Minerva, Millionaires and Murder…
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:54 pm
Chpt 1 of 3? The Perils of Miss Pinkston
By S. Sneakly
Batgirl lowered her binoculars. There was Commodore Schmidlap coming out of Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. She ducked down behind the parapet. The Commodore was putting a fresh cigarette into his holder and scanning up and down the street before pulling out his lighter and with an unsteady hand, lighting the cigarette. After a few moments of reflection, he started down the street, stopped and turned around and headed to his waiting limousine.
Schmidlap was the fifth millionaire to have been robbed in less than two weeks. Barbara watched his unsteady gait as he moved to his waiting car. Something was going on in that spa, but what? Barbara knew Minerva’s Spa was the hot new thing amongst the Gotham millionaires since it opened only a few months ago and within just a few weeks, millionaires were reporting huge amounts of money disappearing from their accounts then with a few more weeks they were withdrawing their police reports saying that nothing was amiss.
Barbara’s father, Commissioner Gordon, was perplexed by these weird turns of events as were the Bankers, who were seeing large withdrawals, but unable to do anything once the crime reports were canceled. Even Batman was near apoplectic for a week trying to solve the crime, but then lost almost all interest.
As Batgirl, there was only so much she could do. Minerva’s sudden and meteoric rise in Gotham was not surprising, she was a beautiful platinum blond with a thick Hungarian accent. Barbara found her very attractive just as had the millionaire playboys of Gotham. They were a competitive bunch. For them, the most important thing was winning. Most of the time success was measured in having the most money or the fastest boat, or the prettiest woman. In this case, the prize was who would win the Hungarian lottery, or at least that was what Barbara thought.
In the six hours Barbara Gordon, in her guise as Batgirl had seen a veritable who’s who of Gotham elites coming and going from Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. They were all exclusive and by appointment only. The more she watched, the more suspicious she became. Each Millionaire went in in a purposeful gait, but upon exiting an hour later they seemed dazed and mildly confused.
Barbara wrapped up her surveillance and headed back to her apartment.
“Hello Charlie!” Barbara quipped, addressing her parakeet, she came into her apartment from the Bedroom where her secret entrance was located.
“Oh God, Oh God… Catwoman! Stop! Brahhh” Barbara looked at the bird as it used its beak to dismember yet another Robin chew toy.
Barbara sighed, unlearning a phrase was not something parrots were good at and Barbara thought briefly about borrowing her father’s cat…
“Charlie, you are going to get yourself brazed with a lemon glaze if you don’t unlearn that.” Selina thought it was fucking hilarious.
“Come here, Charlie. If I wanted to know what was happening inside Minerva’s Spa, how would I go about it?” Charlie applied his can-opener like beak to the green crotch of the Robin doll. “Brahhh,” he followed with a quick whistle.
“As Batgirl, I can’t get anywhere near the place. Minerva has spared no expense on security. Cameras all around and not to mention her muscle laden goons, Apollo and Adonis.” Barbara fed the bird slice of apple from the food tray. The bird dropped the now genderless Robin to take the fruit.
“Maybe, I am looking at this the wrong way? What if, instead of trying to get Batgirl in, I just try to listen in?” Barbara smiled to herself as she spun around and headed back to her Batgirl utility room to see what was in stock.
*******
“Dahling, I have a customer coming in for a back alignment,” Minerva took the slip from Apollo, who was sitting at the reception desk and handed it to Adonis.
“Is she going to get an Eggplant Jelly Vitamin Scalp Massage?”
“No, Dahling, she isn’t worth the trouble. Her sister might be worth it, but this one is just a client.”
“We are blowing town in a couple of days, Minerva. Why bother with regular business?”
Dahling, We have stolen ten million dollars from the richest scions of Gotham, people may become suspicious… We had best keep up appearances until the last moment.”
“Penelope PInkston? The Pinkstons of Genital Electric?” Adonis asked.
“Pinky Pinkston, this is her sister.” Minerva put on her gold lamee clinic jacket over her evening gown. “Penelope is her near-do-well little sister. She won’t be worth calibrating the Deepest Secret Extractor, but turning her away as a client will ring too many alarm bells.”
*****
Barbara checked her make-up in the tiny gold compact mirror while she briefly waited to be rung into Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. She smiled to herself, Pinky was always into a bit of subterfuge, If she had known her old college girlfriend was actually Batgirl and she was pretending to be Penelope to plant bugs in an elitist health spa that was fleecing millionaires left and right, she would be tickled pink. That Millionaire Bruce Wayne was one of the biggest marks, Pinky would have told Barbara to let Minerva get away with it.
Unfortunately for Pinky, Barbara just wasn’t the type of girl that would turn a blind eye to an arch criminal (except, maybe Catwoman). That’s probably why they didn’t stay a couple…
“Miss PInkston?” The door opened and Barbara was met with the exquisitely coiffed blond in pearls, garish diamond earrings and evening gown under a gold clinic blazer.
“Yes.” Barbara extended her hand in a dainty shake that could well have been accompanied by a slight curtsey. “I am so glad you were able to make some time for me today.”
“But of course, Dahling” Minerva returned the gesture with a practiced smile and ushered Barbara into the salon. “Anything for an heir to the vaste Genital Electric fortune….”
“Can I offer you some champagne? Chateau Marmot, 1954.”
“That would be very kind of you,” Barbara looked around the gauche decor. Lavender and pink with baroque furniture that had been gilded with gold and silver. Two hulking men sat behind the clinic’s counter.
Barbara was relieved that she hadn’t tried to enter as Batgirl. The two men were tall and extremely muscular, their physiques befit the names on their stretched white t-shirts, Apollo and Adonis. They were not the typical Gotham thugs Batgirl was used to encountering. Her usual Bat-kicks would be hard pressed to lay either of these men out.
“So what can we do for you today Miss Pinkston?” Adonis asked as he prepared his paperwork. “I fell off my Polo pony the other day and my back has just not been right ever since. I have a flight to Londinium tomorrow and the thought of sitting in first class for six hours is just more than I think my back can take.”
“I quite understand, Miss Pinkston.” Adonis slid a silver clipboard to her as Apollo got up and followed Minerva to get the champagne.
Once Apollo was outside of earshot of the front desk, he caught up with Minerva.
“Minerva, I don’t think that woman is Penelope Pinkston.”
“Why Dahling, would you think that?” Minerva pulled a bottle of Champagne from the ice bucket.
“I saw her in the Gotham Public Library yesterday when you had me researching Lord Easystreet. She wasn’t even wearing pearls. Would a Pinkston be caught in a public library book stack? And she wasn’t even wearing pearls…”
“That is suspicious. We knew that someone might be getting close to figuring out we were the ones extracting bank numbers and the locations of valuables from the elites of Gotham… but I was hoping we would have a little more time…” Minerva put the bottle of Chateau Marmot, 1954 back into the ice and went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of California sparkling wine and filled a glass.
“When Miss Pinkston changes for her massage, go through her purse, and see what you can find.” Minerva sniffed the wine. “Ugh, domestic.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Barbara finished her paperwork and accepted a large and plush terry robes to wear into the massage clinic.
She felt a smallish bump on the underside of the counter and peeled it off. As the ersatz millionairess disappeared in the dressing room, Minerva looked at the small black and yellow button with a tiny aerial sticking from it.
Minerva had everything she needed, except the answer of who was pretending to be Penelope Pinkston and why.
Apollo looked at the tiny device. “Shall I prepare a Eggplant Jelly Scap Massage for our guest?”
“No Dahling, Deepest Secret Extractor won’t work on an unwilling participant, that is why spend so much time relaxing the millionaires.” Minerva looked at the door Barbara had just exited through. “I think we will need to use more traditional methods on the lovely Miss Pinkston. We’ll need to sweat the answers out of her. Make sure the Steam system is warmed up…. And come to think of it, make sure it has the Dragon’s Tongue in it…”
“Are you sure Minerva? That thing was recalled…It’s inhumane..”
“Precisely why I want it, Dahling.”
*****
Barbara opened the door to the Massage therapy suite. She was wrapped in one the clinic’s luxurious terrycloth robes. It was short and barely covered her naked behind, but the fabric was a stark white and tied in the front. If she weren’t on a case, she would be looking forward to an expensive spa treatment. Her life as Batgirl left her with more than the usual aches and pains associated with a career in the library sciences. She had one last Bat-bug palmed in her hand as she entered the room.
“Well, are you ready to have your back fixed?” Minerva motioned her over to the massage table in the corner of the room.
Just as Barbara reached the table and was about to drop her rope, Apollo and Adonis slipped into the room. Adonis gave a knowing nod to his boss. Apollo stepped in behind Barbara. It was only when the two men were in such close proximity that Barbara realized just how massively out matched she was compared to the body builders. Both were easily a foot taller than her and must have weighed an easy hundred pounds more than her.
“Or should I say ‘have your wagon fixed,’ Dahling?” No sooner had she heard the words, Barbara felt the massive arms of Apollo closing around her.
“What’s the meaning of this!” Barbara demanded with as much command as she could muster.
“Dahling, that was going to be one of my first Questions also…” Adonis handed Barbrara’s clutch purse to Minerva. “I know that you are just pretending to be Penelope Pinkston, Which begs the question, Who are you and What are you doing in my Spa?”
Minerva opened the purse and started pulling a handful of Barbara’s listening bugs out of the bottom along with a small hand held receiver. Minerva looked at them in her hand and dropped the ones she had already found into her collection.
Barbara pushed back with her legs against Apollo and gave Adonis a hard bat-kick. Her bare foot made contact with the slab of muscle that his stomach and he barely flinched. She simply didn’t have enough mass in her bare feet to accomplish anything.
“What have you been doing to all the multimillionaires of Gotham?” Barbara felt like the jig was partially up and giving up a little information might get Minerva talking.
“Why nothing at all… I just give them deliciously regenerative massages and I get paid quite handsomely for it.” Minerva waved at the garish decor. “I am but a humble Hungarian emigree trying to find my way in this new and strange land.”
“Are you some sort of reporter, looking for a scoop or a detective trying to unfairly tie my business to the unfortunate and somewhat scandalous activities of Gotham’s elites?” She walked over to a blender on the counter that sat next to a bowl of carrots, citrus and assorted vegetables. She dumped the collection of bugs and the mini receiver into the blender and covered it and proceeded to blend the custom electronics into a fine grit, that she then poured into the trash basket.
“Apollo, Adonis, make sure our guest is suitably comfortable while we get to the bottom of this mystery” Minerva picked up Barbara’s forgotten Champagne flute and after a momentary debate, wrinkled her nose and swilled it down quickly. “Ugh, domestic.”
Apollo and Adonis grabbed Barbara, stripping her of her spa robe. Now naked Barbara struggled against the two men. If she could only get out their grips, she could start trying to use her agility and speed against their size. Barbara was an expert in the martial arts, but wrestling the two muscle bound men in close quarters was an impossible task.
Adonis flung Barbara face down on the massage table pulling both her arms behind her while Apollo looped a rope around Barbara’s wrists. He threaded the length of onto the wrist tightly, Barbara’s fist clenched in a defiant fist, looking for and opportunity that would never come.
As soon as the wrist was secured, Apollo anchored it with what was left of the struggling woman’s other arm, just above the elbow. Barbara could barely breathe as the two men put all of their weight into pinning her to the massage table, which creaked and groaned under the weight of the heroine pinned beneath hulking men. Once Barbara’s first wrist was secured, the two men set upon her other arm. When they were finally done, both of Babara’s wrists were tightly tied behind her back to the opposite elbow.
Pressed face down on the table, Barbara could do little more than flail with her legs, hoping to unseat or at least destabilize them. The fight was much more one sided than she was used to. Normally Barbara was meeting attackers head on and could use her speed and agility against them. Two big men like these were seldom faster than Batgirl and she could use their speed and momentum against them, flipping and kicking them into walls or sending them crashing into each other.
This was a wrestling match and she was naked against men with a combined weight of close to four times her lithe 115 lbs. Barbara kept fighting, hoping against hope that the Her endurance might wear the two down.
At first she thought they would just try to pin her legs together to subdue her. Binding them together would, by far, be the easiest way to end the fight. But, that wasn’t what the did.
While Adonis lay across Barbara’s upper body, planting her securely face down on the massage table, Apollo used grabbed another length of rope and looped it around Barbara’s kinking foot. Once her ankle was securely wrapped, he bent her leg back on itself.
Barbara was able to use her free foot to plant her heel solidly into Apollo’s right eye.
He grunted and cussed but stayed focused on securing her leg. He wrapped her ankle rope around her upper thigh twice and tied it off. Effectively pinning her foot. Robbed of all leverage, Barbara kicked her free foot back at the man for a second time and managed to kick him in the face a second time with her heel.
Without even reacting to the second kick, Apollo Grabbed her ankle and forced it back onto her thigh, effectively ending the fight. Apollo struggled slightly to hold her leg while tying it back to the thigh.
The entire time the two men were wrestling the heroine she was screaming and shouting in defiance. Adonis, having the easier task of pinning her upper body to the table was reaching over and grabbing what he could of from the massage supplies.
He gripped a folded washcloth and, balling it up, managed to force it into Barbara's mouth. While not enough to neutralize her screams, it was enough to keep her voice from escaping the sound proofed room.
“Dahlings, take her to the Persimmons Pressurizer… We’ll use it to extract the truth from her.” Minerva dug through Barbara’s purse. “Adonis, Miss Pinkston didn’t walk here. Find her car and bring it around back. We’ll Drop it off at the airport on our way out of town.”
“You got it, Minerva.”
A PERSIMMONS PRESSURIZER?
WHAT FRUITY FATE HAS MINERVA IN MIND?
IS BARBARA GORDON A GONER?
AND WHAT DOES A DRAGON’S TONGUE TASTE?
FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE
SAME BAT-TIME
By S. Sneakly
Batgirl lowered her binoculars. There was Commodore Schmidlap coming out of Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. She ducked down behind the parapet. The Commodore was putting a fresh cigarette into his holder and scanning up and down the street before pulling out his lighter and with an unsteady hand, lighting the cigarette. After a few moments of reflection, he started down the street, stopped and turned around and headed to his waiting limousine.
Schmidlap was the fifth millionaire to have been robbed in less than two weeks. Barbara watched his unsteady gait as he moved to his waiting car. Something was going on in that spa, but what? Barbara knew Minerva’s Spa was the hot new thing amongst the Gotham millionaires since it opened only a few months ago and within just a few weeks, millionaires were reporting huge amounts of money disappearing from their accounts then with a few more weeks they were withdrawing their police reports saying that nothing was amiss.
Barbara’s father, Commissioner Gordon, was perplexed by these weird turns of events as were the Bankers, who were seeing large withdrawals, but unable to do anything once the crime reports were canceled. Even Batman was near apoplectic for a week trying to solve the crime, but then lost almost all interest.
As Batgirl, there was only so much she could do. Minerva’s sudden and meteoric rise in Gotham was not surprising, she was a beautiful platinum blond with a thick Hungarian accent. Barbara found her very attractive just as had the millionaire playboys of Gotham. They were a competitive bunch. For them, the most important thing was winning. Most of the time success was measured in having the most money or the fastest boat, or the prettiest woman. In this case, the prize was who would win the Hungarian lottery, or at least that was what Barbara thought.
In the six hours Barbara Gordon, in her guise as Batgirl had seen a veritable who’s who of Gotham elites coming and going from Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. They were all exclusive and by appointment only. The more she watched, the more suspicious she became. Each Millionaire went in in a purposeful gait, but upon exiting an hour later they seemed dazed and mildly confused.
Barbara wrapped up her surveillance and headed back to her apartment.
“Hello Charlie!” Barbara quipped, addressing her parakeet, she came into her apartment from the Bedroom where her secret entrance was located.
“Oh God, Oh God… Catwoman! Stop! Brahhh” Barbara looked at the bird as it used its beak to dismember yet another Robin chew toy.
Barbara sighed, unlearning a phrase was not something parrots were good at and Barbara thought briefly about borrowing her father’s cat…
“Charlie, you are going to get yourself brazed with a lemon glaze if you don’t unlearn that.” Selina thought it was fucking hilarious.
“Come here, Charlie. If I wanted to know what was happening inside Minerva’s Spa, how would I go about it?” Charlie applied his can-opener like beak to the green crotch of the Robin doll. “Brahhh,” he followed with a quick whistle.
“As Batgirl, I can’t get anywhere near the place. Minerva has spared no expense on security. Cameras all around and not to mention her muscle laden goons, Apollo and Adonis.” Barbara fed the bird slice of apple from the food tray. The bird dropped the now genderless Robin to take the fruit.
“Maybe, I am looking at this the wrong way? What if, instead of trying to get Batgirl in, I just try to listen in?” Barbara smiled to herself as she spun around and headed back to her Batgirl utility room to see what was in stock.
*******
“Dahling, I have a customer coming in for a back alignment,” Minerva took the slip from Apollo, who was sitting at the reception desk and handed it to Adonis.
“Is she going to get an Eggplant Jelly Vitamin Scalp Massage?”
“No, Dahling, she isn’t worth the trouble. Her sister might be worth it, but this one is just a client.”
“We are blowing town in a couple of days, Minerva. Why bother with regular business?”
Dahling, We have stolen ten million dollars from the richest scions of Gotham, people may become suspicious… We had best keep up appearances until the last moment.”
“Penelope PInkston? The Pinkstons of Genital Electric?” Adonis asked.
“Pinky Pinkston, this is her sister.” Minerva put on her gold lamee clinic jacket over her evening gown. “Penelope is her near-do-well little sister. She won’t be worth calibrating the Deepest Secret Extractor, but turning her away as a client will ring too many alarm bells.”
*****
Barbara checked her make-up in the tiny gold compact mirror while she briefly waited to be rung into Minerva’s Mineral Spa for Millionaires. She smiled to herself, Pinky was always into a bit of subterfuge, If she had known her old college girlfriend was actually Batgirl and she was pretending to be Penelope to plant bugs in an elitist health spa that was fleecing millionaires left and right, she would be tickled pink. That Millionaire Bruce Wayne was one of the biggest marks, Pinky would have told Barbara to let Minerva get away with it.
Unfortunately for Pinky, Barbara just wasn’t the type of girl that would turn a blind eye to an arch criminal (except, maybe Catwoman). That’s probably why they didn’t stay a couple…
“Miss PInkston?” The door opened and Barbara was met with the exquisitely coiffed blond in pearls, garish diamond earrings and evening gown under a gold clinic blazer.
“Yes.” Barbara extended her hand in a dainty shake that could well have been accompanied by a slight curtsey. “I am so glad you were able to make some time for me today.”
“But of course, Dahling” Minerva returned the gesture with a practiced smile and ushered Barbara into the salon. “Anything for an heir to the vaste Genital Electric fortune….”
“Can I offer you some champagne? Chateau Marmot, 1954.”
“That would be very kind of you,” Barbara looked around the gauche decor. Lavender and pink with baroque furniture that had been gilded with gold and silver. Two hulking men sat behind the clinic’s counter.
Barbara was relieved that she hadn’t tried to enter as Batgirl. The two men were tall and extremely muscular, their physiques befit the names on their stretched white t-shirts, Apollo and Adonis. They were not the typical Gotham thugs Batgirl was used to encountering. Her usual Bat-kicks would be hard pressed to lay either of these men out.
“So what can we do for you today Miss Pinkston?” Adonis asked as he prepared his paperwork. “I fell off my Polo pony the other day and my back has just not been right ever since. I have a flight to Londinium tomorrow and the thought of sitting in first class for six hours is just more than I think my back can take.”
“I quite understand, Miss Pinkston.” Adonis slid a silver clipboard to her as Apollo got up and followed Minerva to get the champagne.
Once Apollo was outside of earshot of the front desk, he caught up with Minerva.
“Minerva, I don’t think that woman is Penelope Pinkston.”
“Why Dahling, would you think that?” Minerva pulled a bottle of Champagne from the ice bucket.
“I saw her in the Gotham Public Library yesterday when you had me researching Lord Easystreet. She wasn’t even wearing pearls. Would a Pinkston be caught in a public library book stack? And she wasn’t even wearing pearls…”
“That is suspicious. We knew that someone might be getting close to figuring out we were the ones extracting bank numbers and the locations of valuables from the elites of Gotham… but I was hoping we would have a little more time…” Minerva put the bottle of Chateau Marmot, 1954 back into the ice and went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of California sparkling wine and filled a glass.
“When Miss Pinkston changes for her massage, go through her purse, and see what you can find.” Minerva sniffed the wine. “Ugh, domestic.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Barbara finished her paperwork and accepted a large and plush terry robes to wear into the massage clinic.
She felt a smallish bump on the underside of the counter and peeled it off. As the ersatz millionairess disappeared in the dressing room, Minerva looked at the small black and yellow button with a tiny aerial sticking from it.
Minerva had everything she needed, except the answer of who was pretending to be Penelope Pinkston and why.
Apollo looked at the tiny device. “Shall I prepare a Eggplant Jelly Scap Massage for our guest?”
“No Dahling, Deepest Secret Extractor won’t work on an unwilling participant, that is why spend so much time relaxing the millionaires.” Minerva looked at the door Barbara had just exited through. “I think we will need to use more traditional methods on the lovely Miss Pinkston. We’ll need to sweat the answers out of her. Make sure the Steam system is warmed up…. And come to think of it, make sure it has the Dragon’s Tongue in it…”
“Are you sure Minerva? That thing was recalled…It’s inhumane..”
“Precisely why I want it, Dahling.”
*****
Barbara opened the door to the Massage therapy suite. She was wrapped in one the clinic’s luxurious terrycloth robes. It was short and barely covered her naked behind, but the fabric was a stark white and tied in the front. If she weren’t on a case, she would be looking forward to an expensive spa treatment. Her life as Batgirl left her with more than the usual aches and pains associated with a career in the library sciences. She had one last Bat-bug palmed in her hand as she entered the room.
“Well, are you ready to have your back fixed?” Minerva motioned her over to the massage table in the corner of the room.
Just as Barbara reached the table and was about to drop her rope, Apollo and Adonis slipped into the room. Adonis gave a knowing nod to his boss. Apollo stepped in behind Barbara. It was only when the two men were in such close proximity that Barbara realized just how massively out matched she was compared to the body builders. Both were easily a foot taller than her and must have weighed an easy hundred pounds more than her.
“Or should I say ‘have your wagon fixed,’ Dahling?” No sooner had she heard the words, Barbara felt the massive arms of Apollo closing around her.
“What’s the meaning of this!” Barbara demanded with as much command as she could muster.
“Dahling, that was going to be one of my first Questions also…” Adonis handed Barbrara’s clutch purse to Minerva. “I know that you are just pretending to be Penelope Pinkston, Which begs the question, Who are you and What are you doing in my Spa?”
Minerva opened the purse and started pulling a handful of Barbara’s listening bugs out of the bottom along with a small hand held receiver. Minerva looked at them in her hand and dropped the ones she had already found into her collection.
Barbara pushed back with her legs against Apollo and gave Adonis a hard bat-kick. Her bare foot made contact with the slab of muscle that his stomach and he barely flinched. She simply didn’t have enough mass in her bare feet to accomplish anything.
“What have you been doing to all the multimillionaires of Gotham?” Barbara felt like the jig was partially up and giving up a little information might get Minerva talking.
“Why nothing at all… I just give them deliciously regenerative massages and I get paid quite handsomely for it.” Minerva waved at the garish decor. “I am but a humble Hungarian emigree trying to find my way in this new and strange land.”
“Are you some sort of reporter, looking for a scoop or a detective trying to unfairly tie my business to the unfortunate and somewhat scandalous activities of Gotham’s elites?” She walked over to a blender on the counter that sat next to a bowl of carrots, citrus and assorted vegetables. She dumped the collection of bugs and the mini receiver into the blender and covered it and proceeded to blend the custom electronics into a fine grit, that she then poured into the trash basket.
“Apollo, Adonis, make sure our guest is suitably comfortable while we get to the bottom of this mystery” Minerva picked up Barbara’s forgotten Champagne flute and after a momentary debate, wrinkled her nose and swilled it down quickly. “Ugh, domestic.”
Apollo and Adonis grabbed Barbara, stripping her of her spa robe. Now naked Barbara struggled against the two men. If she could only get out their grips, she could start trying to use her agility and speed against their size. Barbara was an expert in the martial arts, but wrestling the two muscle bound men in close quarters was an impossible task.
Adonis flung Barbara face down on the massage table pulling both her arms behind her while Apollo looped a rope around Barbara’s wrists. He threaded the length of onto the wrist tightly, Barbara’s fist clenched in a defiant fist, looking for and opportunity that would never come.
As soon as the wrist was secured, Apollo anchored it with what was left of the struggling woman’s other arm, just above the elbow. Barbara could barely breathe as the two men put all of their weight into pinning her to the massage table, which creaked and groaned under the weight of the heroine pinned beneath hulking men. Once Barbara’s first wrist was secured, the two men set upon her other arm. When they were finally done, both of Babara’s wrists were tightly tied behind her back to the opposite elbow.
Pressed face down on the table, Barbara could do little more than flail with her legs, hoping to unseat or at least destabilize them. The fight was much more one sided than she was used to. Normally Barbara was meeting attackers head on and could use her speed and agility against them. Two big men like these were seldom faster than Batgirl and she could use their speed and momentum against them, flipping and kicking them into walls or sending them crashing into each other.
This was a wrestling match and she was naked against men with a combined weight of close to four times her lithe 115 lbs. Barbara kept fighting, hoping against hope that the Her endurance might wear the two down.
At first she thought they would just try to pin her legs together to subdue her. Binding them together would, by far, be the easiest way to end the fight. But, that wasn’t what the did.
While Adonis lay across Barbara’s upper body, planting her securely face down on the massage table, Apollo used grabbed another length of rope and looped it around Barbara’s kinking foot. Once her ankle was securely wrapped, he bent her leg back on itself.
Barbara was able to use her free foot to plant her heel solidly into Apollo’s right eye.
He grunted and cussed but stayed focused on securing her leg. He wrapped her ankle rope around her upper thigh twice and tied it off. Effectively pinning her foot. Robbed of all leverage, Barbara kicked her free foot back at the man for a second time and managed to kick him in the face a second time with her heel.
Without even reacting to the second kick, Apollo Grabbed her ankle and forced it back onto her thigh, effectively ending the fight. Apollo struggled slightly to hold her leg while tying it back to the thigh.
The entire time the two men were wrestling the heroine she was screaming and shouting in defiance. Adonis, having the easier task of pinning her upper body to the table was reaching over and grabbing what he could of from the massage supplies.
He gripped a folded washcloth and, balling it up, managed to force it into Barbara's mouth. While not enough to neutralize her screams, it was enough to keep her voice from escaping the sound proofed room.
“Dahlings, take her to the Persimmons Pressurizer… We’ll use it to extract the truth from her.” Minerva dug through Barbara’s purse. “Adonis, Miss Pinkston didn’t walk here. Find her car and bring it around back. We’ll Drop it off at the airport on our way out of town.”
“You got it, Minerva.”
A PERSIMMONS PRESSURIZER?
WHAT FRUITY FATE HAS MINERVA IN MIND?
IS BARBARA GORDON A GONER?
AND WHAT DOES A DRAGON’S TONGUE TASTE?
FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE
SAME BAT-TIME
