeah, my bad there. Really sorry!”
“No worries. Better get your warmup started. Once she gets going, Cat’s a real slave driver, so you’d better be ready for the long haul,” Laura said.
“I’m not that bad…am I?” Cat didn’t miss the way Laura’s eyes lingered on the pair either as they began going through their own stretches.
Laura chuckled and shrugged. “You have your moments, especially when you’re prepping for a fight. Of course, I’m not exactly the most athletic person ever, so I’m probably a little biased with that opinion.”
Once the boys had finished up and were ready to go, Cat took the lead down the nearby jogging trail through the park. Her well-trained body had been ready to go all morning, so when she finally started running, it was a struggle to slow herself down for the sake of the others. Though they’d gotten out early, the heat of the summer was already on the rise, and it didn’t take long for her companions to start sweating. For her part, she didn’t even start getting a little sweaty until they took the fork that led to the rougher trail, the one with all the ups, downs, and long hill climbs. She had intentionally taken them down the path to maximize the strenuousness of the workout; if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have felt fulfilled in the least.
“Ohmygod, I’m gonna die!” Kinzie gasped as they neared the end of the route about an hour later. He was absolutely dripping sweat by this time, his water bottle already empty. His cheeks were red, and he had dropped back behind everyone else.
“You…can do it…” Kyou huffed, between Kinzie and Laura. “I think…” He was almost as sweaty as Kinzie, and finished off his water with a sigh.
“Told you…slave driver!” Laura wheezed, though she handled the excursion better than the boys, having done it twice already, though the days following had been a chore for her at work. Given their after-hours activities, Laura had come a lot further along than had they just been going for a morning run every day. Though Cat did have to wonder…how exactly did she manage to run so fast in those heels she wore as part of her Gun Bunny outfit but couldn’t handle a little jog nearly as gracefully?
“Come on, it’s not that bad!” Cat replied, turning around and quick-stepping backwards a few yards, a big grin on her face. She was sweaty too, but her body was feeling energized by this point, like she could manage a second lap, and even a third. “You can do it, guys! Just another hundred yards to the parking lot! Tell you what, smoothies on me when we’re done, then we can do lap two!”
A chorus of groans and complaints assailed her, so she raised her hands in defeat. “Okay, okay, we’ll skip lap two this morning. Maybe the next time?”
“She’s trying to kill me!” Kinzie said, wiping his brow.
“Maybe I just like seeing you all slick and sweaty,” Cat replied, shooting him a wink and a hungry grin as she turned and took off down the trail at full speed, noting how he stumbled, but caught himself. Kinzie was a bit of a horn dog, but it was so cute the way he got flustered sometimes when perverse thoughts crossed his mind.
“Don’t give him any ideas; I have to deal with that later,” Kyou said, grinning.
“Oh, she knows that, probably counting on it,” Laura replied, hustling to catch up to Cat.
Back at the parking lot, Cat allowed them to take a breather and get some much needed hydration, snatching up several bottles of water from her car. After a few more minutes of rest, she clapped her hands and motioned across the street with her thumb. “Okay, let’s go! Smoothie shop is two blocks away, but I need to stop at the bank before we hit it. Hey, hey, no complaints! It’ll be an easy walk, and they keep that lobby freezing, so you’ll enjoy the cool down while I’m at the ATM. Let’s go, come on!”
The three looked at each other as they reluctantly picked themselves up from the bench, nodding in agreement as they looked after Cat. “Slave driver!”
“I heard that!”
Across the street, the heat was already starting to cause some distortion on the asphalt, but indeed, the bank was comfortably cool, though on the crowded side, with a line stretching from each teller and each of the four ATMs, forcing them to wait in the roped off lanes. Cat stood tapping her foot, arms crossed below her breasts, looking annoyed at the delay, but quietly chatted with her friends. A few of the snootier looking patrons seemed somewhat reluctant to get close to the sweaty group, but there were plenty of others that kept stealing glances at them. Cat knew why, but didn’t care; in fact, only Laura seemed conscious of the effect the cool air had on their nipples, having crossed her arms over her chest.
She was just about to mention it, just to see what kind of reaction she could get out of Laura, when the gunfire erupted behind them.
“Okay, you motherfuckers, on your knees with hands up! This is a hold up!” A young girl, looking a bit younger than thirteen with a pair of long blonde tails coming off her head, armed with an MP5K and a bandolier of grenades, dressed in a maid outfit, led several more maids armed with bigger automatic rifles, though the one next to her seemed to be armed only with a pair of knives strapped to her thighs.
“Eloquent as ever. Real smooth, Suzie,” said the one with the knives. She wore a darker uniform, though her face was hidden behind a gas mask, her bright pink hair tied off in a pair of short tails to either side of her head. Her hand shot out, and a trio of startled cries came from the security guards that rushed into the lobby, their guns getting knocked from their grasp as small kunai stuck into their hands. “No more stupidity, huh? It’d just kill me to have to clean my knives again so soon. Not really, I’d actually kinda enjoy that.”
Cat growled, and started forward, but Laura’s hand on her arm stopped her. “Don’t, Cat! Too many people, too many cameras!” she said in a tense whisper. “We just have to go along with it until we have a bit of cover.”
“But-!” Cat felt her teeth grinding, her fists already shaking. She could stop all those punk ass girls in a few seconds, if she would just change into Pink Pussy! But Laura was right; too many witnesses, digital or otherwise. “This sucks!” she said in a hiss, following the lead of everyone around her in raising her hands and dropping to her knees. She glared at the maids, especially the little one. Though she looked like a little girl, Laura had told her all about Suzie, and there was nothing she liked about the warped lolita. She might’ve looked like a pre-teen, but she was in her twenties, and had a thing for explosives and violence.
No fewer than a half dozen maids started to fan out amongst the crowd, keeping them covered under the arcs of their weapons, and ushering the employees from behind the counters. Another half dozen took up positions around the exit, quickly locking the doors before anyone else could come in.
“Alright, Pinkie, make sure there aren’t any other fuckers trying to be heroes back there in the back. I’ve got something I need to do.”
“Sure,” replied the pink-haired, gas-masked maid, drawing her knives. “Just listen for the screams,” she added in a cool tone.
“Goddamn, I love it when she talks like that! Now! All you fuckers over there,” Suzie said, waving her gun over the crowd of customers, “just get out your cash and jewelry and all that valuable shit, then hand them to the ladies with the big guns! Wouldn’t recommend trying to be heroes, that’ll just get your ass filled with holes! My girls are real gentle if you want’em to be, though, so- Hey! I know you!”
The little psycho was looking toward Cat’s group, but her gaze was not on Cat, rather, Laura. Suzie cackled gleefully as she skipped over to them.
Cat tried to impose herself between Laura and Suzie, but only got the barrel of the little MP5, which looked big in Suzie’s hands, in her face for her trouble. Suzie looked at her with a smug grin. “Feeling brave, bitch? If you think you can beat the bullet, go right the fuck on and give it a try! Just sit there like the muscle-bound cunt you are and be real quiet, huh?”
Keeping the gun leveled at Cat, Suzie turned her attention to Laura, a big grin on her face. “Detective Conway, right? Hell, it’s been like six months! How the fuck you been?”
“Had better days,” Laura replied calmly, though she tried to keep her voice soft. “Didn’t know you’d gotten out.”
“Oh, didn’t take long. They just couldn’t imagine a sweet little thing like me causing so much trouble.” Suzie flashed a wide grin. “Why, those parole board fuckers just ate up my ‘sweet and innocent victim’ act. Juvie was great for recruitment, though. The Clean Sweeps are bigger than ever now! Guess I should thank you for that, huh?”
“Nah, that’s fine,” Laura replied, her voice turning more neutral. “I was hoping you might have learned something and took a different path, but I guess you’re pretty set on this kind of thing?”
“Oh, I love this shit, bitch! Fuckin’ hell, I can’t go an hour without blowing up something, you know?”
“Madre de dios, you’re a fuckin’ psycho…” Cat muttered.
Suzie pushed the gun into Cat’s throat. “Now did I ask you to speak? NO! I fuckin’ didn’t, cunt! Say one more thing! I fuckin’ dare you! Do it!”
Cat bit her lip, fresh sweat beading on her brow as the little psychotic woman pushed the barrel against her windpipe. The look in the girl’s eyes was pure insanity and rage. Better to keep her mouth shut for the moment, as much as she wanted to throttle the little snot. It wasn’t just her life on the line, after all.
“Suzie, wait, please, just calm down, alright?” Laura said quickly. “Nobody has to get hurt right now, okay? If you need to hurt someone, make it me. I mean, we’ve got history, right? I did haul you in that night at the jewelry store.”
The blond’s switch flipped again as she turned back to Laura, all smiles and giggles. “Oh, you! It’s not just you I’m raw with, fuck no. Those two bitches that showed up that night, the goth and the robot chick, I’ve got a score to settle with them, too! But, since they aren’t here yet, I guess I should work with what I’ve got, huh? Say, what’s that fuckin’ smell? That this bitch? Or is that all of you four? Holy shit, that’s rank!” Suzie was looking at Cat and the boys, then back to Laura.
Cat let out a low growl, but didn’t move a muscle with that gun barrel still at her throat. She didn’t smell that bad, none of them did! At least…she didn’t think she did. She hadn’t done laundry yet this week, and had to double up a couple days on her panties and socks, but…
“Hey, girls! I’ve got a great fuckin’ idea! Since it’s gonna take me a while to blow the safe, let’s give the cops somethin’ to deal with outside! Get these four cunts less comfortable,” Suzie said, waving her gun over Cat, Laura, Kinzie, and Kyou, “and make sure you shut’em up good! Oh, I know, I know! Do it like that time the boss left those nightclub sluts out front! They’ll love it!”
“Suzie, please, can we just-”
“No, dickie Conway, we can’t,” Suzie said, quickly, digging into several pockets of her maid outfit with her free hand, resting the barrel of her gun back toward Cat. “Too much shit to do, too little time for me to have my fun! Now where did…ah, here they are. Girls, use these; been carrying them around forever, and I finally found the right time!” Suzie dropped several metal items on the floor in front of Cat and her friends, then patted Laura’s cheek. “They’re more my size, but you’ll look great in these! See ya later, Detective! Put in a good word for me with the cops outside when they get here! Hey, Pinkie, what the fuck’s takin’ so long back there?!”
Suzie’s gaze lingered on Cat for a moment as she started to walk off, but her attention was apparently already on the bank vault. As more maids rushed to grab the four sweaty hostages, Cat saw what had been dropped on the floor: thumb cuffs, four pairs of them and…a pair of nipple clamps?!
For some reason, two maids kept guns on Cat while a third got to work on preparing her, while only a single maid kept watch on her three friends while they were likewise tended to by a single maid each. “What’s the matter, muchachas, feeling scared of little ol’ me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” said the maid behind Cat. Cat heard cloth ripping, and saw that her friends were having their tops torn off, and her own followed a moment later.
“Hey, the hell?” Cat snapped, getting ready to wheel around on the maid as her breasts popped free of her sports bra, but the sudden appearance of a pair of rifles right in her face changed that plan. Grinding her teeth, she kept very still as her pants were likewise ripped away, then her panties, and managed to not kick the maid as her shoes and socks were pried off her feet. Though her clothes had been thin to begin with, the sudden lack of them made the cool air of the lobby much more noticeable.
“Holy shit! Look at this! These two are guys!” exclaimed one of the maids.
“Wow. What’s that one wearing? Some kind of cage on his cock?”
“I uh…I get really horny sometimes, so Master Kyou…” Kinzie said, amidst the laughter from the maids.
Cat snarled as her arms were pulled behind her and a pair of regular handcuffs were locked in place about her wrists, a second set following a moment later. Had she really intimidated these girls that much? No, it had to be something else…she hadn’t even punched anyone yet!
“Did anyone bring ball gags?” asked a maid as Laura and the boys similarly handcuffed, though only a single pair each. “Or do you think it’d be okay if we improvised?”
The maid behind Cat, still in a crouch, answered. “There’s plenty to gag them with here. I’m sure Suzie would be cool with it, might even get a laugh out of it. Just use some tape to hold it in. You did bring tape, didn’t you?” The maid stood, one hand going to Cat’s throat, then slid up to her jaw. “Are you going to be a good girl and open up, or do I need the girls to help out with some motivation?”
Sorely tempted to smart off and throw her elbow into the maid’s face, a sideways glance over to Laura, who gave Cat a subtle shake of the head as she had already opened her own mouth to the maids stopped her. Feeling the humiliation sting worse than a kick to the gut, Cat complied, opening her mouth without a word. Her nose crinkled as the expected items were brought to bear: her sweaty panties and socks, worn twice over because she’d been too busy to do laundry.
“That’s a good little hostage,” said the maid, her fingers stuffing Cat’s panties into her mouth first. Cat groaned as the taste of her moistened underwear hit her tongue; the maid had laid them down crotch first! Glaring angrily at the two holding guns on her, Cat nonetheless kept her mouth open as one stinky sock was shoved inside, pressed against her left cheek. The sharper scent and flavor of the dirty sock hit her, and she rolled her eyes. She really had to do better with her laundry!
The second sock was shoved inside Cat’s mouth next, filling up any remaining space she might have had left in there, leaving her cheeks swelled like they were going to burst. As the scents and flavors of dirty panties and socks fought inside her mouth, the maid quickly slapped duct tape to her lips to hold it all in, then wound it around her head at least half a dozen times, the pressure growing more intense with each pass. Cat let out an annoyed squeal, then a more angry one when the maid slapped her bare ass.
Cat’s fists unclenched, and her fingers reflexively tensed into a clawing motion to swipe at the maid, but she stopped herself, hands going into fists again.
But not before the maid noticed. “Hey, thanks for the reminder! Tape up their hands, too!” Cat groaned with annoyance at the sound of more tape being ripped from the roll behind and around her, but stood stoically as the maid wrapped her fists in several layers of tight duct tape, leaving them useless baring a full on transformation into Pink Pussy. The peculiar quirk of her transformation that shredded Cat’s clothing if she didn’t strip down first would do the same with the tape, and she could easily break handcuffs or cut through them with her claws, but she couldn’t risk revealing herself in front of so many people.
“Alright, let’s hurry up! We have to get these bitches outside before the cops show up!”
Cat mumbled a completely incoherent curse into the gag as she was shoved forward. Laura was beside her, her own mouth filled and taped in the same way. In front of them, the maids had already moved Kyou and Kinzie toward the doors, the two bound in the same way as the girls, though from the dazzled look on his face, Cat swore that Kinzie was enjoying the attention, though Kyou’s eyes above his own gag showed a marked displeasure with the situation.
The blazing heat of the morning sun washed over Cat’s naked body as they were shoved out onto the sidewalk. The sidewalk by the bank had cleared from the earlier gunfire, and seeing armed maids and naked, restrained hostages caused what traffic there was to speed by at a quickened pace. The sound of sirens could already be heard getting closer.
The maids led them over to the concrete-covered steel barriers that lined the edge of the sidewalk in front of the bank. They were about waist high, about ten inches in diameter, and rounded on top, but with some more artistic designs worked into them, but there was no way anyone could hope to move them; they were designed to stop trucks from driving into the bank, after all.
Once in front of the barriers, the four hostages were pushed to their knees facing the street, their cuffed hands brought over the top of the barriers as they were lowered. With their backs pressed to the barriers, they had no choice but to spread their legs to either side.
Cat glared up at the maids surrounding them, jerking her cuffed hands in an attempt at defiance. She barely felt the hot concrete at her back and on her knees as her anger was easily a lot hotter at the moment. The maid that had been responsible for tying her up was behind her again, snatching Cat’s feet and holding them together as she applied the thumb cuffs around Cat’s big toes. The pressure was painful at first, until Cat adjusted herself to lessen said pain, but at the cost of spreading her legs wider to reveal more of her crotch.
The maids then produced a final set of handcuffs for each of the captives, locking one cuff around the chains between their wrists, the other end around the toe cuffs, making sure they couldn’t stand up and potentially wiggle off the barriers.
“Alright, back inside! You two, keep watch, make sure the cops know we mean business when they get here!” As the maids hurried to follow the orders, the one who had bound Cat stopped, and crouched in front of her. She leered at Cat and squeezed her captive’s breasts, making the bound heroine try to jerk away, and curse incomprehensibly into her underwear. “Only have one pair of these, unfortunately, but I figure you’ve earned them.”
Cat screamed in anger as the alligator teeth of the nipple clamps bit into her nipples. The maid tugged the chain between them when she had finished, lifting Cat’s nipples and digging the teeth in more, before she let them drop and hurried back into the bank. Cat wasted no time in jerking at the cuffs, snarling and cursing as she tried to wiggle loose. She looked over at Laura, and the boys, and all of them were doing the same, but having no obvious luck. She finally got a look at Kinzie down on the far end, and the bright pink cock cage he wore. The way it stood out, and the distinct dribble coming out of it, told her he was excited.
Shaking her head, Cat shared a look with Laura, who managed a helpless shrug. Her face was practically glowing with embarrassment as the sirens grew louder. Her eyes suddenly shot across the street, and she let out a startled squeal, shaking her head. Cat’s eyes followed, and she couldn’t believe what she saw.
Three people scattered along the opposite street, gawking at them, holding their phones up in a way that meant they were taking pictures or filming the whole thing. Cat joined in the angry shouting from Laura, the pinch of the cuffs on her wrists and toes rather painful as she fought at them. What was wrong with people?! Didn’t they see the maids with the guns standing behind them? One of the gawkers then turned their phone around, shifting so that they could take a selfie with the bound captives in the background, struggling to get a good angle.
“Oh my god! I just want to slap that idiot!” Cat thought, knowing she’d be hearing about this for weeks. She might run around naked and covered in fur as Pink Pussy, but despite her outgoing personality, she wasn’t known to be a exhibitionist in her normal life. She felt worse for Laura though, since she wasn’t nearly as outgoing as Cat, and there was no telling how something like this could hurt her reputation as a detective.
Cat continued fighting the cuffs, wincing as the metal bit at her skin, which would probably be raw at the least once free, if not bleeding by the time she was finished. She had to get loose! Those damn maids, especially the little psycho in charge, needed to suffer some Pussy-powered justice! Cat let out a frustrated cry around the stuffing in her mouth, getting a strong blast of all of her dirty underwear for her trouble.
Tires screeched on both ends of the block as several police cars whipped around the corner and then slid to a stop in front of the bank, sirens blaring, lights flashing. The rifles from the maids at the doors opened up, peppering the cruisers with lead as their occupants dove out the opposite sides of the vehicles for cover.
Cat thought she heard Laura shouting something, or at least trying to, but it was drowned out by more gunfire. As the rifles died off, Cat shook her head, ears ringing. She could hear the cops shouting, saw some peeking out from around their shot-up cruisers, but none dared to return fire with the four hostages out front. Her cheeks burned hotter from a mix of outrage and embarrassment, being completely exposed and completely helpless to do anything to help. If she just transformed she could shred those rifles!
Looking to Laura, who looked just as frustrated, Cat rocked back and forth, nodding backward toward the bank. Laura saw the look in her eyes, and shook her head, but at that point, Cat didn’t care. The situation was getting out of hand in a bad way, and she had to stop it! Laura’s expression changed, and somewhere in the part of Cat’s brain that was still functioning rationally, she understood that her friend was trying to tell her. It wasn’t just her identity on the line, it was Laura’s. Gun Bunny would be outed as well, and Laura was in no position to handle that kind of situation like Cat was; the legal mess alone would be a nightmarish quagmire.
The two shared a long look at one another, and Cat was fairly certain Laura was at the point where such a thing didn’t matter, but their attention was finally drawn off of one another as muffled shouts came from inside the bank. This was quickly followed up by why Cat thought could only have been some spicy curses from Suzie, only for them to get cut off suddenly, and was then followed up by a series of faint explosions, too faint to have been the little psycho’s grenades.
There was more shouting, and then screams, but no gunfire from the maids outside, or inside. Cat saw the two door guards look at one another, then they turned to look inside. When they opened the doors, heavy smoke rolled out, and they went in at a run.
Cat shot a look to Laura again, though this time the pair were only slightly less confused than the maids had been. Who was inside? What was happening? She leaned forward, seeing Kyou and Kinzie looking likewise uncertain, each appearing just as sweaty from their own struggles to free themselves, though Kinzie was still dripping out of that little cage on his cock. “Should I ask about that? Maybe I should ask about that…” Cat thought, the curiosity of her namesake coming out.
Her attention was quickly drawn back toward the bank as there was another series of shouts, then what sounded like fighting. Though she was fairly certain of what it was, her suspicions were confirmed when the doors flew open and a maid came rolling out, stopping on her side with a groan and a bloody nose, her uniform now ripped and torn in several places.
Smoke continued to roll out as two more maids were thrown outside, the pair that had just gone inside, in fact, landing in a heap next to the first one, one of them on her back, legs over her head, skirt up to reveal her thigh-highs, garters, and panties. Each looked roughed up and made a weak attempt to crawl away before they collapsed into unconsciousness. Cat was just starting to appreciate whoever was inside kicking maid ass when she heard a whip crack, followed by a familiar, haughty laugh.
“Nhhgh….” Cat groaned into her gag, sagging against the concrete barrier. It couldn’t be! Anyone but her! Why did it have to be her?! Mecha Musume, Cyber Seer, Black Cat, Lovely Angel, hell, even that dildo-flinging freak Hooded Harlot would have been welcome. But HER?! Why did it have to be Shadow Lynx?!
Something heavy thudded against the reinforced bank windows, but when Cat turned again to look, though they were still shrouded with smoke, she saw a brief flash of a maid uniform slumping at the base. Then she saw a hand reach through the smoke to snatch the maid, dragging them out of sight. “Who was that?!” The forearm she’d seen had been sheathed in a bright red latex, or something like it, with a darker black color over the hand. More interestingly, a pair of bright green eyes had shown through the smoke, glowing momentarily before disappearing again. That wasn’t Shadow Lynx’s costume…
A few moments of silence followed soon after, and the smoke rolling through the doors began to thin out. Appearing within the fading smoke was a shadowy form, seeming to coalesce from the haze itself, taking on a shapely figure. Shadow Lynx’s knee-high heeled boots clicked on the concrete sidewalk as the Latina heroine slipped into her victory pose for the crowd, showing off the most of her curves while holding a gauntleted hand up in the ‘peace’ symbol and flashing a seductive smile. Something about her outfit always put Cat in the mind of a mix between a scantily-clad biker chick and a dominatrix.
It was only one of the reasons she couldn’t stand Shadow Lynx; the fact that they were bitter rivals for the attention of the fans was the bigger one.
But there was another figure emerging behind Shadow Lynx, standing a little taller, about six feet. The fox motif was obvious, whoever it was wearing a very tight-fitting outfit in black and red, styled like a fox, with black colored “paws” on her hands and feet, and a full-face mask styled like a fox’s head, the green lenses of the eyes blending well with the theme, though not glowing at the moment like they had in the brief glimpse from earlier. The woman’s suit even had a large tail swaying slowly behind her. The subtle hexagonal pattern in the outfit, and the animal-like lower legs of the outfit, bent backwards, indicated some high tech gadgetry, as did the utility belt around the figure’s shapely waist. A thin, but stout-looking metallic collar circled her neck, black and red like the outfit, but with a slowly blinking yellow light at the front.
It took Cat a half-second to realize it, but she’d seen this woman before! She had been there a few months back when Cat, as Pink Pussy, had been under the control of Doll Face and stealing stuff left and right for the strange villainess, and had been assisting with some of the more intricate thefts and had even laid the traps that had caught the newer heroines that had shown up to stop Doll Face at the time. What was she doing here now? And why had she changed her outfit from the black and gray she’d worn before to the more flashy red? Why was she working with Shadow Lynx of all people? Surely she could have found someone less terribly annoying to assist. Was she that desperate?
Or…was Shadow Lynx doing something shady? That thought brought a grin to Cat’s taped lips. It would do her a world of good to catch Shadow Lynx in something illicit; she was probably dirty anyway, jumping around in the shadows like that, she would make a better villain anyway. “She’s gotta be doing something illegal; it’s just a matter of time until Pink Pussy catches her in the act! That’ll bring the bitch down a few notches!” Cat focused on that thought, as it was currently the only thing that sated her anger.
“It’s all over now! The Clean Sweeps have been cleaned up, and…” Cat stifled a growl as Shadow Lynx stepped behind them, flashing the claws that were part of her armored gauntlets and quickly swiping at the cuffs of the hostages out front, cutting neatly through the steel and releasing them from the posts. “…all the hostages have been freed!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd that had seemed to have come from nowhere, cell phone cameras flashing left and right as the police rushed forward, to Cat and her friends and into the bank to secure the scene. It was a mad rush as quilts were thrown around them to hide their nudity and they were guided toward the nearby ambulances for the required medical exam. Cat barely registered the bleeding around her wrists, just glad to be away from Shadow Lynx and her mysterious companion.
Several minutes later, with the cuffs removed and their gags pulled free, and the nipple clamps in Cat’s case, Cat was in no mood for talk as the inevitable slew of reporters and freelance online journalists flooded the scene, and she tersely answered the few questions the cops had asked her, some of Laura’s friends on the force, who had done what they could to minimize the attention on Laura. She’d been on the other side of the scene plenty of times, but this was the first time she’d been a hostage, and it rankled her. Still, there was some satisfaction to be had, as the maids were led to the waiting police trucks, and the little psycho Suzie being carried out like a gym bag, cursing into a giant ball gag and wiggling in a strict hogtie, her pink-haired friend similarly carried, but wrapped up more like a mummy in some kind of rubber bands. Still, despite that, it didn’t change the fact that Shadow Lynx had delivered the bad girls, and technically they owed her for the rescue.
That stung.
After a hasty conversation with Laura and the boys, they’d made the decision to try to slip out before things could get more crazy, but then Shadow Lynx appeared beside them, her fox-like companion right behind her.
Immediately the media turned their attention to Shadow Lynx, who was soaking it up like a sponge. Feeling her face heat, it took every ounce of restraint in Cat to keep herself from trying to punch Shadow Lynx as she slipped between Cat and Laura and threw an arm around their shoulders, flashing the thumbs up to the cameras. “Smile now, chicas! You’re safe now!” Shadow Lynx said. Her shorter height between Cat’s taller, toned build and Laura’s more slender, almost lanky figure would probably not even be noticed by anyone watching, as much cleavage as the shadowy heroine happened to be showing off.
“Uh…right…” Cat replied numbly, managing what she hoped looked like a grateful smile, not a pained grimace. It seemed like an eternity before the flashes stopped, and Shadow Lynx finally moved on to her photo op with Kinzie and Kyou, who probably handled the situation a lot better than the two of them had, given the surprised gasp and total fangirling Kinzie was doing. A quick look and shooing motion from Kyou was all Cat needed to know.
Cat snatched Laura’s hand and pulled her off to the side, passing by the woman dressed as a fox, who simply nodded as they passed. Cat wasn’t sure what to make of her, but returned the nod, and hurried between a pair of ambulances.
Behind them, Cat did hear a question that made her pause for a moment.
“Lynx, who is your friend here? I’ve not seen her before.”
“Ah, how could I forget? This is mi amiga nueva, Kitsune! She’s just getting her feet under her, yeah? But she slipped into the gang’s ranks and tipped me off on what was going down, and even took a few of them out herself! Of course, under my leadership…”
Cat tuned the rest of Shadow Lynx’s response out as it quickly turned back to herself, and shook her head. “I really can’t stand that woman…”
“That makes two of us,” Laura replied, sounding tired. “Or three. I don’t think Kitsune can stand her either; the way she’s standing, the fists she made when Lynx started leading the conversation back to her…it got to her.”
“Oh yeah? Could have just been Lynx not letting her get a word in..or maybe she couldn’t speak at all, the way that mask of hers was? It was covering her whole face and was kinda shaped like a real fox snout. Maybe Kitsune’s not all that bad after all. Think she’s trying to turn a new leaf now that she’s free of Doll Face, maybe?”
Laura shrugged. “I dunno; it’s possible, sure. You notice that collar she’s wearing? I think there’s more to it than a fashion statement. I saw a light on the front; it went green once the situation had ended, but before it was flashing, like it was armed or something.”
Cat glanced over her shoulder toward the crowd, unable to see either of the heroines, but shook her head. “You think it was like a control device maybe? Like those masks? Or something else? It does kinda go against the rest of the outfit, huh?”
“I just don’t know. We’ll have to look into that later, maybe ask the usual sources since they’re always in the know.” Cat knew she was talking about Cyber Seer; that girl seemed to know everything going on in Sentinel City, and had even started trying to organize the heroes into something of a unified group. “I just want to get out of here and-” Laura stopped suddenly, biting her lip as she turned back toward the crowd and looked at the bank, a growing look of worry on her face.
“Hey, what is it?”
“Cat…I hate to bring it up, but…as much as I’d love to hurry up and go and bury myself somewhere for a few weeks…our keys are still in the bank with what’s left of our clothes. We’re gonna need those if we want to take the care home and get back in the apartment the easy way.”
Coming to a stop, Cat gaped at Laura, then dropped her head, shoulders sagging, and let out a heavy, defeated sigh. Could this day just hurry up and end?!
Hey, everyone! Sorry for not getting the next chapter of the Asylum story posted this week, but I’ve been out of town for a good part of the week and just haven’t been able to get caught up yet. I should have the chapter ready for next week, barring any complications, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little look into the kinky superhero setting I’m developing, and will likely feature as my next serialized story. Let me know what you think! I’d appreciate any questions or thoughts you might have! Catch you later!
