Pariah #2: 'The Hunt'

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Sargeant
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Hello and welcome to another of my fledgling attempts at writing a (full) story. This will be the continuation of the arc started in the 'New Arrival' story and as such I respectfully point you in that direction if you want a proper introduction to this story. You certainly don't need to have read it for this story to make sense - it will merely be of benefit to you if you want to have a deeper understanding of this world and our heroine. Because I consider introductions and foundation building to be finished in the previous story, I intend for this one to be much more concerned with *things happening* and just getting right into it in the assumption you already know the background.

Just as the last story started life as a doodle that got out of hand, so to has my delusions of grandeur got the better of me with this story. It continues the arc against Underhaven and I anticipate the ordeal to be a long one as Pariah moves from one encounter to another. I confess I am using this as an excuse to practise different styles of writing and types of scenes, so I really do apologise if it seems to meander off target on occasion. A particular concern I have there is that I intend for there to be quite a lot of conflict in this story, with one or two drawn out fights... How do we feel about heroine battles? Is it a good thing, building up the peril and part of what you'd expect in heroine fiction - or is it a bad thing, wasting time and not really at home in stories like this?

If anyone wishes to contact me directly to leave feedback, make a request/suggestion, ask or answer a question then you can reach me here: [email protected]

Fair warning: As before, there will be hard sexual content as well as graphic violent and sexual themes. There will also be lots of exposition and indulgent story telling - so if you're purely interested in peril or purely interested in clean heroine action, either way you may want to skip along the bits that don't agree with you.

Hope you guys enjoy.

Edit: If you haven't read the first chapter, then you can reach it here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22170&p=76020#p76020 (thanks to tallyho for the suggestion)

P.S As before, if you're looking to skip right to the sexual peril, then head to Part Five.

Pariah: The Hunt


Part One: Gathering Storm

While there were some places in Azure that were continuously bathed in never ending noise, such as the city centre or the Feldyne industrial estate, there were many other places that fell silent as a crypt come the dead of night. In the neglected district of Gallowgate, silence was a given at most times of day and the locals knew to be wary of any noise that broke through the gloomy quiet. Noise always heralds something, and that something was often trouble.

Tonight was no different.

Gun shots shattered the ambient silence of the Azure night, followed by garbled screams and cries for help. Then silence descended once more, like the return of darkness once a candle has been snuffed out. The pall of dead sound lasted a few moments before there was another eruption of distressed shouts and gunshots, this time longer than the last. Then, inevitably, silence resumed. Another candle snuffed out.

Unmistakably trouble, though tonight it was an unusual kind of trouble. The screams and cries were from the lips of men not used to being the ones in trouble - like a pack of hyenas encountering a lion for the first time. The alarm came to them in new and surprising ways as they gave voice to an emotion that they had never needed before.

Fear.

More shouts, more shots fired, more calls for aid - more silence, more candles turned out.

Fabien Garcia was not having a good night. Not anymore. The old warehouse that had always been a haven where he could play god with the lives of the women they brought back there, was now more like a crumbling tomb that he was desperate to escape. Something had cut the power to the warehouse, killing the lights and turning off the aria they had been using to keep the girls quiescent in C block. Now that same something was stalking Garcia and his men through the warehouse, picking them off. He had seen it as he mustered some of his people to fend it off in B block. Now his people were gone and he was running.

It wasn't human. It couldn't be.

As he burst through the doors into C block he heard one final outpouring of noise from behind him as the last of the men in B block was discovered and then put down. Garcia didn't bother looking back, he had given up on the guys back there the moment that the thing hunting them revealed that it was bullet proof, sweeping the tail of its cloak around its body to impossibly deflect the incoming shots. He had been too scared to try and run passed it, and instead ran away from it, further into the warehouse. If he could get through C block then he could still make it out the back door on the other end - he just needed to hustle.

Ahead of him he could just make out the forms of Roland and his two people as they stood guard over the girls that were strewn about the floor on dirty blankets. He was relieved to see that he wasn't alone; glad that he had asked Roland to stay behind and make sure the girls didn't move now that the aria had ceased.

Roland saw him coming and called out to him, his own near-panic clear in his voice, 'Garcia! What the hell, man? What's...'

'We're under attack - everyone's gone,' Garcia shouted back hastily as he kept running towards them, 'We need to get out of here, we need...'

One of the big speakers they had used for the aria back in B block came flying passed Garcia's shoulder. It hit the man on Roland's left square in the chest and sent the man crashing to the floor in a crumpled heap. Small ball bearings fired by Garcia's other shoulder and impacted on the floor between him and Roland, exploding into balls of dense smoke.

'Oh shit!' Roland called out in alarm, and Garcia heard the distinct clicks of a man readying his weapon.

Realising what his colleague was about to do, Garcia threw himself to the ground, hugging as low to it as he could. The moment he reached the floor he heard shots as both Roland and the man with him opened up on whatever they thought they had seen behind Garcia. Through the fog that now obscured their vision, Garcia realised they were simply firing blindly.

'You dicks!' he shouted when they stopped firing, 'You could have fucking killed me!'

'Shut up,' hissed Roland through the smoke, 'Listen... I think there's...'

Garcia heard thuds in the smoke ahead of him followed by muffled gargles and then heavier thuds. A hint of blue light broke through the smoke before he saw a distinct shape of a person hurtle out of the smoke and into one of the heavy shelving stacks.

As the smoke cleared, Garcia could see no sign of Roland or his people.

Wide eyed, he climbed back to his feet and nervously glanced about him, 'Roland? You still there, buddy? Anyone?'

He wasn't going to make it to the doors, he knew that now. It didn't matter if he made a dash for the back doors or doubled back to run for the main entrance - he wasn't going to get away. He needed a new play.

He ran to where Roland had been, seeing his guy crumpled on the floor but seeing no sign of Roland himself, and made his way to the girls on the blankets.

He drew his pistol and pointed it at the first of them, dragging the insensible girl to her knees, 'Hey! Hey, I know you're out there! I can't get you but I can sure as hell kill this girl here, do you understand me? I'll do it! I got plenty of girls here that I can do in.'

Silence greeted his voice. He darted his eyes around the room, trying to spot his attacker through the darkness.

'Show yourself! You got three seconds to let me know where you are before I end this slut's life... one... two...'

A hooded figure stepped from the darkness a couple of meters to his right, specks of blue light shining at him from under the hood. 'Here I am,' it said, its voice icy cold.

Garcia reoriented himself to face the figure, still pressing the barrel of his gun against the back of the girl's head. Getting a clearer look at his attacker, he could see it was a beautiful woman. The sleek curves of her body were clearly visible through the form-fitting black and jade bodysuit she wore, obscured only by the dark cloak fluttering around her body. The sight of her made him wish it was possible to turn the aria back on.

It had been a gamble that his attacker would have any interest in the girl's life but it was the last option he had seen open to him. Garcia felt elation run through his veins as he realised that it had actually worked.

'Alright then,' he said cautiously, watching her for the slightest sign of threat, 'You don't want me to hurt the girl, right? So I'm gonna need you to be nice and compliant, yeah? How about you start by taking off that cloak.'

She gave a wry smile, the light intensifying in her eyes, 'I think you've misjudged this a little bit.'

Garcia was about to issue another command, to put her in her place and start to assert some control over the situation now that he had leverage, but before he got a chance the woman was already moving, coming at him like a bolt of lightning. He pulled the trigger on his pistol but found it wouldn't budge, as if the safety had been switched on. He glanced down at it to see blue light coming from around the trigger, giving evidence to the telekinetic force she was using to prevent him from firing.

His confusion at why he couldn't fire did not last long. She reached him in a second and he was rocked by blows from her long legs before she followed up with a jumping haymaker to his face. He felt his nose break followed by the warm rush of blood cascading down his face as he collapsed to the floor beside his former hostage.

He looked up at the dark figure of the woman as she bent down to him, the blue light fading from her eyes until her face was lost in shadow under the hood. As darkness closed in on his vision, he felt her hands go to his pockets and she pulled out his mobile phone.

'This will be a big help, thanks,' she said as she stood back up over him, 'I'd hoped this was what that bulge was in your pants... Now, while I have your attention I'd like to ask you a few questions about Vincent Malone and Club Surrender.'

Garcia felt somehow disconnected from his body as it refused to move when he told it to, rendering his fear and adrenaline entirely impotent. He stared at the figure looming over him, 'Pfft, I'm telling you nothing, bitch. You've messed with Malone and he's gonna get you back for this; he's not going to let you destroy his kingdom in Gallowgate,' he spat blood, 'You think you can make an enemy of Underhaven and just walk away? They got folk way scarier than you are, and they're gonna be coming for you, chica. There's a fuckin' storm coming and you're gonna be right in the eye of it. You...'

Her foot came down hard on his throat and cut him off mid-speech, 'Good,' she said emphatically. 'You're already wrong about not telling me anything, but you're going to go quite a bit further. Now then, I'm going to break a bone every time you lie to me or refuse to answer me, and they aren't going to be my bones… But don't let that worry you too much; a coward like you is probably going to get out of this ordeal with no broken bones at all... other than your nose, of course.'

Garcia widened his eyes up at her in fear. She spoke with such calm assurance; he believed every word she said. 'You... you would do that? But you're like a heroine or something... That's not what you guys do.'

'I'm a girl that puts on a mask and goes off into the night to beat up the most dangerous men in Azure with her bare hands. I'm a vigilante enforcing my, quite likely warped, sense of justice on others. Do you really want to test what I won't do?'

He shook his head, 'No...'

'Good,' she said, lifting her foot off his throat, 'Then let’s talk about your boss.'

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Later...

Detective Chris Blake had always possessed a good nose for predicting trouble, and his uncanny ability to read a situation, from the bizarre to the mundane, had been what made him so proficient at his job. It was what had propelled him up from cadet to detective investigator in double-quick time, and what would likely see him make sergeant well ahead of his peers – even if he would decline the role when the time came.

He'd had a feeling that he would be getting the call tonight; he was sat outside his favourite coffee shop waiting for it an hour after his shift had ended. When the clock struck two-thirty in the morning he had been considering turning in for the night, but then the call finally did come through.

There'd been another incident in Gallowgate.

He just had a sense that what he’d seen at the Harrington depot the previous night was the beginning of something - though he wasn't entirely sure what it was the beginning of. The deliberate nature of how the depot had been targeted left Blake with the impression that there would be more to come, and the condition in which they had found Tyrone Bennett suggested that someone was angry.

It was something Blake could understand. The testimonies from the girls they brought out of the depot had been difficult to hear. The men that had held them there disgusted Blake more than any other case he had worked. The cynical, large scale of how it had been done was horrifying, and Blake knew that it was going to be just the tip of the iceberg.

The implications were sobering.

Underhaven - a name long thought to be a myth back at the precinct - was real. They were very much the real deal, active on a level above anything he had seen before, and it sent Blake's teeth on edge to consider how this had gone on unnoticed for so long. It hit him hard, and he resolved that he would do all that he could to take the whole thing down. He made a promise to the victims that he would do better. The ACPD would do better.

He pulled up at the outer limits of the cordoned off area and got out of his beaten up old Impala. The sight of the warehouse was remarkably similar to the one from last night and the symmetry of it was lost on no one as they went about documenting the scene.

Detective Mary Locke stood waiting for him at the yellow tape. She raised her eyebrow at him as he approached, ‘You’re off the clock, Blake – I thought you had an early start tomorrow?’

He smiled at her, ‘Oh, I do, but…,’ he gestured around at the scene, ‘Well, you know.’

She returned his smile with a thin one of her own as she lit a cigarette, ‘Yeah, I suppose I do,’ she brought the smoke up to her lips and took a long drag. Blake could tell by looking at her that this case had gotten under the veteran detective's skin like it had his.

‘So, what do we have?’

‘Déjà vu,’ she said between tight lips as she kept her cigarette in her mouth, ‘Exactly the same as last night: Girl dials nine-one-one from the scene – seemingly on the phone of one of the suspects – and uniforms arrive to find unconscious men surrounded by crates of all sorts of illegal product along with a host of abused women.’

She took the cigarette from her mouth and blew a cloud of smoke, ‘Eleven beaten up suspects and six victims… Though given that the suspects are in the state they’re in, I’m sure some mug is going to describe them as victims as well… Meta containment are already on their way to inspect the scene.’

Blake let out a soft whistle, ‘They don’t hang around, do they?’ He let his gaze wander to the shackled men being led to the back of one of the police vans, their bodies clearly marked by the pounding that they had received earlier tonight, ‘So I take it that the girl who made the call has positively identified the Pariah, like last night?’

Locke nodded, ‘Yup. Multiple accounts describing the same rough appearance, multiple suspects describing the same telekinetic hoodoo, and the woman that made the call said her saviour introduced herself as Pariah… It’s fairly conclusive that our meta vigilante is involved in this.’

‘The hooded avenger, huh?’ Blake mused, ‘I have to say, I’m starting to feel pretty sodding redundant here – this lady is doing our job for us.’

‘So it seems,’ she agreed, ‘Either way this is being treated as an investigation into both the Pariah and Underhaven cases… It leaves a bad taste to be gunning for the vigilante with the same zeal as the syndicate of rapists, but that’s how it is.’

‘Let meta containment worry about the Pariah,’ Blake said, trying to reassure his partner, ‘Let’s just see if we can chase this up, maybe get ahead of the curve on this thing and nail Underhaven to the wall,’ He watched as the blacked out vans from meta containment began to arrive, ‘I get the feeling that this is going to escalate over the next few days… we’re opening up a hornets’ nest here.’

Locke followed his gaze and gave a grumble of agreement, ‘You can say that again. The whole thing is a shitting mess… If this is what Underhaven are like when no one can see them, I shudder to think what they’ll do when they’re being pushed like this. While I’m thinking about things that make me uncomfortable, I think we need to have a word with internal affairs and see if we can follow up how this hasn’t been flagged before – someone must have been covering this up.’

Blake wanted to disagree but found he couldn’t. Locke was right and it was an alarming prospect that they may have to contend with people in their own department to get to the bottom of this. Underhaven clearly had a lot of influence and it made the case increasingly unpleasant to touch.

‘Yeah…,’ he trailed off and let out a long breath that misted in the cool night air, looking out over the surrounding skyline as he considered the tangled mess he was about to try and unwind.

His eye was drawn to a flicker of movement up on one of the rooftops across the street and he stared up into the darkness for a moment. For a split second he thought that he could just make out a human shape up there, looking down at them all, but he disregarded it as his imagination chasing phantoms.

‘…It’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.’

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Elsewhere...

‘Mistress Weaver, the last of the team has arrived.’

Bethany Weaver sat in her luxury leather armchair with her back to the door, looking out through the one-way glass that formed the back wall of her chamber. The glass looked out on to the writhing mass of bodies on the main dance floor of Club Surrender as they revelled in the club's atmosphere. The wall was proofed against the sound coming from the other room and in contrast to the wild noise just inches away, her chamber was deathly silent. She liked to watch, in cold detachment, how the drunken youth cavorted and indulged while they were lost in the swirling tide of music. She found the sight relaxing, like watching a crackling fire.

She needed relaxing tonight.

Weaver stood from her chair, revealing herself to be dressed in a red latex dress that clung to her voluptuous figure in all the right ways. It had a slit cut into the leg of the dress that came all the way up to the top of her right thigh, revealing her perfect, snow-white skin. Her short, vibrant red hair framed her face just down to her jaw and was cropped such that she had a fringe that almost perpetually covered her right eye. Her eyes were deep green and contrasted with the white and rich red that coloured the rest of her.

She turned her graceful features towards the speaker, her visible eye staring out with clinical calm, ‘What of Lohman and Thane, have they sent anyone?’ she asked, her dead pan voice matching the look in her eye.

The man who had interrupted her was dressed in simple black clothes with a long leather trench coat and his manner was similarly plain, though considerably more lively than the red mistress. His long black hair was pulled into a pony tail with two small wisps of hair coming forward to act as a fringe, and the features of his face were darkly handsome. All the shadows in the small chamber seemed to lengthen towards him as if they were trying to reach out to him.

When he spoke again he sounded tired, as if he was in some kind of constant resignation, ‘This is too high profile now for Lohman to have his name anywhere near it, though his people tell me that they will do what they can to handle the police. After tonight, though, no one is going to be able to make this go away without some heads rolling first… It may actually need to be you who eventually handles the police, like you did in the Abrahams debacle.’

‘I expected as much,’ she said simply, ‘Lohman was only ever going to be useful if he had to be. And Thane? What of the Outsiders?’

‘Thane has sent one of his Outsiders along …’ the man said, unable to hide some unease from creeping into his voice, ‘Though I honestly feel that their involvement is unnecessary here; we can do this with our own people. Involving any help from Thane just complicates things - I don’t trust them.’

‘No, neither do I,’ she agreed, ‘But this needs to be done sooner rather than later – tonight leaves me in no doubt of that. The Pariah is going to come for us every night until we put a stop to it, so the more muscle we can use to end this quickly the better.’

‘I respect that but I think we could end this quickly enough with a simple trap. I think a team like this is overkill, frankly. If we are to believe that Lenny Finch nearly…’

‘Enough, Shade,’ she said quietly, ‘Mr. Drake wants this done quickly and I agree with him. We need to be sure of bringing this to an end before we lose Gallowgate and a whole lot more besides. Take me to them.’

Shade looked like he might try to debate it again before he nodded and led her from the office towards the V.I.P lounge. They walked together through lavish corridors that ran throughout the Club as private access passageways, passing multiple black doors with moans and sighs coming from the other side.

Shade turned his head back to her as they neared the lounge, ‘After this I will be heading out to make sure Mr. Drake and the Sanctum is safe. I will leave Snow to help you keep order here, if it pleases you.’

‘It does.’

He held open a heavy, padded door for her as they came to the V.I.P lounge. Club Surrender had multiple different lounges and dance bars but this was by far the most exclusive of the club, reserved only for Underhaven business. The room was opulent in the extreme with expensive, luxurious fixtures, and exquisitely beautiful women danced about the room for the pleasure of their guests.

Waiting for them in the lounge was the hunt that they had gathered. The disparate figures stood apart from each other around the room, awaiting the arrival of the red mistress in their own ways as they barely tolerated each others company.

There were six in total.

Two of them were from Shade’s team: Ogre and Dryad. Like many metas in Azure, they had long since adopted a ‘street name’ in place of their regular names which served to add to their mystique and further obscure the identity of who they used to be.

Ogre was a hulking brute of a man with a sprawling network of tattoos over his body all the way up to his shaved head. He stood in the centre of the room intensely staring down anyone who dared to come near him, idly clenching and unclenching his big fists with impatience. The big man was topless save for an armless, brown leather jacket and dressed in torn black jeans, his abundant muscles gleaming in the low light of the room. He inclined his head at Shade respectfully as they came in, acknowledging the only person on earth that he felt answerable to.

Dancing alone on the dance floor was Dryad, and she was a sharp contrast to her fellow enforcer. Her full, curvy figure swayed hypnotically as she danced; her wide hips and generous bust barely hidden behind the dark silk bands that were tied around her torso. Her thick brown hair came almost all the way down her back and it swished around her body as she moved. Her tanned skin seemed to throb in the lighting of the lounge, seeming every now and then to change between different shades of purple. She grinned at the new arrivals, her yellow eyes glinting with desire, and she flicked her dark tongue out at them provocatively, extending it a fraction further than should be possible.

At the bar sat Wesley Fontaine, very much out of place with the luxury of the lounge. He was a rugged, unkempt specimen of a man dressed in worn old clothes. Unlike the two enforcers, Fontaine had no meta abilities and generally lacked the presence of the others in the room. However Fontaine was the one true hunter of them all, having spent the last ten years stalking and kidnapping women first for his own pleasure and then later professionally for Underhaven. He raised a glass to Shade and then gave a deferential half-bow to the Mistress.

Over by one of the exotic dancing girls were the Ryder twins. The two goth sisters were pressed in either side of the dancer, hungrily kissing her and openly exploring her body with their hands. The young twins were dressed in similar black clothes with netting covering much of their bodies, and each had a long leather whip wrapped around their waist. Their long black hair differentiated them only by differing coloured streaks; Alice having purples streaks while Lara had red. Though not metas, the savage cunning of the goth twins had long made them the red Mistress’s favoured problem solvers and they had been the first selected to deal with the Pariah. They didn’t even acknowledge the new arrivals, oblivious to anything but the dancer they were lusting after.

Relaxing with his feet up on one of the cream leather sofas of the lounge was the one person in the room who was not a member of Underhaven. He was a lanky, hairless man swathed in a loose fitting vest and equally baggy jeans. He had been sent to help by the Outsiders: an underground cult of metas gathered together under the enigmatic leadership of a man by the name of Thane. The group shared an understanding of sorts with Underhaven, and the two had formed something of a symbiotic relationship in recent years as they both spread their influence throughout Azure. Weaver knew the strange, sneering man as Mask – a particularly odd fish, even from a bunch of unusual people – and she began to wonder if Shade was right about involving the Outsiders. Mask lolled his head to the side to face the newcomers and his face broke into a smile that was much, much too wide.

Apart from the gathered team stood Vincent Malone, flanked on both sides by two heavy set goons. Up until two nights ago Malone had been an up and coming leader of Underhaven, creating his own personal empire in the Gallowgate. He had been ambitious and vicious in equal measure on his way up as he had garnered increasing favour from the red mistress and Mr. Drake, eventually being trusted with overseeing their Gallowgate operations. He had thrived in the position, establishing greater and greater power until it had all started to come crashing down around him with the intervention of the Pariah. No one wanted this ordeal brought to an end more than Vincent Malone, just as no one had a greater interest in bringing down the heroine. He ran a hand through his slick brown hair and nervously touched his short-trimmed goatee as he turned his attention to the red mistress.

Weaver felt no need for introductions or pleasantries, instead cutting right to business as she entered, ‘You all know why you have been brought here today. We have been attacked by a masked vigilante with meta capabilities – seemingly a telekine – and it is clear that she will continue stalking us until we deal with her… So to that end I am charging each of you with the task of putting an end to the Pariah by whatever means you deem necessary. I have spoken with Mr. Drake, and he has intimated that he would prefer she be brought to him alive – broken or otherwise – but I honestly don’t mind so long as this threat is removed.’

Fontaine spoke up from the bar, his voice gruff, ‘Dead or alive? Is there a difference in reward for either?’

‘As I said, Mr. Drake would prefer she be taken alive, so the reward is greater – though part of the payment here is the hunt itself. I chose you all because I knew you would relish the encounter as well as the opportunity to do as you wish with her should you defeat her…,’ as she spoke she let her gaze fall onto the Outsider, ‘Though I cannot say if that is much payment for you, Mask.’

The hairless man sneered at her and came to his feet, his body seeming to shift and ripple until he looked like Mistress Weaver when he reached his feet, ‘Oh, the hunt is all very interesting,’ he said in her voice, ‘I’m happy to just see what the Pariah is made of… I know Thane is keen to know.’

Weaver stared back at her doppelganger, unimpressed, ‘Good,’ she looked away from Mask and addressed the room again, ‘Then you all know what to do. Malone will offer what assistance he can, though I expect you all to look out for his interests in Gallowgate since that seems to be the Pariah’s target,’ she looked from one to the other, ‘Any questions?’

Fontaine spoke up again, ‘Do we know anything about this broad?’

‘Not really, no,’ Weaver answered bluntly, ‘She seems to have telekinetic abilities, advanced combat training and sophisticated equipment. It is clear that she has good information on us and it's fair to say she is interested in ending us. Her brief history in this city suggests that she fancies herself some kind of hero – targeting the criminal fraternity. That is all.’

Malone cleared his voice and spoke up, trying not to sound intimidated by the company of all the metas in the room, ‘Uhh, my one guy that got away from her, Lenny Finch, says that she was nearly taken in by the aria – so she’s not invincible and she doesn't know about everything,’ he hesitated a moment, ‘Though she did break free of the aria… and I guess she knows more about us now…’

Mask snorted, his appearance taking on the aspect of Malone as well as his voice, ‘Thanks for that massive ray of insight, boss, you're a big help.’

Weaver spoke up before Malone could reply to the mockery, ‘If there are no more questions then I suggest you all get on with it. I’m not sure where, but I’m confident that the Pariah will strike again tomorrow night - see to it that it is her, and not us, who is hunted.’

The gathered hunters grunted their assent and made their way out of the lounge - except for the Ryder twins, who instead started to lead the dancer over to the cream sofas to take their tryst to the next level.

Shade stepped forward to his two enforcers before they could leave the room, 'No games, understand? Get this done.'

Ogre smacked his chest, 'I'll break her and lay her before you in chains - it is as inevitable as the setting sun.'

Dryad brought a hand to her lips to stifle a chuckle at the intensity of her colleague and stepped in close to Shade, capturing his attention with her penetrating yellow eyes, 'It is all a game, Shade,' she whispered, her voice like velvet, 'It has always been a game.' She trailed a finger up his chest and a slight haze seemed to radiate out from her body, causing Shade to take a rare step backwards.

He considered labouring the point but instead stood aside and let his people pass.

The red mistress watched as the team filtered out of the room, each of them intent on their new goal of capturing the Pariah, and she allowed herself a small smile as she considered the trouble she was unleashing unto the heroine.

Overkill, perhaps, but it seemed fitting treatment for the vigilante who had the temerity to go to war with Underhaven. If Malone and the remains of his empire of professional rapists weren’t enough, the six deadly criminals she had just added to the mix certainly would be. It was a hellish cocktail of perverse retribution that virtually guaranteed one, inescapable, conclusion.

One way or another, the Pariah would fall.

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So that's the first part, and our adventure is set up... I've probably bitten off more than I can chew with that set up... I'm not sure including this big tangent to do with the Outsiders was a clever idea at all - let alone having quite so many hunters to deal with. I probably should have had, like, two hunters... That would have been much more manageable, huh? Nevertheless! I think I will try to make a go of this for now. It will just mean that this story probably has a few parts to it.

I think I've just learned a valuable lesson here about containing my ambition...
Last edited by Void 7 years ago, edited 16 times in total.
Lost in the night, and there is no morning.
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valugi
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Another great chapter, I liked the hunters that you created, Particularly think Ryder twins could be the first to find Pariah and provide work for our heroine, who would have dificult life against these two.
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Nearly crippled myself with indecision because I had so many places to go after that intro, but I think I've found my way. Sadly not a lot to get excited about in this part, but after this it is hopefully all go.

Part Two: The Detective and The Artist


Bzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Evelyn jumped in her sheets as the sharp noise came crashing through her dreams. She quickly propped herself up on her elbows and groggily gazed around her studio apartment in confusion. Crisp morning light lit her apartment in harsh white, flattering nothing and hurting her eyes as they adjusted to the light.

In her half-asleep state she couldn't fathom what had woken her and she began to consider that it was just a phantom noise from her dream. Taking a final bleary look about herself, Evelyn started to lower herself back to her pillow.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Despite herself she jumped again as the loud noise came through the apartment. Her heart quickened and she felt a release of adrenaline as her training urged her to respond to the unwelcome noise. More awake now, she understood the noise for what it was.

Someone was ringing her doorbell.

Evelyn groaned and rolled over to look at her alarm clock, seeing that it was nine thirty in the morning - still four hours from when she intended to wake. Her long nights prowling the city of Azure took their toll on her daily timetable and she often wasn't in bed until the sun had already started to rise, making the late morning her prime resting period.

She considered leaving it and waiting for the person to leave so that she could resume her much needed rest. She had barely slept three hours so far and she felt a bone-deep desire to return to sleep.

Bzzzzzzzzt!

'Ugh... crap. Okay, okay.' She wrapped her covers around herself and gingerly got to her feet, wincing as her bare feet made contact with the cold floor. She padded down to the door from her bedroom and lifted the intercom to her face, still holding her covers about herself.

'Yes, hello?' she said, trying to sound bright and breezy as if she had been awake for hours - rather than about ten seconds.

'Uhh, hi, is that Miss Evelyn Lawson?' replied the voice of a young man on the line.

'...Yes, do you have a delivery or something?'

'No, no, my name's Chris Blake... We spoke on the phone about a week ago about me coming down to see if I could purchase one of your paintings for my sister,' the voice came back, starting to sound apologetic, 'Erm... is this a bad time? We can reschedule...'

Evelyn searched her memory and cursed herself as she realised he was right. She had booked a meeting with a client for this morning, she had completely forgotten about it - some guy looking to buy his sister a piece of unique art for her new apartment.

Her attempts at making it as a freelance artist had started strongly when she first came to Azure, making a few bulk sales to various restaurants and hotels, but it had somewhat fallen by the wayside since she had intensified her activity as Pariah. With no money or time to rent out a retail space, she had simply used her apartment as a sales point for individual buyers or collectors - vanishingly rare though they were.

Could really do without this right now..., she considered. Then again, she had promised herself that she would try to live Evelyn Lawson's life as well as Pariah's - and Evelyn Lawson could really do with more sales.

She let out a frustrated sigh, 'No, no don't be silly. Hi there Chris, let me just very quickly finish something, and I'll buzz you right in, okay?'

'Sounds good, I'll... be right here.'

Evelyn raced back up to her bed, throwing the covers back onto it and hastily dressing herself. She pulled on a dark pair of jeans and clipped on a simple white bra before putting on a white vest top. With no time to ready herself in front of a mirror, she quickly ran her hands through her blonde hair to smooth it down and hopefully make it look presentable. Jogging back to her living area, she bundled up loose bits of clothing and tossed them up to land behind her bed.

Judging it to be enough and not wanting to make her client wait any longer, she returned to the intercom and hit the buzzer to let him in. 'Just head up the stairs and my door is at the top.'

'Okay, see you soon.'

She returned the handset to the intercom and unlocked her door, opening it to listen as the heavy door down the stairwell was closed. She heard footfalls as someone began coming quickly up the stairs, taking them two at a time, until she saw him come into view as he reached the top of the stairs.

She froze and her adrenaline spiked again as she recognised the features of the young man.

The fiery eyed detective!

She had seen him before now - twice, in fact - over the previous nights as she had been on her business as Pariah. He had been one of the ACPD detectives to attend the crime scenes that she had left behind for them as she went about dismantling Underhaven. She remembered him clearly because he showed such humility and decency as he dealt with the victims at the scene. His presence here caught her completely off guard and her mind raced as she tried to figure out what this meant.

Pariah was a wanted criminal by the ACPD for her acts of vigilantism, and there was a standing order to contain all non-monitored metas in Azure. As much as Evelyn felt comradeship with the ACPD over their mutual dislike of Underhaven, she also knew that they would lock her away at the first opportunity if they could.

Just as the young detective started to come near, Evelyn's logic kicked in and calmed her alarmed thoughts.

If the ACPD knew about her then there would be a small army at her door - not one detective pretending to buy art. Similarly, she had nothing to fear of being seen here; even masked as Pariah she had never been spotted by this man before. As Evelyn or Pariah, he had never seen her before in his life - even if he had appeared to look right at her last night while she had watched the police from afar.

The detective gave her an easy smile and she returned it with a more forced one of her own.

'Hey, nice to meet you, Evelyn, is it?' He asked as he offered his hand.

She gave his hand a firm shake, 'Yeah, nice to meet you too, Chris - I'm sorry about keeping you waiting for so long.'

'Not at all, it’s a nice day and I don't get enough time looking around the Old Town. Late night, was it?'

Evelyn wrinkled her nose at him, 'What gave me away?'

He grinned at her, 'Ah, I have a knack for working things out. I'm a detective, actually - so I put all the subtle clues together.'

She grinned back at him, enjoying his easy going charm and relieved that she wouldn't have to pretend she didn't know what he was, 'Wow, detective, huh? Well I'm impressed - you must be good at it.''

Blake waved a dismissive hand, his smile widening, 'Naw, when I mentioned subtle clues I was really just referring to your top being on inside out.'

Evelyn blanched as she realised he was right, 'Aww man!' She closed the door in his face and quickly pulled her vest off to correct it. Climbing back into it the right way, she opened the door once again to face the bemused detective, 'Now that I've suitably embarrassed myself, why don't you come on in.'

He flashed another smile as he came in, his tone becoming more sympathetic, 'Hey, don't worry about it. I barely get any sleep in my job and believe me when I tell you that I've had some real howlers in my time. I once arrived at work with my shoes on the wrong feet - I'm not even joking.'

She giggled and led him through to where all her paintings lay stacked in her living area, 'I'll try to pretend I don't know that when I think of the ACPD hard at work to keep us all safe... Moving swiftly on, feel free to take a look at any of these - they're all available. Price is meant to be forty bucks... though I'm open to negotiation.'

'Good to know,' he said as he carefully leafed through the pictures, 'Hey, these are all really good; they'd be selling stuff like this for double what you're asking at an art store - you should probably up your prices.'

Evelyn shrugged, 'I'm glad you like them but if I were to double my prices I think no one would look at these twice. This isn't exactly a booming market.'

'You're just not being capitalist enough - you should go straight to dealers. They'd snap all of this up for a lot more than any personal deals you run, and it would save you having to front it as well - so no more embarrassing starts to your day.'

She found herself smiling again, 'Not many art dealers in Old Town, but I take your point; I've actually been meaning to set something like that up for a while now... I just never got round to it.'

He nodded, 'Well I'd say it’s worth looking into. I'm a total philistine, I admit, but to me these all look better than most of the tat you see on store shelves. There's more... life in these.'

'You're too kind,' she said, 'Even if you are clearly buttering me up to go down to thirty.'

He looked up at her, his eyes twinkling with mischief, 'You caught me. But it’s only because I want to buy two paintings. What do you say; two for sixty?'

Evelyn folded her arms and leaned back on her breakfast bar, '...Cash?'

'Of course.'

'Deal.'

They exchanged smiles as he went to the stack of pictures and grabbed two of them; both lurid paintings of the Azure skyline.

Evelyn frowned as she noticed his choice, 'You really think your sister wants two pictures that are so similar?'

'Ah, of course not. One of them is for me.'

She raised her eyebrows at him as he rummaged around in his wallet and produced the money, 'Well I appreciate your custom, Chris, I can point you to some very good framers of you need any help with that.'

'It’s okay, I know a place in the Glades that does a really good job for surprisingly...,' his voice trailed off as he passed her the money, his eyes drawn to her hands as she took the cash.

'Something wrong?'

'You have a fair amount of bruising on the knuckles of your hands...'

Shit.

'Oh,' she said as she drew her hands behind her back, 'That's nothing.'

His easy charm had changed into genuine concern, 'That's not nothing, Evelyn. I know this is a pretty dicey neighbourhood...,' his eyes were now looking over her for other signs of violence, 'Have you had to protect yourself recently? If anyone has attacked you...'

'No, no, its fine - really, it is,' she said trying not to sound too hasty, 'It was nothing, just a drunk guy the other night got a bit handsy - seemed to think no meant yes... I guess I must have punched some sense in to him - I probably went further than I should have,' she forced a laugh, 'If anyone should be pressing charges, it should probably be him.'

Blake searched her eyes, clearly not sure if he believed what she was saying, 'If you're sure... Look, my job has shown me a lot of bad places and people in this city, and I know Old Town is pretty rough around the edges... The police are only ever a phone call away, that's all I'm saying.'

'It’s sweet of you to be concerned but really its fine. I know how to take care of myself,' she said, feeling relief that Blake wasn't pressing the issue.

His smile returned, 'I don't doubt it; looks like you really clobbered the guy. Perhaps I’m more cynical than I ought to be these days... But there's stuff that I've worked on recently that would make your blood run cold, and it really makes the point that Azure can be really unsafe for beautiful women like yourself.’

Evelyn arched her brow at him, ‘Hmm. That would probably sound really ominous if it wasn’t also so flattering – you wanting another painting, detective?’

Blake blushed and averted his gaze, ‘Ah, I didn’t mean that to sound like I was spinning you a line, I just…’

‘Relax, Chris,’ she said, ‘Thanks for the warning, I promise I’ll be careful.’

‘Right,’ he said, regaining his composure and taking hold of his two purchases, ‘Well it was a pleasure doing business with you; I’ll be sure to remember you if I know anyone looking for some fresh art.’

‘I’d appreciate that,’ she said as she led him back to the door and opened it for him, ‘I could certainly do with more footfall.’

‘I bet,’ he said as he walked through the open door and turned back to face her, ‘Though you should really consider that dealer thing – I really think they’d take you seriously. Your stuff is great.’

‘I will,’ she promised, ‘Well, thanks again – you’ve given me a good start to my day.’

‘Glad to hear it. Though I should be the one thanking you – my sister is going to love this, and I’m excited about my own picture too.’

They grinned at each other again and there was a brief silence.

‘So…,’ she started.

‘Right, yeah,’ Blake said hastily, ‘Well you take care now, and good luck with the art.’

Evelyn chuckled, ‘Yeah, you too. Good luck with the detecting, and with your shoes.’

‘Heh, yeah…,’ he hesitated a second. Then he reached into his pocket and produced a card. ‘...This is my card,’ he said as he passed it to her, ‘If you ever want to report anything – like an attack - or if you want any advice… then you can reach me on that number.’

‘Oh,’ she said as she carefully took the card from him, ‘Umm, thanks, I’ll be sure to get in touch if anything comes up.’

He flashed a smile, this time it lacked confidence, ‘I’ve also been told I’m an excellent conversationalist, so even if you’d just like a chat… erm… that’s fine too.’

It was her turn to search his eyes as she considered what that meant.

Really bad idea.

‘That sounds interesting…,’ she said with a demure grin, ‘Who tells you that you’re an excellent conversationalist?’

His smile became more comfortable again, ‘Ah, you know… my mother, mainly.’

They both laughed.

Such a bad idea.

‘Well I’m sure she isn’t biased. I’ll be sure to keep this in a safe place and… maybe I’ll call to ask if your sister liked her painting – artistic vanity and all that.’

He beamed at her, ‘Cool. That’s totally cool… So I guess I better get going – all those evil dirt bags aren’t going to arrest themselves.’

She waggled her brows at him, ‘You never know – maybe they will.’ It surprised her how much she was enjoying this conversation, ‘Goodbye Chris.’

He gave her a wave, ‘Bye Evelyn, hope you have a great day.’

‘You too,’ she said, giving him a slight wave as she closed the door. She turned around and leaned back against it, letting out a deep breath as she looked down at the card in her hands.

Any involvement with the detective was clearly a very foolish thing to do, she knew that. Yet a part of her felt a spark of interest at the prospect - a feeling she hadn't experienced since before her life changed in Everwood Springs.

Maybe...

Evelyn grinned to herself as she played with the idea before deciding to put the thought to one side for now. Kamura always said that entertaining foolishness was the business of an idle mind and, for now at least, she was far from idle. There were too many pressing issues to deal with first; she needed to keep her focus on Pariah’s business for now.

She was awake now – hours before she had intended to be – and she could steal a march on her plans for the day. With the extra time she could afford to address her normal life first, and her recent encounter with Blake had motivated her to get some painting done today. After that she would need to maintain Pariah’s equipment and start researching better avenues to restock it – an obstacle she didn’t relish facing – and then she would need to start making plans for where she would strike Underhaven next.

Evelyn’s smile faded as her thoughts turned towards Underhaven. They now knew she was coming. They would be expecting her tonight, wherever she chose to attack. However the advantage was still decidedly hers; she could pick the time and place. She had the initiative and with it, it wouldn’t matter how prepared they were – she was still in the stronger position.

She shook her head as she walked back into her apartment, clearing her brooding thoughts about Underhaven. There was plenty of time to focus on that later. For now she wanted to be the person that the detective thought she was, and just think about normal things.

Artist now. Vigilante later.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That Night...


Unlike when Pariah began hunting Underhaven, she now had options.

After clearing out the two storage sites in Gallowgate over the previous nights, she had gotten the opportunity to squeeze the overseers at the sites for information about where else Underhaven was hiding. She now knew categorically that Underhaven's beating heart lay in the sleazy district known informally as the Honeypot. In particular they seemed to be based out of the notorious nightclub known as Club Surrender.

Pariah could go there anytime and cut the heart right out of the organisation.

However there were far too many unknowns for her to do that now - she had learned that lesson from Kamura's fate when they had attempted to end the Black Hydra with a similar move. The suggestion from her informant - Marcus Crowley - was that Underhaven had at least five meta humans in their service, and she had no idea what their capabilities would be. On top of that, Underhaven had already proved itself to have powerful secret weapons which had already caught her off guard, and she was sure there would be more. Overall she disliked the idea of going to their power base blindly - specially since that powerbase was a legal establishment and Underhaven would be able to deploy the ACPD in their defence.

She needed more information before she would take that step and she wanted to weaken the beast before going in for the kill. That meant going for where they were more vulnerable. If their heart was in the Honeypot, then it seemed that most of their body was in the Gallowgate. The neglected district gave them perfect cover to manage the resources that they dealt in and to continue expanding. Their product mostly came through here; either being produced or stored here until it inevitably made its way to the Honeypot to be consumed. This applied to the girls that Underhaven took as well. Many of them were snatched from the streets of Gallowgate, and all were sent here to be held until they could be moved. It was mostly here that the girls had their wills broken before they were sent off to serve or be sold in the Honeypot.

The combined vital operations that Underhaven ran through Gallowgate had made it near essential for their survival - meaning that if the empire they had in Gallowgate were to be destroyed, it would leave Underhaven broken and vulnerable. That was when Pariah would make her move on the Honeypot: When she would know almost everything about them and while they were deeply wounded - and hopefully with the ACPD breathing down their necks.

She had already taken big steps to achieve this; the two storage sites, along with all the material contained within them, were key pillars that held their kingdom together. There were others, though, and it was between these targets that she had to make a choice.

The lieutenant who ran things in Gallowgate was a man named Vincent Malone, and she now knew he was based out of an exotic dance bar, with brothel-like undertones, called 'The Silk Dungeon'. Pariah expected this to be a mini parody of Club Surrender where Malone likely played at being prince of Underhaven, and where their Gallowgate operations were organised from. Of all the pillars keeping things together, Malone and his Silk Dungeon would be the most essential.

Tempting target, but if they were expecting her anywhere tonight it would be there. She also fancied that she could weaken them a bit further before she struck for Malone.

That had left three realistic alternatives: A garage workshop on the main road to Ravenport from which they launched all their carriers to transport women and product; the top three floors of a dilapidated apartment building in the centre of residential Gallowgate where girls were both trained and sold; and a clandestine laboratory where they produced and stored a great deal of their narcotics, concealed in the burnt out remains of what was once a youth hostel just on the fringes of Old Town.

Finnie's Garage, floors seven through nine of the Addleton Building, or the remains of the tragically named New Hope youth hostel. Their transport, their women, or their drugs.

It had been a difficult decision. Pariah knew the biggest priority had to be to save the girls, yet she also knew that she was probably expected there as well. Being expected while Underhaven would almost certainly have hostages was a very bad mix. Better to wrong foot Underhaven and hit them where they might not be expecting it but where she might hurt them most - their drugs. Her plan was to throw them into disarray with the loss of the laboratory before following up on the Addleton apartment building. So far she had attacked them once a night; she figured she stood a good chance of catching them off guard if she upped the anti to twice in one night.

It would be a tall ask, she knew, requiring more of her than she had done the previous nights - but she was ready for it.

Standing in the shadows of an alley with her cloak wrapped tightly about her to shroud her form, Pariah looked out over the run down silhouette of the New Hope hostel across the street.

The night was young. It was going to be a long one for both her and Underhaven.

Okay Evelyn... Lets do this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So ends part two. I might revise the priorities here for what Pariah chose to do - But I think I'm quite happy with the direction this is going. I'll come back and edit this later tonight because there's sure to be a lot that needs editing. I hummed and hawed over which hunter we should encounter first. I was torn between Dryad and the Ryder Twins, and I think I'm going in favour of the Ryder Twins. So stay tuned for Part Three: Chasing Dragons! Or maybe I'll call it The Twins... Chasing Dragons just sounds way more climactic ^_^.
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valugi
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this 2nd chapter was also good, contextualized the story a little and showed a relationship between the heroine in his normal life and police officer.

if there was a sequel to the hunters could be Ryder Twins, after it we could have Wesley Fontaine, after Ogre and Dryad and finally Mask
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Yeah, you pretty much nailed the order I'd like to do. Right now I'm thinking Twins, Ogre, Fontaine, Dryad, Mask - with a possible finale where a few of them are fought at the same time depending on how their first encounters go. Still not sure how far each of them will go with the peril - some will go a lot further than others - but I think that will get resolved naturally as each encounter plays out.
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So on we go. I'm kind of going into this without a plan for what is going to happen so its very much following whatever comes naturally. Might be a bad idea... but I'd like to test out how a scene like this plays if I just leave it to the characters to power through. However if doing it that way leaves it a total mess then I will edit the snot out of it to put it right/potentially even completely re-write it with a plan. Either way, expect adult content.


Part Three: Chasing Dragons


New Hope had once been a beacon of something promising in Gallowgate. A place where the disenfranchised, marginalised youth could congregate and reconnect with the possibility that they could be somebody; that they could go on and do something meaningful. It was a stitch that held the community together and encouraged the next generation of the 'Gate to be constructive members of society. It gave a sympathetic chance to everyone so that they could be included in a brighter future.

Naturally it had been burned down.

This was not a place that embraced change, much less hope. Some thought that the fire was an accident, but most believed it was an intentional act of arson from someone who took offence to the hostel and all that it stood for. Though the frame of the building had been left intact, it had been left unusable from the fire damage and there was insufficient funding to do anything with it - so, with a sense of inevitability, the hostel became just another abandoned facility standing vigil in the 'Gate.

Apparently that fate wasn't bad enough, Pariah reflected bitterly. Rather than simply having the building become another bleak tomb marking what could have been, it had been perverted to actually contribute to the corruption and poison that had laid Gallowgate so low to begin with. Underhaven had used the on-site facilities to assist them in setting up a lab in which they could farm and produce their drugs. The den they had there also allowed them to stockpile the stuff as they brought in greater amounts from other locations.

It seemed to Pariah that Underhaven took pleasure in corrupting all things - not just people. It was as if they chose their locations partially based off of the cruel subversion on what the site had once been. Perhaps they felt it sent some kind of message, or perhaps they took their own private amusement out of it, either way it increasingly gave her the impression that whoever was in charge at Underhaven just wanted to see the world torn down.

Pariah had surveyed the scene for a while from the darkness. The building showed no signs of life: There were no lights on inside, no cars parked around it, no people patrolling around it, no sounds coming from within it.

It just looked dead.

She had known to expect most of Underhaven's activities to be limited to the basement of the hostel, which had remained largely intact from the fire, so it wasn't a complete surprise to her that she could see no signs of what was going on within. What did surprise her was the lack of any indication from outside that the site was protected. She had expected guys to be standing watch outside or for there to be conspicuous parked vans ranged about the hostel. They must have suspected that she would come here, so why did it look so unguarded?

It could be that she was misled by the people she questioned, but she doubted that; their stories collaborated and she doubted they would have been taught to tell the same lie in a convoluted attempt to mislead someone. They had also both been too scared to risk lying to her. More likely was that either Underhaven had abandoned the site for fear of her attack, or else they had set up a trap - possibly both. Then again perhaps it was always like this, or perhaps they felt confident she wouldn't know about this place. Whatever the case, it was eerily inactive compared to what she had expected it to be and it left her with questions rather than answers.

Only one way to find out.

Taking one last look around the street to confirm she was clear, Pariah broke cover from the shadows of the alley and ran to the near wall of the Hostel. Hugging her body into the wall, she crept around the side of the building towards the opening of where a window had once been. She could have gone for the front door but the ominous stillness of the location made her mistrustful of coming in directly.

Taking a quick look through the opening, Pariah saw a charred communal room. Seeing the room to be clear, she silently climbed through the window and landed in a crouch. A quick look about her dark surroundings showed little indication of use, but she did notice a few cigarette stubs strewn about the window sill - the first clear sign that there was recent activity here. As she came further into the room she could see that broken glass had been left scattered about the floor, too evenly spread to be an accident.

She couldn't help a slight grin at the impish attempt at booby-trapping the room and creating a noise barrier that could alert them to an intruder. It actually put her mind at ease to see increasing signs that her quarry would be here. If they thought measures like this would help them then they had sorely misjudged what they were dealing with.

With ease, Pariah made her way across the room without disturbing the glass, placing her feet with deliberate care as she strolled through the weak defence. At the doorway to the main hallway she found a simple trip wire, placed low in the hope it would be unseen. She stepped over it to see that the wire connected to a canister containing some kind of gas, presumably to trigger the gas to release. Turning around she saw she had been wise to avoid the main entrance, since there was another canister trap laid at the door which would be triggered by any attempt to open it. She made a note to remember to disarm all these traps when she was finished here.

Further down she could see light coming from under a closed door at the end of the hall, and she heard very faint, muffled voices on the other side. She considered her next move for a moment. There shouldn't be any hostages here so she didn't need to worry about rushing this or even necessarily sneaking in - so she could afford to be quite relaxed in how she approached it. The closed door could have a trap on the other side - however unlikely - so she would rather the people on the other side opened it, and that meant giving them cause to come through the door.

She mustered her focus and reached out with her telekinesis as she turned back to the common room that she had come from. With care, she lifted much of the glass that had been left on the floor, bathing it in blue light as it hovered up into the air. Then she simply released her control and let all the glass come crashing down.

The noise ripped through the silence of the hostel, and Pariah heard the voices behind the door pick up in volume as they heard the breaking glass. She listened intently for footfalls and was rewarded with the sound of someone hastily approaching the closed door. With a grin she ran up the corridor to wait for the door to open.

No sooner did she reach the door than it was pulled wide open to reveal an unkempt young man carrying a shotgun.

He had barely a second to look in bewilderment at the cloaked heroine standing right in front of him, 'Hello,' she said with a predatory smile.

She batted the barrel of the gun to the side with her palm before gathering force into both of her hands and slamming it into the stunned man, sending him flying back into the hall he had come from.

The hall must have been the main hub of the hostel in better days, with multiple doorways leading to the various common areas. It was a large room with a central stairwell headed both up towards the bedrooms and down towards the basement. Containers similar to the ones Pariah had already seen at the storage sites were littered about the hall - evidently being gathered for the next shipment out - and battery powered lamps were dotted about the hall to light it in dirty yellow hues.

The man that Pariah had crumpled had not been alone. Four others were behind him, already taking aim with their own guns.

Pariah had expected that and had already been gathering another wave of force as she ran into the hall. She released it in a raw wave that hit the men ahead of her like a mini hurricane; knocking their aim well back and taking two of them right off their feet. She was on the first man before he could right his aim, sweeping his legs out from under him before following up with a heavy palm to his face to assist him with his fall.

Even as she brought him down she had already put her focus on one of the lamps in the hall, lifting it into the air and sending it flying at the other man still standing. It connected with his throat with enough force to break the light, and the thug dropped to his knees winded.

Considering that he would need time to recover, she turned her attention on the two men climbing back to their feet, and she reached into her belt to withdraw two smoke pellets. She threw them at the men's feet with enough force to cause the pellets to ignite on impact and they gave off loud pops as they enshrouded both men in swirling black smoke. She ran into the first smoke cloud, relying on sound more than sight to locate the man as she heard him sputtering and choking on the smoke. She struck him low on the back to send him to his knees before whipping around to deliver a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, causing him to drop to the floor like a limp puppet.

The next man was similarly easy pickings. She stalked him through the smoke, and he noticed her presence only after it was too late to do anything about it as she used her telekinesis to choke him unconscious with the tail of her cloak.

She stepped out of the smoke to find the winded man still coughing on the floor. He gazed up at her as she appeared from the smoke like some kind of wraith, still glowing with the use of her meta abilities.

He dropped his gun and raised his hands into the air, looking at her hopefully, 'I surrender?'

Pariah felt a pang of sympathy for him. 'Sorry, not good enough,' she said before throwing her weight behind a knee to his forehead, sending him unconscious as painlessly as she could.

She didn't have time or even, realistically, the ability to cuff people to the spot; the only way she could guarantee their submission while she continued her assault was to render them unconscious. Brutal, perhaps, but necessary.

The fight had taken the space of about twenty seconds and there had been calls from the bottom of the stairs for the first ten of them, before they had fallen into resigned silence for the next ten. Whoever was down there hadn't fancied coming up to help their pals. There was now no noise coming from down the stairs, though Pariah could clearly see the space down there was lit much as the hall was up here.

There were other floors and even rooms on this floor still to check, but Pariah already knew she would find nothing but traps there. Underhaven's work was done in the basement, down these stairs, and she now had them cornered down there.

Taking a second to catch her breath, Pariah reached into her belt to retrieve three flash discs and primed them before flinging them down the stairs. They bounced down the bottom stairs before scattering into the room at the bottom, taking only a second before opening up to blanket the room in noise and light.

Pariah charged down the stairs immediately after the discs ceased their work, and she found an expansive room which had once been joint storage space and launderette for the hostel. It was now a fully functional laboratory with row upon row of workbenches with all sorts of chemical apparatus set up to distil whatever it was they were producing. The stench of the room was intense with agitating metal and acidic smells mixed in with the strong aroma of bleach.

Arrayed about the room were six very startled men wearing facemasks. These were clearly lab geeks more than they were muscle that did any of the hard grafting. They were all stood well back from the stairs, wanting as much distance between them and the heroine as possible. All were stunned by the flash discs, disorientated to the point that many of them probably weren't yet even aware that she had come down the stairs.

She pounced on the first technician that she reached, taking him to the floor and knocking his lights out in one fluid move before rolling back to her feet and setting about the next amateur chemist.

These people had the knowhow to create a lab and to do a spot of chemical engineering - and this is what they had chosen to do with that knowledge. The thought quashed any sympathy she had for the cowering men as she moved from one to the other. They had probably been among the young kids taken in by the hostel; now they had gotten older and had come back to use their promising potential to brew narcotics in the bones of the only place that had ever tried to help them.

It angered her and troubled her in equal measure. If this is was what the smart kids were turning to... If this is what became of a place like New Hope, then it spoke to a problem that was unsolvable to the likes of her. There was no way to beat up a system of hopelessness that tore everyone down and encouraged people to be part of the problem rather than the solution. That was a task for politicians or teachers - not for vigilantes.

She pushed the troubled thoughts aside as she flattened another of the men while they began to recover their senses. She couldn't reform society, but at least she could put an end to the miscreants who were holding society back and harming it.

The last of the lab techs backed into the far corner of the room holding his hands up, 'Whoa, whoa! You win, lady, okay? I give up! You don't need to hurt me!'

Pariah approached him confidently, striding over his fallen colleagues and quickly scanning him for any indication that he was armed, 'Am I right in thinking you would like to cooperate?' she asked calmly.

'Yes! I'm feeling really cooperative!' he stammered, his eyes every now and then twitching to look at the stairwell wistfully.

She came to a halt only a meter away from him, 'Good. This will be much easier for both of us if you do your best to be helpful. I think you probably know an awful lot about your employers, don't you? Why don't we have a chat about that?'

He hesitated as he lowered his arms back down to his sides, 'I... They'll kill me if I tell you anything...,' the edge of panic in his voice was creeping over to desperation.

'You'll be in police protection and they'll be dealing with me,' she said flatly, 'They won't be able to hurt you. However I can hurt you right now... And I will hurt you if that will make you more talkative, but I'd rather you just did the sensible thing and save us both the trauma, what do you say?'

His eyes shot back to the stairs, looking at them as if he could will some kind of salvation from them. 'I can't... I can't...,' he mewled as his mind raced. He was a cornered rat faced with two options that he didn't want to face - so he tried to make a third option.

He shot his hands out to the workbench at his side and knocked several flasks containing different coloured liquids over towards the heroine. Caught off guard by his sudden defiance, she had no time to react before the beakers smashed at her feet and toxic, nauseating fumes enveloped her.

'Ngh...ugh...,' she coughed as she reeled away from the fumes and stumbled backwards. An instant feeling of vertigo caused her to fall to her knees as she tried to regain her senses. Her eyes stung and wept from the exposure, leaving her sight bleary. She gasped and choked as she tried to work clean air back into her lungs. Now out of the toxic vapours, she could feel her body recovering and knew she would be able to catch the tech before he reached the stairs.

However the tech wasn't finished. He surprised her again by choosing to press his advantage rather than trying to run away. He stepped up behind her and brought his hands around her to press a wet cloth over her mouth, holding on to her with his left arm while he held the rag to her face with his right.

'Mmmph,' she groaned as she felt it press in against her. Still choking, she couldn't help but take a few gasps and she felt instantly light-headed as she inhaled the fumes from the rag. She knew immediately that it was either chloroform or one of its relatives. Already she felt weak and crushingly tired as the fumes began knocking her out. She held her breath but knew it wouldn't completely stop the rag from working on her.

'Just breathe,' the tech hissed into her ear as he brought her weight backwards so that she leaned back on his chest.

She brought her arms up to push him off but found his grip was surprisingly tenacious as he held on for dear life. Abandoning that, she starting launching vicious elbows backwards into his ribs, injuring him but failing to dislodge him. Too much was at stake for him now; a few cracked ribs would be a small price to pay for escaping this situation having captured the Pariah.

'Come on,' he said through gritted teeth as he pressed through the pain, 'Breathe.'

Pariah was suddenly frantic. She felt darkness closing in on her vision, and her limbs were starting to feel unresponsive. Her elbows started to strike with less force and less often. After a few more moments, she found it was a struggle to even raise her arms as they gradually went limp at her sides.

The tech felt the tight muscles of the heroine relaxing and watched as her arms fell to her sides. 'Yeah,' he whispered, 'Just relax.' Growing in confidence, he relaxed his grip on the arm holding her and slid his hand down to cop a feel of her breasts through the leathery fabric of her bodysuit. 'Fucking Ryders... Great protection they fucking turned out to be,' he said as he lowered his hand to rub her crotch through her costume, 'Good thing I don't need them, huh?'

'Mmmm,' she groaned into the rag as she felt the hand rubbing her nether region.

He had overestimated his advantage, mistaking the heroine's stillness for submission. Pariah had calmed her alarm and had directed her attention away from the physical struggle, instead gathering her focus. He was unwittingly doing a good job of distracting her by feeling her up, but it was too late to save him.

Her eyes fluttered open to stare, with blue intensity, at her attacker. The air around them both quivered as her power reached out, before a blast of force launched the lab tech away. He hit the corner wall hard and landed in a heap as he clutched his stricken back.

Free of the cloth, Pariah took gaping lungful's of clean air as she felt strength ebbing back into her body. Worried that the tech might surprise her yet again with a miraculous recovery, she summoned a focused bolt of force and sent it to his head, firing it as a kind of magical missile. It hit the downed man hard and he immediately stopped moving as he fell into a deep slumber.

Still trying to recover herself, Pariah propped herself so that she could sit against one of the work benches while she took stock of the situation.

Too close - he almost had me because I stopped seeing him as a threat. Stupid.

She had been trained - excessively - by Kamura on how to knock a man out with physical trauma without risking any long term damage. The balancing act was a very fine one indeed, and she normally liked to err on the side of failing to knock them out rather than to go the other way. She knew that she had been skating close to the line just now with how she finished the tenacious lab tech, and she admonished herself for not keeping a cooler head.

Kamura would have given her such a lecture about what just happened. Underestimating her opponent, nearly getting caught, and then going on to risk a damaging concussion.

Sloppy.

With a grunt of effort, Pariah climbed back up to unsteady feet and walked across the room to make sure the man who had nearly captured her was okay. She knelt down to him and inspected his head wound, opening his eyelids to check the responsiveness of his pupils. Satisfied that he wouldn't be needing an ambulance, she climbed back up to her feet and took a few moments to lean against the wall to wait for the light headedness to clear.

She looked down at his prone form, 'What the hell is it with men?' she asked no one. If it wasn't for men like Kamura and Chris Blake, Pariah felt she would probably write men off as lecherous perverts, one and all. All that she had seen and experienced in the last few days certainly hadn't helped the image.

Pariah shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh.

It had come close to going a bit wrong at the end, but all in all Pariah was pleased with the attack. She had taken the hostel quickly and relatively cleanly - more so than she had expected. Her intention was to have someone at the end to question, but that had gone slightly awry; she would have to take someone with her or else wait for someone to wake if she wanted that to happen now.

Glancing about the silent basement, Pariah considered what to do next. She was tempted to destroy the lab and burn the hostel down properly; to definitively put an end to the ignoble fate of the New Hope hostel - but she knew that would be too far. The fair thing to do would be to involve the ACPD and let them take over the scene. Perhaps someday somebody would make the decision to knock the hostel down, but not today, not her.

Finally feeling herself again, Pariah pushed off from the wall and went about the basement to check all the downed men. At each man she checked for a cell phone and also restrained their hands behind their backs with simple black cable ties which she kept in her belt. Finding no phone on the techs, she took one last look around the basement to ensure she had fully checked it before heading back up the stairs.

Back up at the main hall, Pariah continued the same process on the downed thugs; binding their hands and searching for a phone. She was finally rewarded with a simple cell phone in the possession of the young shotgun-wielding thug who she had first knocked out. Cell phone in hand, she sat down on one of the heavy containers as she mulled over whether or not she wanted to take someone with her for questioning.

In truth, it was probably now more hassle than it was worth. Taking someone with her would just slow her down, and none of these men were going to wake any time soon - whatever information they had was unlikely to compensate her for the cost of getting the information in the first place. A better use of her time would just be to move on to another of her targets while the night was still relatively young.

She had anticipated the hostel to be more of an ordeal, taking more time than it had ended up being. Pariah wondered if she had caught them on a skeleton shift, with fewer people there than would normally be, or if perhaps they had been in the process of abandoning the site. Either way, she was ahead of schedule. Disarming the traps they had laid around the hostel would take time and set her back a bit, but all in all she would likely be on her way to the next target within the hour.

Pariah stood back up and slipped the cell phone into her belt; she would make the call once the site was trap-free.

She made to start towards the way she had come in, when a noise broke the dead silence of the hostel. It sounded like someone was crying. Pariah instinctively crouched into cover as the noise surprised her, and she tossed her head from side to side as she tried to track where it was coming from.

'No! Let me go!' someone was desperately crying out. Pariah pinpointed that the voice was coming from above her somewhere, on the upper floor where the dorms would have been. It sounded like a young woman, strained and emotional with distress.

Shit. There wasn't meant to be any women kept here, thought Pariah as she ran up the stairs. Tyrone and Garcia had both indicated that the hostel was only used in the basement, and then only for brewing drugs. Both were clear that there was nothing going on in the upper levels - had they both tricked her? The dorms upstairs would make a natural holding area for women, it would make sense for Underhaven to use them as such. Had there been more men hiding up there?

'God, please! Somebody help me!' the voice came again, more frantic this time. It sounded like she was running from someone.

I should have checked, Pariah chided herself, I should have come in from the upper floors and worked my way down. Someone's in trouble because I made assumptions. Damn it.

Quickly reaching the top of the stairs, Pariah arrived at a small corridor with doors peeling off to either side, likely to the dormitories, and with doors at the far end marked as bathrooms.

Two figures were struggling in the middle of the corridor; a figure obscured within a thick overcoat, and a young woman swathed in revealing black netting. As soon as Pariah crested the stairs, the figure in the overcoat released the struggling girl and bolted into one of the dorms. The girl fell backwards and then dashed towards Pariah.

'Oh God, oh God,' the girl sobbed as she ran, 'Please, you have to help me!'

Pariah kept her eyes peeled in readiness for the girl's attacker to pop back out from the doorway they had retreated into. She jogged down the corridor, intent on protecting the girl and also on preventing the attacker from escaping. 'You're going to be okay,' she said assertively, 'Get behind me and do as I tell you.'

The girl tried to run into Pariah's arms but Pariah pushed her to the side, guiding her behind and encouraging her to do as she had been instructed. She needed to keep her focus on the attacker and she couldn't afford to lose time comforting the girl when there was still danger - no matter how traumatised she was. Taking the hint, the girl huddled in behind the heroine, moving out the way to give Pariah a clean line of sight.

'Thank you,' the darkly clothed girl whimpered, her voice starting to sound less panicked, 'You're so very brave.'

Pariah's mind raced, processing the scene with the speed of a seasoned expert. She had been so focused on the surprise of this turn of events, on ensuring she arrived in time to protect the girl, and on chasing down the girl's attacker - she was only just now filtering in other considerations. Had she seen knives strapped around the thighs of the goth girl? When the girl tried to come into her arms, had she been holding a small needle in her left hand?

Pariah began to turn to take a closer look at the girl she had just saved. As she moved, she felt the girl's hand delicately pull her cloak to the side and then a sharp prick as a syringe pierced her suit at her right hip.

The visage of the girl was utterly different from the scared and desperate victim that had just run passed her. The girl was now sneering at her with sadistic menace, the gothic make up and piercings of the girl's face complimenting the expression far more than they had when she had appeared helpless.

She responded on instinct, snapping one hand up to knock the goth girl's hands back and then smacking the palm of her other hand into the girl's chest, sending her to the floor. She followed up with a sharp kick to the girl's face, but the girl rolled back out the way of the attack and sprang back to her feet. Pariah tried to reach out with her focus to continue her onslaught, but a wave of nausea hit her followed by the sensation that the world was warping and contorting in ways that it most surely shouldn't be.

Pariah stumbled back a step as the feeling of wrongness continued to grow. The colours around her seemed to be merging and changing, while the walls seemed to move in and out as if somehow alive. She felt her heart quicken, and a raw sense of pleasure coursed through her body that was completely at odds with what she was experiencing. She felt blood rushing to her skin as capillaries over her body opened up and increased her sensitivity to touch, followed by a growing pang of physical arousal. Unbidden, she found her mind responding to the stimulus by thinking of sex - vividly remembering her sordid experience with Lenny and Tyrone. For a brief moment the memory caused her to think she could actually see the experience playing out on one of the walls next to her as the swirling colours shaped into an image of the scene.

'Ngh...,' She groaned as she supported herself on the wall and tried to enforce a sense of balance on the shifting landscape, '...You drugged me.'

The goth girl grinned from ear to ear and lifted up an empty syringe so that Pariah could see it, 'Yeah... Quite a rush, ain't it? It's called Rapture, you've probably heard of it - its one of the main things that they made here, actually.' The girl's voice was lilting and filled with amusement now, seeming to relish the moment.

Pariah tried again to muster her focus, briefly lighting her eyes in blue light before faltering again as her mind struggled to move through the warm soup that now filled it. She pushed herself off the wall and tried to focus on practical things.

Find balance. Assess Enemy. Ignore the walls.

The goth started to step towards the heroine, 'It's fucking brilliant, right? People go in for it just because they love the ride and the mind-blowing sex they have while they're on it,' she tossed the syringe to a side, 'Though its mainly used to help new girls lose themselves to pleasure,' she licked around her dark lips, 'It gets pretty hard to think about anything other than pleasure while you're lost in Rapture - specially if you climax.' The girl's eyes crawled up and down Pariah's body, drinking in every curve, 'You should really try it.'

Among the many confused thoughts going around the heroine's mind, the one that found its way to the top of the pile was: why on earth is this girl helping Underhaven? Surely she had been or was currently being abused by them - so why stand with them? She supposed it didn't matter at right this instant. She set her blue eyes on the girl, holding on to her anger as a means to anchor herself against the effects of the drug, 'Pretty dirty move, playing the victim... But you're an idiot if you think this will be enough to save you.'

'Oh, you still have some fight? Good,' the girl giggled as she drew ever closer, 'I wanted you to be worth the fuss... You're certainly very heroic - dashing up to selflessly defend the poor maiden. But, who's coming to defend you?'

The girl lunged forwards and Pariah stepped up to meet her. She moved with a grace and speed that almost caught Pariah off guard as they dodged around each other trying to land a blow. Every kick or punch was either blocked or evaded before being followed up in kind with a kick or punch of her own. The girl wasn't just swift and strong; she was skilled as a fighter. She didn't move with the smooth discipline of Pariah, probably lacking any formal training, but she moved with wild and raw talent, her moves unpredictable and erratic. This girl was a different animal from the men downstairs, Pariah realised. She was a naturally talented fighter who had clearly gotten very experienced by practising her craft on varying opponents. She was a hell cat.

Pariah wasn't at her best in her drugged state, and the girl's impressive ability had caught her off guard - but it still wasn't enough for the goth to triumph. Pariah also had natural talent and a great deal of experience, but she also had formal training from one of the greatest martial artists of their time.

Blocking a vicious knee from the goth, Pariah hooked her own leg around the knee to prevent it pulling back, and pressed her weight forwards as she deflected punches from the goth, taking the girl off her balance. As gravity began to pull the girl over, Pariah slammed both her hands down to accelerate the girl's fall, knocking her flat on the ground. As the goth tried to recover, Pariah pressed her advantage and raised her leg high to deliver a downwards heel kick to the girl's neck.

Behind me.

Pariah was just aware of someone coming from behind - she had been keenly directing her attention behind her, knowing there was at least one more person still at large in the building. She whirled around and fired her prepared kick at the newcomer, surprised to see an exact double of the goth girl she had just been fighting; wearing the same clothes and makeup. The new girl blocked the kick with her wrists and then made to grab Pariah's leg in order to pull her over. Pariah quickly withdrew her leg and jumped down to try and sweep the girl's legs out from under her, but the girl saw the move coming, easily leaping over the sweep. The girl turned her jump into a leaping kick down to the heroine's face and succeeded in making a partial connection, causing Pariah to roll back and out of the immediate fight.

She climbed back to her feet in time to see the first goth being helped up by her mirror image. Looking closer, Pariah could see that they had different colours streaking their jet black hair; the first girl, who had drugged her, had red streaks while the new arrival had purple streaks. She would have wondered if seeing double was some kind of side effect of her drugged condition were it not for the fact that she had physically engaged both goths in combat.

The purple streaked goth flashed a savage smile at the heroine, 'I share my sister's sentiments; I'm glad you're not out of the fight so easily. I did tell Lara that she should start with a tranquilizer and then use Rapture - but she's a bit of a loose cannon.'

The red streaked goth giggled as she stood by her twin, 'As if you would have done any different, Alice. I think not.'

The twins exchanged mischievous looks before turning their hungry eyes on Pariah.

Pariah looked from one to the other. The figure in the overcoat must have been Alice, who had now ditched the coat and joined the fight, and she seemed at least as talented as her twin. Both had knives strapped around their thighs as well as a long whip coiled around their waists, and it also appeared like they both had a small holster for various syringes hung low on their hips. Both were lithe women with toned, athletic bodies that were clearly visible beneath their revealing get up. Their curves were less pronounced than Pariah's but they still cut a distinctly feminine figure as they sauntered towards the heroine.

She backed away from them a step as she assessed them, still struggling to focus through the haze of her drug-induced state. 'Hmph, twins... Psycho twins working for Underhaven - that's great. Why... Why didn't you help your allies downstairs?'

Lara gave a derisive snort, 'We couldn't care less for those losers.'

Alice spoke immediately after her twin stopped, giving the impression that the same person had continued to speak, 'We don't want to share you with anyone.'

Lara continued, 'We want you all to ourselves.'

Both of the goth twins giggled together, uncoiling the whips from around their waists and preparing to continue the fight.

Pariah shook off another wave of disorientation and hallucination from the drugs, rolling her shoulders in preparation for the impending action.

These girls are serious. I need to be careful.

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I'm going to end this part here just to make this easier to break into useful chapters. If this whole sequence was one big block of text then I can imagine that being quite heavy going - specially for people just interested in what comes next. So I'll continue on, but have the next chunk as its own part so its easily findable. I spent way longer on reaching the twins than I intended to - I just didn't know how to jump right to that without it looking like an excuse. Anyways, I'm rolling right on... probably won't get the next part up until Tuesday - so you have until then if you'd like to limit or push how far this scene is about to go.

Stay tuned for Part Four: The Twins!
Last edited by Void 9 years ago, edited 4 times in total.
Lost in the night, and there is no morning.
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valugi
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I'm anxious to see the next chapter, the way we two sisters having a little game with our heroine
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Onwards! I'm still letting the characters push this - so it may come out lacking direction, but we shall see. I'm starting to worry about how long this story is going to be… I imagine it’s going to be a total pain for people to navigate - having to scroll down miles and miles to get to what they want - so I may see if I can introduce hyperlinks to the various parts. No idea how to do that but I'm sure it can be done. Anyways, lets tackle those evil twins.


Part Four: The Twins


It had been a long time since Pariah's martial prowess had been truly tested. Ever since she had honed her body into a powerful weapon and been trained in dozens of techniques by the great Shingen Kamura, Pariah had faced only a handful of opponents who could truly push her ability. It was a number that shrank further still once she factored in the inclusion of her meta powers - which made almost any fight a one-sided affair in her favour. Any rival who could really test her in combat was a rare find indeed.

Tonight she was facing two such opponents at once.

The goth twins, Alice and Lara, had already proved themselves a fearsome match for her technique and strength. Even more than that, they had all but removed her meta advantage by drugging her with a substance known as Rapture, disorientating the heroine and making it almost impossible for her to gather enough focus to exert her telekinetic will. She was sure that she could still muster the focus if she could take some time to concentrate - but the twins had no intention of letting up their assault to allow her to think of anything other than her next move.

The sounds of their combat echoed around the burned out old hostel, sounding like a series of dull thumps and occasional cracks, accompanied by sharp grunts and heavy breaths as they vocalised the physical exertion.

The unimpressive soundtrack did no justice to the action taking place on the upper floor of the hostel.

In the poor lighting of the hallway, none of the women were clearly visible as they danced around each other in their fast-paced brawl. The lithe figures darted around one another, always moving as they dodged, blocked and attacked.

The twins worked in perfect concert with one another, their movements always complimenting and matching the other as they sought to create an opening on the beleaguered heroine. They covered each other perfectly, making it next to impossible for Pariah to press an attack on one without being attacked herself by the other. They used their dark leather whips with devastating effect, lashing out with pin-point accuracy any time that the heroine tried to create distance from their assault, and using them as fiendish traps to ensnare her when she came close. Every now and then they would draw on one of the knives strapped to their thighs and opportunistically throw them at the heroine in hopes of delivering a crippling blow.

Pariah was only just keeping herself from being overwhelmed by their well-practiced attack. She had been stung a few times by the whip lashes of the twins, her tight body suit being ripped and cut in the places that it had been struck, revealing her pale, wounded skin beneath. So far she had managed to evade all the knives that the twins had thrown, but each had been a very close miss as they sailed past her face. She used her cloak where possible to shield against the lashes and knives, the nano-bonded fabric preventing the sharp attacks from getting through. They were keeping her very much on the defensive with their hyper aggressive style, and she had received far more blows than she had dealt.

One of the twins would have been a difficult fight, she knew, but two of them at once, with both of them working together so perfectly, was truly formidable. Even at her best Pariah figured she would struggle with these two, but drugged as she was it felt like an uphill battle. The vial of Rapture that was now coursing through her veins - thanks to the devious trick that the twins had played on her - was ensuring the heroine was far from her best. She was continually fighting a sense of vertigo that threw out her balance and got worse with every sudden movement that she made. The walls appeared to be roiling as if they were made of smoke or liquid, and images seemed to continually coalesce out of them - usually very sensual in nature. Hallucinations and inopportune memories played through her mind, recalling all the dark fantasies that had so recently been stirred in her by Underhaven. Any attempt at creating focus had to contend with the distraction of the twins' physical attacks and the mire of conflicting sensations filling her head. Her mind was now slower than it should be and it meant that her reactions weren't as fast as they needed to be in the fight.

She was losing.

Ugh, need more space to dodge, Pariah thought wearily as another knife flew past her face, missing her left eye by barely an inch, I need to change this up.

Pariah dropped low to the ground as she evaded another lash from the sisters, and she reached into her belt to collect a handful of smoke pellets. She rose up to attack Lara as she came in close, swinging around to fire a kick aimed at the goth's knee. Just before the girl blocked the attack, Pariah threw the pellets in a spread pattern about herself, and changed the angle of her attack just as all the pellets ignited to fill the hallway with dense smoke.

Taken by surprise at the sudden blanket of smoke, and now unable to see the heroine's change in attack, Pariah was rewarded with a full connection with Lara's face as she kicked the girl to the floor. As she moved in to finish the girl, Alice was already moving in to intervene, using the smoke screen to hide her own attacks as she blindly lashed out with her whip to the space above where her sister had fallen.

Knowing that she wouldn't reach Lara through the cover her sister was providing, Pariah instead dropped some flashdiscs around the hallway and carefully navigated her way out of the hall and into one of the dorms. In here there would be more space to deal with the sisters, and hopefully the sisters would need some time to recover - which would provide Pariah time to recover some of her own senses from the drug.

The smoke-filled hallway burst into white light and screeching noise as the flashdiscs did their work. Pariah took cover with her back to the wall inside the dormitory, trying to settle her mind and anchor her concentration back to a place of strength. She focused on the pain on her skin where she had been hit by the sisters' whips, with the intention of using the pain as a centre to gain purchase on as she reeled in her errant focus. She instead found that the pain was oddly enjoyable, finding only a bizarre sense of satisfaction and mild excitement in the experience. The realization made her growl with annoyance. The drug was playing havoc on her senses as well as her mind, and it made her deeply uncomfortable that under its effects she was actively enjoying pain.

To the credit of the goth sisters, they made no noise of surprise or protest as they were hit by the stunning effects of the flashdiscs. The dense smoke would have provided a measure of protection from the light but they seemed nonplussed by the deafening noise. When the torrent of light and sound ended, the sisters waltzed out of the smoke into the dorm, both looking very far from stunned.

Pariah stepped away from the wall and carefully walked towards the centre of the dorm, trying to create as open a battle ground as she could.

The sisters watched her move, their eyes following her with even greater hunger and fascination than they had before. Lara was wiping blood from her cracked lips, while Alice stepped up to talk. 'Nice toys, hero. I guess we aren't the only ones who like to misdirect and use dirty tricks, are we?' She sneered and cracked her whip at her feet, 'But then, I think our tricks are doing better than yours... You see, my sister and I, we're both addicts to sensation - the more the better. We've been pursing it our entire lives, right to the furthest extremes we could find.'

Lara spoke up now, carrying on her twin's speech as if it were her own, 'We live in a constant tempest of experience - that's where our home is - so you're little tricks with sound and light?'

'Unimpressive,' both twins said as one.

They both chortled again as they stepped away from one another and started to circle the heroine like a pack of hungry dogs. Lara continued to speak, 'We're high on the same shit that you are, hero, but we've been chasing the dragon far longer than you have. For you it’s confusing and unsettling...'

Alice carried on from the other side of Pariah as they circled her, '...For us it is the only way to live. We experience the world fully through the filter of our desires. We are dreaming awake, and we are masters of our dreams. We live in Rapture...'

'...And soon, so shall you – though, we suspect your dreams will be your master. We think you will slip beneath the surface of your own desires and never surface again, like so many others before you,' Lara finished.

Pariah was content to let the sisters prattle on, grateful that they were allowing her more time to recover. She swung from side to side as she kept a bead on both twins while they stalked around her. Their near-instant recovery from the flash discs lent credit to their claims of mastering sensation, and Pariah had to admit she was impressed by the bizarre kind of discipline they must be exerting to shrug off the flashdiscs so casually. Looking at them in the marginally better lighting of the dorm, Pariah could see in their eyes that both sisters were clearly on some kind of narcotic.

The revelation that they were willingly exposed to the same drug as her was a surprise, and she couldn't help but wonder why they would make that choice. The thought was quickly followed by the guilty curiosity of what the twins were hallucinating - what it was that they couldn't walk away from.

'Sounds like you girls have a whole life-philosophy surrounding being a junkie,' Pariah quipped, 'Which isn't nearly as clever or meaningful as you pair seem to think it is. You're both wastrels; I don't know what road you two have stumbled down to get here but all I see is two girls who chose to live in the dirt because they were scared of rising above the clouds,' she was growing in confidence as she spoke, feeling her mind moving faster and with more purpose than it did before.

The cloaked vigilante glared from one twin to the other, her pale blue eyes now starting to look less dazed. 'Both of you are just like this place; you're both shadows of what you could have been. You have mastery over nothing but self-deceit: you think you are somehow enlightened when really you both just keep your heads in the sand, hiding from reality. Unimpressive, indeed.' She weighted her words carefully, both earnestly meaning them and intending for them to break the composure of the twins.

Lara flashed an angry smile, 'What do you know, skank? You haven't tried it yet, you don't know a thing about it.'

Alice carried on her twin's words, her tone even fiercer as she contorted her face into a venomous scowl, 'But we'll show you... We'll take you down that path, and we'll see who's deceiving themselves then. We see you, hero...'

'...We see you hiding from yourself. Restraining yourself. Containing yourself. And we see the lie of it. We're going to enlighten you.'

'We're going to free you.'

'Show you who you really are and what you really want.'

'Then, once you've seen the error of your ways and let go of all your discipline.'

'Once you're completely lost in Rapture.'

'We're going to kill you.'

The two twins had circled closer and closer to the heroine as they spoke, their tone growing equally in menace and sultry promise. Far from causing the twins to lose their composure, Pariah seemed to have fanned the flames of their appetite - even if she wasn't completely sure what that appetite entailed.

The blue eyes of the heroine scanned each sister as they came closer, unblinkingly taking in every detail of their posture and equipment. The sisters were breathing hard from the energy expended in their frenetic combat, likely not accustomed to their opponents lasting this long or pushing them this hard, and Pariah doubted their lifestyles provided them with much stamina to continue at the same pace for long. They were both down to their last few knives and would soon lose that extra weapon in the fight, and both seemed to be showing the wear of the blows Pariah had landed on them. Even though they had pushed Pariah hard, wounding her more than she had wounded them, the heroine could see they lacked her conditioning for this kind of hardship.

Smirking beneath her hood, Pariah tensed her muscles in preparation and lowered her athletic body into a combat-ready pose designed for sharp, evasive movements. 'I'll hand it to you,' Pariah whispered as the goth's circled ever closer, drawing to within barely a meter of her, 'You're both on another level than most of the scum in Azure, but you aren't on my level.'

There was a blur of movement as all three women resumed the fight. The twins attacked from opposite ends of the heroine, attacking in a mirror image of each other, but Pariah had been expecting their direct aggression. Pariah whirled about herself, dodging an attack from Lara while grabbing the wrist of Alice to directly counter her move. In her other hand, Pariah threw her last smoke pellets backwards under her cloak and at the feet of Lara, engulfing the girl in a pall of thick smoke and briefly stunning her.

Then the heroine showed her hand. Since she had come into the dorm she had been trying to gather her focus, using each second of her face off with the twins to concentrate on grounding herself, and preparing to unleash it at the right time.

The time was now.

Her eyes briefly lit in hues of blue as she threw a wall of force backwards into the smoke using every vestige of accumulated focus she had gathered, and she was rewarded with the sound of Lara being knock over by the telekinetic jolt which she hadn't seen coming. It wasn't much, only a small wave of force intended to keep the girl out of the fight for a few moments more.

A few moments to fight Alice alone.

Alice quickly tried to jab the heroine with her free hand, trying to pull her whip-bearing hand free from Pariah's firm grip, but Pariah had no intention of letting the goth go. The twins were deadly quick with impressive technique, but Pariah knew she was stronger and better conditioned - in a grappling match she would certainly be the victor. She deflected the jab and pressed herself in close against Alice, twisting her wrist and firing a knee at the girl's waist to encourage her to turn away. Alice obliged by spinning to relieve the pressure on her wrist, allowing the heroine to take her arm behind her back, but she was far from finished. Her free hand flashed down to her pouch of syringes and came out with a mean looking needle filled with milky fluid. She tried to blindly strike with the syringe at the heroine behind her but Pariah was alert to the threat. She snatched the other arm by the wrist and held it in place, effectively pinning both of Alice's arms behind her back.

Pariah could hear that Lara was stepping out of the smoke, and knew that the twin would join the fight in a matter of seconds. Her plan had been to try and single one out long enough to remove them from the fight, and she figured the fastest way of doing that was to use her greater strength. She violently yanked up on Alice's wrists, pulling them well up her back, much further than they should go, and fired a kick low on the goth's back to add further strain on her arms. She drew a sharp cry of pain from Alice as both of her shoulders were dislocated before she released Alice's wrists and span to meet the other sister, throwing a final kick high on Alice's back to knock her forwards and over.

Alice stumbled forwards and collapsed in a heap, mewling in agony from her shoulders and unable to use her arms to arrest her fall. She landed face first and skidded along the ground, coming to a halt at the foot of one of the dorms beds. A few moments after coming to a halt, she went limp and stopped making any noise at all.

One down. One to go.

Pariah was already facing Lara as she ran out of the smoke. Lara wasn't smiling now. The sight of what the heroine had just done to her twin enraged her, and she charged at Pariah.

'You bitch! Look what you did!' she screamed, now lacking the sadistic glee and composure that had filled her moments earlier.

Pariah felt mentally fatigued from the series of moves she had just pulled. The use of her meta abilities while under the influence of Rapture had drained her a great deal and the drug still threatened to overwhelm her with its confusing effects, but the end was now in sight. With one twin down and the other twin no longer thinking straight, Pariah knew she could wrap this up soon.

Lara threw the rest of her knives as she came on, forcing the heroine to spin from side to side to evade them as she started to close distance with the goth. Lara came to an abrupt halt and started viciously lashing at the heroine with her whip, swinging it wildly and continually from the spot in a withering barrage of attacks. Pariah was caught out by a few of the attacks, receiving painful - but bizarrely pleasant - wounds across her shoulder and stomach, which also served to tear her bodysuit in more places. Finally Pariah wrapped herself tight in her cloak and ran through the attacks to reach Lara. She felt sharp impacts across her body that stung and bruised her, but the whip was unable to cut her through the fabric of the cloak.

Reaching Lara, Pariah broke cover from her cloak and forced the goth to engage her in hand to hand. Now inside the effective range of the whip, Lara had no choice but to fight up close with the heroine as they darted around one another exchanging blows and counter attacks. Lara tried a desperate gambit to trap one of the heroine's hands in her whip, pulling it taut and using it to defend a punch before trying to wrap it around Pariah's wrist and trap her, but Pariah used the attempt as an opening to grab the girl's wrists. Lara wrestled in the heroine's grip but she was strong enough only to hold on to Pariah as she was outmuscled.

With a grunt of effort, Pariah twisted the girl's wrists inwards so that she could better control her arms, forcing them to face inwards towards Lara's chest, and she struck out with her leg to buckle the twin's legs, forcing her down to her knees.

Lara looked up at her in desperate anger, 'Argh!' she screamed, 'Damn you! Let me go!'

Pariah applied more pressure to the girl's wrists to silence her with some more pain, 'It's over,' she hissed, watching carefully for any sudden moves from the downed girl.

The goth glared up at her and opened her mouth to make more noise, but was cut off by a harsh kick to the ribs from the heroine.

'I said, it's over. I don't much like hurting girls but believe me, I will hurt you more than you can imagine if you don't stop this,' Pariah said through clenched teeth.

Looking down at the girl now, it struck Pariah that she looked so fragile. She couldn't be very old, perhaps just twenty-one, and beneath the make-up and the piercings she was just a hopelessly lost youth, probably struggling to free herself from the legacy of a horrific past. Despite everything, Pariah couldn't help but feel sympathy for her; seeing a possible image of what she herself might have fallen to had she not been picked up by Kamura. The girl was emotional and vulnerable, having just seen her twin being maimed, and was clearly distressed about it. It was human. Understandable. Not at all like the heartless monsters that the girl was working for.

Pariah let out a steadying breath, struggling against her own exhaustion, 'Okay... Lara, is it? Play nice, and you and your sister are going to get out of here in one piece, understand? I don't want to hurt you, okay?'

Lara looked up at her, a plethora of emotions flickering over her sultry features before she finally let her anger drop and looked far more like the scared victim that Pariah suspected she was. Her bottom lip trembled, '...Do you promise?'

The heroine gave a very weak smile from under her hood, trying to bring some warmth into her voice, 'Absolutely. You're probably going to go to jail, but I think you and your sister will get help once you're in the proper channels, and you'll be free of Underhaven.'

The goth looked thoughtful, cracks seeming to form through years of abuse, 'Free? Really?'

Pariah nodded, 'You have my word, Lara. Now, you seem to know a lot about them... I need you to tell me what you know, Lara. I'd rather you make the choice, but I will hurt you if you resist - too much is at stake.'

Lara's wide eyes searched those of the heroine as she listened, 'Please, don't hurt us.'

'I don't want to. Please, Lara, do what's right. Tell me what I need so that I can stop them from reaching out to anyone ever again.'

The girl dropped her gaze for a moment before looking back up at Pariah, her face a mask of barely contained emotion, 'Okay... what do you want to know?'

Pariah relaxed her grip slightly, easing the pressure she was putting on the twin's wrists, 'Well, lets start with where that shipment downstairs is meant to be headed. Where is it supposed...'

Behind me.

She had barely heard a sound but Pariah was suddenly aware that there was someone coming up behind her. Her mind sped, instinctively analysing what this meant even as she moved to respond. Her heart sank as she saw the expression on Lara's face slip from helpless, troubled girl, right back to sneering sadist in the space of a single heartbeat.

Lara had played her a second time; pretending to be upset and then pretending to be the scared victim, all the while trying to distract the heroine. Pariah now realised the whole thing had been an act to hold her attention from the very moment that she had turned to face the goth. Even the twin's rampant onslaught had been an act to draw in the heroine's attention; her screaming and shouting hadn't been genuine distress - she had merely been making noise to mask the approach of another. While she had been feigning weakness and vulnerability, she had been eagerly waiting to spring back into action.

The instant Pariah started to jerk around, Lara grasped her hands and pulled back with all her weight in order to prevent the heroine from being able to react. It was enough to prevent Pariah from turning around and to momentarily keep her hands in front of her as she whipped her head around to see Alice standing right behind her, wearing the same smug expression as her twin.

Pariah realised in that instant that both twins had been playing the same game. Alice had played possum, going limp and pretending she was done when she had really, somehow, clung to consciousness. While her twin had drawn in the focus of the heroine, Alice had somehow corrected her dislocated shoulders without making a peep of noise and had then snuck up behind her.

No, Pariah thought with mounting dread while she raced to react, desperately trying to dredge up some focus, knowing that her pinned hands prevented her body from reacting in time.

Alice moved swiftly, drawing one hand around Pariah's shoulders to hug tightly into her while her other hand delicately brought the syringe containing the milky fluid up to the heroine's neck. With almost tender care, the goth twin slowly pushed the needle into the muscle of Pariah's neck before gradually pressing down on the plunger and pushing the vile fluid into her veins.

Pariah felt the sting of the needle on her neck, and the sensation was almost immediately followed by the complete relaxing of her muscles in a rapidly spreading wave out from where she was receiving the injection.

'Nooo...,' Pariah breathed out, unable to stop the muscles of her body relaxing as the tranquiliser went to work on her. She felt breathless as it suddenly became difficult just to work her lungs, and she felt her heartbeat slowing right down to the point that her lowered blood pressure was making her feel faint.

Whatever had been used on her was potent stuff. She didn't feel numb but she found the muscles of her body no longer responded to her as they went to sleep one by one. Her legs wobbled and then she was falling back into Alice's arms, no longer able to support her own weight.

'That's it,' Alice cooed into her ear, 'That's muuuuch better.' She nuzzled the heroine's ear and gently bit on her lobe as she finished pressing the rest of the syringe into her neck. 'Like I said,' she whispered, taking on more of Pariah's weight as the heroine slumped into her arms, 'We should have started with this... But it's okay...'

Lara grinned as she stepped back up to her feet, still holding Pariah's now limp hands out from her body, '...You're ready now, hero,' she came in closer to help her twin support the heroine's body, pushing her lithe body up against Pariah's and kissing into her other ear. 'You've been a tough bitch....'

'...Well worth the fuss...'

'...We're really pleased...'

Pariah felt Lara prick the skin of her right thigh with another needle as a further dose of Rapture was pushed into her blood. She let out a soft moan of protest, unable to mount a physical response, 'Ngh.... Nooo...'

The goth twins kissed and nibbled into both of her ears as they held on to her, both savouring their latest dish. 'But now you're done being the hero...'

'...Now we're going to enlighten you...'

'...You're going to lose yourself...'

'...And then, when you know true rapture...'

Both twins spoke as one, tenderly whispering into Pariah's ears at the same time.

'You're going to die.'


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alrighty then. Things look decidedly bad for our heroine... but we're going to have to wait and see how that plays out in the continuation of this part. I first need to edit this mother hubber... It felt all wrong the whole time I was writing it, so i suspect there's going to be swathes of it that need editing in order to read right, but we shall see. Overall I'm happy that I let the characters take the lead... though I may have fallen in favour of the twins' plan working - Pariah really ought to have made sure the other twin was down and out before proceeding on to starting a conversation.

Anyways. First I'm going to edit the bejezus out of this part, then I'll hopefully finish it tomorrow. Apologies as well that this is up a day later than I said it would be. You know how it goes. I'm going to take this opportunity to reiterate my opening question when I started this story: Do you guys like the long fight scene before the peril, or are you guys tolerating the fight scene before the peril? I think it builds suspense and adds to things, but then I'm probably pretty biassed!
Last edited by Void 9 years ago, edited 5 times in total.
Lost in the night, and there is no morning.
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valugi
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chapter was very good, I am anxious to see the sisters taking their time with the heroine and I also agree with you about having the scene of fights with Peril, creates suspense and makes reading very interesting

A solution to leave less chapters and add 2 hunters, Ogre can work along with Fontaine, after the sisters were defeated
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Phoo... I'm just realising how little wiggle room I've left our heroine here. She's really in a pickle! Apologies this took so long to get up – I’m now struggling to find free time to add to this.

Part Five: Rapture

The world was spinning out of control for Pariah.

Her entire body felt disconnected and unresponsive from her mind. Her arms and legs were seemingly indifferent to all her commands to move or react, instead hanging in limp supplication. The effect she was experiencing was the unabated result of the tranquiliser she had received mere moments earlier, and it had acted quickly to shut down the muscles throughout her supple body. Even blinking and moving her eyes now required great effort, while taking in each breath had become a genuine task as her heart rate had slowed down to dangerous levels.

Her body was no longer her own.

The heroine's mind was not in a much fitter state than that of her body. The second dose of Rapture she had just been administered had taken away the sense of lucidity that she had been earning back since her first exposure. Now her skin was alight with heightened sensitivity, and the room around her span and warped in ways that made her feel incredibly dizzy. Her concentration drifted continuously from what was really happening in the room into bizarre and non-sensible interpretations of what was happening. The walls around her no longer seemed firm or distinct, they now seemed like a churning ocean of changing images which seemed to reflect, or even direct, her thoughts.

Some were images of her past and memories of her early sexual experiences, while others were images of secret fantasies she had indulged on lonesome nights. More still were purely hedonistic sights which she had no real connection with but must have seen at one time or another in her life. It was as if her entire mental album of all things sensual was playing out around her, directing her confused mind towards the comfort of pleasurable experience. She could feel it as well as see it, though it was difficult for her to put her finger on exactly how she was feeling it. All she knew was that the drug was affecting her senses, activating the parts of her that processed sensation and sending a continual buzz throughout her body which stoked her libido.

It was a devastating combination, making her feel vulnerable in ways that she hadn't experienced since she was a child – if she had ever experienced them at all.

Despite it all, Pariah held on as best she could to her grasp of reality. Through the tumult of the drugs she still knew what was happening, and she still knew she had to fight. Her life depended on it.

Ugh, come on Evelyn. MOVE.

'Grrrghh,' she groaned, vocalising her effort as she commanded her body and mind to fight.

The young goth twins crowded around the heroine, pressing themselves into her, supporting her weight from in front and behind. Lara and Alice were both in worn condition after their battle with the heroine, having come close to being defeated at the limits of their endurance. It did not matter to them now; they had earned their prize and they were now solely focused on enjoying the fruits of their labour. They knew that the cocktail of narcotics they had pushed into the heroine’s veins had ended the fight. All that now remained was to sacrifice the heroine on the altar of their carnal fancy.

They giggled into the heroine's ears as they held her up. Lara released Pariah’s hands, letting them fall uselessly to her sides, and slid her own hands around Pariah's waist. 'Still playing the hero,' she taunted, flicking out her tongue and licking up the side of the heroine's neck, 'How noble you are. Taking pity on us...'

'...Thinking you would save us...,' Alice whispered from behind as she mirrored her twin's actions on the other side of Pariah's neck.

Lara drew back so she could look her in the eye, locking her gleeful dark eyes with Pariah's dazed blue ones, 'You really are such a virtuous hero, you're so easy to play - you must see how weak your nobility makes you?' She came in closer and intimately nuzzled the heroine, gingerly playing her nose across Pariah's, 'Who needs saving now, hero? Don't worry; we'll repay your kindness...'

Alice continued on from her sister as she blew flirtatious puffs of air onto Pariah's neck, causing her to shiver, 'We'll give you a beautiful death, and we'll help relieve you of all that needless nobility of yours.'

Lara nodded along, 'We're going to help you let yourself go so you can finally be free... You'll lose yourself in a sea of ecstasy and then you'll embrace your own end – it’s going to be amazing.' She pushed back on Pariah's hood, taking the fabric away to fully expose the heroine's face, 'Your greatest moment on this earth will also be your last one.'

'Such poetry,' Alice purred as she gently unfastened the clasp holding the cloak in place and let it slip from the heroine's shoulders to pool on the floor at their feet.

Pariah's skin felt so sensitive, and despite her revulsion at their touch, she still had to fight the urge to whimper and moan as the twins accosted her. She glared daggers back at Lara in defiance, continuing to fight the on-going effects of the drugs. '...Ugh... I'll stop you. You're wrong...'

'Shh, shh, shh,' Lara whispered as she ran her hands up Pariah's back to hold on to her better, 'Let’s find out, shall we? Come on...'

The twins guided the heroine over to one of the less fire damaged beds in the dorm, easily handling her limp body despite her mumbled protests. They eased her down to the bed and let her flop onto the mattress, freeing themselves from the strain of supporting her.

Pariah's vision briefly swam with the movement backwards, but her general orientation was much improved now that she was lying down. The sense of dizziness eased up and she felt less faint as her new position eased the load on her weakened heart to pump blood to her brain. Her mind was still racing on how to fight back, though she now constantly had to draw her attention back to resistance as it strayed with the carnal hallucinations playing out on both the walls around her and the ceiling above her.

She beseeched her body to move but despite all her efforts she only managed to weakly wriggle on the bed as the twins went to work to further restrain her. They moved with deft precision as they rendered the heroine even more helpless, clearly well experienced in their technique

Lara went to her right hand while Alice went to her left, effortlessly manipulating Pariah's lifeless limbs. They used their whips as ropes, first firmly tying one around her wrist before tossing the whip under the frame of the bed so the other twin could pull the whip taut and tie the other end to Pariah's other wrist. They repeated the action with her ankles, forcing her feet apart as the whip stretched her legs wide from under the bed. Any weak effort she could make to move one limb was met with resistance as it pulled on her matching limb, the result being that her hands pinned each other to the sides and her ankles pinned each other apart.

Pariah watched in dismay as they quickly and methodically bound her, noticing the absence of any slack being left in her bindings as each knot was pulled as tight as possible. She looked from one twin to the other as they both stood back to admire their work, gazing at her in much the way a pair of wolves might regard a baby lamb.

Even if I could move my body now, I might not be able to escape this binding, Pariah thought as she tried to assess her options, My only option is to reclaim my focus and end this with my mind rather than my body. You can do this, Evelyn.

'Perfect,' said Alice as her eyes crawled over Pariah's bound form, 'I think our hero is ready.'

Lara leered down at the heroine, her voice taking on a husky quality as her anticipation mounted, 'Oh, I think so.'

The two twins moved in unison with one another, coming down to the bed and slithering up either side of Pariah. They snuggled in tight to her and lay atop her bound limbs, making her feel totally exposed to them.

Pariah groaned as they came to her, 'Ngh... If you're going to kill me... then do it already.'

The twins giggled as they teasingly ran their hands around her body. Alice stroked her fingers along Pariah's mask and softly kissed into her cheek, 'So eager to die? Truly a very brave hero...'

Lara stroked her hand down from Pariah's chest to her belt, delicately unbuckling the clasp as she spoke, '...Don't you worry. We are killing you,' with the clasp undone, Lara daintily pulled the belt out from under the heroine and tossed it away, 'We're going to take you down the path to bliss, and you'll abandon all your silly virtue along the way. First you'll lose your will, and then you'll lose your life...'

Alice slid her hand down the heroine's neck to grasp the zip at the top of her bodysuit, slowly pulling it down her body. '...You feel how your muscles have gone to sleep? Your heart is hanging in there, but its weak; it won't cope with the stress of orgasms - least of all while you're tripping on Rapture.' She giggled as she looked up from the heroine's exposed body to look into her eyes, 'That's how we're killing you, hero. You can take comfort that you'll have lost your mind long before we get to that.'

Pariah shuddered as she felt the zip get pulled all the way down. The twins reached in and gingerly tugged her open bodysuit to the sides so they had better access and a better view of her sleek body. 'Pfft, fu...fuck you... I'm not a lesbian.'

'That hardly matters,' Lara said dismissively as she and her sister kissed along the heroine's jaw, teasingly raking their fingers up her exposed stomach, causing her to quiver despite herself. 'You've no choice but to enjoy it... Though you'll be choosing to enjoy it soon enough.' With a feathery-light touch, Lara played her hand over the heroine's breasts through the fabric of her sports bra.

Under the influence of Rapture, Pariah couldn't help but enjoy the attentions of the two sisters. Her hyper-sensitive skin felt each caress in exquisite detail, and the knowing touch of the twins felt undeniably pleasurable as they roamed her body. The physical sensation interacted with her muddled mind to increase her arousal even against her will, and the hallucinations that Pariah saw around the room all began to morph into fantasies of where this moment was headed. She saw herself being helplessly seduced and pleasured by the exotic twins in various different positions - even seeing herself taking the lead and pleasuring them in a few.

Ugh, need to keep a hold of myself. Just need to shake this off... I'm... I'm not enjoying this... I don't want this.

Alice moved down the heroine's body, licking and kissing her exposed torso while her hand freely massaged Pariah's thighs through the skin-tight material of the bodysuit, occasionally straying higher to teasingly rub her crotch. For her part, Lara caressed the heroine's breasts through her bra for a moment longer before sliding her hand up to firmly cup Pariah’s cheek. She guided her head to the side so she had better access to kiss and nibble, with increasing passion, in to the heroine's neck.

Pariah tried to hide the effect the twins - and the drugs - were having on her as a primal feeling of sexual excitement started to build in her. Her breaths came out heavily and occasionally caught in her throat as new sensations surprised her and took her to the brink of vocalising her unwilling pleasure – as well as her growing arousal. Her attention was drawn down to Alice's tender caress of her inner thighs. The intimate touch felt so sensual that she couldn't ignore it, and it elicited a light gasp from the heroine when Alice's hand lingered at her crotch to massage it with firm, circular rubs from her fingers.

Lara grinned at Pariah as she directed the heroine's face to look at her. 'You're so fucking hot, hero,' she whispered as she kissed Pariah's lips, tempting the heroine to accept her tongue. Pariah meekly resisted but could do nothing to prevent the twin from sucking in her bottom lip and gently biting it. Lara drew back to hungrily kiss into Pariah's neck, 'You don't need to fight it or even think about it.'

Alice kissed up the heroine's body to the other side of her neck as she continued to firmly rub the heroine's sensitive thighs. 'Just go with it, hero. Relax and feel it,' she said breathily as her hand worked over the heroine. This time Pariah couldn't stifle a soft moan as Alice's talented fingers slid back up to massage her burning loins.

'Ngh,' the heroine panted, 'I...'

Lara sensed the moment of weakness in the heroine and moved back up to capture her lips, halting her protests with a sensual kiss. Her soft lips embraced Pariah's open mouth and manipulated it further open while she slipped her wet tongue in to tease the heroine's own. The goth tasted sweet on her lips, the feeling of the kiss was silky soft and liquid hot all at once.

Without thinking, Pariah reacted to the kiss and tentatively accepted it, embracing Lara's enticing lips and allowing her tongue to carefully play back with the one teasing it. In the muddle of sensations, and in the chemical-induced haze that fogged Pariah’s mind, the intimate kiss felt heavenly.

It would be so easy to forget everything and focus only on how sexy this all felt.

'Mmm,' Pariah sighed as the kiss started to gather in intensity.

A cruel smile crossed Alice's face as she watched the heroine starting to let herself go. 'That's it, hero, looks like you're getting the hang of it.'

...No...NO.

With monumental effort Pariah broke away from Lara's seductive kiss, still feeling the taste of the twin in her mouth. She had never in her life honestly considered companionship with a woman, and it scared her that she had enjoyed the feeling of the kiss as much as she had. It scared her how excited she was becoming at what was happening.

Get a grip, Evelyn!

Breaking away from Lara left Pariah face to face with Alice, and the twin couldn't resist but try to capture her lips in much the way her sister had. For an instant Pariah felt tempted to accept it again, to explore her rising curiosity for the two twins, but she resisted the desire and instead clamped her lips shut to deny Alice entry.

Alice giggled and licked over the heroine's closed lips, 'Still playing the virtuous hero? That's good... You're everything we wanted you to be...,' Alice pulled back and withdrew the last of her knives from the holster at her thighs, dragging the broadside of the cold steel up Pariah's stomach towards her sports bra.

'...You're driving us crazy, hero,' Lara murmured as she watched her twin play the knife up Pariah's body, 'We want you so fucking badly - we ache for you. We must have you.'

Pariah’s blue eyes followed the blade as it journeyed over her bare skin to rest atop the fabric of the sports bra. With almost reverential care, Alice slipped the tip of the knife under the fabric and cut a clean line up the middle of it. The heroine watched in muted fascination as the two twins reached in and pulled the split material apart, exposing her pale naked breasts.

I need to do something. I need to stop this.

Both sisters snaked their hands down to explore the heroine's bosom, moving in perfect synchronicity with one another as they firmly massaged the tender flesh. Their fingers trailed inwards to tease her nipples, lightly flicking them and rubbing them.

Pariah found it difficult to look away, and let out a pent up sigh as she felt her sensitive nipples start to harden under the twins' teasing caress. This was all so very wrong but her body seemed not to understand what her mind was trying to tell it, instead sending jolts of pleasure through her from each new touch from the twins.

The twins lay tightly against her, both intently taking in the sight of the heroine's body as they played with it. Pariah's cheeks started to turn red with shame at being so completely exposed to the goth sisters - as well as the embarrassment that her body was clearly responding to them. They chuckled mischievously as they noticed the heroine's nipples rising under their manipulations, and they underlined the change by both pinching the hardening nubs and rolling them between their fingers.

'Ugh,' Pariah moaned softly, unable to hide her pleasure as she watched the twins rolling her increasingly hard nipples between their fingertips.

'There we go, hero...'

'...Just relax and enjoy the show.'

The twins cupped Pariah's breasts and lent in on her, delicately taking her hard buds into their hungry mouths. They gently sucked her nipples before popping back to expertly tease them with their hot tongues.

'Ngh, no... don't...,' Pariah timidly protested, still unable to look away. Her nipples grew harder and more erect under the twins' lascivious attentions, and sang with pleasure with each new lick or suck. Sensitive to begin with, the addition of the Rapture drug had made Pariah's breasts incredibly receptive to all touch, and Pariah's moans grew marginally louder as she experienced pleasure the likes of which she had never felt from her cleavage before. Even knowing that it should disgust her, the heroine couldn't help but be incredibly aroused by the sight of the two young twins tonguing her.

It was all so deliciously sensual.

Lara caught the heroine's eye and saw the lusty, voyeuristic haze in her expression. She held her gaze, looking up at her with smug satisfaction as she rapidly flicked her tongue over Pariah's hard nipple before taking it deep into her mouth and intently sucking on it.

'Ahh, shiiit,' Pariah groaned in erotic anguish. She was increasingly enjoying the sights and feelings of what was happening but she knew she had to fight it - she knew it wasn't right.

She tore her gaze from the sexual sight of the goths feeding on her tits and tried to set her mind back on regaining her focus. Even looking away, she could still see the memory playing out on the ceiling, still feel each touch and still hear each wet suck or slick lick. Pariah ground her teeth as she tried not to be swept away by the sensations. She felt helpless to protect herself, the feeling of being pleasured and turned on against her will - at the hands of a gender she didn't want to be attracted to - left her feeling utterly powerless.

Pariah closed her eyes in an attempt to shut away the perverse sensations, and tried to hold on to her indignant anger through the gathering fog of all her arousal. She weakly flexed the muscles in her arms in a futile gesture of resistance, vainly pulling at her tight bindings with the tiny fraction of strength she could muster. The feel of the tight restraints on her wrists gave her a welcome distraction from the feathery-soft lips and wet tongues of the twins.

'Uhh...,' Pariah gasped quietly as she felt Alice gently biting her erect nipple, dragging her attention back to the perfect toying and teasing of the twins. They had such a tender, exciting touch and they seemed to know just how to play with the heroine to please her most. Their efforts complimented each other perfectly, and Pariah realised that they had probably shared all their conquests in this way, learning all the ways they could work together to gratify their shared partner most. The thought brought with it the darker consideration that the twins had probably killed dozens of people using the method they were now practising on the heroine. Involuntarily, Pariah found herself imagining how the twins would bring all their experience to bear to force an unwilling victim to experience such sexual bliss that they had no choice but to climax even as they died. She gave a low growl as she once again fought down the desire to yield to the goth sisters. '...Argh... Stop this... or I'll...'

Lara came up from the heroine's breast to kiss just under her chin, her mouth instantly being replaced by the fingers of her twin as they pinched and teased the hard wet nub. 'What will you do, hero?' she breathed, now snaking her finger down the heroine's belly to softly toy with her bellybutton, 'Are you going to punish us? Make us pay?' She kissed up to Pariah's lips and looked into her eyes as she slid her hand further down to disappear under the bodysuit at her crotch. 'Or, are you going to surrender to us? Come for us?'

Pariah tensed as she felt Lara's fingers push under her thong and make contact with her pussy. Working by touch, Lara quickly found the heroine's clit and began firmly rubbing it. Pariah bit her bottom lip to hold in a shame-filled moan as the new sensations rocked her body. Lara's touch was perfect, and she teased and rubbed Pariah's clit just the right way to pleasure and further excite her. Her pussy had already grown warm and damp, but now with direct stimulation Pariah felt it moistening further. Her clit became engorged, making it harden and stand out as if begging for more attention – which Lara duly lavished on to it.

'Ugh... damn it...,' Pariah gasped as she tried to keep a hold of herself and fight the intense waves of pleasure. She writhed in her restraints, pathetically trying to escape the intimate touch of the twin.

Lara's eyes drank in every tremble and quiver on the heroine's face as she struggled against the new feelings. 'Enough now, hero,' she whispered, 'You're already wet and ready to go, aren't you? Your body is more honest than you are, and your body tells me that you have stopped fighting - you feel it, don't you?' She swirled her fingers around Pariah's sensitive clit and teasingly flicked it before massaging deeply into it, causing the heroine to whimper as she fought with herself. 'It's over. There's no need to pretend you don't enjoy it. There's no point in fighting it. Just let go.'

Pariah looked back at the goth, conflicted desires etched across her graceful features. The feeling of Alice working over her breasts and Lara playing with her pussy was amazing, and she felt her resistance start to slip as the pleasure began to knock away her self-control. It was wrong in almost every way that it could be, but Pariah's body didn't care one iota - it was on fire with pleasure and need. The Rapture drug was stealing her away in a flood of fantasy, and her loose grip holding on against the tide was starting to slip. Her heart pounded erratically in her chest and the images she was hallucinating around the room were becoming increasingly passionate.

Oh God, oh God.

'Nnn...never...,' Pariah stammered.

Both twins responded simultaneously to interrupt the heroine's attempt at defiance. Alice sucked hard on the nipple in her mouth and pulled up on the other nipple with her hand, while Lara pinched down on Pariah's sensitive clit and lightly rolled it between her thumb and index finger.

The sudden, dramatic shift in intensity from both sisters caught the heroine off guard and was enough to tip her over the edge. Pain mixed with pleasure, and fantasy began to mix with reality. Pariah arched her back and moaned loudly, letting out a protracted cry of lusty submission that filled the dorm. Her pent up anger and resistance drained from her body as Pariah finally gave voice to her arousal, the sound of her own wanton, slutty moan shaming her and exciting her in equal amounts.

Lara brought her face down to Pariah's as she and her sister milked a few more moans from the heroine with their rougher treatment. 'That's better,' she said as she dropped her hand down the heroine's slit and plunged two fingers deep into her wet pussy, 'You're on your way now, hero, just enjoy the ride.' She pumped her fingers in and out the heroine's slit and was rewarded with more sighs and moans from the vigilante. Pariah's eyes seemed to glaze over as she looked back at the twin, and Lara's smile widened as she watched Pariah's eyes drift down to gaze at her lips. 'Give me your tongue, hero,' Lara commanded softly as she once again captured the heroine's trembling mouth in a sensual kiss.

Pariah only resisted a moment before she locked lips with the twin and reciprocated the kiss. The heroine was losing herself; it was all beginning to feel like an incredibly erotic dream, and Pariah was starting to embrace it and go with it. Her anger faded and she struggled to recall - or even care - why it was that she had been fighting this. Fantasy, desire and pleasure permeated her body and mind, making it nearly impossible to process complicated notions of why this had to stop, let alone how she could stop it.

She enjoyed the soft and tender feel of Lara's lips as they kissed, accepting the goth's tongue as it slipped into her mouth and toyed with her own. Doing as she had been instructed, Pariah pressed deeper into the kiss and quested out with her own tongue, offering it up in to the mouth of her captor. Lara clamped her lips around the heroine's tongue and gently sucked on it before resuming their passionate kiss.

'Mmmm,' they both groaned as they intimately tongued one another. Lara withdraw her fingers from Pariah's slick folds and went back up to rub firm circles over her clit, smearing the heroine's own juices over herself to heighten the experience.

Alice licked her way up from the heroine's chest, still kneading and playing with her breasts, and kissed deeply into Pariah's neck. Lara noticed her twin’s arrival and savoured the heroine's wanton kiss a moment longer before pulling away and nudging Pariah's face to the side. Initially Pariah sought to resume the kiss, her tongue flicking out her mouth enticingly as it searched for Lara's, but she obediently allowed her face to be redirected to face the other twin. Alice came to her hungrily, replacing her sister in passionately kissing the heroine. Pariah accepted the kiss immediately, kissing Alice as if it were the continuation of her intense kiss with Lara as their tongues tangled with one another. Alice pinched down on one of Pariah's nipples as she pushed her tongue deep into the heroine's mouth, and was rewarded by Pariah gently wrapping her lips around the tongue and sucking on it, mirroring what Lara had done to her moments earlier.

Lara leered at them both, enjoying the sight of the heroine's capitulation to her baser needs. 'Go with it, hero,' she cooed, 'Let yourself drift away into sweet rapture.' She sped up her rubbing of the heroine's clit, causing Pariah to break away from her kiss with Alice and give off a throaty moan as she was pushed towards orgasm.

Pariah's uninhibited cries of pleasure resounded around the upper floor of the hostel. She felt the pounding of her heart in her chest as it struggled to cope with the strain while so inebriated with the tranquiliser, and the strange sensation served to distantly remind her that she was being carried towards her own death by the deluge of feelings. Looking away from the twins, all she could now see around the room was her imagination of what this moment would look like to an observer - almost as if she were having an out of body experience, watching the twins ravishing her. In her mind it no longer looked like violation or abuse of an unwilling victim; it looked like lovers indulging in a night of sumptuous passion.

She contorted her face in anguish as a part of her fought against the impending orgasm, and squirmed her hips from side to side as if weakly trying to escape Lara's talented fingers. She felt so confused; she knew this was something she should be fighting but it was becoming harder and harder to justify why that was. Her whole world was becoming lurid fantasies and the exquisite touch of the twins on her body, stoking her smouldering desires. Her groans grew in frequency and pitch as she neared the limits of what she could hold in.

Lara continued to rub the heroine off as she returned down to her breasts to suckle, bite and lick them. Alice drew back slightly to pull off her sheer black top, revealing perky, succulent breasts that caught the heroine's wandering attention as the goth returned to her side and resumed exploring her body with her hand.

Alice raised herself up slightly to offer her breast to the heroine's trembling lips, playfully circling and tweaking Pariah's free nipple with her fingers. 'Come on, hero,' she said seductively, 'Show me how straight you are.'

It was disgusting, she couldn't - it would be so wrong. She needed to put an end to this; she needed to pull herself back from the brink before it was too late. She didn't want this, she...

She raised her head up off the mattress and tenderly lapped around Alice's pointy nipple with her tongue, enjoying the way she could move it side to side with gentle licks, and then fastened her lips around it to timidly suckle on it. Pariah felt more like she was watching someone else do it rather than she herself had decided to act, and she felt ghoulishly enraptured with the illicit experience. She batted the nub with her tongue and then softly pulled back on it with her lips as she savoured its taste.

Alice's breath caught slightly as she watched the heroine submit and break her personal taboo, and then let out a groan of approval as Pariah went to work feasting on her, pleasing her. 'Yeah, that's what I thought,' she husked as she pulled away, causing the heroine's tongue to dart out and pursue the teat. She teased Pariah's searching mouth a moment longer before shifting her position and offering down her other breast, which the heroine greedily accepted. 'Mmm, that's it.'

The heroine intently suckled the goth twin, completely pacified by this latest manipulation. Pariah barely registered anything but pleasure and desire now, and her mind was no longer processing conscious thought so much as it was simply processing the moment, soaking it all in and blissfully bathing in it. The last of her efforts to contain her orgasm melted away as she fell into temptation and indulged her dream-like impulses. Her whole world had faded, washed away by the blinding experience of pure, unadulterated lust. Her moans became cries of bliss as pre-orgasmic spasms rippled through her body, and her face contorted under the influence of agonising pleasure. She undulated her hips against Lara's hand, actively seeking and encouraging greater pleasure as she lost herself in the pursuit of satisfaction. Far from resisting the twins, she was now a willing supplicant to their whims - just as they promised she would be.

Both twins chuckled with delight as they watched the heroine let go of all her lofty virtue and high-minded nobility. They sighed with their own excitement as the moment continued to build, savouring this, their favourite part of any true conquest - enjoying the heroine's downfall far more than anyone else they had ever had before. Lara sensed the heroine's closeness and suddenly changed her style to rubbing far harder and far faster than before.

Pariah's eyes rolled back in their sockets as the pleasure escalated yet further, and her whole body tensed as she started to reach her climax. 'Awww! Oooh fuuuuuuck! Arrrrgh!' The expression on her face almost suggested she was being hurt rather than pleased as her orgasm violently wracked her body, mixing with the drugs to deliver euphoric pleasure the likes of which she had never known. Her heart desperately struggled with the load, beating franticly and irregularly as her body convulsed. The twins drew out the orgasm as long as possible, still expertly playing her body to milk out every ounce of satisfaction they could. They watched her face with wide eyes as they savoured the experience, unsure if these were her death throws or if she would be capable of having one more orgasm before she died.

Pariah finally went limp and her body relaxed as her head lolled back on to the bed, a far away, vacant look on her flushed face. Her breathing was fast and heavy, leaving her lips as heady sighs that clearly communicated her pleasure.

Alice giggled, 'Wow... Our hero's still alive.'

Lara grinned, her own face blushing red with excitement, 'Heehee, yeah, she's a champ,' she withdrew her hand from the heroine's soaking loins and brought it up Pariah's body to draw delicate circles around her pouting lips with her fingers, smearing the heroine's own juices around her mouth. 'Taste yourself, hero,' she breathed as she pushed her dripping fingers past Pariah's lips and slid them over her tongue, 'Taste your sweet defeat.'

Pariah numbly complied, locking her lips around Lara's fingers and meekly sucking on them while her tongue rolled around the fingers to lap up the lewd fluid. The taste wasn't as unpleasant as Pariah might have imagined, and she felt only the barest flicker of shame through the haze of her intoxication as she obediently cleaned her own come from the twin's fingers.

'Hmph, we knew you'd lose yourself in your own dreams - who's been deceiving themselves now, hero?' Lara said with cruel satisfaction, 'Beneath all the show you're just a hussy, aren't you? You have impressed us, I must say, most don't survive their first climax...'

Alice slid down the bed, trailing her tongue down the heroine's succulent body, '...We're so fucking happy that this will go on to a second one. You've been perfect, hero, the best we've ever had.' She reached Pariah's crotch and retrieved her knife to cut slow, deliberate lines from the bottom of the bodysuit's zipper down to the heroine's crotch. With the suit now open passed the heroine's drenched black thong, Alice pulled the stretchy fabric of the suit apart to expose Pariah's nether region to her and began cutting away the sides of the thong so she could pull it away.

Lara extracted her fingers from the heroine's lips, satisfied that she had humiliated her enough and sufficiently cleaned her fingers, as she nibbled into Pariah's neck. 'And now you're so totally lost in rapture, you get to die there... No one has ever survived a second climax. Give us a good show while you die, hero.'

Pariah stirred slightly from her dream-like state as she felt herself become fully exposed by Alice's efforts, feeling a discomfort born from her near-forgotten dignity at being so vulnerable. Alice lowered her face to smell the heady aroma of the heroine's excitement, groaning with satisfaction as she blew warms puffs of air over Pariah's burning pussy lips. Pariah shuddered and mewled as her anticipation grew for where this was headed. The mild discomfort she felt was becoming a nuisance that she couldn't make go away, sticking out against the dream-like bliss she was adrift on, and it increasingly nagged her, beckoning her to examine it more closely - if only to try and make it go away so she could resume her beautiful dream.

Her mind cycled through all the desires and fantasies that had overcome it, running wild through all the sensations she was experiencing. Her attention voraciously processed every single thing that she felt; indiscriminately digesting each in turn as she wantonly examined her own experience in the midst of her hedonistic trance. Almost by accident, she found the process taking her attention to things she didn't expect.

The feeling of shame and guilt. The feeling of being humiliated and weak. The feeling of anger and indignity. The feeling of being sadistically abused.

These were all feelings that were at odds with her pleasure, yet she felt them none the less, however faintly, and the dissonance confused her for a moment as the feelings summoned an experience far more powerful than what was happening right now.

The feeling of suffering at Everwood Springs.

The small gap in Pariah's hedonistic dream was suddenly growing as the gnawing discomfort opened up her awareness, reminding her of herself. The way the negative feelings reminded her of Everwood had brought back powerful, traumatic memories that sobered Pariah up somewhat - and more importantly, they dredged back up her anger. Her increasing sense of reality grasped hold of the goth twin's own words: reminding her that they were openly promising to kill her, and clearly taking great pleasure from the experience - something else that reminded her of Everwood and the animals that laid it low.

They're going to kill me. I'm going to die here, like this, if this doesn't stop.

The thought struck her hard, and Pariah felt herself surfacing from the madness that the twins had thought to drown her in. The realizations of the true reality of her situation ripped through her mind and woke her from her stupor. She felt fatigued - and aroused - beyond belief, but she felt clarity begin to return to her. The hallucinations that surrounded her were now less distinct as they faded back into the roiling ocean that had birthed them - some images were now even representations of her desire to escape, showing her victoriously ending the twins' games.

Pariah wriggled on the bed once more, testing her limited strength and flexing against her restraints. She groaned deep in her throat with frustration at her predicament and instead clawed inwardly to tear forth some focus.

Lara noticed the change coming over the heroine and rose up to look at her face. The goth's smile dropped as she saw the look of lucidity and determination on Pariah's face. The vigilante looked back at her, not with longing, lust-filled submission, but with grim resolve and simmering resentment.

'Wha... how... how are you doing this?' Lara stammered, 'You're lost, I watched you lose yourself, rapture took you - no one finds their way back from that.' Lara spoke with increasing alarm as she watched the heroine's eyes start to light up with vibrant blue light. 'It's not possible.'

Pariah gritted her teeth as she continued to surface from the soporific haze, feeling as if she were keeping her head above water in the midst of a storm, 'No, you are the ones that are lost - I am right here. You...'

Alice's warm mouth made contact with Pariah's nether lips as she lapped up the heroine's vulnerable pussy, deeply tonguing her soft folds before moving up to intently suck on her sensitive clit.

'...oooo,' Pariah trailed off as new waves of exquisite pleasure emanated from her crotch. The unexpected distraction dimmed the light in her eyes and pulled down on her focus. Despite the conquering of her desires, she couldn't deny her body's response to the twin's intimate lip service, and couldn't prevent it from feeling outstandingly good.

'Oh my god, hero, you taste so good,' Alice taunted as she used her hands to pull open Pariah's yielding folds so she could lick her more deeply, causing the heroine's whole body to quiver, 'You're so fucking wet.'

‘Ngh…aww noooo,’ Pariah groaned, feeling her newfound will and focus being sapped away.

Lara rallied quickly, regaining her composure as she watched Pariah struggle against the pleasure Alice was forcing on her. She quickly moved both her hands to the heroine's breasts and rapidly flicked both her nipples before tweaking them hard, causing Pariah to jolt involuntarily, and further dimming the fierce light in her eyes. 'You're the real deal, aren't you?' Lara said excitedly, 'You're going to make this a real fight to the finish - you're amazing, hero.' She lowered herself to suckle the heroine's diamond-hard nipple while her hand continued to tease and flick the other erect nub, encouraging both to return to their maximum sensitivity.

Pariah tired and failed to hold in a pleasure-filled whimper as she involuntarily relaxed her body. She felt her focus slipping through her fingers like sand as the twins worked her over as best they could; making her feel unwanted sexual ecstasy with each lick and rub. Pariah felt her mind responding to their manipulations, the pall of lust-filled fantasy threating to descend and re-envelope her at any moment. The images in the walls started to become more vivid again and the images showing her desire to escape started to gradually fade back to sights of her surrendering to the pleasure.

'Ughh, no...,' Pariah sighed as she fought with herself and tried to hold on to the clarity she had clawed back, feeling like she might fall back beneath the churning ocean of her desire at any moment. 'I... I'm Pariah... I'm a heroine, I won't lose myself to this... I... awwww....,' her words ended with a low groan of pleasure as Alice rapidly flicked her tongue over the heroine's clit before latching her lips around it and giving it soft sucks.

Lara slipped a hand behind Pariah's head to direct her face while she continued to use her other hand to massage and pinch the heroine's breasts. She licked her way to Pariah’s face and pushed her tongue between her quivering lips, keeping her head in place as the heroine weakly tried to pull away.

Though resisting, Pariah couldn't deny Lara's tongue access and her tongue was teased as Lara licked around the inside of her mouth. Taking control, Lara punished the heroine's resistance by pulling and twisting her nipple hard, making her cry out with a mixture of pain and pleasure. She continued to intensify her treatment until the heroine finally relaxed and stopped trying pull away from the kiss. Feeling the submission, Lara rewarded the heroine by releasing her teat and kneading it with much more tenderness. Alice also responded by pushing her tongue into the heroine as deep as she could while she used her fingers to speedily rub her clit. The rewards were enough to placate the heroine, and she started to absently return Lara's kiss.

Oooooh Gawd..., Pariah felt her mind starting to slip as her tongue moved seemingly with a will of its own to play with Lara's. She felt herself being dragged back into rapture, and she felt her heart battling to cope with the increasing stress as her second climax began to build. I... must... resist.

Pariah tried to gnash her teeth down on Lara's tongue but the goth was quick to react and pull away. She glowered out in lusty anger at the twin leering back at her, dull embers still glowing behind her wavering eyes.

Lara smiled at her, though there was as much apprehension in the gesture as there was amusement, 'No one has ever brought themselves back from rapture before, hero, but it doesn't matter, we can still push you back under. Just accept it, skank. Accept the incredible end that we are offering you. Stop fighting and just embrace it.'

Her words were punctuated by Alice slipping two fingers into the heroine's pussy to slowly piston in and out of her while the goth continued to suck and tongue her.

'Argh... damn it...,' Pariah moaned, 'Nooo... Ugh, I won't submit... I... I can't...' She bit her lip to hold in another cry of pleasure, trying valiantly to stay afloat in the storm she was weathering.

'It's okay,' Lara soothed, 'Stop thinking about it, just feel it.' Lara snuggled herself into the heroine to seductively whisper into her ear, still working her hands over Pariah's bosom like she were playing an instrument that she had mastered for years. Using the hand behind Pariah's head, she propped the heroine's head up to force her to look down her body. 'Here, just watch and enjoy the show. I saw how much it turned you on to see your sexy body getting played with, so just take it all in - see the pleasure while you feel it.'

With her head now propped up, Pariah instinctively glanced down her body, having a perfect view of Lara's hand playing with her breasts and of Alice feverishly licking her out. The erotic sight threatened to crumble Pariah's faltering resistance.

'Ooooo gawwwd,' Pariah mewled as she felt her orgasm building even more, her eyes unwillingly drinking in every detail of what the twins were doing to her. She weakly tugged her head but Lara kept her firmly in place, and she tried to avert her gaze but found her eyes continually wandering back to look at her nipples being pinched or at the delight on Alice's young face as she savoured Pariah's pussy. 'Nooo...'

'Yes,' Lara sighed into her ear, giving the heroine's erect buds pointed flicks with her fingertips, 'That's it, just watch and soak it all in. You know it's too good to resist.'

Pariah's face flickered with conflict as she fought to hold on to the last of her focus through the torrent of sensations. Her eyes no longer tried to look away, instead gazing out over her body, watching the sexy twins pleasuring her with unwilling fascination. Her mouth hung open as she watched, giving off light croaks as she held her breath and let it out in tiny gasps as the tension in her mounted up.

Then, inevitably, the last of the light drained from her eyes and she released her tension in a drawn out moan, shuddering with ecstasy.

Lara released her own excited breath as she watched the heroine let go. 'Ahh, there you go, hero, well done.' She moved down Pariah's body to dart her tongue over her sensitive buds and suck each in turn while the heroine's dazed eyes followed her. 'How does it feel, hero? Tell me.'

'Ugggh...,' Pariah sighed and moaned while she watched Lara's tongue lap over her bosom, feeling like hot silk on her flesh.

'Go on, hero, tell me,' Lara commanded huskily, 'Tell me how it feels.'

'Awwww... it feels... amazing...,' the words spilled from Pariah's lips unbidden, feeling like her body was speaking in place of her mind. She clutched the sides of the bed in her hands as she felt the pleasure rising her back up towards another climax. Alice's probing tongue and sucking lips continued to push her towards her end with masterful skill.

Lara let out a soft sigh as she heard Pariah's words, and let the heroine's head fall back to the mattress. It was too much for Lara to bear, her own arousal had become more than she could tolerate. She stood back from the bed, pulling off her bottoms with deft movements as she stripped off her lower half.

She returned to the heroine's side naked from the waist down, and swung a leg around Pariah's head so that she could straddle her shoulders. Pariah squirmed slightly in her bindings as it dawned on her where this was headed. She could smell the thick aroma of Lara's snatch before her eyes moved down the twin's body to see it, clean-shaved and near dripping with anticipation. Pariah stared at it with morbid curiosity, unable to tear her eyes off it, and felt her breath quicken with unexpected excitement.

Lara lovingly stoked her hands through Pariah's hair as she sat up off the top of the heroine's chest to wriggle herself up and present her eager pussy right over Pariah's lips. 'One final indulgence before the end, hero,' she whispered.

Pariah made as if to protest as Lara lowered herself down to the heroine's mouth, unable to turn away due to the twin's knees giving her nowhere to go. Lara stroked the heroine's fringe while her other hand went behind her to pinch one of Pariah's taut nipples, 'Don't speak, just act. Do what your body wants, hero. Obey your desires.'

Pariah let out another pre-orgasmic moan and stared up the goth's body to lock eyes with her. The vigilante heroine in her screamed at her to hurt the goth - either in defiance or a genuine bid to escape - compelling her to bite the twin where it would hurt her most now that she was so vulnerable. Her conscience told her that this was disgusting, that she was being led astray and that her very integrity was being stripped from her. The survivalist in her, the animal hunter that had pulled her through a lifetime of dangerous encounters, reared it's head and called upon her to fight the twins tooth and nail until they vanquished her. She opened her jaw, bearing her teeth as Lara's moist pussy came closer.

Her body and desires overwhelmed her higher judgments, drowning them out and driving her to act without thinking - to just go with it and explore her undeniable attraction.

As Lara pressed her burning pussy to the heroine's lips, Pariah's tongue tentatively slid from her mouth and licked up the twin's slit, tasting her wetness.

Lara moaned as she felt - and watched - the heroine's surrender. 'Mmm, yeah, follow your desires, hero.'

Pariah furtively licked up and down Lara's slit and then began tonguing the goth with more confidence as she acquired the taste. She closed her eyes as she basked in the moment, lightly closing her lips around Lara's pussy and sucking.

'Oooh, hero...' Lara sighed as she pulled off her top to be fully naked, and rubbed a hand around her own bosom to play with her erect nipples.

Pariah couldn't help but drink in the sight of the young, lithe girl, having a unique view up from Lara's crotch up between her succulent breasts towards her beautiful, moaning lips. The heroine enjoyed the blissful expression on Lara's face as she was pleasured, moving her tongue up to flick around the twin's swelling clit and then boldly sucking on it.

Lara shivered with delight, 'Ahhh fuuuck... Eat me, hero... Yeaaaahh, work that pretty mouth... Mmm, that's right, don't stop...'

Pariah followed the twin's instructions as she dined on the twin's tight pussy, exploring her own budding desire as much as genuinely trying to please Lara. Her efforts had grown in intensity as she dutifully worked her lips and tongue around Lara's folds, always paying special attention to her clit and giving it occasional tender sucks. The heroine was moaning herself, sending vibrations through Lara's snatch, as she felt her own devastating climax build towards its peak under Alice's relentless tongue. She felt her heart start to skip beats as the strain finally began to defeat it - feeling herself one step away from her end, eager to embrace her smouldering release.

Uuuuuuuuuugh! This is it... Oh God!

Lara felt the heroine reaching her peak, pressing her slit harder into Pariah's submissive tongue, 'Your end is beautiful, hero... Awww, let go! Enjoy your perfect death!'

Pariah looked up past Lara's body to her hallucinations playing out around the room as she felt her abused body about to explode with an even more violent climax than her first. In that perfect moment, in the true eye of the storm, Pariah saw the roiling cauldron of fantasies around the room had all stilled, swallowing back up every single image until there was nothing but emptiness.

Oblivion.

...NO.

The room came alive with unified hallucinations, all showing the same, singular desire. It was vivid and all-consuming in a way that none of her previous hallucinations had been.

She saw the end of the hunt; the predator finishing its prey.

In the desire Pariah was the hunter - not the prey.

I. DESIRE. LIFE.

Pariah locked her attention on to the new fantasy playing around the room and within her mind, filling herself with pure resolve and actively harnessing the power of the Rapture drug to focus her mind in ways she was never able to before. The drug indiscriminately amplified her emotions and desires - and she was now using her singular desire to direct its influence to amplify her drive for focus. The air in the room was suddenly vibrating and rippling as Pariah's meta ability reached out in an explosion of expanding influence, like the birth of a star.

I. DESIRE. PRIDE.

The heroine's eye burst into flare-like blue light, crackling with fierce intensity, and soon the quivering air of the dorm was starting to light up with bright blue fluorescence.

I. DESIRE. REVENGE.

The twins had no time to react to the rapidly changing conditions of the dorm. Lara looked down in confusion at why the heroine had stopped servicing her, and stared in muted shock at the monstrous countenance shining back at her. 'Alice! Finish her! Now!'

It was just too late. Pariah blasted Lara into the air with her renewed telekinetic will and glared down to do the same to the other twin, dragging her into the air and away from the heroine barely a heartbeat before she finished Pariah off. Both sisters were held in the air, held in place by forces beyond their understanding.

Lara screamed under the strain on her body as the very air pulled her in every direction, 'Gaaaaaah! No! How!?'

Alice tried to move, to reach the syringes held at her waist, but was unable to work any muscle against the grip that now controlled her. 'Nggggh! Fuck!'

Pariah glared up at the twins, ignoring the flickering desires to rend them limb from limb and instead holding true to the higher desires that now ruled her thoughts. 'I am not weak like you,' Pariah spat, her voice sounding wrathful and strong, 'I'm more than just vulgar lust and hedonistic indulgence; I have even more powerful drives. My passions don't rule me - I conquered them a long, long time ago.' Under her influence, the whips came to life and untied themselves from around Pariah's bound limbs. Her bodysuit closed back over and zipped itself up to conceal the heroine's body as best it could, and her cloak flew into the air to drape itself over her to provide yet more coverage for her dignity.

'You're both completely lost in your addictions, and you're trying to bring everyone else down to your filthy level, but I will NEVER sink to your level. You spoke of being masters of Rapture, but you both know you're slaves to it, you've probably been shackled by it most of your lives... I doubt either of you were ever aware it could show you more than just the animal desires of the flesh - I bet you both got lost before you could look beyond that.' Pariah tried to control her emotions as she berated the twins, even now still feeling the smallest measure of sympathy for them.

They started to speak, but Pariah cut them off, 'But not me!' she shouted at them, showing a small fraction of her indignant rage, 'I DID master it, I DID master my desires, there IS a way back from the madness of Rapture, and now... Its time for you both to return to the real world!'

Both twins shouted in protest, vocalising the animalistic imperative they felt in response to the death they believed was about to befall them.

Pariah struck them both with perfectly measured bolts of force designed to safely send them into a deep slumber, abruptly cutting off their desperate cries. With them both out, Pariah eased them both carefully to the floor and let them lie there, one resting atop the other.

It made Pariah feel incredibly sad as she noticed how peaceful and innocent both girls looked now that they were unconscious, and she had to look away to stop herself from welling up in her vulnerable state.

She relaxed back on to the bed, no longer needing to uphold her sharp focus, and felt the effects of the Rapture drug settle somewhat in her mind. For the moment she erected a mental block to stop her from reflecting too much on her emotions or general feelings about all that had just transpired. She would need to process it, but not right now.

Rumination would come later.

Pariah felt her heartbeat start to settle in her chest, still feeling a dull ache which told her how close it had come to giving out, and still feeling the on-going weakening effects of the tranquiliser. Her body still burned with unsatisfied needs, but she flatly ignored it as she lay on the bed, directing her mind away from the treacherous tingling of her skin.

Just need a moment, she thought wearily as she rested her head back and tried to prioritise all the considerations vying for her attention.

She lay like that a while, coming close to dosing off a few times as her mind and body were finally able to acknowledge their fatigue. Pariah allowed herself a moment to take in her shame and humiliation, but was sure to punctuate the thought with the knowledge that she had risen above it at the end - for what little comfort it was worth.

At last, after a length of time that she wasn't completely sure of, Pariah felt enough strength return to her weary body that she could haul herself up out of the bed. With the chemical effects starting to release her body, the heroine directed herself to finish the task she had come her to complete.

Finish the job.

She refastened her cloak around her shoulders and retrieved her belt, carefully clipping it back around her waist. Returning to the goth twins in their peaceful sleep, she clothed them back up as best she could and then bound their wrists behind their backs with her cable ties. Standing back, she turned her mind towards what to do with them.

Perhaps if she were less fatigued or if she were generally feeling more herself, she would have taken one away for questioning, or even taken the opportunity to punish them for what they had just done - but she had no appetite for it now. The twins were victims, in their own way, products of an unforgiving world tearing them down from what they might have become - much like the hostel they were now slumbering in. In spite of everything, Pariah simply couldn't muster the anger to hurt them further.

The authorities will help them and punish them as they deserve... as long as they fall into compassionate hands like Chris's.

Made up on her course of action, Pariah limped out of the dorm, drawing the cell phone she had retrieved earlier from her belt as she went.

...What a night.

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Later...

'Nine-One-One, what's your emergency?'

'New Hope youth hostel, fifty-third street, Gallowgate. Underhaven narcotics lab. Very dangerous suspects on scene - especially the goth twins.'

'Erm, miss? Who am I addressing?'

'Pariah... Come now, before I burn it to the ground.'

'What? Miss? Miss!?'

'...*beeeeeeeeee*'

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Phew!! God, that became reeeeeeally drawn out. I love drawn out peril scenes, but I admit this one got out of hand! I cornered myself by letting the characters take the lead... For a moment there it just looked like Pariah had no way out. This was a total pain to write because I could only write it in snippets when I got the time, and I think it shows in the story - I think theres repitition where there normally wouldn't be. It will likely need some proper editing... I hope the actual scene itself plays fluidly and believeably. My main worry here is that because I wrote it in small chunks, that Pariah's mood is lurching between different positions without any appropriate transition. I think it might be okay, but I need to comb back over that. Regardless, I'm posting it up - sorry again this took quite so long!
Last edited by Void 9 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
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wheel23

Hot chapter really good stuff I especially like the heroine's internal struggle not to lose herself.

One thought maybe start a new thread for each hunter as a seperate story or just a new volume for the one big story.

Overall great stuff
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@ Valugi
Funny you mention that, I was thinking something quite similar. Without wanting to spoil what's coming next, I think Fontaine will straddle between hunter encounters rather than have one entirely dedicated to him. That works best with Ogre because I'm thinking that Ogre will be much more of a danger peril than a sexual one, while Fontaine is totally more the other way - so they would kind of balance each other out in a story, in weird kind of way. Like you say, its also a good way to try and stop this arc from being too long.

@Wheel23
Hey, thanks so much for the feedback. I'm thinking more and more about this, and I'm starting to think you're right about cutting this up into different threads. This story has a lot further to go but its already an awful lot to scroll down through and I imagine it will become unbearable if the whole 'Hunt' story is in this one thread. The only real negative I see is that the different stories/volumes would be referring to each other and I don't know if that would be frustrating for someone picking it up halfway in, or if generally they would come off weaker because they aren't self-contained. Then again, I've pretty much already done that between the New Arrival story and this one... Tough call. I think I'm going to need to brood on this.

The next part will probably be a transition part to neatly conclude the hostel stuff and to then setup the start of the next thing - so it probably won't be terribly exciting. It will be up sometime over this week. Regardless of how I cut it up, I at least now know how the rest of this arc will go, so I'm certainly not lacking for direction. At the moment, I'm thinking I miiiiight aim at cutting the Hunt story into three bits - maybe four - for the sake of making each piece of the story easier to navigate and a more manageable affair for the reader. What's your guys thoughts on this?
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valugi
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Another fantastic chapter Void, the sisters were really close to beating heroin and took it to the limit, I liked it very much, congratulations on the job
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Great story. I love the internal struggles as well. Well written. I actually read this one before the first, so I'll go back and read it now. It's great that you depict the evil that happens when heroines fall. Personally, I would prefer that the antagonists be dudes, but the story was well told.
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Right, so that was the week that never ended, huh? So sorry I've been away from this for so long; lots of real-life stuff was taking me in too many other directions (including a frankly bitching road-trip over the course of May) but life has now settled back down to something like normality, so regular service has now resumed! I will now refrain from offering up mock deadlines as to when new parts of the story will be added - they only serve to facilitate disappointment.

I also struggled to figure out what I wanted to do to end this story; I was very tempted to just leave it how it was and let your imagination figure out how the stuff from the hostel got resolved (this may still have been the best play) but I have instead decided to give it at least a little closure and to also foreshadow the coming story. I read back over the whole lot of both stories, and I must admit I got a little demoralised that they didn't read as well as I might have hoped - there's too many awkward bits of writing that don't flow especially well - and that maybe knocked some of the wind out of my sails. However I remembered that one of the purposes of doing these stories was to try and learn how to write better, and obviously I wasn't going to start off at the level I'd like to be - if I was, then I probably wouldn't have started to begin with!

I've come back full of ideas and more than a few questions I'd like to run passed you guys, but I shall save the questions for the start of the next story. I have decided that it is definitely for the best to cut the whole 'Hunt' saga into a few different stories/posts, and thanks goes out to Wheel23 for giving me a little nudge in that direction.

Big apology that I took a small age to return to this.

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Part Six: Contact



Dear Azure City Police Department,

They will lie. They will deceive. They will kill your people at the soonest opportunity. They are EXTREMELY dangerous. Believe their lies at your own peril; release them at the peril of the whole city. I believe they are massively damaged by past trauma, and likely victims of abuse the likes of which should never be inflicted on any creature. I leave their fate, and that of this tragic building, in your hands.Things must change. Let’s hope that we change it for the better.

I will be watching.

Sincerely, Pariah



'What do you think?'

Blake looked up from the neatly written note and cast his gaze out over the tightly bound girls kneeling at the centre of the dorm. Their arms had been tied behind their backs at both the wrists and the elbows, while their legs were bound at their ankles and knees, each tie so constrictive that they were starting to draw blood. Both sisters mewled like frightened children through the cloth gags wrapped around their heads, looking out at the assorted officers with pleading, tear-filled eyes. It was clear for Blake to see that both girls were marked by recent violence, bearing obvious signs of having been physically attacked. They were huddled together, trembling with distress, and giving off the occasional plaintive sob towards the officers, calling - begging - for release.

At a bone-deep level Blake wanted to rush to the twins' side and assist them.

It didn't take much imagination for Blake - or any of the other officers - to draw a connection between the beautiful young girls bound and bloodied in the dorm, and the Underhaven narcotics lab in the same building. Logic screamed out that these girls were clearly victims of the despicable men being processed downstairs; that each moment the ACPD officers weren't ending the girls' ordeal and giving them aid was another moment of unforgiveable misconduct.

And yet...

'Detective? What do you think?' repeated sergeant Frank Russell, the uniform in charge of the crime scene, 'Any objections to me ending this charade?'

There was clear tension in the room as almost everyone present itched to rescue the twins, and it was bubbling over towards anger that they were having to wait for permission to do what they felt should have been done as soon as the twins had been found - fifteen minutes ago.

Blake looked away from the girls and met the stern gaze of the sergeant, 'I take it you have good cause for waiting for my judgement on this?'

Russell grimaced and inclined his head towards a female officer, 'First officer on the scene staunchly insisted we wait until it could be determined whether or not the girls were dangerous,' the sergeant's tone conveyed exactly how little he thought of that. 'Officer Kennedy here thinks the call and the note from the vigilante should be taken seriously - she thinks these girls could even be meta super criminals,' he said, his words dripping with derision.

Blake nodded and looked over at officer Kennedy, giving her an affable smile. 'Couldn't have been easy to hold these guys back, am I right?'

The young officer gave him a curt shake of the head, 'No, sir, not easy at all.'

He grinned, impressed by her moxy. He gestured to the note in his hand, 'You found this?'

'Yes, sir, it had been pinned to the doorway on the way into this room, sir. Dispatch advised that the tipoff claimed to be the Pariah, and that she warned about "goth twins", then came this note right before I found these two. I... I decided that it would be best if we held off until someone more qualified could make the call,' she gave Blake a slight nod of her head as she made her last point.

Sergeant Russell shuffled uncomfortably on his feet, 'Gimme a break. Even if these girls are suspects rather than victims, what the hell kind of threat do they pose if we unbind them and take them into custody?' He gave a rueful shake of his head, 'This is so ridiculous. Detective Blake, are you satisfied that I end this cruelty?'

Blake kept his gaze on the determined eyes of officer Kennedy staring back at him, 'You did good work, Kennedy, your discretion probably saved your lives.'

Russell made a noise halfway between a choke and a laugh, 'What? What the hell are you talking about?'

The detective's smile fell away and he turned his attention on the sergeant. 'Let's disregard that a known vigilante, well reputed to avoid any contact with the ACPD, has twice contacted us directly to warn about these girls. Let's also disregard that we have an on-going case file back at the precinct concerning more than a dozen murders over the last three years, all with the sole lead that the suspects are young female twins.' Blake gestured around the charred dorm room, 'Just look; see past the helpless girls, and take in the details that contradicts the image. See the empty bandoliers around their thighs and notice all the throwing knives littered around the floor. Notice the satchels at their hips for holding syringes - the same kind of satchels that we have found in other Underhaven locales that they used to drug the victims.'

The two girls' moans and sobs came louder as they heard the detective speak.

'But most of all,' Blake went on, raising his voice over the distressing din of the goths' protests, 'notice their behaviour. I've seen so many sociopaths in this job that I can spot genuine, real-world emotion, and I can spot someone imitating their idea of an emotion that they no longer feel - and perhaps no longer even understand. They've had their eyes on us the whole time we've been here, and their "distress" has regulated up and down depending on what response they've been getting.' Blake set his jaw as he looked back at the sisters, 'Through all the trembles and tears I see the cold stare of calculation. If they were so worried, how come they've made no effort to move? How come they won't look at each other or make any attempt to offer each other comfort? They've just sat here for, what, fifteen minutes, doing nothing but wait for us to act. That isn't fear, misery or desperation; its patient manipulation.'

The crying and protesting all ceased. The room fell suddenly silent.

The countenance of both sisters changed instantly, as if a switch had been flipped, and all the helpless fragility fell from their expressions like discarded masks. Their eyes twinkled with a mixture of amusement and malice as they stared, unblinkingly, at Blake. They were now stone-still, kneeling with perfect poise and absolute surety in stark contrast to the shivering terror they had been projecting a mere eye-blink earlier.

In its own way it was a horrifying transformation to witness, even for Blake.

Russell literally recoiled a step as he watched the change. '...Jesus,' he breathed.

Blake looked from one twin to the other, 'I get the feeling you girls will be up on even worse charges than the guys downstairs. I'll look forward to interviewing you back at the precinct - I kind of enjoy picking apart lies.' He looked back at sergeant Russell, 'If you want my advice, cart them off as they are - but have two uniforms with stun-guns accompany each sister at all times, as well as the standard officers escorting them.'

Blake turned to leave, flashing officer Kennedy a smile, 'You guys can act now; take them into custody.'

As Blake reached the doorway to leave Russell broke his stunned gaze off the twins and called after him, 'Wait, what if they're metas? Shouldn't we wait for MCU?'

Blake wheeled around, 'Ah, so now you're worried about them being metas?'

Russell opened his mouth to speak but found he had nothing to say, making him appear like a fish trying to breathe out of water.

Blake decided to go easy on him, 'Its okay sergeant, they aren't metas - you'll be fine taking care of this without meta containment.'

The sergeant gave a wary look back at the goth girls, 'How can you be so sure?'

It was a fair question.

Blake shrugged and gestured at the note he still held in his hand, 'The Pariah would have mentioned it if they were.'

'Seriously? You're basing your judgment entirely off of what the vigilante omitted to say?' Russell asked, his tone hiding none of his incredulity.

Blake shrugged again, 'The Pariah has only ever left secure crime scenes behind her. Just look at this one: she disarmed nearly two dozen traps throughout the building. She didn't need to do that for her own purposes of getting in and out - I can only assume she did it to ensure the location was safe. The note was left as a warning because she must have felt those two were so dangerous that even her extra efforts to bind them might not have been enough to make them safe to deal with. If she is going through all that trouble, she is going to mention that they are metas.'

Seeing the sergeant visibly relax as he acknowledged Blake's reasoning, the detective gave a final smile to the goth twins - who still hadn't taken their eyes off him, 'I'll be speaking to you two real soon.'

As he made his way out the dorm Blake heard the two girls making noise again. This time they were giggling, laughing into their gags with increasing hysteria until the whole upper floor echoed with their sadistic amusement.

Out of sight of his people and the twins, Blake allowed himself to shudder, dropping his own show of unaffected confidence and processing the feelings of unease that the goth twins had stirred in him. They had made his skin crawl from the moment he first laid eyes on them, and he had no doubt that they saw through his façade just as he had seen through their show of helplessness.

Dozens and dozens of suspects had been left for ACPD to collect by Pariah over the past few months, dangerous people one and all. This was the first time that she had left something that she felt compelled to warn them about - something that she considered dangerous.

That was new.

Things were escalating just as he feared they would, and Blake couldn't help but wonder what sort of mess the next Underhaven crime scene would be. Would there be more contact with the Pariah? With the increasingly dangerous people that the vigilante was digging up, would she even survive, or would the heroine finally be overmatched?

The heroine.

Blake's smile returned as he caught himself ascribing the word to her. He couldn't help but admire her for what she was doing, even if it was outside the limits of the law. She was risking her life to take the fight right to Underhaven's doorstep, and she was dragging them, kicking and screaming, into the light.

He looked down at the note in his hands, written and left like a post-it note from a roommate. He detected exasperation in the tone of the language, which he could relate to, and his eye was drawn towards the end of the note, where he spotted something quite heartening.

"Let's hope we change it for the better."

Blake nodded in silent agreement, pleased that the vigilante considered herself to be working in concert with the ACPD. All of her past actions already suggested it, but it was still nice to see it literally in writing. She would catch the bad guys; the ACPD would put them away and attend to the victims. As totally illegal relationships went, it worked pretty well.

'Well,' he said to the note, 'It can't get much worse.'

Having shaken off his unsettled mood, Blake's cheery demeanour returned and he set off down the stairs to continue untangling the royal mess that they had found in the hostel, whistling a jaunty tune as he came down the steps two at a time.

What a night.

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Elsewhere...

They were sat around an office desk in a backroom of the garage, halfway into their third hand of poker, when the inevitble question came.

'So go on then, what was your hardest catch?'

Wesley Fontaine gave a gruff snort of amusement, 'The guys always want to know about the hardest catch.'

The other man grinned, 'What else do you ask a professional stalker of women?'

Since Fontaine's arrival at Finnie's Garage he had enjoyed the company of the site's overseer, David Grail, who was clearly keen to grease up a member of the red mistress's inner circle.

Fontaine leaned forward in his chair, giving Grail a conspiratorial look, 'You ask him,' he said in a hushed tone, as if sharing a dangerous secret, 'what his best catch was.'

Grail's grin widened, 'Oh yeah? I'd have thought the hardest would also have been the best.'

Fontaine took a long swig from his bottle of beer before gesturing dismissively with it, 'No, not at all. My hardest catch was a lame celebrity - a pop diva from Europe.

The other man's mouth fell open, 'Wow, who was...'

'It doesn't matter. She was alright, but not much different from all the rest. It was a whole lot of work for essentially the same reward as always - though delivering her to the red mistress was far more lucrative than normal.' Fontaine scratched at his beard and looked thoughtful, 'Money is good, of course, but it hardly makes the catch. It ain't what I'm in this for.'

Grail listened intently, clearly hanging on the veteran stalker's every word, 'Alright, so what was the best?'

'Ah, now that is a good story,' Fontaine said, his eyes lighting up as he recalled the memory, 'She was a prosecutor, married with two kids, and she had been...'

They were interrupted by the arrival of one of Grail's lackeys, 'Boss?'

Grail gave an irritated growl at the interference to the story, and scowled at his man, 'What do you want, Sellick?'

'We just got a call... There's a van on its way,' Sellick stammered, his voice thick with apprehension.

'I wasn't told we were moving any product tonight,' Grail snapped, 'What's the cargo?'

'Its the ogre... It's... He's coming here.'

Grail visibly paled and his ire immediately drained away. He turned to look at Fontaine, 'Why would the ogre be coming here?' he asked, his voice now sounding small and desperately parched.

Fontaine finished his drink and stood from the table, 'I imagine its for the same reason I'm here. He's coming cause he thinks Pariah is coming here.'

'But...'

'It's okay, Grail, just stay out of the big guy's way and do what he tells you, and you'll be fine.' Fontaine gave his closest approximation of a comforting smile, 'This is actually good news - you'll be much safer from the vigilante with him around.'

Grail took a steadying breath, 'Yeah? You really think so?'

No.

'Absolutely.'

Grail forced a smile and made his way for the door, 'Well, I guess I'd better welcome our new guest, eh?'

Fontaine followed him out the room, a mischievous, satisfied grin flickering over his face and fading away before anyone else could see it.

By the time they reached the main workshop the shutters were already being lifted to allow access to a van parked just outside, its engines idling in a harsh growl that resonated ominously around the room. The vehicle's lights were already off, and it seemed as if it were a physical piece of the night as it detached itself from the gloom and slowly rolled into the workshop. As the shutters were sealed again behind it the van's loud engines were suddenly cut, leaving behind a contrastingly eerie silence.

Grail and his people gathered around the back doors to the van, exchanging nervous glances with one another as they waited for the ogre to appear. They all took confidence from being in the company of their buddies, but all were nervous about what to expect inside the van.

All had heard the stories about Ogre.

They had heard of a monstrous meta-human who had been a terror to all of Underhaven's enemies. They heard he had broken Lady Avalon's arm and forced the city's honoured heroine to flee from his wrath, and that he possessed such power that he was impossible to kill. Most pertinently, they had heard that he was always looking for any excuse to kill again.

The van shook and creaked in protest as something heavy began to move around within it. All the assembled people - except for Fontaine - jumped as the rear doors to the van were violently shoved open, and a hulking mountain of a man stepped from the dark shadows of the opening. The whole van raised up on it's suspension as Ogre's great weight vacated the vehicle, and he stepped into the room with a loud thud that echoed loudly around the confined space. Every man present - again except for Fontaine - took a step backwards as Ogre's imposing glare moved over them.

'Who is in charge here?' Ogre asked without preamble, his voice impossibly deep.

Steeling his confidence, Grail took a step forwards, 'I am. The name's...'

Ogre's eyes locked onto Grail and bore into him. 'No. That is the one and only time I shall permit you to make that mistake.' He walked over until he was towering over Grail from barely a few inches away. 'I'll ask you again,' Ogre boomed, staring down into Grail's quivering face. 'Who is in charge here?'

Grail swallowed hard, noticing that not one of his men had stepped up to defend him - they had actually all backed away to leave him standing alone. '...You are,' Grail said quietly, 'You're in charge.'

'Yes,' Ogre agreed, 'I am.' His gaze moved away from Grail and instead swept over to Fontaine, 'I bring news that might interest you, stalker.'

Fontaine folded his arms, 'Oh? What might that be?'

Ogre's face split into a menacing smile, 'The Pariah struck again tonight. The New Hope hostel is gone, and the Ryder twins are gone along with it.'

Despite himself Fontaine couldn't hide his shock. Of all the hunters that had been assembled to deal with the vigilante, none scared Fontaine more than the Ryders. Murmurs of disbelief and alarm spread through Grail's men, and Fontaine had to raise his voice to speak over them. 'Define gone.'

'The ACPD now have them all, the same as with the storage sites. I see you are as impressed by this information as I was - the Pariah is impressive, no?'

'I guess that's one word for it,' Fontaine allowed, 'The Ryders were...'

'Magnificent,' Ogre offered.

Fontaine smiled, 'Heh, they were something.' He gestured to the big man, 'So now you're here.'

'I am,' said Ogre as he came even closer, ignoring Grail and his men as if they were no longer even there, 'and so are you, stalker, which means you feel, as I do, that the Pariah will be coming here.'

Fontaine shrugged, 'I was wrong tonight, clearly.'

'You can't fool me, stalker,' Ogre said, a slight hint of anger creeping into his voice, 'You weren't expecting her tonight - you've come to wait for her tomorrow, haven't you?

Fontaine tried to hide his surprise that Ogre had seen through him. He had never thought the big beast had much by way of brains, but was quickly re-thinking that estimation. 'Well, if she's trying to shut us down in Gallowgate then she has to hit everywhere eventually - here is as good a place as any to wait for her.'

'Perhaps,' Ogre said after a moment of reflection, 'In any case, now that I am here, the vigilante is mine.' Ogre took another step towards Fontaine, letting his intimidating presence speak for itself. 'You understand me, stalker?'

'Hey, no worries, big guy, I get it - you get the first crack at her, that's fine,' Fontaine said hastily, raising his hands up in an acquiescent gesture.

Ogre glared down at him for a moment longer, 'There is no "first" anything; you will not interfere with my sport, or I will end you.' Satisfied that his point was made, Ogre trudged off down the workshop towards Grail's former office.

Fontaine watched Ogre leave with hooded eyes, 'That sounds good to me, big guy,' he whispered.

The fate of the Ryders and the New Hope hostel left Fontaine in no doubt at this point. The Pariah would be coming to the garage over the course of the next few nights. People would almost certainly die, and Fontaine would see first-hand the true power of the Ogre and the Pariah - in a true battle between metas. And, hopefully, he would get his own shot at the dark heroine, having his own chance to earn a catch that would eclipse all the others.

It promised to be one hell of a night.

End.

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So there we have it - the first night of the hunt is concluded, and the second night is all set up and ready to go. I won't explode into the same self-congratulatory euphoria as I did at the end of the last story, but I'm pretty pleased with this one. I hope the writing is marginally better and the content is a touch more engaging. I hope it was a decent move to try and tack some closure on at the end there - even if our heroine was conspicuously absent from it - and that the writing isn't too forced or uncomfortable. As always it might need some editing to clean it up. I am happy to edit in a bit telling the story of how Pariah ended her night if you guys like, but I think I'm happy just focusing on the stuff going on beyond her.

I also intend to crack right on with the next chapter, 'Wolves Among Sheep', though work on that miiiight not start until Tuesday (not a deadline, just when I think I'll start it). Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks so much to everyone who left any feedback, I really, really appreciate it, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it.

Before I start work on the next story, I think I'll use this chance to throw out an open question which I've been wondering about. Are you guys happy with the amount of story I'm putting in either side of the actual heroine versus villain encounters, or would you rather I try to cut to the exciting stuff faster? I personally feel the story benefits from being set up like a serious comic story, but at the same time I do sometimes wonder if I'd have the patience for the build up to the action if I was a reader. I guess I hope it doesn't come across as indulgent, you know?

As always, feedback, good or bad, is always welcome.

Carry on to the next chapter here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22819&p=81181#p81181
Last edited by Void 7 years ago, edited 3 times in total.
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valugi
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this was a good chapter concluded, showed that Blake is not either detective, but you know the size of the challenge. That story was better than the other that it was good, at least in my opinion.
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