Enhancegirl 7: Slave of the Sin Eater

[Damselbinder]

"Welcome, Miss Artesia!" the doorman chirped, as he beckoned the latest guest inside. He had never met the woman before, but - well - who didn't recognise Rachel Artesia in uptown Seacouver? The platinum blonde, olive-skinned beauty was an infamous socialite - 'infamous' because she was also known as a terrible heartbreaker. How many rich men - and not a small number of women - had she dangled from the ends of her seductive threads?

As she walked into the Yugoslav embassy, she was satisfied with the reaction she got. The level of conversation in the Ambassador's party noticeably reduced as Rachel walked in, and this was hardly surprising. For one, she was a very lovely woman indeed, with a gorgeous, curvy figure, perfect, light-brown skin, and a bewitchingly pretty face. But it was her dress that really turned heads in her direction - a shimmering satin number, extremely low cut, completely baring her arms and shoulders, but for a pair of thin straps. It had a wide slit right up to the top of her left thigh, exposing her leg, despite its long trail covering her other. It was backless too - long, and elegant, yet exceptionally revealing at the same time.

"Why madam!" A handsome young fellow, tall and lean with jet black hair and pale, almost sallow skin, approached her. "I don't suppose I've been lucky enough to be the first to get your attention, have I?" He grinned widely, a smile cutting through his sharp features.
"Oh my, a charmer," Rachel said, touching him lightly on the arm. "And, uh, who exactly am I being welcomed by?" She smiled back. He wasn't her type, but he did have a certain magnetism to him.
"Ivan Nazarov," he said. He took Rachel's hand, and kissed it, not taking his eyes off her. "Cultural liason to the Yugoslav embassy. Enchanté, madam."

Rachel burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha! Oh, man, does that routine ever actually work?" She clapped him on the shoulder. "Keep trying, Mr Cultural Liason. Just...with someone else, m'kay?" She walked away, winking over her shoulder at him, quickly picked up by someone much more important than Ivan.
"Damn, damn and double damn!" Ivan spat under his breath. He scuffed the ground with one shoe, like an impatient bull. "Struck out again!" He ran his hands through his hair. "What a rip!" He turned to the woman who had accompanied him there, who was leaning against a wall, trying not to be noticed. "Hey, Natalya, you okay?"

His sister nodded. Her eyes were closed. She was just as lovely as Rachel, though in quite another way. She had the same white skin as her brother, though while it made him look sallow, it made her look as beautiful as porcelain. She had slightly lighter hair, but still very dark, tied up in a bun. Her gently sloping shoulders were exposed by her long, silk evening gown, dark blue, her buxom chest and curvy figure not displayed exactly, but certainly complimented by the soft, figure hugging dress. For this reason, her wish not to be noticed was not being granted.
"I'm alright, Ivan," she assured him.
"I know you're alright now," he replied. "You've got your eyes closed. You're not exactly gonna be doing much mingling if you can't see. I mean, you could always pretend to be blind, I guess. I know a guy who actually digs chicks with -"
"Oh, shut up," she replied, before reluctantly opening her eyes. She winced, instantly assailed with an onrushing of fluid mental mélange, her brain privy to the thoughts of everyone that she could see.

For Natalya went by another name - Insyte. She was a telepath of some potency, as well as an architect, and she from time to time moonlighted as a superheroine, though her career hadn't exactly been fraught with success.
"You know, if this is too much -"
"No," Natalya said sternly. "It's - it's fine." She slowed her breathing. She couldn't stop herself from hearing people's thoughts, but she had been trying to learn to let it wash off her. If she didn't focus on anything in particular, then the noise could be just that: noise, no more painful or distressing than ordinary party hubbub.

Natalya was training herself. She had been considering getting out of the hero game altogether until a couple of months prior, when she'd been involved in the defeat of - and near capture by - a frighteningly ambitious kidnapping ring. She'd helped save some fellow superheroines from her old enemy Mesmeredith, and while the events of her tangle with Madam Black's ring had been very distressing, it had also reminded her that her powers really could be a gift.

So as much for her own peace of mind as for any possibility of using them as a superheroine more actively, Insyte was trying to expose herself to more of these kinds of situations, to stop herself from having to shy away from her own life. Still, the rush of the minds of all these people - an affair here, a tax fraud there; anxiety, sharp jolts of pleasure and schadenfreude - it was almost unbearably taxing. This was the third time she'd attempted something like this, but it hadn't really got better.

She looked at her brother, felt his confidence, his overdeveloped self-regard, and also his concern for his sister.
"If you want to go, it's okay," he thought, knowing she could hear. "Believe me, there's plenty of ladies here in desperate need of a cultural liason. I won't be alone for long." In his mind, the images of at least five women he'd seen at the party flashed in rapid succession. Natalya tried to ignore it.
"I really am alright," she said. "Why not introduce me to someone?" She forced a smile.
"But of course!" Ivan laughed, his wide smile cutting across his face. "AMBASSADOR!"

A greying, middle-aged man turned around at Ivan's bellow. The guests round him seemed a little flustered, but he grinned back.
"Ivan, you piece of shit!" he laughed, speaking in a thick, trans-European accent. He came over, and clasped Ivan's hands between his own. "What fucking idiot put you on guest list?"
"Perhaps your lovely wife was looking for a new toyboy? I hear she likes them at least twenty years younger than herself." The Ambassador stared at him for a moment.
"Gyyaaaahahahahahaha!" he roared, slapping Ivan affectionately on the back. "You make one mistake, friend - my wife never fucks Russians! Gyaaahahahahaha!"
"Djordje," Ivan replied, "I keep telling you, at this point we're about as Russian as the Taj Mahal."
"We?"

The ambassador looked at Natalya. From his character, she'd expected the usual rush of lascivious fantasising that men in close proximity to the busty telepath often engaged in - but there was nothing like that at all. He had a a kind of avuncular warmth, a love of the young that had nothing to do with sexuality. It was tinged by a bit of chauvinism, hence the rather tasteless jokes about his wife, but he was no villain.
"You must be Natalya, yes?" Djorje asked. "Ivan tells me all about you!" There was some truth to this - Ivan had mentioned her to him a few times, it seemed.
"Good evening, Ambassador," Natalya said. She tried to start up a conversation, but she couldn't think of anything to say. It was difficult to know what questions to ask people when you already knew every answer they could give.
"Thank God you are his sister," the ambassador said. "For a moment I think your idiot brother cons pretty girl into coming on date with him."
"You insult me, sir!" Ivan piped up, good-naturedly. "Say, you old bastard, how on Earth did you get Rachel Artesia to come to your little shin-dig?"
"Rachel Ar...eh?" He stared at him blankly. "Who the fuck is that?"


The woman in question had been plotting a very strange course through the party. She'd had just enough conversations, exchanged platitudes with just enough people for more or less everyone to remember she had been there. With that, she manage to slip away from the main hall, into a small stairway that led to the other floors of the mansion.

Some staff carrying more entrées walked past the bottom of the stairwell, and Rachel flattened herself against the wall to avoid being seen. Even in her ostentatiously sensuous outfit, she was still a master of stealth. In her red high heels she lightly ascended the stairs, making her way to the third floor.
"Bingo." There had been one or two security guards outside the house, one more observing the party. There had been none in the rest of the house - except here.

This was the bedroom of the ambassador's daughter, Zaria. The nineteen year-old never joined her parents for these sorts of events - apparently she and her raucous father didn't get on very well. But Rachel wasn't interested in her. She was interested in an extravagant gift that her father had bought her for her eighteenth birthday - a fabulously expensive antique diamond necklace.

Rachel considered using her formidable charms to simply persuade the guard to let her pass, but she didn't want to risk being seen. Instead, she reached for the belt strapped to the top of her right thigh, and took out a small, metal ball. She rolled it towards the guard, its smooth surface preventing it from being detected until it tapped the guard's foot.
"Huh?" She looked down. "The hell is... ?"

Though Rachel did sometimes use more fancy gadgets, this was just a metal ball. The point, however, had been to distract the guard, and this it achieved. Rachel dashed forward at the instant that she saw the guard distracted, and with a spinning kick crashed the guard's head against the wall.
"Unnnhhh..." she moaned, slumping unconscious to the ground.
"Nighty night," Rachel said. She gently turned the doorknob, and slipped inside.


"Hmm?" Just before Rachel had left the party, so to speak, she'd happened to walk into Natalya Nastarov's line of sight. The curvy telepath had been trying not to pry into people's thoughts, but when Rachel Artesia came into her sight, she got two mental images in rapid succession: the socialite herself, admiring a picture of Zaria's famous necklace; and Rachel imagining herself walking off with that necklace, leaving Zaria bound and blindfolded behind her.
"That wasn't idle fantasy," Natalya realised. "That's exactly what she intends to do!"

"And so I say to him," Ivan said, the ambassador already laughing in anticipation of a good punchline, "it's hardly my fault that you walked in on your wife and me in flagranté delicto. In fact, after all the trouble I went to to make sure you were out of the house, it's really you who should be apologising to me!"
"Aahahahahahaa!" the ambassador roared, slapping Ivan on the back. "You lying little bastard! Next you tell me he really did apologise, eh?"
"Well, he was an Englishman, but even -" He stopped. He saw the look of concern on his sister's face. "Are you okay?" He saw her nodding slightly. "Something up?" Another nod. "Insyte-related shenanigans?" A third. "Understood. I'll distract the dear oaf. You go and fight for the American way, or whatever it is you do." A small smile at the corner of her mouth. "Ah, I knew you loved me really!"

Ivan pulled Djordje away, under the pretence of introducing him to someone. This left Natalya free to creep away. While she was no Rachel Artesia, she'd had many occasions in her time to slip away from crowds. She soon got away from the party.


As Rachel entered Zaria's room, her sharp eyes immediately scanned the room. It was darkened, but she could see perfectly adequately for her purposes. She saw an empty chair at a desk covered in books and papers, the fruits of Zaria's work on her dissertation. Ocelot looked at Zaria's bed - and saw that she was not alone.

The girl was lying flat on her back, one arm on her stomach and another on her forehead, as if she'd fainted rather than merely fallen asleep. She was lovely - very slender, with long, auburn hair, fair skin, and slim, pretty legs shown off by a short slip. Despite this, she had an innocent purity to her, her youth and beauty making her look exquisitely fragile.

As if this wasn't enough, she also had around her long neck a thick, old necklace, encrusted with small, beautiful emeralds, and with one huge diamond set in the centre. The overall effect was actually a little gaudy, but it was over two-hundred years old, so had gained respectability by sheer force of age.
"She wears her jewellery to bed?" Rachel thought. "I'll never understand the rich. Ah well, all the easier for me." She strolled over to the side of Zaria's bed, leaning over to get a closer look at her. She was sighing softly in her sleep, her cheeks slightly red. Her thighs shifted together in the moonlight, and Rachel was tempted to lick her lips.

She moved closer, inspecting the necklace itself. She realised she wouldn't be able to unclasp it without waking the girl up. But this did not cause concern for her. She took two objects out of her belt: one was a small gauze pad, which she'd had to fold tightly to make fit her smaller set of hidden compartments. The other was a small spray, like a bottle of perfume. She introduced the one to the other, dampening the pad with the liquid. She took a very gentle sniff, to ensure its potency, and even that made her momentarily light-headed. It was working perfectly.

She reached over, holding the cloth just a few inches from Zaria's face.
"Don't you worry, sweetie," Rachel whispered. "This won't hurt you a bit..." She reached ever closer, until she was actually kneeling on the bed.

"MMMMPHHH!!" Rachel had been waiting with eager anticipation to hear the muffled cry of a beautiful young woman - except it didn't come from Zaria. "WWHHMMPHH?!" To her horror, Rachel found that just before she clamped the cloth down on Zaria's mouth, she herself was tightly gagged by a thick cloth pulled over her mouth, which was almost instantly tied in place. Someone had crept up behind her and ambushed her - and Rachel hadn't heard a thing.

As the long-legged beauty tried to lift her arms, she felt both her hands grabbed from behind, whoever had gagged her already having both arms free. Though Rachel struggled, her opponent was overwhelmingly strong, and not only held both her arms tightly behind her back, she shoved Rachel down, so her face was against the soft sheets of Zaria's bed.
"MMMMPHHH!!" Rachel screamed through her gag. "NNNMMPHHH!!" Her eyes were wide with panic, all the more so when she felt strong white ropes being lashed around her arms. "No! Wha-what's happening?!" As she writhed on the bed, her captor wound cords from her delicate-looking wrists right up to her elbows. With frightening speed, Rachel found herself tightly tied up.

Hauled back by her shoulders, Rachel was turned around and shoved up against the wall. She tried to put her high heels to use by stamping on her attacker's foot, but her blow glanced harmlessly off a steel-capped boot. She flicked her calf back, trying to catch her enemy between their legs, but they simply narrowed the gap between their thighs, catching Rachel's foot. At the same time, they were wrapping rope around her torso, just beneath Rachel's sumptuous bosom, pinning her arms in place. "No way! No way is this happening! I'm - being captured!"

Rachel felt herself shoved forward, back towards the bed. She tried to turn around to attack, but her captor swept at her ankles as she did, so she ended up falling on her back. It was only now that she got a look at her attacker. Or rather, her attackers.

There were three of them. All three were women, dressed in white, tight bodysuits, somewhere between latex and leather in thickness. They were also wearing masks over their faces, covering everything except their eyes. Two were hanging back - Rachel's quick binding had been achieved by only one of them.

"Nnyyyrrmpphhh!" Rachel kicked out at one of them, but her ankle was caught. She snatched Rachel's other ankle as well, slamming her calves together. She hooked Rachel's bare legs under one arm, before twisting ropes around her ankles, binding the thief's supple limbs with frightening ease. "NNNMMPHHH!!" Rachel screamed, feeling all avenues of resistance being cut off. She was pulled forward, her warm thighs grabbed by her captor, before they too were pressed against each other, tight, strong ropes binding Rachel's legs just above her knees.

She looked up at her captor, her blonde hair ruffled, her eyes wet and wide with shock and helplessness. Bound hand and foot, she wriggled desperately, but she was thoroughly beaten. They had her.
"NNNNMMMPHHHHHH!!" she screamed. "NNNNNNNNMMMMMMMMPPPHHHHHH!!" But her muffled cries meant nothing. She was utterly powerless. She shook her head from side to side, kicking her bound legs, thrashing her beautiful, scantily clad body, but to no avail whatsoever.

Only one thing stopped her - the feeling of a slender hand on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw that Zaria was awake. She was smiling.
"Good evening, Ocelot," the girl said. "We're here to save you."

"Whhh...whhmmmphh?!" Rachel - Ocelot - whimpered in confusion. "H-how does she know who I am?! Wait - she's with them?" She looked back at three women in white. She hadn't really been giving it much thought as she'd fought to stop herself being captured, but she'd vaguely supposed they were there to kidnap Zaria and that she'd just been incredibly unlucky. But no - they were here for her.

"Do you see how the strumpet flaunts herself?" said the woman who'd bound Ocelot. "Think of all the men she's ensnared with that sinful body."
"She should be punished," said another.
"Now, now," Zaria said, in a soft voice. "It's not for us to judge her. That's only for the Master."

"What the fuck is going on?!" Ocelot thought, not for an instant giving up her struggles. Zaria obviously saw her confusion.
"We've been trying to attract your attention for quite some time," she said. "The Master wishes very strongly to free you."
"Frhhh mhhhh?!" Ocelot growled with incredulity. "Pretty funny way of freeing someone, tying them up!"

Zaria got closer, swinging her slim legs over the side of the bed until she was sitting right next to the struggling, writhing beauty in red.
"Mmmm..." she sighed, smelling Ocelot's neck. "I can smell it...the lust, the avarice...such a heady mixture..."
"Fhhkk hhff!" Ocelot spat, agonised that this waiflike damsel was crooning over her. "This should be the other way round!"

"We have to admit," one of the women in white said, "you've been a tricky one to ensnare."
"We've tried to lure you out a few times, but you've never fallen for it before."
"Clearly your hubris is as great as your harlotry, though, for you to fall for such obvious bait."
"This was a trap? And I fell right into it..." Ocelot felt a wave of embarrassment washing over her. She, Ocelot, master thief and not-infrequent captor herself, had been reduced to a helpless, wriggling damsel in a sexy red dress. "They captured me!" She moaned piteously, writhing her body, dislodging one of the straps of her dress, and almost causing it to slip from her bosom.

"Trying to expose yourself even more, harlot?"
"Let's teach her some modesty," said the woman who'd captured Rachel. She gestured to one of her teammates, who handed her what looked like a thick, metal disc. It was heavier than it looked. She placed it on her captive, just beneath her breasts.
"Mmrmrmphh!" Ocelot complained. "What the hell are they doing - ahh!"

From the disc on her chest, thick cloth wrappings burst out, coiling around her. It poured out like water, wrapping around her every curve. They twisted around her chest, covering her buxom breasts, curling round and trapping her arms and covering her shoulders. They wrapped up her legs, squeezing them tightly against each other, making Ocelot's struggles into little more than twitches.

"Mmmmphhh!!" Ocelot watched with horror as she saw her body being mummified, her gorgeous, light-brown skin and slinky dress disappearing beneath the wrappings. She felt them covering up and binding her long, naked legs even more tightly than before - but the material binding her was incredibly soft - softer even than her satin dress. "MMPH!" Ocelot felt the satin bonds covering her mouth and nose, even covering her forehead, her platinum blonde hair even compressed beneath the bonds she was wrapped in.

"Mmm! Mph!" Ocelot stared with wide, brown eyes, down at herself. She was helpless, cocooned in satin, whimpering through her double gag. She could feel the satin caressing her long, smooth legs every time she wriggled. She was tied up so tightly that she could barely even turn her head. She didn't need to turn it, however, for her to see her captors looking down at her, smirking to see the sensuous thief entirely in their power.

"I know you must feel shocked," Zaria said. "Confused. Helpless." She started stroking Ocelot's cheek. "I felt the same when they took me...I remember how they came for me in the night - snatched me right out of this bed. I was bound and gagged, just like you are now." She seemed to take pleasure in saying this. "But I learned the joys of submission. When I became one of the master's - "

There was, unfortunately for the speechifying young girl, an interruption. The door handle turned. Instantly, the women in white turned, but the door didn't open. The handle stayed turned. Someone was waiting on the other side, seemingly unsure if there was anyone inside. Ocelot realised that they would have seen the guard she'd taken out. Whoever it was had to know something was wrong. Why weren't they coming in?

Ocelot was about to cry out, but she realised that this was foolish. Whoever it was outside was clever enough to anticipate an ambush. They knew something was going on. Zaria seemed to realise this as well - she beckoned to one of the women in white. Ocelot was more than a little confused when Zaria put her hands behind her back, allowing her partner to begin binding her arms.

"Ah..." the young woman sighed, smiling as she felt herself bound, her wrists tied tightly together. A satin cloth just like the one that had muzzled the lovely Rachel was used to gag her. "Mph..."
"What the hell are they doing?" Ocelot thought. She cast her eyes back to the door, still barely able to move her head in her satin cocoon. There was no movement - but the door handle was still slightly depressed. Whoever it was was still there.
"MMMPHHHHHHH!!" Zaria suddenly screamed. "HHHHLLLLLLPP!"
"Oh shit..." Ocelot realised the plan.

"MMMPHHHHHHH!!" Natalya heard from within the room. "HHHHLLLLLLPP!"
"Oh no!" She'd seen the knocked out guard, been aware that there was something amiss. She'd been trying to be patient, wait for the right opportunity - but she heard the muffled screaming from within. If she delayed, the woman - probably the Ambassador's daughter Zaria - might be kidnapped, or worse. She wished that her powers were not so reliant on her eyesight - and rushed in.

"Zaria!" she gasped, seeing, as she'd feared, the slender girl bound in the hands of a masked woman.
"Mmmmppphhh!!" whimpered the trussed up captive. But it was not Zaria screaming at her.
"Two of them - what?!" Instantly she saw in the cocooned cat-burglar's mind that she'd been tricked, that Zaria was no captive. Natalya's mind reeled as she felt Zaria and the others' intense devotion to...something. But there was no time to contemplate. "Behind me!"

Just before her white shoulders were seized, Natalya, using Rachel's eyes to guide her, dodged out of the way. She snapped round, and kicked her attacker in the side of the knee. She buckled, and Natalya pressed her advantage, striking the woman in the neck and knocking her down onto the ground.

"What's going on here?" Natalya demanded of the other two women. "Who are you?" She didn't need them to answer. The idea was just to prompt them to start thinking about it. But their minds seemed strangely obscured to her. She could see what they were about to do, what movements they would make, but everything else was obscured by a strange, magenta static.

The second woman in white came at her, and Natalya was astonished by her speed and ferocity. She could tell what moves she was going to make in advanced, but even her telepathy barely allowed her to avoid the woman's attacks. She spotted an opening, and tried to kick, but her long, tight dress held her back. She stumbled, and fell back.
"Damn it, I'm still not very good at this..." Natalya had been trying to improve her combat skills of late, but she was no expert.

"You're weak!" The other woman, who'd been binding Zaria, leapt over the bed to assist her partner. The two of them assailed Natalya with a withering flurry of blows, which she could barely avoid. Making matters worse for the pale telepath was the bewildering series of images she received from the minds of her opponents. A hidden chamber, strange symbols, and a face. In all their minds, this same face: dark eyes, white skin...

"MMPHH!" Natalya had allowed herself to become distracted, and she'd not paid attention to the woman she'd knocked down. As Natalya fought her comrades, she'd taken a soft, white cloth, and dampened it with a small vial of a certain sweet-smelling drug. As Natalya was pressed back by the other two, she grabbed her from behind, seizing her just under her buxom chest, and clamping the cloth over her mouth.

"NNMMPHHH!!" Natalya screamed, her mouth and nose covered, her senses assailed with the scent of chloroform. She knew it well, thanks to her ordeal at the hands of Madam Black and her minions. "N-no! I - I didn't focus! They got me!" the buxom architect thought, desperately trying to pull the cloth away. "Nnnnmmphhhh!!" she moaned, already feeling a fuzzy-headedness beginning to affect her.

"Nnnmmphhh..." Ocelot mewed in her soft, tight bindings, seeing as her would-be-saviour was seized. "That idiot - she's just some hot chick from the party! What did she think she could do when even I got caught?"
"Mmmmhhh! Mmmmmnnhhhmmhhh..." Natalya moaned, as her arms flapped weakly, trying to pull the drugged cloth away. She could already feel her strength draining away. One of the other women grabbed both her wrists, pulling them out in front of her before lashing them together with thin, white cord. "N-no..." Natalya thought, her soft, yellow eyes already half-closed, the powerful drug having its way with the buxom maiden's gorgeous body. "They're...capturing me..." She watched as her forearms were bound together, making it seem as if the helpless heroine was pleading, praying for rescue.

As one woman bound Natalya's wrists, another took her trembling legs, winding cord around her slender ankles, pinching the soft fabric of her dress. She couldn't fight, standing helplessly, whimpering through the drugged cloth as her softening body was bound. "I can't...I'm too weak...oh, I'm so feeble..."
"Mmm..." The woman chloroforming her sniffed Natalya's neck. "This one isn't the same as the thief...do we need to save her?"
"Of course we do," said the one who had bound her hands. "Look at her." She ran her hands slowly up Natalya's arms, until she came to her naked, soft shoulders. She held them tightly, staring into her eyes. "She pretends to be demure, but she bares just enough of herself to make men fall. Look - you can see how her sinful bust strains against her clothes." She cupped Natalya's gorgeous, white breasts, her fingers massaging them.

"Mmmmhhh...mmmnnhhhmmm..." Natalya whimpered, her buxom chest fondled by her captors. "You can't...how...dare...unhh..." She was so weak now that she couldn't even stand, the woman binding her legs literally having to hold her up by her thighs to keep her upright. Her eyelids were fluttering, the hands on her bosom making her feel soft, vulnerable and feminine, as if being touched there was what was making her weak. "So...sleepy...can't think...oohhh..."

Natalya was sinking into a deep, warm pool. She couldn't remember why she was there, what she was doing. She couldn't even remember that she was a heroine. Her captors' thoughts were confusing her. She suddenly found herself feeling strangely submissive, as if there was pleasure in her captivity. She happened to look at Zaria.
"Yes...yes, that's it," she was thinking. "You'll be just like us...down, down you go, so sinful...we'll save you, make you meek and helpless...you'll be so beautiful when you're tame and obedient, like me...oooh...we'll be slave-girls together...so humble and weak..."
"Mmmhhmmnn..." Natalya mewed, blushing as Zaria's delight entered her own confused mind. "I...I'll be humble...will that be good? I want...to serve...wait, no! I don't...I can't...whose thoughts...unnhhh..." It was no good. The chloroform, the thoughts of her captors, the warmth rising inside her - it was too much. The busty maiden gave in, sighing slowly, as her eyes rolled back in her head, before fluttering shut. She was defeated.

The woman who'd been holding Natalya's thighs stood up, not letting go. She lifted the pale damsel up as she stood, allowing her to flop limply over her shoulder. She carried the helpless, unconscious young woman over to the bed, feeling her curvaceous body as she carried the defeated heroine, laying her down next to the tightly restrained Ocelot.
"Mmmmrrgggmgmmphhh!!" Ocelot growled through her soft gag. "Stupid girl..."

"Mmmmhhh?" Zaria intoned. The woman who'd tied her understood, and swiftly freed her. The girl came around the bed, and knelt between the two bound damsels. She put her hands on their chests, feeling their heartbeats.
"Soon your hearts will beat for another, not for your own depravity," she said. "I know you feel humiliated," she remarked to Ocelot specifically, "but you will learn that humiliation cleanses the soul, as we have learned it. You will embrace submission."

"Mmmnnghghhmmphhh!!" Ocelot protested loudly. She was all too aware of the irony of her situation - only a few days before, she had had a young beauty mummified in her grasp, the lovely Enhancegirl. She'd rather liked the idea of being submitted to - but never submitting. "Before this is over," she swore to herself, "I'm gonna have this crazy cutie all tied up in my - ow!"

Ocelot felt something jabbing her in the thigh. One of her captors was holding a syringe, and to Ocelot's horror, was injecting something into her.
"NNMMPHHH!!" Ocelot screamed. "NNNMMPHHH!! Mmm! Mmmmmm..." All too quickly, the gorgeous thief felt herself growing weak. "N-no...they can't...fucking...do this to me..." She felt her desperate, though restrained, wriggles abate, felt her body growing listless, her breaths deep. Her shoulders gave one last wriggle, before becoming completely still.

"Can't...have to stay awake...have...to...unhhh..." The bound seductress was no match for the soporific drug. It spread through her slinky form, making her weak as a kitten. Her long legs no longer shifted against each other. Her sharp, angry eyes grew dull and unfocused. Their lids fluttered, as her growls turned into soft mewling. "No...can't...can't...ooooohhhh..." Overcome, Rachel swooned, going as limp and helpless as Natalya. A moment later, Zaria had two bound, knocked out beauties lying defenceless before her.

"Will the master want us to bring her two?" one of the maidens' captors said.
"Why ever not?" Zaria replied.
"The sin of all of us..." another said. "It must be such a burden for her..."
"That is why she deserves our loyalty and love," Zaria assured them. "She will never stop helping us poor, fallen women." The others nodded gravely. "Jessica, why don't you take the thief to her?" The most slender of the three women in white nodded. She took the slumbering Rachel, lifting her tightly wrapped-up body up to her feet. Ocelot's head fell tenderly against her captor's chest, before the lovely damsel was lifted up and over Jessica's shoulder. She flopped down obediently, and Jessica carried her away. She deftly disappeared into the night, bearing the beautiful, helpless thief away. The thief was now a helpless, kidnapped damsel.

That left Natalya. The pale, busty heroine lay flat on her back, her bound hands lying passively in her lap.
"This one seemed a little odd," another of the women in white said. "She had decent skill, but she was doing much better against us than her movements suggested she'd be able to. You think she's like Cordelia?"
"A special, you mean?" said the other. "She might be. All the more reason to take her." She slipped her hands under Natalya's thighs and her back, and with a groan of effort lifted the young woman into her arms. The maiden's head fell back as she was cradled, exposing her slender neck. Despite her captors' claims otherwise, Natalya did not seem particularly sinful. On the contrary, as she was carried helplessly in the woman's arms, she looked almost desperately innocent, her white skin as pure as porcelain.

The other two followed her as she approached the window, ready to snatch Natalya away as well. But the three were caught of guard, when they heard someone behind them, whistling.
"I say, ladies!" Alarmed, Zaria saw a lean, dark-haired young man standing in the doorway. His skin was as pale as Natalya's, and he had a wicked grin on his face. "Now I haven't the slightest idea what's going on here, but I do know one thing -" He was interrupted when one of the women in white hurled a poisoned needle straight at him - its toxin would either put him in a coma, or at least have him vomiting for a week straight.

Except the needle never hit him. It vaporised in the air in front of him.
"I do know one thing," he continued. "You'd better put my sister down. Right. Now." On the last word, he snapped his fingers. His body started to glow a bright orange. His hair stood on end, his eyes turning red as he extended his hand towards the three women. "I won't ask again."

"A superhuman!" Zaria stared in amazement. She had never seen one like him before. The air around him was wavering from the heat pouring out of his body, the floor under his feet buckling, even beginning to melt. The woman carrying Natalya was amazed too, but the other wasn't just amazed. She was terrified.

"I see from your face," Ivan said, addressing the woman carrying his sister, "that you have some idea of who I am. I could never quite settle on a name - but I think you might know me as Nucleon? Ooh! Or...er...what was it...Zarrus? Zjarrus! That's it, Zjarrus!" His grin widened. "You know what I can do. Drop her." The terrified woman, Claire, backed away a step, but then stopped. She smiled.
"It's an empty threat. I know his powers - he couldn't hurt us without killing his whore sister!"
"The...?" Ivan's smile faded. "Oh dear me. Can you guess which word you probably shouldn't have used?"

There was a terrible roar, as Ivan's powers became manifested in a visible, white-hot aura around his body.
"Now!" he shouted, having to yell over the sound of his own power. "I've more or less got two settings for this! One: I vaporise you. Two: I vaporise everything within two square miles." His grin returned. "So you see, I probably couldn't kill you." He was pointing at the woman carrying Natalya. "But you two -" He pointed at Zaria and Claire. "All bets are off."
"You might miss," Claire snapped back. "You might hit her anyway. You'd have to be an idiot to try it."
"Maybe," Ivan replied. "Except...there's a question you need to ask yourselves." He gritted his teeth. His aura expanded further. Scorch marks were appearing on the ceiling, the floor now cracking beneath his feet. "What if I am an idiot?"



"Fucking, shitting balls of Christ!" Djordje yelled, as he saw the scorched wreckage of his daughter's room. Natalya was lying, unconscious but unbound on Zaria's bed, Ivan sitting next to her. The ambassador's security staff were babbling militarily to each other, bewildered by what had apparently taken place. "What the fuck happens, you Russian piece of shit?! Where is my fucking daughter?!"
"Safe. I didn't kill anyone today," Ivan said. "Though if my sister doesn't wake up, I don't care whether she's your daughter or not. I'll evaporate the little tart."
"You...you're one of them!" The ambassador ran forward, and seized the less leaner man by the collar. He was older, but he was much physically stronger. "What did you do?!"
"I advise you take your hand off me," Ivan said calmly. "Look around you." Djordje did so. Ivan's powers had burned through the floor, exposing pipework - which was also melted. The curtains had burned to ash, the bed on which Natalya lay was scorched. There was a huge, gaping hole next to the window through solid brickwork. It looked like a bomb had gone off. "You said it yourself - I'm one of them. I could turn you into dust, dear fellow."
"Not if I snap your neck first, you -"

Before either man could go through with their threat, they both saw Natalya starting to stir.
"Leelee!" Ivan exclaimed, reverting to an old childhood nickname. "Are you alright? What happened? Why was the ambassador's daughter -"
"Where did she go?!" the ambassador shouted, his voice tinged with desperation. "What happened to my little girl?"

Natalya's eyes were open, but she barely understood where she was.
"Wh...Ivan?" she mumbled. She was still very weak. "Where...?" As her brother came into sight, she sensed his thoughts, his residual, fading rage, and his anxiety and brotherly love. His familiar thoughts centred her, and she - still weak - recovered her senses. She remembered what had happened: Zaria's trick, and the socialite Rachel Artesia a captive. She remembered looking into her eyes, just before she passed out. A few disordered thoughts had entered her mind, and they'd meant nothing to Natalya as her consciousness faded. But now she remembered them a little better. And there was one image that stuck in her mind: a pretty young redhead, in a red mask and a gold dress.
"Enh..."
"What? What was that, Leelee?"
"Enhancegirl..." Natalya said more firmly. "I...need to find...Enhancegirl..."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ruckus and Fracas? Are you people even trying anymore?" Sophie Scott laughed, staring down the garishly costumed men across from her.
"Hey, fuck you, lady!" A squat, swarthy man with a round, bald head spat at her. "What kind of name is 'Enhancegirl', anyway?"
"Mine's esoteric. Yours is just...dumb."

Sophie had not intended to be on the job that day. Yet as she was walking down MacLeod Avenue, the lovely, red-haired college freshman had heard shouting and screaming, and had stumbled onto a botched bank robbery. The perpetrators were the aforementioned Ruckus and Fracas, a pair of brothers with some rather eccentric superpowers. Fracas, the bald one, had a completely indestructible scalp. That was no exaggeration - it was literally invulnerable to any form of damage. Ivan Nastarov, the Indigo Titan, the Supremacist - none of them would have been able to even scratch it. A supernova would have been powerless to singe a single cell.

Unfortunately, the rest of him was just as susceptible to damage as anything else. A very clever man might have come up with all sorts of creative uses for his odd power, but Fracas was not anywhere approaching clever. As for his brother, Ruckus' power seemed a little more ordinary. He could run fast - very fast. His top speed was about 300 km/h. Unfortunately his power was lacking too - while his body could happily withstand the strain his great speeds put on it, his senses couldn't. While running at any kind of serious speed, his brain couldn't keep up.

As it was, the two robbers were not faring very well. Ruckus had managed to get a couple of good hits on her early - but when she realised that he had to plan his route out in advance before using his speed, it had become simplicity itself to dodge. As for Fracas, Enhancegirl's powerful senses - allowing her to react faster than Ruckus ever could - allowed her to detect his supernaturally dense scalp, and take the requisite measures. Namely, not hitting him in the head.

Her battle had begun to gather rather a crowd, and to Ruckus and Fracas' frustration, they were cheering her on, laughing at the brothers' mishaps.
"Fracas," Ruckus whispered. "Plan F." A-E had not been very successful.
"Right," the bald man said.

Enhancegirl didn't need - nor did she have - super-hearing to work out they were up to something.
"Hey, girlie!" Fracas yelled. "You've been reeeeal clever so far with all your dodgin' and weavin', but now it's time to end this. We're gonna put you down, Enhancegirl."
"Uh-huh," the redhead said. "Let me guess - you're gonna pretend to try to ram me, so I dodge left. Meanwhile, your bro is sneaking around, so he can zip into me just after I dodge, before I get the chance to react, right? Sounds like a good plan." She smirked. "Might even work, who knows?"
"You little...!" Fracas growled. "Well - just 'cause you know about it doesn't mean it'll stop it! Aaaagghhh!" He ran forward, head down, charging right at her. Enhancegirl could detect in her peripheral vision that Ruckus was setting himself up for the attack she'd described.

Sure enough, just as Enhancegirl dodged, she felt the tremors in the air as Ruckus zipped towards her. But to her senses, he seemed to be moving no faster than an impressively quick athlete. She easily had time to slip behind Fracas, and reorient him directly into his brother.
"OOOHHHHGGGHHH!!!" Ruckus howled, as the immovable object met a thoroughly stoppable force. His body, as a byproduct of his main power, was very resistant to injury, but even a glancing blow at full speed against his brother's indestructible head did him not inconsiderable damage.

He spun out like a skidding car, falling flat on his face and skidding for a good fifty feet. Fracas lifted his head, confused. He hadn't been looking, and he hadn't felt anything. "What the hell happened?" The crowd were laughing.
"I...I literally told you I knew exactly what you were gonna do," Enhancegirl said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You guys are...wow, you're...just incredibly stupid."
"Hey, shut up!" Fracas shouted, his voice cracking. The laughter of the crowd got louder. "Hey, seriously, shut up!"

Suddenly, Enhancegirl's powerful senses detected something. She sniffed - there was a familiar smell in the air. For a fraction of a second Enhancegirl thought it might be her greatest weakness, but no - she recognised it though, and there was an association with that hated chemical.
"Now you look like a real captive." Sophie's mouth opened. She remembered the scent. Ocelot had worn that same perfume. Ocelot, the thief who had drugged and captured her. Ocelot, the thief who had stripped and fondled her, running her warm hands all over Sophie's lithe body. Ocelot, who had humiliated and taunted her, kidnapping and paralysing her, then playing with the helpless maiden like a cat with a mouse. Ocelot, whom she couldn't stop thinking about.

Enhancegirl was so distracted that she didn't notice Ruckus get up.
"Damn her!" He launched himself at her, hardly expecting it to work. But to Ruckus' surprise, she didn't get out of the way. He hesitated at the last moment, slowing down somewhat, but he still shoulder checked the red haired heroine, sending her tumbling onto the ground.

"Augh!" Enhancegirl grunted, as she landed hard on the floor. "Damn it..." She pushed herself back up, astonished that she'd been so distracted.
"Gotcha!" Sophie didn't have time to react, still recovering from Ruckus' surprise attack. She'd landed right in front of Fracas, and the hard-headed criminal grabbed her, squeezing her arms against her sides.
"Rrrghhh!" Enhancegirl growled, cursing herself for getting into this position. She tried to wriggle free, but Fracas was pretty strong, and Sophie was no physically more powerful than her slender frame suggested.
"Heh," Fracas laughed. "Looks like all that dodging around didn't help you in the end."
"Get...off...me!" Sophie groaned. She stomped on Fracas' foot, which caused him a great deal of discomfort - but didn't get him off.

Still, Enhancegirl could detect weaknesses. He was putting too much weight on his right foot, he was still recovering from a broken rib, and he wasn't paying enough attention to Sophie's arms, assuming that they were totally restrained. In five seconds, she'd have nailed him in the rib, dented his nose with the back of her head, and would have had his indestructible head grinding against the concrete without a great deal of trouble.

Unfortunately, she never got the chance. Ruckus didn't need to plan too hard when his target was stuck in one place. He calculated quickly, and ran forward. Sophie's senses gave her more than fair warning - but she couldn't get out of the way in time. She winced, expecting a painful blow - but it didn't come. She opened her eyes, and saw Ruckus standing right in front of her, grinning.

"Ain't too cocky now, are ya, legs?" the speedster said. He eyed her lovely body up, making his somewhat more upstanding brother a little embarrassed with him. He was not, however, upstanding enough to do anything about it.
"You can kiss my -" Sophie began, but Ruckus had no interest in what she said. He straightened his hand, placing it lightly on Sophie's shoulder, before striking her between her neck and her collarbone.

"Aaahhh!! Uhhh..." Sophie felt a shock running down her spine. Her body seemed to go rubbery and weak in a second, as if her brain was just switching off, neuron by neuron. "Unnhh...c-can't...think..." She was going limp, her bare legs trembling. Her powerful senses were failing her, everything growing dark. She felt her eyelids begin to close, felt her body sinking down to her knees. "M...my body..." she whimpered, as her consciousness faded from her. Her knees hit the concrete, and she felt herself falling forward at Ruckus' feet.

As Sophie began to sink into oblivion, she heard gasps of shock from the crowd, but also laughter. People were laughing, many of the same people who had been cheering her were now laughing to see her defeated. Distraught, the redhead remembered what Ocelot had said to her:
"When you win, it doesn't even register. When you lose...that's what everyone's itching to see." With those words ringing in her ears, Sophie saw a bright flash, and then passed out completely, a helpless damsel once again.

"...cegirl?"
"Unnhhh..." Sophie moaned, as she began to awaken.
"Enhancegirl, wake up," a familiar voice urged sternly. Sophie blinked a couple of times, and moved her head slowly from side to side. Her vision was swimming, her body feeling unpleasantly drained. She flexed her fingers, trying to get rid of an odd tingling feeling. She lifted one of her legs, trying more than anything to see if she could. "I'm...not tied up?" she mumbled to herself.
"Astonishingly, yes," Mariko replied.

Sophie snapped fully awake. She looked up to see the beautiful, Japanese superheroine standing over her.
"Mar - Spectra!" Sophie tried to get to her feet, but she was still too weak. "What are you...doing here?"
"Pulling you out of the fire," she replied. "At least you weren't getting drugged this time."
"Oh, gee, thanks," Sophie huffed. She then added: "Also...non-sarcastic thanks, too. Looks like you saved me again." She smiled. Mariko seemed to fidget uncomfortably.

"Are you alright?" Spectra asked. "I feared - I mean, it seemed you might be more seriously injured."
"Just my pride," Sophie said. Straining, she managed to get herself onto her feet. "Who were those assholes? I mean I know their dumbass names, but..."
"Ruckus and Fracas?" Mariko replied. "Two bit thugs. They've been part of various different low rent supervillain crime syndicates over the years." She sighed. "I'm very surprised you lost to them."
"You and me both," Sophie said. "I guess I got distracted." There was a little more to it than that, but she didn't want to tell Spectra that.

"You can't allow that to happen," Mariko said, sharply. Her eyes were intensely narrowed.
"Mariko, I know, okay? I messed up. I am acutely aware of that."
"You don't understand," Mariko said. She came closer. "Ruckus and Fracas are nothing. What if Fracas had decided to smash your skull in? He easily could have. Or stopped your heart, or...all manner of things!"
"Mariko, chill out," Sophie said. "What the hell is wrong with her?"
"I just don't want you to -" She stopped herself. She'd been about to say 'I don't want to see you hurt.' She considered saying 'I couldn't bear to see something like that happen to you.' But Mariko got the better of herself, and it came out thusly:

"Do you want to keep embarrassing yourself in front of people?"

Sophie looked straight at her.
"Okay, I get it. You're stronger than me. Probably a lot stronger. You're more experienced, and more popular, and I bet those assholes in the crowd just cheered their hearts out when you showed up to save me."
"Sophie, I -"
"Forget it, Mariko. Next time, why don't you just leave me to wallow in my own humiliation?" She turned around, and began unsteadily walking off. "Ugh...downgrade." There was a flash, and her golden outfit vanished, leaving her in a short, cream dress, red flats, and transparent stockings. She didn't feel very much like Enhancegirl at that moment. She left Mariko alone, cursing herself, and shaking with embarrassment and anger.

Mariko was about to call out to her friend, but she stopped herself. "Damn!" she screamed at herself internally. "Why must you always do this, you fool?! Why did I let myself start to get close to her...?"


Sophie walked home in ignominy. She knew the papers the next day, at least the local ones, would be all a-twitter with her most recent defeat.
"I bet some of my oh-so-wonderful public will be throwing around pictures of me slung over Spectra's shoulder..." In fact, Mariko had carried the fallen redhead away in her arms, using her powers over light specifically to prevent anyone photographing them, but Sophie found herself imagining the most embarrassing possible situation.

As she headed up to her dorm room, she found herself wishing things had been just a little different. If she had to get beaten by such laughable opponents, why did it have to be Spectra who had saved her? She didn't mind the idea of being rescued by Mariko - it had happened often enough. But if that did happen, why couldn't it at least have been from someone formidable?

She imagined herself fighting someone like the Supremacist, or Hytherion, courageously but futilely throwing herself into battle and being swiftly captured. She imagined Spectra finding her, freeing her - perhaps even carrying her to safety - and even if shaking her head at Sophie being defeated, at least seeing her courage in fighting against something greater than herself. That was what she wanted Mariko to see, not -

"Hey Sophie!" The redhead lost her train of thought. She looked up to see Kirsten, her roommate, sticking her head out of the door. She looked a little alarmed. "There's, like, some chick here to see you." She mouthed: "Girlfriend?"
"No, dumbass," Sophie replied. She went past Kirsten, somewhat irritably pushing past her, and entering their dorm. She saw a young woman sitting inside, pale, very good-looking - curvy and extremely pretty. "Definitely not my girlfriend, but hey, you never -" The woman looked up, looking directly into Sophie's eyes. "Hey wait a minute!"

It had been a while since Sophie had seen this woman, but they had met. At the time the two had barely spoken - as they spent most of the time bound and gagged in Madam Black's captivity. But she knew her to be the telepath Insyte.
"Oh, uh, hey there!" Sophie said. "I...uh...totally forgot that I asked you to come over!"
"Yeah..." was all that Natalya replied. Sophie looked back. Kirsten was still in the doorway. "Hey, Kirsten?"
"What?"
"You mind?"

Sophie's friend raised an eyebrow. She wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the proverbial box, but she was starting to work out that there might be more to Sophie than met the eye. Sneaking out at night, arriving late to classes - but never missing a coursework deadline - and sometimes just being incommunicado, she knew that Sophie was hiding something from her. And in Seacouver, well, there was a pretty obvious explanation - especially for someone with the same letter of their first and surnames.
"Uh, yeah," Kirsten said, archly. "Hope you two have a super conversation," she thought, excusing herself.

There was a long silence. Sophie waited for Natalya to start, but she seemed unsure of how to do so.
"So...uh...hi, I guess?"
"Hello, Sophie," she replied. She fidgeted. "I'm sorry, I'm making this awkward, aren't I...?"
"Yeah, a little," Sophie admitted. She was still more than a little tetchy from what had happened earlier. "What are you doing here?" Partly out of politeness, Natalya was trying not to look directly at Sophie, but she happened to glance at her, and got a brief flash of her day's events: Ruckus and Fracas; ignoble defeat; an argument with Spectra. Sophie saw the look on her face as she took the information in.
"I guess you just saw why I'm in a bad mood, huh?" Sophie said. She slumped down on a chair. "Sorry..." She centred herself. If Insyte was here, it meant it was important. "I'm pissed off, but it isn't her fault..." She forced herself to smile. "What's happened?"

"I'm sorry," Natalya said, crossing her pale legs. "I didn't mean to...put you ill at ease. When we last met, I happened to see you thinking about where you lived - it was all I knew about you. I didn't even know your name until I met your friend."
"Really? I'm kinda surprised there was anything in her brain to read," Sophie laughed. "So what can I do for you?"
"Well...it's a rather strange story. Do you know someone named Rachel Artesia?"
"No, never heard of her." Natalya was surprised. She'd been sure that she'd seen Enhancegirl in Rachel's mind. "Perhaps you know her as..." She struggled to remember. "Ocelot? I think that was her -" Natalya suddenly stopped talking, and looked down, her cheeks flushing red. She'd been assailed by an onrushing of confused, but powerful emotion from Sophie. Fragmented images: captivity, embarrassment, but...intimacy too.

"Wh...what about her?" Sophie asked. She suddenly felt very exposed. Her cheeks were hot, her heart was thumping in her chest. She tried to suppress the thoughts that rose in her mind, to shield them from Insyte, but it wasn't working. She couldn't stop thinking about how Ocelot had dominated her, wrapped her up, drugged her; slipped her knee between Sophie's thighs and -

"I'm sorry!" Natalya gasped, Sophie's emotions mixing with her own. "I - didn't mean to -"
"It's okay," Sophie said. "Must be, like, an occupational hazard, right?" She was trying to be good humoured. In truth, she was mortified. She barely knew herself what her thoughts were about the slinky thief: having someone prying into them was far from welcome. Natalya was embarrassed too - but now she was confused, too. Rachel's feelings towards Enhancegirl, insofar as she'd glimpsed them, were nothing close to inimical: indeed she'd assumed they were allies, or friends. But Sophie's thoughts were...contradictory to say the least. The two had fought. Rachel - Ocelot - had captured and defeated her.
"I misunderstood," Natalya said. "I thought the two of you were...you might not have any reason to help her?"
"Help her?" Sophie didn't understand. "Why would she need help?" Natalya took a deep breath. This would require a lot of explanation.

As Sophie listened to Natalya's run down of the events of the previous night, she felt another contradictory twang of emotions. Ocelot - or Rachel Artesia - kidnapped; the ambassador's daughter somehow involved in the kidnapping as well. Some bizarre cult, it seemed like, kidnapping her for ideological purposes - something about her being a 'sinner'.
"I...I don't know," Sophie said. She stood up, and turned away. "I'm not sure I can help you."
"What?" Natalya was astonished. She'd thought Enhancegirl a paragon of courage.

"I shouldn't get involved," Sophie thought. "I mean, what do I owe her? She captured me...manipulated me...let her deal with it herself..." Even as she thought it, the words rang hollow. She'd probably have agreed instantly even if Cybelle had been the victim - villainy was villainy, after all, and whether the victim was an asshole or not didn't really matter. Yet for Ocelot, she couldn't get herself to agree.

"You're afraid," Natalya said. She turned to see that Natalya was looking straight at the redhead, directly into her eyes.
"I'm - what?" Sophie was about to object, but Natalya was not making an accusation, she was stating a fact. When Sophie looked inside herself, she realised that she was indeed scared - but of what? Not of Ocelot's captors - but of Ocelot herself.

Sophie found her mind going back to her encounter with the alluring thief, of being pressed up against that wall and chloroformed, or being paralysed, trussed up and kissed...
"Mmm..." she sighed, her thighs shifting together. "Damn it!" She caught herself falling under the thief's spell again. This was hardly the first time she'd been attracted to someone: Sophie had had girlfriends before - even a boyfriend once, before she'd realised which side of the fence she fell on. But Ocelot had a strange power over her, could twist the slender redhead round her finger.

"It's...alright," Natalya said. "I can always..."
"No," Sophie said firmly. "No, I'm being stupid. I'll take care of this." She would prove them wrong. Ocelot and Mariko had both intimated that she didn't have what it took to be Enhancegirl. That she was weak in some way. "Well fuck that. She captured me...now I'm going to rescue her." She looked straight at Natalya, who felt her resolve change. "I'll do it. I'll save her." But even as she thought that, she trembled at the thought of her...

[DrDominator9]

Nice set up. Sophie is really taken by this Ocelot character. I'm enjoying how this is developing. Your submissions scenes are exquisitely done!

[Damselbinder]

Nice set up. Sophie is really taken by this Ocelot character. I'm enjoying how this is developing. Your submissions scenes are exquisitely done!

Thank you, good Doctor! It's much appreciated that you always take the time to comment.

[SGWriter]

This was an excellent start. Nice to see the tablets turned on Ocelot here. Also liked how her would be victim turned out to be the captor

[Damselbinder]

"Mmmmm...mmmnnnmmphhh..." Rachel mewed, as she gradually came to. Her vision was swimming, her body felt heavy and terribly weak. "What...the hell happened?" She was lying down, against something cold, and hard. She tried to move, but something was stopping her. She felt so weak that she feared she was paralysed, but when she looked down she saw that she was 'merely' mummified in satin bonds. "Oh no, no, no..." she thought. "This can't be happening!"

She looked around, her senses collecting themselves a little more. She was in a plain, concrete cell, barred, with no distinguishing features whatsoever. There was no bed, just cold stone to lie on.
"Mmmmph!" With great effort, Ocelot sat up. She craned her neck to see if she could see anything else that might give her some clue as to where she was. But the corridor was too long, she couldn't see its end.

She rolled closer to the bars, thoroughly displeased at having to move about in such a manner. Her slinky body was so tightly restrained that it was hard to get up even enough momentum to roll, but she managed to reach the bars. She stuck her head right up to the bars, and looked through, but she was disappointed at how revelatory this failed to be. She could see a wooden door at one end, and a solid wall at the other.

"Gmmrrmmph!" she growled, kicking against the bars. There was a loud clank. She kicked again, humiliated, frustrated, and enraged at her own powerlessness. This time, however, there was a scraping sound. "Hhmph?" Rachel looked at the bar she'd kicked, even as her foot throbbed slightly. It was off centre. "Oh ho ho...looks like you should have given this cat a better cage!"

She continued to kick, slamming her feet again and again against the the loose bar. It budged, but with every kick it moved less.
"Cmmm nnhhhhh!" Ocelot moaned, pulling her legs as close to her chest as her bonds would allow, before kicking with all her might at the bar. There was a clank, a wobble...and the bar crashed down on the outside of her cell. "Yhhphh!" Ocelot had triumphed - but she was still mummified.

However, the thief discovered that this had its advantages. As she began wriggling through the gap left by the broken bar, she found the tight, constricting straps pressed her bosom sufficiently firmly against her chest that it was easier than it otherwise would have been to get her chest through. She writhed along the concrete ground, the satin straps' sheer smoothness making it easier for her to slip through the two bars on either side of her body.

"Mmmmphhh!" the gagged damsel moaned, as with one last sinuous wriggle, she forced herself through the bars. She lay down for a moment, breathing hard. "Okay, go me...now what?" She craned her head back, looking at the wooden door she'd spotted earlier. She was astonished to see that, not only wasn't it locked, it wasn't even fully shut.

Caterpillar like, the sultry captive began writhing towards the door. She had no idea whether going through this door would be to her ultimate advantage, but doing something seemed better than doing nothing. She continued forward, her soft bosom rubbing against the ground, until she reached the door. No fool, she edged it open slightly, and peeked her head through, her brown eyes scanning keenly round a strange, stone chamber. "Where the hell am I?" Still, as strange as it was, there wasn't anyone there. She seemed to have been left completely unguarded. Besides which, when she looked closer she realised that she was looking into a kitchen. There were plenty of utensils that could assist her in freeing herself. "They caught me by surprise," she thought, "once I untie myself there's not a snowball's chance in hell they'll capture me again."

She began to wriggle through, but her ankles seemed to catch on something. She looked down at herself, but she couldn't see anything in her way. She tried to keep going - but she couldn't go forward. She kicked, and writhed, but she just wasn't going anywhere. "What the fuck?" Ocelot thought. Then out loud: "MMMPHHH!!"

Ocelot's scream was prompted not by her immobility, but her moving, very quickly back the way she had come. She was sliding along the floor, something definitely gripping her ankles tightly. All trussed up as she was, Ocelot couldn't do anything about it. "What the fuck is going on?!" She wriggled and thrashed, pulling herself up into a sitting position. But some force pushed her in the chest, and she fell back down. "Mmmm-whhhmmphh?!" Something was holding her in place, holding her thighs together from either side of them, and pressing down just above her bosom as well.

"Poor sinful creature..." came a phantom voice. "Why would you try to escape? You are already in chains of your own making. It is she who will release you."
"Wh...where's that voice coming from?!" Ocelot looked desperately around. But she couldn't see anything. "MMPHH!" Something pressed down over her already gagged mouth - definitely a physical object, not just a restrictive force. It was not this that really worried her - it was a smell coming from it. As a not-too-infrequent captor herself, it was a smell she was altogether familiar with.

"Chloroform!" Even covered with satin, her nose still breathed in pungent, sweet fumes, and she began to feel her mind becoming clouded. "No...I can't let them knock me out!" She began writhing more furiously than ever, shaking her head to try to get away, but the cloth stayed in place. She threw her chest forward, but her breasts were pushed back down. This time, the grip on her chest felt very much like a hand.

Even before the shimmering veil appeared, and then faded, Ocelot realised what was happening. Whoever had captured her had in their employ a superhuman: one, in this case, with the power of invisibility. As she became visible, Ocelot looked upon a long-haired woman, her hair, eyes and eyebrows a strange, brown-ish beige colour, that didn't seem natural. She looked a bit older than the supple thief, about twenty-seven, and very good looking. Her smile was odd: like her hair colour, it didn't seem natural.

"Poor girl," she said, stroking Ocelot's cheek.
"Mmmmnnghghhmmmphhh..." the olive skinned captive whimpered. She felt herself getting altogether too soft, like she was wrapped not in satin bindings, but in heavy, soft blankets. "Mmmmmnnn..." she sighed, feeling the strength draining out of her, her tightly restrained wriggles fading into more languorous writhing, and less even than that.
"Don't fight, dear one," the invisible woman said. "Everything is alright. I know how you feel embarrassed...shamed even. But isn't it more shameful to spend the night in unabashed avarice?"
"Mmmmmmnnnnnhhh..." was all Ocelot could reply. "Wh...what's she...talking about...?" Her body was almost completely still now, as kittenish whimpers escaped her lips.

"You see, I was a thief once, too," the woman said. "I'm sure you don't need me to explain how my gifts helped me do that."
"Mmmmmnnnnnnn..." Ocelot was barely listening anymore. She was overwhelmed by the chloroform, all her confidence and strength draining out of her slinky form. "So weak...ooohh...can't believe I'm so...helpless..."
"Sleep, my dear," she said, "don't fight. You're in the loving arms of the Sin Eater...and she will not release you while your sin still chains you."
"Mmmhhhmmbbhhhmm..." Ocelot mewed, falling ever further into slumber. "Sin...Eater...?" she thought, before her body gave out. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her eyelids fluttered shut. She was completely unconscious.

Cordelia, Ocelot's invisible captor, took a stanley-knife from her back pocket, and carefully began cutting away at the satin bonds that had kept Ocelot helpless. As they came away, the beautiful socialite's body was revealed: her curves, her bust, her long legs; all thinly covered by her revealing dress. Her captor took her by her bare thighs, and slung her over her shoulder. The thief's arms flopped down by Cordelia's hips, and her limp legs were draped down the superhuman's front.

In silence, the subdued maiden was taken back through the strange kitchen, and into another room, her captor keeping a tight grip on her gorgeous body. As she walked, Ocelot's arms swung gently from side to side, her breasts bouncing against Cordelia's back. The lissom thief was carried into a smaller, circular room, with a stone slab in the centre. She was laid on top of it, gently and carefully.

Ocelot, helpless and unconscious, had her hands folded in her lap, her supple legs placed closely together. Cordelia then wound thick, heavy chains around her limbs, first binding her forearms in strong, cold links. Then, she lifted Ocelot's arms above her head, connecting her wrists to a bracket at the top of the slab.

Cordelia turned her attention to Rachel's bare legs, and bound her supple limbs against each other with heavy, metal links, criss crossing them all the way up her calves, before locking them in place as well. Ocelot was bound hand and foot in heavy chains, lying passively and helplessly as she was chained. With her arms above her head, chained and scantily clad, she looked all too much like a sacrificial victim.

"Is she ready yet?" A young, petite maiden had entered the chamber. She was dressed in a long, flowing, white gown, and had a sweet smile on her face.
"I'd say so," Cordelia said. "But I suppose only the Master can really decide."
"Of course," Zaria replied. She looked over Rachel's slumbering form. She leaned down, and sniffed her neck and her soft, slowly undulating bosom. "Such a heady scent...it's almost overwhelming...her sinfulness..."
"Thank heavens you took her when you did. It's almost too late for her."
"But not quite," Zaria said, smiling even more brightly.

She had something in her hand, a small glass vial. She opened it and she waved it under Rachel's nose.
"Mmmm...nnnhhh..." she moaned, as the smelling salts began prompting her back to consciousness. "Unnhhh..." Her light brown eyes blinked a couple of times, before anything like real wakefulness took hold. "What's...unnhh..." She almost fainted dead away, but Zaria pressed the salts right up to her nostrils, and she woke more fully.

As Ocelot awakened, she saw Zaria's saccharine smile beaming down at her.
"You!" she spat, and made every effort to punch her. But to her dismay, though she was no longer encased, she was still bound, and still helpless. "Urrgghhh!!" she growled, thrashing in her new, metal bonds. She looked up at her chained forearms, shackled to the slab on which she lay. "Let me out of this, you stupid little girl!"

"Ssshh..." Zaria whispered, placing a white-gloved hand over Rachel's mouth. "Don't fight it, Rachel."
"Mmmrrggmmmphh!!" Ocelot's eyes were wild and furious, and she shook her limbs furiously in an effort to escape the thick, tight chains. But however much she thrashed, she couldn't get free, and the realisation of this was beginning to sink in. Zaria took her hand off Rachel's mouth, and she glowered fiercely - but with the knowledge that she was a prisoner.

Ocelot's captors stood at either side of her. They reached down, taking hold of Rachel's skimpy red dress. Before she could even raise her voice in protest, they pulled hard, tearing the thin fabric from Ocelot's body.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Ocelot shouted, writhing her near-naked form more furiously than ever, deeply ashamed at seeing herself stripped in this fashion. "You can't do this to me! I - mmrrrghghmmphh!!" Ocelot felt something pulled between her lips, cleave-gagging the olive-skinned maiden. "Mmmnnrrrrrmmphh!!" With dismay, Ocelot realised that the gag was a torn strip of her own dress.

"Do you see, Cordelia?" Zaria said. "She's blushing."
"I know," the superhuman replied. "It means there's still just a little shame left in her."
"Mmmrrrgghhhrrmmmphhh!!" Ocelot protested through her gag. "Nnnnmmmrrphh!" She writhed, but in vain. "What do they want with me? What the fuck are they going to do with me?!"

It was just as she thought this that Zaria and Cordelia both got a very strange look over their faces. An odd mixture of joy...and fear.
"She approaches!" Zaria said. The two woman rushed over to the doorway, and knelt humbly before it.
"What the hell's happening now?" Ocelot was about to take the opportunity to make an earnest effort at freeing herself, but something made her freeze.

A kind of...pressure - Rachel could think of no better way to describe it - descended on her. It felt to the thief as if she knew what it would be like to be held down by sheer force of sound. Rather, not held down, but pressed in from all sides. The room seemed to darken, as if light was shrinking away from whatever was coming.

Rachel heard her coming long before she saw her. She could hear the tapping of her shoes on a stone floor, could smell a powerful, sweet perfume. She took long, slow strides, and with each one, the room got just a little darker. Rachel felt herself becoming fearful - not that she was frightened of the woman coming near her, but she could almost feel herself losing her ability to be courageous.
"N...no!" she thought. "I'm not...going to be some...timid little girl!" She plucked up the strength to raise her head - and suddenly felt very timid indeed.

The woman standing over her, before whom the other two bowed, was extremely tall, almost seven feet. She had long, straight black hair, deathly pale skin, and was clad from head to toe in tight, black leather. Even her eyes were darker than they should have been. They were blue, but her pupils were far larger than they had any right to be, like eclipses over the suns of her irises.

As Rachel gawped, she stared straight back into the thief's eyes. Ocelot felt like she was shrinking in her gaze. That strange pressure only increased, as this bizarre woman seemed to exude darkness. She stepped closer, and Ocelot realised that she was flanked by Claire and Jessica, two of the women who had kidnapped her. They looked different now, though, wearing demure white dresses, meekly casting their eyes downward.

The woman took a long look at Ocelot, dispassionately observing her alluring curves. She leaned over Ocelot's chained-up, defenceless body, putting her face right up to her captive's.
"I can taste it," hissed a low, sibilant voice. "Seduction...arrogance...theft...lust..." She took Ocelot by the chin. "You reek of sinfulness," she said.
"Mmmrrghghmmphh!" Ocelot complained through her bright red gag. "Like you're so innocent? Your cronies kidnapped me and stripped me!"
"Do not object," the woman said, and her words seemed to hang in the air longer than ought to have been possible. Ocelot found herself quietened. "I am Féa - the Sin Eater. You, sinful fool that you are, don't realise this yet, but I have not captured you. I have rescued you."

Féa turned back to her servants. "Leave us." She made an odd gesture with her hand as she said this, some kind of violet energy covering her fingers. Ocelot expected the other women to turn and leave, but they didn't - they collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
"What...is she?" Ocelot thought, overawed, and not a little frightened.

"I despair at the modern woman," Féa said. "With your so-called independence, and liberation. What has it got you?" She looked down at Rachel with her too-black eyes. "Nothing. Nobody understood what a gift our submission was - we were kept in innocence, while only the men -" She said this word with disgust, so much so that she shuddered at the very word. "Only those...foul beasts did evil, keeping our sex pure by our bondage. As long as we were the fairer, weaker sex, we were kept from the horrors of manlike vice. Now we sink into total iniquity along with them."

"What the actual fuck?" Ocelot thought. "She's some kinda...misandrist-misogynist whackjob!" The sheer ludicrousness of the Sin Eater's philosophy somewhat broke the intimidating aspect of her appearance, and Ocelot began to laugh through her gag.
"Hmm," Féa said. "As I feared. The chains of your sin are so strong that you cannot even begin to see the truth on your own."

She put her hand on Ocelot's legs, and another on her bosom.
"Mmmphh!!" Ocelot protested. "Ghht hyhhrr hhhhnnphhh hphh mhhh!" She writhed fiercely, but her bonds were just as tight and strong as before.
"How dare you protest?" Féa hissed. An aura of dark energy began to surround her. "You, who flaunt yourself so shamelessly, you who tease, and flirt and..." She narrowed her eyes. "And something more...some new innocent that you've entangled in your web."
"Whhmph?" Ocelot was taken aback. "She...knows?"
"I see you begin to understand." She smiled. "I'm no telepath...but I can feel your sins, thief."

Féa turned away from her captive. With a gesture, she exuded a sort of limb of shimmering energy from her hand. It lighted upon her slumbering servants, lifting them to their feet.
"Awaken," she said, and they did so, their eyes fluttering open. "Ready this one for her Salvation. I must prepare." She began to leave, but stopped. "Not you, Zaria, my sweet. You come with me." The blonde blushed.
"Yes, my Lady." Bashfully, she followed the Sin Eater out. Just before they disappeared from view, Ocelot noticed Féa's hand sliding down Zaria's back.
"Come on," Cordelia said, seeming to take charge of the other two. "Let's get our new sister ready to be saved."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"This is where it happened?" Sophie asked, entering the charred remains of Zaria's bedroom in the Ambassadorial mansion.
"That's right," Natalya replied. It had not been altogether easy, even for two lovely young women such as they, to get back inside, as the entire house had been cordoned off by the police. Being telepathic had its advantages, however, and Natalya had been able to persuade the two cops guarding the door that she and Sophie were special consultants for their lieutenant. This lie was made thoroughly more plausible by the fact that the police really did hire psychic consultants from time to time. In a world where such talents were perfectly real, there was every reason to.

Sophie looked around the burned bedchamber, her short sundress swishing about her hips as she examined it.
"I don't understand," she said. "Ocelot's captors did this?"
"No," Natalya said. "It was my brother. He's the one that stopped them kidnapping me as well."
"Your brother's like us, huh?" She examined the melted metalwork. "Say, he's not a cape is he? Maybe we've met."
"I certainly hope not. He's a shameless flirt," Natalya shook her head in dismay at the way he carried on. "You probably haven't heard of him. He used to go by the name 'Nucleon', but I think it's 'Zjarrus' now. What?" Sophie was staring open mouthed at her.
"Your brother's Nucleon?!" She had indeed heard of him. "Holy crap, it's a miracle he didn't blow up the entire city!"
"He's not that powerful," Natalya replied. "I don't think he is, at least..."

"Small world..." Sophie thought to herself, as she went back to the business at hand. "Enhance." With a bright flash, her sundress was replaced by the tight, gold uniform of her superheroine identity. Instantly, the world was opened up to her by her enhanced senses. She could smell the acrid burning of the wood, could smell the gentle odour of Natalya's body, could see every remotely visible particle in the room that could possibly have been useful evidence. But she didn't need anything like that.

She sifted through the various scents. The burnt wood made it difficult, but she was able to look past it, and find something she recognised. A subtle, darkly sweet smell...
"Ocelot..." Her thighs shifted. There was no mistaking it. The thief had been here. "I've got her scent," she said. "I should be able to find her now." Natalya was surprised.
"That's it?"
"Pretty much. You got to me quick, so the trail hasn't faded." She made to leave.
"Where are you going?" Natalya said.
"To go kick some ass is where I'm going," Sophie said. "I don't give a shit what they think, I've been at this game for long enough. I can handle a bunch of weirdo cultists without backup!"

"You have nothing to prove," Natalya said. Sophie turned around. She'd forgotten for a moment that she was working with a telepath. "I know how formidable you are, for whatever that's worth."
"Natalya, sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," Sophie said. "I can handle it."
"You're deceiving yourself," Natalya replied. "You're trying to show your strength - but even you don't know why. It's -"
"Natalya," Sophie said, a note of aggression creeping into her voice. "Stop poking around in my brain. I reserve the right to be a little fucked up in the head, okay? If I'm doing this for stupid reasons, then whatever - they're my reasons."

Natalya felt her resolve, unwavering, if ill-motivated. "I can't stop her..." She stepped aside. "I think this is a bad idea, Sophie. You have no idea what you'll be walking into."
"Do I ever?" Sophie sighed. She walked past Natalya. "I'll handle this." She left, the two policemen gaping at the gold-clad heroine as she strode past them.
"Sophie -" Natalya began to call out. But she had nothing left to say. She could see the contents of a mind, but she couldn't control them. That being said, she was perplexed by what she'd found. Sophie wasn't simple, exactly, but the last time Natalya had happened to see her thoughts she'd come across as straightforward, forthright. Now, much of her mind was sort of tangled - and there was something she seemed to be trying with all her unconscious power not to think about. Something... or someone? "Just another thing I fail to understand..." Natalya thought.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Mmmmphhh!!" Ocelot protested, wriggling her slinky body as two of her captors carried her away. She was suspended between them like a sacrificial victim, with Claire's arms wrapped around her calves, and Cordelia holding her by the chest. Ocelot writhed desperately, but was helpless to resist meaningfully.

They had forced Ocelot into a kind of skimpy white tunic, one shoulder uncovered, and had chained her hands behind her back, her shoulders pulled tightly back.
"If they're such demure little goody-goodies, why are they dressing me up like this?!" Ocelot thought, her captivity making her just a little less keen on flaunting her gorgeous curves.

She was brought through a series of darkened corridors into what, at first glance, the captive thief was sure was a chapel. She looked around at small, but quite tasteful stained glass windows, pews, and even what looked a little like an Ichthys. But it was not, in fact, quite the same symbol - it seemed like some kind of rune. As Ocelot was carried further in, she saw more runes carved directly into the stone. She couldn't even guess at their meaning, but there was an ominous feeling from them.

"Mmmphh!" Ocelot complained, as her captors swung her down to her feet. "Mmmrrghh -mmphh?" Her growl faded into a whimper as she saw what was before her. There was an altar, long and low to the ground, covered in rich velvet, silver candles burning in each corner. Féa, the Sin Eater, was there, standing behind the altar, dressed in some kind of flowing, red robe over her black leather, chanting under her breath. She was cloaked not only in her robe, but in a terrifying aura of dark energy, its tendrils seeming to creep throughout the whole space.

"Mmmnnn...?" Rachel stared, wide-eyed at the spectacle before her. "Wh...what the hell is going on?"
"Kneel, harlot," Claire barked, grabbing Ocelot's shoulders and pushing her down.
"Mmmrrmmphh!!" Ocelot moaned, humiliated by how easily they controlled her. She looked up, and found herself staring into Féa's eyes.
"Your darkness shall be drawn out." Rachel was confused. She saw Féa's lips move, and they hadn't said what she'd heard. "You shall be purified...by the dark of the Nether's Dawn..." The captive suddenly realised that she was hearing Féa's voice inside her own mind.
"Mmmhh..." she mewed, now genuinely frightened.

Standing behind Féa were two women - Zaria, and another that Ocelot hadn't seen before: a tall, dark-skinned maiden in a long, white dress, her dark-brown hair in a ponytail. She was just as beautiful as the other women with whom the Sin Eater had surrounded herself. Ocelot's other servants, Cordelia and the other three who had kidnapped Ocelot assembled themselves behind the thief.

"By the will of the master...by the will of the master..." the ones behind her began to chant, the dark pressure becoming ever more intense.
"We give ourselves to her selfless will...before her we kneel..." the other two women began to repeat, actually kneeling on the second repetition. "Before her we kneel..."

The words of the two sets of chanters seemed to mingle in the air. Ocelot felt a strange tingling at the back of her neck, and indeed all over her body.
"Mmmhhh...mmhhhphh..." she moaned, beginning to sweat from a kind of exertion she didn't understand. "Uhh...what's...happening? Making it hard...to think..."
"Your lust...your conceit...your sin will all belong to me..." came Féa's voice in Rachel's head. "Give it to me...let me take the burden away from you, poor little cat..."

"Mmmmnhhh...MMPHH!!" Ocelot screamed, as the darkness took on an all too tangible form, and seized her round the midsection, hauling her up into the air, her chained legs dangling a foot off the ground, her body wriggling in the air. "MMMPHHH!! NNNNMMPHHH!!" She could feel it gripping her, tightening around her, curling down her waist, her bared thighs. "Mmmhhh! MMHHH!!" It didn't have a texture exactly, being more like sheer pressure, but there was more to it than that. Ocelot could feel something in the darkness moving inside her - and at the same time could feel something in her moving out.

"Mmmphh...mmmphhh..." she whimpered, feeling weaker as the dark ritual was performed around her. Yet it wasn't her body that was weakening - it was her mind.
"You are choked by sin...give it all to me..." Féa said to her, the thief unable to break her gaze.
"I...can't...let her...do this!" Ocelot thought, her legs now moist with sweat as well as she fought the Sin Eater's spell. "There's...nothing wrong with...what...I am...uunnhhh..." But she was finding it more and more difficult to convince herself of this. The dark tendril began pressing into her, massaging her as if trying to press something out of her, like squeezing a sponge.
"You should feel ashamed..." the voice said, and Rachel was. She suddenly felt deeply, deeply ashamed of herself, of her lifestyle, her appearance, the way she treated people.
"I'm such a...a...zoyne..." she thought. "Wait, no...I'm not...thinking that! What...the...?"

The tendril of darkness seemed to grow, as if Ocelot's weakness was feeding it. As it increased in size, it covered more and more of her body, until Ocelot was wrapped all the way up to her neck.
"Mmmphhh...mmmmphhh!" Ocelot moaned, as the tendril continued to tighten, snaking around her neck, her jaw, over her mouth and nose. "Mmmngnnghmmphhh..." the olive-skinned captive mewed, as she was doubly gagged, her eyes only half open. "Mmmhh!" she gasped, as the tendrils wound itself around her eyes as well, plunging her into inky darkness.

Yet at the very instant that she was blinded, something appeared before her eyes. A young, gorgeous redhead, in a white blouse, tartan skirt and white stockings. She was looking at Rachel with a strange mixture of attraction and fear, and when the thief looked closer she saw that the maiden's arms were bound behind her back.
"An innocent..." Féa's voice in her head. "Look at her...so virginal, so pure..." A change began to come over the redhead. Her hair became dishevelled, the buttons of her blouse popping open to expose her bust. Her stockings were torn, and now her ankles were bound as well. She blushed with shame, writhing sinuously, begging silently for help - but clearly suppressing an immoderate smile.

"I know not who this girl of yours is..." Féa said. "But look at what you're doing to her...a pure woman being drawn into your harlot's snare."
"I - I..." Ocelot tried to think, but she couldn't. The Sin Eater's voice pounded in her ears, drowning any thoughts she herself might have had. She looked into the girl's - into Enhancegirl's - eyes, and saw them wide and wet, recalled how she'd kidnapped and dominated the supple heroine. Before this, those memories had both amused and aroused the amoral thief, but now she felt deeply ashamed of what she'd done.
"Look at her...look at the tender maiden you've sullied so..." Ocelot could almost feel Féa's fingers on her shoulders. "And what's worse...you like it. You like seeing her like this, don't you?"

Enhancegirl's clothes were now scarcely covering her, reduced to rags. She fell to her knees, moaning with helpless pleasure.
"How...how dare I?" Rachel thought. "I can't believe I'm...so shameless..." As she watched Enhancegirl writhing and moaning, the redhead seemed like an angel, an angel which she had bound and dragged down to Earth. "I should...be punished..." Rachel thought, her mind growing ever more suppressed by the mystic ritual. She felt overwhelmed with shame, like it was choking off every other part of her, drowning her in guilt over what she'd done. She felt as if she couldn't get out.

"You're exactly right," Féa said. "You deserve much more than you've given this girl..." Ocelot suddenly felt as if someone was stroking her hair. "But I am merciful...I will save you, Rachel...I can free you from this guilt..."
"What do I have to do?" Rachel replied, desperate to escape her crushing shame.
"Become mine," Féa whispered. "Throw off your ego, your own desires...accept utter submission to the will of another, and restore your feminine purity..."
"I...I..." Ocelot's last dregs of resistance clung on desperately. "I belong to myself...I..."
"No, you do not," Féa said, and it felt like the voice of God. "No woman does. You - you all - belong to the Sin Eater." A wave of shame, helplessness and submissiveness assailed Rachel's mind, and it was too much. Her resistance was washed away, and her mind was emptied of all strength.
"I...belong to the Sin Eater." Her eyes went blank, and she hung her head. It was done.

The tendril of darkness unwound from Rachel's body, but not before carrying her over to the altar. As she was unbound, she was laid down onto the altar before Féa. She stared straight up, completely passive and obedient. The chanting finally stopped.
"Who are you?" The Sin Eater said, her voice echoing far more than it should have done.
"I am...R - mmmphh..." Féa covered her mouth with her hand.
"You are no-one, unless I say otherwise. Do you understand?" Rachel nodded.
"Good girl," Ocelot's new master said, running her hand down her cheek, her neck, even lightly gracing her bosom. "So...voluptuous...such a temptress..." she said, not loud enough to be heard. "Alia, my dearest?"

The dark-skinned woman got up from her knees, and curtsied. "Yes master?"
"Take your new sister and get her dressed in something appropriate," she said. "Then have her come to my chamber."
"Yes, master," Alia said. She moved over to where Ocelot lay, and unchained her feet. She hauled her up, and began leading her away by her bound wrists.

"Unnhh..." Léa moaned, slumping back. She was exhausted. It hadn't seemed like it to the damsel in question, but Rachel's resistance had been astonishingly strong by the usual standards. Alia had taken little more than a whisper. But she had succeeded. The Dark Powers would restore her energy, and all would be well.


Or rather, that was what the Sin Eater had every right to expect. For how could she know that, at that very moment, a gorgeous redhead in a gold dress and crimson mask was stealing her way inside?
"Well that wasn't so hard..." Sophie Scott had found her way to the place without much difficulty. She'd just been sure that she was wrong at first. She was in Seacouver's oldest major residential suburb, and had come to what seemed like a perfectly ordinary picket-fenced house. There were little children playing in the street. There were neighbours chatting with each other.

"Not what I expected..." Still, the scent was getting stronger. She was definitely in the right place. Staying out of sight, she snuck behind the house, hopping a fence into the garden. She found the back door, finding it unlocked. She slipped inside.
"Okay...that's a little weird..." Sophie was now much more confident that she'd found the right place. The house was bare, with no furniture or decoration of any kind - a veneer of normality. "Secret base? I'm thinking secret base."

Enhancegirl began to scan her surroundings for anything that might betray an entrance. Sure enough, her powerful senses detected a passageway starting in a small closet. That was easy - getting into the closet was not. It looked like a normal door, but it was fastened shut by a very complex and powerful lock. Even with her powers, armed with only a hairpin it took Sophie almost half an hour to get the door open. By the end of it, she was greatly frustrated - that was time she did not know if she could afford to lose.

She slipped in, and found that within the closet, there was a hatch in the floor. This too was locked, but much less elaborately. It took Sophie mere moments to unpick it.
"Maybe Ocelot's right," she thought to herself. "I would make a pretty good thief." This had been intended as a little joke to herself, but Sophie found the thought lingering for longer than it ought to have done.

She slipped down, and could hear something just at the edge of her vision, as she emerged into a long, cramped corridor. Her hearing was the only sense which wasn't any better than a normal human's, and sometimes this was an annoying deficiency. She could hear lots of voices, but it was almost like they were all saying the same thing. She just couldn't make out what.

She looked ahead with her enhanced vision, and saw that she was in a large complex. There were dozens of rooms in this underground complex, some small and utilitarian like the one she was in, and others larger: one positively palatial. There were quite a few people as well - she could see eight. In fact, they were all gathered in one place.

As she got closer, two of them walked out of where the others were, moving into a different part of the building. All of them seemed to be going perfectly willingly - she couldn't see anyone who looked like they were a captive.
"Maybe Ocelot was here...is she still?" As Enhancegirl moved into another room, she found the two people who'd walked away obscured from her sight. "Lead in the walls? Ain't that a peach..." Still, Sophie could still find her way around well enough.

She came up to the room where the majority of the people were still gathered. She opened the door a crack, peering inside.
"What the hell am I looking at?" she thought. It was some kind of chapel, covered with arcane symbols, and dimly burning candles. There were four women facing an altar, and three behind it. "Some kind of freaky ritual, I'm guessing..." Sophie thought.

The room was large enough that Sophie was confident they wouldn't see her sneak in. She slipped inside, making sure to stay in the shadows.
"Her sin was choking," one of them said. "That was more difficult than I expected." This was their leader - that was clear from the almost reverent attitude the others had towards her. As Sophie looked closer, she saw one of the women behind the speaker looked familiar.
"Hey, that's Zaria!" Insyte had shown her a photograph of the ambassador's daughter, and there was no mistaking her.

The speaker walked out from behind the altar, and Sophie gaped. She'd thought the pale, robed woman was standing on some kind of platform, but when she walked out from behind it, she saw that she was almost ludicrously tall - about seven feet.
"Jesus," Sophie whispered. She moved a little to the side, trying to make her way to one of the other doors. She didn't know what brand of opponents these were, and she didn't want to take on so many unknown elements at once.

But it seemed that she hadn't been careful enough. The pale woman's eyes suddenly snapped in her direction.
"We have an intruder!"
"Oh...fuck."

The four women standing in front of the altar turned around, and even in the gloom, Sophie was spotted.
"You dare defile this place?!" Claire roared. "You will be punished for your insolence." She ran towards the red-haired heroine, full tilt. Deciding that violence was occasionally an even better part of valour than discretion, Enhancegirl stepped out to face her.

"Decent musculature, but not great, so not very strong...more like the frame of a runner. But she's going too fast, she won't be able to stop properly before she gets me...so..." Sophie's calculations using her enhanced senses took only a moment. Her plan of action made, she simply stepped aside as Claire got close to her, and flicked her calf up to strike her in the base of her spine. The result was that Claire completely collapsed, and fell headfirst into the door through which Sophie had entered.

"Damn! Allison, flank her!" the one named Jessica ordered, and her partner did so. She was not being as blatant as it seemed - she was drawing Sophie's attention away from Cordelia, who quietly cloaked herself, and began approaching the redhead more subtly than her allies.

"First one strong, her movements are good - she might be a threat." She was talking of Jessica. "The other one's better than that first idiot, but she broke her patella about...three months ago...so there's an easy weak spot to exploit." That was Allison, and she took very exploited that very rapidly indeed. She ran towards the brunette, dropping to the floor at the last second. Her gold dress allowed her to slide along the stone, between the woman's legs. As she did, much faster than Allison could react to, she struck her in the knee.

"AUUGHH!!" Allison screamed, as her not-quite-healed injury was painfully brought back almost to the same level of pain as before. She fell, gasping to her knee, tipping onto her side. Her cries of pain would have made Sophie sympathetic under other circumstances. But she was a woman on a mission.

"Take this!" Jessica hissed, having the sense to produce a weapon, a telescoping nightstick. She swung it at Sophie, who grabbed it mid-swing. Jessica let go the instant Sophie got her hand on it, though, attempting to sucker-punch her. But, good plan though it might have been, her reactions just weren't fast enough. Sophie ducked the punch, and hit Jessica three times: on the back of the neck; in the small of the back; and in the stomach. Groaning, the woman went down in a heap. Sophie had a little more respect for this one - she'd only lost so easily because of Enhancegirl's admittedly unfair advantage over normal humans. Still, she'd fought much better in her time.

"Hey, Edward Scissorhands!" Sophie called out to the woman still standing by the altar. The woman looked at her quizzically.
"I...know that face..." she muttered.
"Well, I'm actually pretty famous in this corner of the world," the heroine replied. "Name's Enhancegirl - and I don't know who or what you think you are." As she spoke, Cordelia came ever closer to her. In her right hand, she clasped a small syringe.

The Sin Eater looked up and down at this feisty maiden, all confidence and brashness in her tiny little dress, her lovely body shamelessly exhibited to the world. She scowled.
"Vulgar and shameless," she said. "Yet...you're not like the other one. Your sin, I feel, does not run quite so deep. Hmm..." She looked askance at the damsel - thinking hard, it seemed.
"Well that's reeeaaal interesting, Cher, but I'm not here to listen to you ramble." She cracked her knuckles. "Why don't you just hand the woman your goons kidnapped back to me and I'll go easy on you. Maybe."

The Sin Eater shook her head.
"This is a new curse on our sex," she said. "You so-called heroines, running around in those sickeningly revealing clothes...brawling, and taking the work of men on their own shoulders, willingly accepting that sickening corruption! Don't you see how you - perhaps your breed most of all - need saving from their own sin?"
"Uh..." Sophie gaped. "Wow. So you're, what, a Jesus-freak? Kabbalist? I'd say Scientologist, but frankly you're just a little too sane for that." She laughed to herself. "Okay, I apologise, that was low hanging fruit."
"You joke at a time like this?" Féa said. "You have no sense of the way of things. A woman should be meek, and humble not -"
"How about we make a deal?" Sophie interrupted. "I get to make jokes, and you get to give me another sermon. Deal?"

As she focused her attention on Féa, Cordelia got nearer and nearer. She was within spitting distance of the redhead now.
"Poor girl," she thought. "You cannot fight what you cannot see." She got nearer, and nearer, choosing the perfect spot in Enhancegirl's slender neck to inject the soporific drug. She drew back her arm, and struck.

That is to say: she drew back her arm, struck, and whiffed the attack completely. Enhancegirl had sidestepped it effortlessly, and drove a sharp elbow into Cordelia's stomach.
"OOOFF!!" she grunted, her cloak failing as she tumbled to the ground.
"Super-senses," Enhancegirl crowed. "Gotta love 'em. I saw you coming a long freaking time before you got there." The slight warping of light around Cordelia's body - imperceptible to a normal human - was blindingly obvious to Enhancegirl.

Féa looked around at her loyal cultists, perturbed by the ease with which they had been beaten. Zaria shrank in fear behind her master, clutching her arms against her chest.
"She's a devil!" Zaria gasped.
"Ooooh, that's a new one," Sophie said. "I've been called a lot of names before...but I think I like this one. Enhancegirl: the Gold Devil! Well if I'm a devil - " She looked at Féa. "What the fuck does that make you?"
"Well, girl, going by your logic," Féa said, gathering her power, "I suppose that would make me God."

"Okay, that's just - whoa!" Enhancegirl leapt to the side, as a tendril of darkness launched out towards her. If she hadn't been so far away, it might well have hit her. Even in mid leap, Enhancegirl saw the tendril change direction, grabbing at her again. At the same time, bolts of white energy appeared in front of the Sin Eater, only to shoot out like bullets at Sophie.

Realising she'd underestimated her enemy, Enhancegirl tried to expand her senses to their highest possible magnitude. She contorted her body in an effort to dodge the energy bullets and tendril at the same time. Her proprioception, her innate sense of the position of the various parts of her body, was enhanced as well, and she was able to perfectly calculated where her body needed to be in order to dodge all the hazards at once.

It was unfortunate then, that only too late did she notice Claire, recovering from her attack, lunging at her from behind. She evaded her too, but was knocked off balance - straight into the tendril.
"Urrghh!!" Sophie cried out, as it coiled around her supple body like an anaconda, crushing her thighs against each other, and squeezing her arms against her sides, binding her so tightly even breathing was difficult. "Unnhh...uuhh!" Sophie cried out, caught by the bizarre woman who commanded such devotion from her followers.

"You are not only a harlot," Féa said, "you are a fool as well. Your powers are no match for what I have been gifted. But do not feel ashamed - I admit that there is a little virtue in what you do. You came her to save an innocent, however unncecessarily. That is a noble thing - even if it is in your case outweighed by arrogance and self-love. But there will be enough to salvage. Instead of saving, it is you who will be saved." She tightened the grip of the tendril, intending to make Sophie pass out from the pressure.
"Unnhh...ugh..." Sophie groaned, constricted more and more tightly every second.

But the heroine wasn't done yet. She was still unbound below the knees, and she used her calves well. Seeing Jessica's dropped nightstick, she stamped hard on the end of it, sending it up into the air. Then, with all her strength, she kicked it, sending it spinning off, apparently wildly off course. It ricocheted off a column, off a wall, and off another column - before striking the Sin Eater square in the back of the head.
"Aagh!" she cried out, all seven feet of her knocked to the ground. Already weakened from the ritual, she lost her grip on Sophie, who dropped, gasping, to the ground.

"Master!" Claire cried out, seeing her leader fallen. She was about to rush over to help her, but Enhancegirl stood in her way. Her red hair lit from behind by the altar light, and her eyes fierce with anger, the heroine did look just a shade demonic.
"Just before I forget," she said - and then punched Claire in the stomach
"Ohhgghhh! Oooohhh..." Claire groaned, before slumping down onto her front, unconscious.

Enhancegirl looked around her, seeing the slumped over bodies of her defeated opponents.
"That's right, god damn it!" she yelled, at no-one in particular. "I kick some serious ass!" She grinned. "Is there anyone else, huh? Anyone else really feel like taking me on today?" She looked at Zaria. "How about you, huh?" The blonde shrank back even further. "Didn't fucking think so!"

Her enhanced sense of touch picked up vibrations in the floor. Someone was about to enter. She turned towards them, dropping into a fighting stance.
"Okay, fine," she said. "I'll deal with you then. I'm telling you, you'd better at least have powers or something, 'cause right now no normal human is gonna cut -"

Sophie found her eyes coming to rest on a beautiful young woman, with light-brown skin, platinum blonde hair, and a sumptuously trim, yet curvy figure. She held Sophie's gaze with meek, hazel eyes, her hands clasped in front of her. Her lovely from was clad in a knee-length, white dress, enticing, yet demure.
"Ocelot?" Sophie was almost struck dumb. She felt a tingle up her spine as she looked upon the woman who so pervaded her thoughts, but at the same time she could hardly believe it to be the same person. The slinky, sneaky, sexy thief now had the appearance and manner of a timid, humble girl.

She approached Sophie, a strange smile on her face. The heroine stood stock still, uncomprehending, and breathing rapidly at the sight of the gorgeous thief.
"You came for me..." she said, shyly blushing as she looked at Enhancegirl. "I didn't realise...I meant that much to you." She averted her gaze now, as if she were too bashful to look into Sophie's eyes for long.
"Ocelot, I - wh...?" The change was inexplicable. When they'd met before she'd been witty, teasing...dominating, even. She was like a different person - and yet at the same time Sophie was drawn to her all the same.

She came close to Sophie, and while she was slightly taller than the redhead, she seemed small somehow - reduced.
"Did you...really come her just to rescue me?" she asked.
"Y-yeah," Sophie stammered back, blushing brightly. She instinctively turned her face away.
"So noble..." She leaned forward, and kissed Sophie gently on the cheek. Even such an innocent gesture set the sense-enhanced Sophie's pulse racing, her lovely breasts rising and falling rapidly. "But so misguided..."

Sophie could have seen it. She could have stopped her. But the strange spell that this woman cast over her dulled her wits and her instincts. She didn't see the syringe until it had already been jabbed into her thigh.
"What?!" she gasped, as she saw Rachel depressing the plunger. "What are you...unh...doing...?" The effects took hold with frightening speed. Sophie felt weakness spreading through her long, bare legs, up through her hips, and her stomach. She trembled, her legs already too feeble to hold her up. "Unnhh..." She started to fall, and she felt Rachel's arms firmly take her, and ease her down onto her knees.

"Oc...elot..." the tricked damsel whispered, looking up with desperate, confused eyes at the woman she'd come to save. "Why...are you -" she began, but was silenced by a finger on her lips.
"Sssshhh..." Rachel took Sophie's head in her hands. "Don't worry...don't fight...you don't need to think about anything. No need for pride, or arrogance, or strife...just sleep now, sweet girl."
"Nhhh...oohh..." Sophie could hardly even think now, but insofar as she could she was all too aware of the oppressive effect Ocelot's words were having on her. As her arms flopped to her sides, she couldn't escape the feeling that the bizarrely-changed thief was right, that all she wanted to do was to sleep, to go limp and helpless, and pass out like a delicate, swooning princess in Ocelot's arms. "How...does she...do this to me...?"

At this point, Sophie was effectively paralysed, unable to move a muscle, just feeling herself become weaker and weaker due to the drug coursing through her system. The only thing stopping her from crumpling into a heap was Ocelot holding her up. Worse than that was the shame and embarrassment she felt. After her dazzling display of martial prowess she'd been tricked and drugged. After all her bravura, all her eagerness to show her power - she'd failed. "I'm...a captive...again..."

"That's it, sweetie," Ocelot said, with - seemingly - genuine affection rather than sardonic mocking. "It's wonderful, isn't it? When you submit, when you just give yourself up to her will...it's so freeing...and you know that it's the right thing, besides."
"Wh..." Sophie whispered, holding by her fingernails to the last morsels of wakefulness that she had. But she couldn't hold onto them. "Ooohh..." she sighed, feeling a deep, thick cloud settling over her.

Ocelot pulled Sophie back, turning her so that her body was splayed out in front of her, her long legs still, her arms resting on her flat midriff. She allowed the heroine's head to rest in her lap. As the drug she'd injected the sighing maiden with did its work, she lovingly stroked her red hair, her warm, bare shoulders.
"Just sleeeeeeeep," she whispered in her captive's ear, the gentle whisper cajoling the beautiful, helpless girl whimpering in her grip further towards unconsciousness. Sophie felt deeply, insidiously relaxing tingles from her scalp to her spine, the gentle sensuality of it easing her down into oblivion.
"Why...are her voice...her fingers...they're so...soft...uh..." With these disordered thoughts, Sophie gave in, passing out in the arms of the woman she'd come to save, sensuously defeated.

By this time, the women that Sophie had beaten were all back on their feet, with the exception of Allison, whom Jessica had to help hobble away. Rachel continued stroking the sleeping, passive redhead, unable to take her eyes off her.
"Rachel." The Sin Eater's voice gripped Rachel like a vice. Every syllable was a holy edict.
"Yes, master?" she said. Her new overlord was standing behind her, towering over the two maidens.
"Do not allow your newfound gentleness to decay into lasciviousness." She saw just how comfortably Rachel's hands rested on Sophie's uncovered shoulders.
"Yes Master," Rachel said. "It's just -"
"What?" Féa looked down at the pair with decided interest. There was a rather pleasing aesthetic about the two of them curled up with each other so closely. "Speak, my child."

Ocelot looked up at her master.
"I...I'm still not as I should be, Master," Rachel said. "I still have...feelings for this girl. Besides, I know that the stains on her soul...well, I helped to put them there. I took away much of her innocence." She clutched her hands to her chest. "I deserve twice the punishment, my master..." She bowed her head.
"I see now," Féa said. "This is the girl from the cavern of your mind, the one I saw. I thought she looked familiar." She stroked her chin. "You are right, Rachel. You have much for which to be penitent, and I feel that this 'heroine' does too. But...perhaps the two of you might save each other..."

She reached down with a tendril of dark energy, curling it once again around the fallen, red-haired maiden. She shifted slightly, but was otherwise unresistant as her limbs were squeezed, her arms pressed to her sides. Féa lifted her up, suspending her for a moment to inspect the latest sinner whom she needed to save. She was a tempting morsel, no mistake about that: the gentle curve of her bosom, her fair skin, her moist legs - it was hardly surprising that Rachel wanted her. She drew the unconscious damsel towards her, then raised her hand. She allowed a pale light to exude from her palm, washing over the heroine, up and down her body.

Uncomprehending, Rachel watched her master exhibit her powers. From her expression, it seemed as though she was trying to work something out.
"Ah," she said. "So that's how it works..." She gathered a new kind of energy in her palm - brighter, more reactive. She seemed to be concentrating very hard indeed. "There," she said, before releasing the energy into her captive.

The light ran up and down Enhancegirl's body, making a change come over her. Her gold dress was disappearing, her mask and gloves fading too. But she was not simply being stripped - as the light faded, she was clad once again in her short, cream sundress, flat red shoes and transparent stockings. The Sin Eater had worked out the species of energy Sophie used to transform into Enhancegirl - and had used it to turn her back.

"This is all she is!" the Sin Eater said, lifting Sophie above her head, turning her so that was parallel with the ground. The maiden's head fell back, exposing her neck, her long legs dangling in the air. "She is just another sinful girl with an inflated sense of her own strength. This is what happens to any who dare to oppose my - our - mission."
"Yes Master," said all who remained. Zaria even fell to her knees in worship.

Féa lowered Sophie back down, and uncoiled her tendril of darkness, letting it fade away. Then, she gripped Sophie tightly by her bare shoulders, her feet dangling more than a foot off the ground. Then, she swiftly threw the slender damsel over her shoulder, easily manipulating her. So fierce only a few moments before, Sophie was now completely helpless as she was tossed around, Féa's arm gripping her by the thighs: a heroine reduced to a gorgeous, long-legged prize.

The Sin Eater began carrying Sophie away, Rachel watching as the redhead's arms, dangling down, swayed gently from side to side. Thrown over the shoulder of the much taller Féa, Sophie looked especially petite and feminine. Something about seeing her so vulnerable and defenceless - knocked out, stripped of her powers, tossed over her captor's shoulder - stirred something in the thief. But it was quickly suppressed. She was simply overjoyed that, like her, Sophie would now be saved as well.


"Unnhh...ooohhh..." Sophie mewed, as she began to come to. "Whh...what?" As her eyes fluttered open, she had a strange, confused hope that she would see the face of the woman who'd knocked her out - but she didn't. She saw one of the women she'd fought holding her legs, binding them with cords around the ankles, her pretty knees already tied together. There was something else, too - she could feel her wrists bound behind her back. But still more than this - she was back in her sundress. Her powers had been switched off.

"Hey, what the - mmphhh?" Sophie mumbled sleepily, feeling something pressed over her mouth as she spoke. "Mmmmm...nnnmmphh!" With only her normal, human senses, it took her a few moments to recognise an all-too familiar scent. "Ch...chloroform!"
"Don't fight," came a voice from behind her. "You're beaten anyway, heroine." It was Allison, the one who's knee she'd almost broken. She pushed Sophie's head from behind into the damp cloth, forcing her to breathe it even more deeply.

Sophie could already feel her strength, of which there was very little, slipping away. Her tightly bound limbs were growing heavy, her eyelids - which had only just opened - beginning to fall shut again.
"No...no...I only just woke up! They can't...uh... I'm already...so...oohhh...sleepy..." Being drugged again practically the moment she'd awoken was shockingly humiliating to the vulnerable, captive maiden. She felt as if she'd been completely taken possession of. Somehow they'd switched off her powers, and now they were just switching her off as well. "Mmmmmphhh...mmmhhhhhhnn..." she mewed, now too weak to do anything other than gently writhe. She found herself blushing, and realised her stocking-clad legs were being caressed.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" It was Jessica, roughly squeezing and stroking her thighs, held tightly against each other by the circuits of rope just above her knees. "You and those sexy little dresses - don't you want those sinful limbs to be grabbed and pawed at by lecherous, filthy men? That's right, isn't it, you little harlot?"
"Mmmhhhnnn...nnnmmmphhh..." Sophie was so drowzy she could barely understand what was being said to her, much less reply to it. "So weak..." she thought, powerless to defend herself from being fondled.
"Well don't you worry," Allison said. "The Master will take all your troubles, all your sin away...so just sleep now, little harlot..."

"Mmmhh..." Sophie mewed. "Mmm...nnnmmmphh..." Her emerald eyes, wet and fluttering, looked plaintively at her captors. She throbbed with humiliation as the chloroform slowly rendered her insensate. She was powerless, drugged, and bound: she'd walked into a hornet's nest and paid the price. "I was so...damned...stupid..." she thought. "Of course they captured me...of course I'm helpless again..." She couldn't move at all now, her lovely body motionless and effortlessly incapacitated. Her eyes rolled back in her head, her eyelids falling completely shut. She drifted for a few seconds between wakefulness and sleep, just long enough to have this thought: "You were right...so please...please save me, Mari...Mari...oooohh..." With that, the dark jaws snapped shut, and Sophie went completely limp. She was completely unconscious.

"So satisfying, isn't it?" Jessica said.
"What?"
"Knowing that her sort always lose in the end." She smiled, and Allison smiled back. "The Master wants me to help her prepare for this one's salvation. She seems to have something a little...special...in mind."
"Oh?"
"You'll see." She moved towards the door. "If she stirs again, then just use the cloth again. Keep the little slut whimpering and helpless...until the Master is ready to save her."

[DrDominator9]

Excellent as always. A formidable foe in Fea, too. I particularly liked how she analyzed the defeated Sophie and switched her off. That was great! More! More! More!

[Damselbinder]

Excellent as always. A formidable foe in Fea, too. I particularly liked how she analyzed the defeated Sophie and switched her off. That was great! More! More! More!

Your wish is my command...

[Damselbinder]

"Mmmmm...ooohhh..." Sophie mewed, as she once again returned to consciousness. But by this time, she already knew what was coming. "Mmmph..." she sighed, as the drugged cloth once again went down over her mouth and nose. The chloroform went through her, but she'd been dosed four times by now, and her moments of wakefulness were more and more disoriented and drowzy. Her legs shifted, her shoulders wiggled, but Sophie wasn't really fighting. "Unnhh...just...tie it to my face or something..." she thought. "Why...do you have to keep doing this? I know how helpless...I...am..." Her eyes, already listless and dull, faded.

"Mmmhhh...mmmhh..." Sophie whimpered, her breasts rising and falling very slowly, visibly moist with sweat from her drugged exertions. "So...weak...I can't...I can't..." She couldn't even think. Utterly powerless in her drugged defeat, her eyelids fell shut, and the gorgeous redhead swooned. "Mmmmmmmmnnnhhhhh..." she sighed, before falling back into chloroform-forced slumber.

"Oh, I could do this all day," Allison murmured to herself, as she looked over the drugged, trussed up heroine. Her dress was hardly scandalous, but her legs were very visible, her bosom and shoulders not entirely covered either. Allison found herself pressing the cloth down over Sophie's mouth again, completely unnecessarily. She gripped Sophie by the midsection with her free arm, her hand coming to rest - entirely by chance, of course - on Sophie's bosom.
"You're so bad, aren't you?" Allison said, touching her helpless captive, aware of how she could do just about anything she wanted to the limp damsel. "So tough, and strong? I bet you laughed when you took us all down...but look at you now. All tied up - and you can't even open your eyes without being drugged."

She heard footsteps coming, and turned around. It was Claire. The trim, rather buxom blonde walked with speed and purpose, and she was carrying something, a large bundle of what looked like white fabric.
"She's almost ready, Allison," Claire said. "We just need to get the 'heroine' into something a little more appropriate." She put her bundle onto the slab next to Sophie. "She out cold?"
"Oh, is she ever," Allison said. "I bet she's even being chloroformed in her dreams."
"I bet she is, the little tramp," Claire spat. "Now...strip her."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ivan, I'm fine," Natalya said, as her dark-haired brother invited himself in. "You...don't need to keep checking up on me."
"Stuff and nonsense," he replied, throwing himself down on a sofa. "It's my fraternal duty to bother my little sister." He narrowed his eyes. "Bother...brother...ah, there's a pun in there somewhere, but it seems I haven't the wit today. Damn!"

Natalya didn't answer him, instead walking to her kitchenette. "Make him some tea, listen to him blather for a bit, and then he'll get bored and leave..." Natalya thought to herself. The curvy telepath did not dislike her brother really, nor even resent his concern - but after her experience she rather wanted to be left alone. She glanced at him, and found him recalling some prior sexual contest.
"Ivan, do you mind?" Natalya said, becoming more than a little flustered. "Can I at least ask you not to be so lecherous in my house?"
"Sorry, dear sister," he said. "Force of habit."

There was more to this comment than Natalya realised. Ivan wasn't resistant to telepathy, or anything like that, but growing up with a psychic sister had taught him a few tricks. When he wanted not to think about something, fantasising or remembering something to do with a favoured lady was a decent way of keeping his own mind off something. In this case, Ivan was trying not to think about the reason for why he was being so protective.

A few years previously, Insyte had been kidnapped by a group of two-bit supervillains called the No-Law-Gang, kept their bound prisoner for days until she'd been saved by Lumina - the heroine who would go on to be called Spectra. The experience had shaken Natalya terribly, and she'd almost given up being a superheroine completely. Then, a couple of months prior, she'd been captured in her attempted rescue of Enhancegirl. The fact that, despite her capture, she and Spectra had eventually succeeded hadn't stopped her capture from bringing up some nasty memories.

For one reason or another, Ivan hadn't been there for his sister either of these times - he was not going to make that mistake again.
"So, you sent that pal of yours off to save her, I see?" Ivan asked.
"Yes," Natalya said. "It's not that I was unwilling to help," she added, anticipating a question. "She didn't want it."
"Oh, really? And what, your help wasn't good enough?"
"It wasn't about me. She'd have turned down Valora if she'd been there instead of me. I don't know, she was trying to prove something."
"Right. How likely is it that she'll succeed, you think?"

Natalya stopped. The kettle whistled, but she wasn't paying attention.
"I...I'm sure she'll be fine," she said.
"Those women weren't on my level or anything," Ivan said, "but they seemed pretty capable. Will she be a match for them?"
"I think so. She's a much better combatant than I am. You should see her, Ivan, she's phenomenal when she gets going." She thought again - Sophie was young, and very pretty. "On second thoughts, perhaps not." Her brother didn't need any more 'targets'.
"Well, whatever you say," he said, standing up. "I'm convinced. You don't seem to be, though."

She wasn't. Natalya knew that there was more to whatever was happening than just those women she'd fought. That face she'd seen in here enemies' minds, that strange psychic static - there was more going on than Sophie realised.
"Does she need help?"
"She didn't seem to think so," Natalya said. She turned away. She knew what he was thinking: that she was looking for excuses. After being captured again, he feared, Natalya was shying away from being Insyte once more.

"You know why I stopped dressing up when I use my powers?" Ivan said.
"You hated the idea of you and Nucleon being -"
"Hey, hey, just let me say it! Just because you know what I'm thinking, that doesn't mean you receive the -"
" - the full rhetorical effect, yes. Fine. Talk," she said, smiling a little.
"Ahem! Well, yes. I don't like the idea of Nucleon being someone else. A role I have to play, a shoe I have to fit, et cetera. I use my powers if and when it suits me. You should do the same."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I -" He paused, trying to find the right words. "You find being 'Insyte' burdensome. You don't like the press, when you get it, and you don't like being a kind of cartoon character. Right?"
"Right." This was yet another role. Ivan liked playing the 'wag with hidden depths' - but that didn't mean he was wrong.
"But you always want to help people when you can. When Hypnotra had the Titan under her thumb, you decided that you should stop her. You realised you could help, and you did. Natalya Nazarov always does. That's why you're a hero, and I'm just someone who can blow things up."
"Oh, Ivan, don't -"
"Sorry, I should have said, "a handsome, cultured, and classically educated dandy" - who can blow things up." He flashed his knife-like grin. "My point is - in your judgement, does this Enhancegirl need help?"

Natalya thought for a moment.
"Yes. She does need help."
"From you?"
"I wouldn't be useless, I think."
"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" Natalya didn't have an answer.
"Alright," she said. "I'll do it." She sighed. "Just...do I have to wear the costume?"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Mmmhhhnnn..." Sophie mewed. As her eyes opened, the defeated maiden felt sure that she would be swiftly drugged back into darkness once again - but no drugged cloth fell upon her sweet lips this time. There was something on her mouth, though. "Mmmphh..." A piece of thin, white fabric had been pulled over her mouth, as soft as silk, stroking her lips every time she tried to speak.

As the disoriented damsel craned her neck to look down at herself, she found that she was now in a third outfit. Her legs were covered with soft, silken white stockings, with ornate patterning at the tops. She was wearing white heels, and some sort of translucent white skirt that reached her ankles, so translucent, in fact, that Sophie's legs were perfectly visible through the thin, ruffled material.

What was the most alarming to Sophie, however, was what was on her chest. It was a tight, lacy, white bodice - a corset, in fact. It hugged with tight strictness to her abdomen and waist, emphasising and pushing up her soft, white breasts. But it was as Sophie tried to move her arms that she realised what had been done to her. The corset wasn't just a corset: her arms were pulled behind her back, and bound in place by the corset.

In fact, in order to achieve this, Claire and Allison had sewn Sophie into it, so it was incredibly restrictive. The slender maiden, clad all in white, couldn't even move her fingers, so tight was her bondage. Weakly, Sophie struggled, her shoulders wiggling slowly, her breasts straining against the restrictive, binding corset. Since it held her abdomen so tightly, the movements of her body were all the more emphasised, making her bust seem all the more appealingly cupped by the bodice.

Sophie tried to lift herself up, but she found herself so drained by being drugged so many times that she could scarcely even lift her head, much less her torso.
"Save...your strength..." she thought. "Have to...find a way out of this..." But in her drugged, intensely weakened state, there was little she could think of doing. She was more than a little alarmed, though, at the image that her new outfit conjured up. The Sin Eater seemed to have rather a fondness for ritual, and Sophie was more than aware which ritual her all-white costume suggested.

Before her alarm could grow into true fear, Sophie heard the door behind her opening, heard somebody walk in.
"Oh, my word," a gentle, almost girlish voice came from the entrant. "Alia, doesn't she look beautiful?"
"Yes, she does, doesn't she?"

The two young women, clad in long, white gowns walked into Sophie's view. They were holding hands.
"I don't think we've met properly yet," the petite blonde said. "My name is Zaria...and this is Alia." The taller, dark skinned girl smiled, squeezing Zaria's hand.
"Nice to meet you," she said.
"Mmmhh...nnnmmhh?" Sophie was confused. "Why...are they...being so nice...to me?"

"You look lovely, Miss," Zaria said. "The Master is so good to us, isn't she?"
"Oh Zaria," Alia said, touching her lightly on the arm. "She's not one of us yet."
"Of course," Zaria replied. "Sorry, my sweet. Still, she should understand." Zaria moved over to the slab where Sophie lay, sitting next to the weakened, bound heroine.

"You see," she said, gently putting her hand on Sophie's thigh, "we were once like you and Rachel. We lusted for each other, and shamelessly carried on a sinful tryst..." She smiled, shyly looking away. "It wasn't love...not then..."
"It wasn't pure," Alia said, sitting down next to Zaria. "We were just indulging each other's lasciviousness." She batted her long eyelashes, her wide, pale eyes fixed on the blonde in front of her.

"But then..." Zaria began, looking in Alia's eyes. "She came for us. We were in my father's house, in my bedroom, shamelessly kissing and caressing each other...when she sent Allison and Jessica to kidnap us."
"Mmm..." Alia said. "We tried to fight them...but we were completely helpless."
"I know...it was terribly frightening - at the time." Zaria bit her lip. They bound us, gagged us - I was so scared that Allison easily threw me over her shoulder: I wasn't fighting at all...but Alia fought harder." They clasped both hands now. "They had to drug her with chloroform."
"It was so humiliating, feeling all the strength draining out of me like that," Alia said. "I was so weak..."

"Wh...what the hell?" Sophie thought, listening to the servile pair. "They like it, I can tell!"
"They brought us back here...tied us down..." Zaria said, practically licking her lips. "And then something wonderful happened."
"The Master..." Alia smiled. "Well...maybe I shouldn't spoil the surprise." Zaria nodded in agreement. "Then let's get her ready."

Neither of the two lovely young women would have been any match for Enhancegirl under normal circumstances. But with her arms restrained in her white corset-armbinder, and with her body rendered perilously weak by the repeated chloroforming, she could do nothing to stop herself being hauled up to her feet.
"Mmmghhmmphh?" she mewed weakly, looking from one captor to the other. In her white garb, she suddenly felt exposed and embarrassed. These two submissive girls had easily taken control of her, now that Féa's other servants had made her so helpless. In her white stockings, corset and silky, see-through skirt, Sophie didn't even feel like a defeated superheroine: she felt like a kidnapped princess.

"Here," Zaria said, pulling at a cord on the front of Sophie's corset. For a moment the redhead thought she was being untied, but the cord had nothing to do with the tightness of her corset. "We'll make sure you get there safely."
"It's a leash..." Sophie thought, crimsoning. Zaria began to lead her out, tugging the rope as she pulled the redhead along. "Mmmphh..." Sophie mewed, too sleepy and humiliated to put up any kind of fight.

Sophie was led down a long corridor, back towards the chamber where she'd first seen the Sin Eater. Her servants were standing in a line, seemingly awaiting Sophie's arrival. Bitterly ashamed, she looked down, blushing as she passed each one of them.
"What...are they going to do to me?" Sophie thought, as she was marched along. She had a fair idea though. She'd been brainwashed once before - but not like this. Hypnosis was one thing - but these women...something deeper had been done to them.

Sophie was led up to the door, but before she was led in, Alia was handed something by Cordelia. "The Master's orders," she said, before the item in question was laid onto Sophie.
"Mmmph?" she mewed, her vision becoming slightly fuzzy. Except - no, there was something in front of her. "White...see-through," she thought. "Is this...a veil?" Her blush became brighter.

The door opened, and Sophie was led inside. As she walked, she seemed to feel her long, stocking covered legs getting a little weaker. Out of the sight of the other servants, she dared to lift her head.
"Mph!" she mewed. She was once again in the bizarre chapel, but this time the altar was covered with a white cloth. The candles burned bright, white light - even the windows seemed more lightly tinted.

The Sin Eater watched Sophie enter, smiling slyly. She was draped with a white robe too - the whole place shimmered.
"Here she comes..." she whispered to herself.
"Mmmphhh...mmmhhnnn..." Sophie whimpered. Every step was more difficult than the last, and she feared that she would collapse to her knees. "What's happening to me...? Why...am I getting weaker?"

But before she could consider that question, she saw who was standing in front of the altar - and her heart fluttered.
"You've arrived," Rachel said sweetly. She was dressed in a knee-length, white skirt, a buttoned up blouse, and open jacket, with a crown of spring flowers around her forehead.
"Mmmmphhh..." Sophie, dazed, drugged and dominated, whimpered gently, her thighs shifting against each other as saw her paramour standing before her, clad as she was. "She...she's waiting for me..." Sophie thought. Though she'd been more or less certain before what was going to happen, it now all fell fully into place in her disordered mind. The corset, the skirt, stockings, the veil - she was a bride. And she was being given...to Ocelot.

"You." Féa spoke simply, but in a way that demanded Sophie's attention. She looked up, her knees trembling a little. Something smelled familiar...
"You, who pretend to be a saviour, a noble defender of the weak," spake the Sin Eater, "you - like so many others in this wretched city - are in reality a harlot, and a Jezebel. You have been punished for this, by your defeat, and your bondage. However, though you deserve much more punishment than this...I have chosen to show mercy."
"Mmmphh..." Sophie's vision was beginning to become hazy now, her head swaying slightly. "Wh...what is that - wait!" The smell, overpoweringly sweet, was suddenly recalled. "My veil...it's laced...with chloroform!" This was such a terrible subversion, a violation of what was meant to be a symbol of virginal purity - that it was being used to keep Sophie weak and pliable - that she she cried out through her gag.

"Your protests are in vain, girl," Féa said. "You are ours now. Mine...and hers." She gestured to Ocelot. "Have you something to say to your bride?"
"Mphh..." Sophie whimpered at the last two words.
"Yes, Master," Rachel replied. She turned to Sophie. "I beg your forgiveness, Sophie," she said. "I corrupted you...destroyed your modesty for my own personal satisfaction...made you into a filthy harlot like me..."
"Whhhmmmhhhnnn..." Sophie was bewildered by the whole ordeal she'd been subjected to. Her drugged veil keeping her drowzy and compliant, she blinked uncomprehendingly at Rachel. "What does she...mean?" Yet Sophie did receive a hint from her subconscious. The smell of chloroform was not just being used to keep her weak, it was being used to remind her.

Caught by the slinky thief in Hosenfluss' mansion, she'd been shoved up against a wall and drugged with that hated chemical. Yet drugging her was not all Ocelot had done. As she'd weakened, becoming more and more Ocelot's puppet, the thief had touched her with cruel skill, weakening her with pleasure as well as with her drugs. And Sophie, moaning and writhing, had given in completely. She hadn't just fallen unconscious.
"She...she made me...ooohh..." Sophie's cheeks went bright red, something between her thighs pulsing as she was reminded of the sensuous humiliation that had been inflicted on her.

"But now it's different," Ocelot said. "Now, under the watchful gaze of our new master...we will be permitted to be together, in the only proper way." Since Ocelot had started talking, Féa had been chanting something under her breath. Now she spoke openly.
"You will be united together," she said. "Poor sinful creatures...winding together like two delicate branches seeking just a trifle more strength against the punishing winds of temptation." She pressed her hands against the altar, and a tendril of dark energy appeared from her chest. It slowly made its way down towards the two maidens, until it reached Rachel. It did not bind her this time - it seemed instead to pass through her.

"Ooohh..." Rachel sighed as the tendril went through her body like a phantom. It did not stop there, though. It continued on, towards the helpless, supple body of the corset-bound Sophie. She tried to move away from it, but she felt so fragile that if she'd taken a single step, she would have collapsed onto the ground.
"Mmmhhhnn...nnnnhhmmmmph!" she moaned, as the tendril passed into her as well. It felt strange - a warmth began to flow through her body from that point, spreading through her entire gorgeous figure, relaxing, stupefying the defeated damsel.

"What's...happening?" Sophie thought, feeling a strange kind of pressure on her mind, hemming in her thoughts, her feelings, forcing out rebellious thoughts. "No...no..." Sophie thought. "I...can't...let her control me..." She tried to summon her anger, to be enraged rather than humiliated at her captivity. But rage seemed to subside so quickly, while humiliation was like a thick towel wrapped around her head.

"Make your vow," Féa commanded. Rachel nodded, curtsying slightly to her master.
"Sophie Scott," she said. "I...Rachel Artesia vow to keep you always at my side, to keep you far from wickedness, and to support you in our loving slavery to the Sin Eater, who loves us both far more than you and I could ever understand."
"Mmmph!" Sophie mewed. For, as Rachel finished, the tendril connecting them seemed to throb, sending a wave of weakness through Sophie's mind and body. "I...I can't...I don't...want to...marry her..." It took a truly noble effort to be able to think that at all - but other thoughts soon invaded. Not her own - but more powerful.

"Sophie..." came the whispering, drawn out hiss of the Sin Eater's voice inside her mind. "Don't you want this?"
"No...of course...I don't..."
"Liar. You've dreamed about this...even if not this exactly. You've wanted her to take you. You've wanted to submit everything to her, to be her sighing, blushing captive."
"Th...that's..." Sophie couldn't even deny it. Rachel - or rather Ocelot - had filled her thoughts. Every time she thought of her she felt weak at the knees. She seemed to melt in her presence, even if she was just imagining it.
"You see? You like that she's a thief, that she's a sinner, and a villain. It makes you seem so pure and innocent by contrast...after all, if she captures and overpowers you, none of it's your fault is it? You could scream in her grasp...and you'd still be unsullied, is that it?

"Mmmmphhh..." Sophie moaned out loud. Whether it was true or not, she couldn't help but feel it now. Every second Sophie felt more of the Sin Eater's thoughts becoming her own. Every moment, being Ocelot's bride, being the Sin Eater's slave, were becoming more and more appealing prospects to the captured redhead. "No...someone - help! I'm...being hypnotised...unhhh...brainwashed...please - someone save me..." She could feel it. She could feel as submissive passivity became sweet to her, as her mind was forced into the pattern that Féa desired. But knowledge was, in this case, far from being power. She knew completely what was happening to her - but she was far too sleepy and helpless to resist it.

"Oooh..." Rachel sighed, as if she could feel what was happening too. She came close to the defeated redhead, lifting her veil, and taking her by her soft, naked shoulders.
"Mmmnnnmmphhh..." Sophie whimpered, looking up at the lovely thief. Her emerald eyes were half closed, wet and plaintive. Her supple bosom heaved against her tight, white corset, her shoulders wriggled against Ocelot's hands. Her smooth, stocking-covered legs trembled, and visibly shifted, made even longer-looking by her white high heels. Her helpless moans, her blushes, her bashful, helpless expression - Sophie was transformed into virginity itself, fetishised and dominated by something decidedly less pure.

Rachel stroked Sophie's neck, filled with desire.
"Hlllhhp...hhhllp mhh..." Sophie mewed. "Help me..."
"But I am helping you," Rachel replied. "I'm saving you. Or rather, she is saving both of us."
"Mmmnnhh...?" Sophie found herself being pulled closer. She could smell Ocelot, feel the warmth of her body, feel her breasts lightly brushing against her own heaving bosom, so tightly held by her rigid corset.
"Such a sweet girl..." Rachel said, smiling. For just an instant, Sophie seemed to see a flash of her cunning sexuality, her true self. But if so, then it was in a way that was being entirely controlled - a tactical release.

"She is ready," Féa said, waving her hands as if conducting an orchestra. "You are now bound together, bound to me - you merely must seal the rite."
"Yes, my master," Rachel said. Again, that smile flashed - her own dominating instincts being allowed to emerge to assist in subduing the gagged heroine. She carefully reached behind Sophie's head, and undid her gag.
"Unnhh..." Sophie moaned, her mouth freed. "E..en..." She couldn't even find the strength to say her changeword. Nor was she given much chance. Rachel drew her in even closer - and pressed her lips tenderly against Sophie's.

"Mmmph!" Sophie whimpered, her thighs tingling as she felt Rachel's lips against her own. "No...n-not like this..."
"Mmmmhh..." Rachel sighed, slipping her tongue into Sophie's mouth, stroking her own warm tongue, exploring her mouth with feminine expertise.
"No...no!" Sophie could feel what this was doing to her. Her thighs tingled. That warmth from the tendril was now a heat: sweltering; stultifying. She found herself rubbing her legs together, her stockings damp, her breasts slick with moisture. "Her...her kiss...it's taking away all my strength...unnhh...it's enslaving me!" Sophie thought desperately, powerless before the rite, and before Rachel's lips. She found herself feeling faint, almost to the point of swooning. Weakened, drugged, ensorcelled, Sophie could feel that she was accepting herself as Rachel's bride, and as Féa's humble, obedient slave. She felt pleasure in her captivity now, in being humbled and controlled.

"That's it..." came Féa's cajoling voice. "Give into it...instead of guilt and shame, I offer you a sweet submission - one that you can accept completely."
"No...I can't...I can't..." Sophie thought, holding on by her fingernails to her last shreds of resistance. Dazed and thoroughly disoriented, she called out impotently in her mind. "Please...please come for me...unhh..." Sophie's eyes shut, as she felt herself sinking into this new, mental control. But still she called out. "I'm begging you...Mariko, I was wrong...please - please rescue me...I - I need you...I -"

Suddenly, Sophie felt different. The arms wrapped around her chest seemed more slender, more gentle. The frame of her fellow bride felt more willowy, taller. The kiss seemed different too. No longer was it seizing her, forcing sensual pleasure and weakness upon her. It was as if it were revealing weakness, admitting of a deep, hidden vulnerability that only Sophie was permitted to see.
"Mmmmhhh..." Sophie sighed, now settling more comfortably into her kiss. "Oh...I didn't realise..." she thought. "If...if it's you...then I'll...be your...I'll be your bride..." The dreamlike illusion sealed her. The trap snapped shut, and Sophie's last iota of free will was drained away.

As Rachel broke the captivating, enslaving kiss, she looked into her bride's eyes. They were dull, blank - not empty, but utterly suppressed. It was done. Sophie was now a brainwashed, obedient slave, like all the others. Rachel shivered with pleasure at the sight of this transformation. Gone was her headstrong confidence, her spirit, her quick wits: she was now completely and utterly tamed.

The tendril withdrew, returning to its controller.
"Sophie," Féa said, "who is your master?"
"You are, of course," she replied, smiling slightly. "Who else could it be?"
"Whom do you love?"
"You first and most of all, my master," Sophie replied. "But Rachel too...through my love for you, master."
"Show me."

Sophie, still bound in her restraining corset, knelt down at Rachel's feet.
"To love...is to submit..." she said, and began kissing Rachel's stocking-clad calves. "I submit to you, Rachel...I surrender..." She rubbed herself like an affectionate cat against her bride-mistress, feeling the material of Rachel's stockings against her supple breasts.
"As I surrender to you, my master," Rachel said. "I can never express my humble gratitude for this gift..."
"Express it, my penitent one, through living out the ideals of your master," Féa said. "Take her. Your desires, through me and my will, are legitimised. She is yours."
"Yes, my master."

Rachel took Sophie by her bare shoulders, and hoisted her up to her feet. She then slipped her hands down Sophie's waist, and took hold of her billowing, translucent skirt. Then, with one quick movement, she tore it off.
"Ah!" Sophie gasped, her lovely legs exposed by her new mistress. "That's right, mistress," she said. "I still need to be humiliated...to pay for my wickedness."
"At least now you - and I - both understand," Rachel replied. She slipped her hands down Sophie's legs, gripping her just above the knees, before lifting the maiden up into her arms. She grasped her by the thighs, and by her shoulders, carrying her - well, carrying her like a bride.

"Mmm..." Sophie purred. "I'm so weak...I deserve to be controlled and subdued..."
"That's right, my love," Rachel said. She began carrying her away, feeling the curve of her thighs, the softness of her pale skin. She brought her through a different door to the one she'd been led in by, taking her into one of the servants' quarters. Laying her down on a rough, simple bed, Rachel began covering her captive bride in kisses, all over her breasts and her smooth legs, running her hands over every inch of the blushing damsel's defenceless body.

"Ooohhh..." Sophie moaned, delighting in her own powerlessness. "Oh...I'm defeated...completely, helplessly defeated..." She bit her lower lip. "Just...a weak little captive..."
"Don't think," Rachel said, "that I do this out of pleasure, my love." She leaped onto her bride, straddling her waist, and massaging her breasts. Her tight skirt tore as her legs parted, and she threw her jacket to the side.
"N...no, of course not," Sophie replied. "It's...just that I...have to be punished for my...ooh...my crimes..." She felt Ocelot's waist grinding against her own, felt sparks of pleasure kicking up within her. "Your will...is her will..."
"Unnhh..." Rachel moaned. "Yes...and her will...is Law...oooohh!"
"Unnnnnnnnhhhhhhh!" Sophie moaned loudly, feeling as she was rubbed and fondled, her sensitivity and weakness ruthlessly exploited.

For close to an hour this went on, Rachel not stopping her lascivious frottage for an instant. For that whole time she felt Sophie writhing weakly against her, heard her moan with pleasure as her long legs wriggled and rubbed against both her captor, and each other. But eventually, even she was spent, and she collapsed to the side, both maidens breathing hard, sweaty and hot, exhausted by their sensuous exertions.
"Ooohh..." Sophie sighed, her cheeks flushed in a thoroughly un-maidenly way. "Submission is...so sweet..."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had not been easy, in the end, for Insyte to find where Sophie had gone. As she'd left, she'd got a vague impression from Sophie about where she was going to go, so she'd managed to get herself in roughly the right area, only a mile - in fact - from where Sophie had eventually gone. Unfortunately, she'd spent hours and hours after that going round in circles, trying to get clues from people's mental impressions.

Finally, she'd hit on something by chance. Someone did remember seeing Sophie, and happened to think of her when he caught sight of Natalya.
"Wow," the wizened old man had thought. "Second lady that pretty I've seen today." Swallowing her natural embarrassment at such things, Natalya approached the man directly, and asked him if - and then where - he'd seen Sophie. A real good-old-boy, he wittered at some length before arriving at an answer.
"Ain't nobody comes round here anymore 'cept they got themselves three little blonde kids and an SUV. Ain't seen too many single young ladies 'round for a while..."
"Yes," Natalya said, "but if you could just tell me -"
"Now hold on there, missy! You can't rush a good barrel of whisky, now can you?" Natalya couldn't even sift through his thoughts effectively, so absent-minded was he. Eventually, however, after listening to a treatise on the wisdom of the expression 'it is what it is', she pulled a street name out of his head.

Finally arriving, it was dark by the time Natalya got there. This, in a way, made it easier - the house into which Sophie had stolen was the only one on the street without its lights on.
"Right...I can do this," she said, trying to psych herself up. A disused telephone booth-assisted change later, and Natalya was in the costume of her alternate identity - Insyte. A tight, short, pink dress, white accents and gloves, black kitten heels, and stockings, both white and frilly, one up to her right thigh, the other only to her left knee.

Always feeling a little self-conscious in her superheroic garb, Insyte hoped that she was not seen as she stole her way into the house. Fortunately for her, in the Sin Eater's delight at her new acquisitions, she had neglected to have her servants secure their hideout after Sophie's break in, and they were not the most independently minded of henchwomen.

As it was, Insyte was easily able to enter, going through the locks that Sophie had opened. She quickly hurried inside, going through the same path that her fellow heroine had taken. She too came out into the chapel - and was very nearly discovered. Claire walked right past her - and would ordinarily have seen her. But though Insyte had only limited power to affect the minds of others, rather than merely read them, one thing she could do was prevent people from paying attention to her. Indeed, as such a shy girl, she'd developed this ability to great potency as a child.

Though she couldn't exactly become invisible, Insyte did manage to prevent Claire from seeing her despite being only a body's length away. She walked past, totally oblivious. Still, Insyte didn't want to push her luck. That strange static had prevented her from getting a great deal of information from the trim blonde, but she gathered that others would be coming her way soon. She decided to use the door behind her, and hide until she was more sure that she could move without being spotted.
"Things seem pretty calm - so either Enhancegirl's been and gone...or she was captured." As Claire moved out of sight, Insyte - keeping her eyes on her all the time - reached backwards and turned the handle of the door she was aiming for. Thankfully it was unlocked, and though it creaked slightly, she was able to stop Claire from hearing it.

She slipped inside, still keeping her eyes on the woman she was evading. Ever so carefully, she shut the door in front of her, making sure that she didn't fail to see someone coming in from another entrance either. The door shut, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned around - and saw Sophie and Rachel curled up together on a bed, staring at her.
"I - what?" Natalya spluttered. She found herself looking upon the very two women for whom she'd been searching - but something was obviously very wrong. She felt overwhelming sensuality from them, flashes of kisses, fondling and a...wedding?
"N...Natalya?" Sophie said, quizzically, sitting up.

Natalya tried to probe further, but she couldn't. Clinging to them, cutting off their thoughts from her powers, was that same purple static she'd felt from the women who'd captured her.
"Damn, not again!" Natalya thought. She focussed her powers, trying to part the static.

But Sophie had no intention of letting her try.
"You've got no business being here, Natalya," she said, springing up to her feet. "How dare you creep into the Master's house like this? A housebreaker as well as a temptress."
"Enhancegirl," Insyte said. "What happened to you? Why are you talking like that?"
"You're the telepath," she shot back. "You tell me." She stopped where she was. She was inviting Insyte to search her mind.

The telepath took up the challenge.
"Nnghh..." she groaned, straining her mental powers as she pierced the static and searched Sophie's mind. What should have been there: brashness, and - of late, it seemed - not a little inner turmoil, was replaced with devotion and subservience. Something was holding her down, choking her true self, burying it under waves of some unnatural force. "Sophie...what have they done to you?"
"Enhance," Sophie said, judging that she'd seen enough.

The maiden's torn, white clothes were replaced by the shimmering gold dress, gloves and red mask of Enhancegirl, her heels replaced with her silver boots.
"My sweet," Rachel said, still curled up on the bed. "Do you need any help?"
"No, my love," Sophie replied, smiling prettily. "She's no match for me."

"Enhancegirl wait. Think about what you're - ah!" The first kick snapped out like a bullwhip. Natalya saw it coming, but barely, raising her arms to block and being pushed harshly back into the door she'd sneaked through.
"Augh!" she cried out, hitting the door hard. She caught just a half-second's glimpse of Sophie's next attack, ducking her rabbit punch. But Sophie's enhanced senses let her know which direction Natalya was dodging in, and her reaction times were incalculably faster. She shot out her left foot at just the right moment, catching Natalya in the ankles.

"Uh!" The pink clad heroine tumbled to the ground, landing on her back. "She's so fast!" Even with her telepathy, Sophie was always one step ahead. She could sense Natalya's less than expert moves easily, and countered them with her much better technique. Insyte tried a move that she'd only recently taught herself - a springing kick off the ground to quickly get back on her feet. But Sophie saw her tensing, saw her legs pulling into her chest. She feigned ignorance, and vividly imagined herself moving in to kick Insyte in the stomach.

As it was, Insyte - seeing this imagining - thought she had her number. She sprang out at her like a puma - only to be effortlessly sidestepped - and then quickly snap-kicked in the back.
"Aah!" Insyte cried out, knocked down on her front this time. Her soft, buxom chest cushioned her fall a little, but before she could even try to get back up, she found herself straddled by her lightning-fast opponent, and her slender arms were pulled behind her back. "Unh! No!" Natalya cried out, desperately writhing as she felt her arms folded behind her, into the pose of a box-tie. Her pale legs kicked out, but she couldn't do anything to Sophie with them. It wasn't that the redhead was any physically stronger than her - she just knew exactly where to hold her to keep her pinned. It wasn't a question of greater power - she was just better.

"My sweet?" Sophie asked, as she pinned down the wriggling telepath. "Could you put one of those discs onto her?"
"Sure thing, my love," Rachel said. She got up, her own clothing thoroughly dishevelled, and reached for a small, metal disc. She herself knew what it could do, having been a victim of it herself.

"Unhhh...no!" Natalya protested, held down tightly by the victorious Enhancegirl. She saw Rachel walking over to her, but didn't see the disc. Her mind too was wrapped in thorns, obscuring Natalya's second sight, and holding down the essence of her true self.
"Please try to think!" Natalya called out to the two young women. "You've been hypnotised - your minds aren't your own! Sophie, please - why would you be doing this if you were your true self?"
"Poor girl," Rachel said. "She doesn't understand." She placed the cold metal on Natalya's back. Reacting to the heat, the heavy disc began to activate.

"What's happening?" Natalya whimpered. "What are you doing?" She was given an answer only moments later, as the disc sprung open, cloth wrappings bursting forth from within. Enhancegirl got off her just in time, as the cloth began to wrap around her. "No!" Natalya cried out, as she felt the silken straps begin to seize her. Her arms were covered, forcing them into the position Sophie had been holding them in. They began to vanish under the straps, along with her dress.

"No! NO!" Natalya screamed, as she felt herself becoming a bound captive once more. Desperate, she tried to struggle to her feet, but the cloth was already wrapping around her legs. As she rose, her thighs were snapped together by the restricting bindings, her knees slamming together. "Aahh!" she cried, immediately tumbling back onto the ground, spinning as she fell and landing on her back. She looked with horror as she saw the straps completely covering her, wrapping her legs together, binding them inextricably. Her pink hem vanished, her shoes were covered, even.

"Aahh!" she moaned, as she felt the straps slipping round and round her full, white breasts, squeezing them as they wrapped her chest and shoulders as well. She was now totally wrapped up from her toes to her neck, and it didn't stop there. The silk straps, as smooth as they were tight, went around her throat, beginning to spin around her chin as well.
"Sophie," she pleaded. "Sophie, please, plea-nnmmphhhhh!" The straps worked too quickly even to allow her to bed, covering her rosy lips as they continued inexorably upward, covering everything - her nose, cheeks, her bob of black hair - everything except her yellow, helplessly blinking eyes. "Mmmphh!" she mewed, writhing her mummified body desperately. "Pllhhhph...ddhhhnn dhh thhmmmhh!" she begged, aghast at seeing Enhancegirl reduced to this state, and more aghast at her own bound, captive state.

"Don't struggle, Natalya," Sophie said. "We've captured you - for her."
"All things for her, my love," Ocelot chimed in, taking Sophie's hand. Even through the static, Insyte felt their submissiveness to this Master of theirs, this...Féa. They were, she realised, just as helpless as she was. And that was quite something - in her silken bonds, all the porcelain skinned, voluptuous beauty could do was whimper, and wiggle her sultry body almost imperceptibly. "Nnmmmnnmmphh..." she mewed, as her bosom strained against the tight silk.

"Your freakshow brother isn't here this time, Insyte," Sophie laughed. "You told me he's very powerful...looks like it doesn't run in the family."
"Don't be nasty to her, my dear," Rachel said, her pattern of speech so altered from what it normally was - even her accent was a little different - that her oldest friend would hardly have believed it. "I mean, she's going to be a sister soon, isn't she?" Sophie seemed to soften.
"Right! Another super-harlot for the Master to save..." She came over strangely bashful. "Say...why don't we help her along the way?"
"Hmmm...I think that could work," Rachel replied, grinning.

As the olive skinned blonde went back over to the small closet from where she'd taken the binding metal disc, Enhancegirl turned off her powers, her torn white clothes reappearing as her gold dress faded away. The reason for this was not apparent to Natalya, but she soon sensed a memory coming to the forefront of Sophie's clouded mind - a recalled sensation, rather: weakness, and a cloying, sweet smell.

"Nnnmmphh!" she whimpered. "No...they can't do that to me! Not again!" Alas, they could - and they did. Rachel handed her paramour a cloth, now saturated with clear, aromatic fluid. Sophie knelt down, in her torn-open corset and damp, white stockings, smiling angelically. "Go to sleep now, Natalya," she said. "It'll all be better soon. You're going to be free - just like us."

"Nmmmphh! Nnmmm - MMPHH!!" Natalya's protests were doubly muffled by the wet cloth, a powerful wave of sweet scent hitting Natalya's nostrils through the mummifying silk straps. "Mmmmphhhh!" she moaned, already feeling a tingling sensation in her fingers and toes. "I can't believe this...I've failed so utterly! They...she defeated me in an instant..."

Her struggles were already scarcely noticeable in her smooth, tightly caressing cocoon, but they were becoming even less so. Her gorgeous, femininely curvaceous body was getting soft and languorously slow, like a low cloud falling heavily against a mountain.
"Mmmhhh...nnnmmhhh..." She felt weakness spreading through her, from her feet, up to her supple calves...her thighs...slowly rolling through her hips and her stomach...her buxom chest rhythmically, hypnotically, rising and falling...
"That's right, Natalya," Sophie said. "That's it. Just go to sleep...go to sleep..."

"Mmmmmhhh..." Natalya sighed softly, drugged into obedience. She felt herself complying with the brainwashed redhead's command, her strength - such as it was - flowing out of her, leaving only weakness: of which she felt she possessed much. "Oh...what's the point in fighting?" Natalya thought, dismayed. Her attempt to help Sophie had been utterly useless - she'd only succeeded in being captured alongside her - by her, in fact. "I've lost...I'll just...uuuhh...I'll just sleep...if that's what they want..." Her yellow eyes, like a tawny owl's in hue, fell closed. She lingered in soft, warm darkness for a moment, before the trussed-up telepath gave in completely. She was defeated.

"Mmm..." Sophie hummed, keeping the cloth in place for a few moments. "Out like a light..." She looked over the slumbering, mummified captive, eyes running over every gently sloping contour of her feminine form. The satin wrappings bound her so tightly that no detail of her figure required the slightest guesswork.
"We have to bring her to the Master," Rachel said. "For one thing, we need to know how she found this place."
"You're right," Sophie said. "We might have to relocate if we've been compromised. Oh, what am I saying? We can't go before the master like this! It'd be too shameful..."
"You're right, my love," Rachel said.

The two of them removed their torn, dishevelled clothing, and garbed themselves anew. They put on shimmering, silver gowns, hanging by halters from their necks, leaving their arms bare. The soft, shiny material clung tightly to their gorgeous bodies, even as it flowed around their ankles. She and Rachel helped each other to lift Insyte up into a standing position. Her head drooped down, her whole body limp and powerless in the two maidens' arms. She felt deliciously soft, like a ripe peach.

Together, Sophie and Rachel lifted the bound beauty up and over Rachel's shoulder, being as gentle with the fallen heroine as they could. The olive-skinned, slinky thief felt her slender legs and round behind, holding her firmly as she took her out into the chapel. Féa was not there, so they brought her up to the door of their master's private chamber.

"Enter," boomed a voice from within, as if sensing them. They did so, seeing Féa standing over two of her servants. Her robe discarded, the staggeringly tall woman stood clad in her tight, black outfit, looking motive and deadly, like a scorpion. Lying on a sumptuous, four poster bed, Zaria and Alia were entwined with each other, their bare legs peeking through high-slitted nightgowns, kissing each other gently.

"I see another sinful Jezebel has blundered into my temple," quoth the Sin Eater. "I am pleased to see you beginning her induction into our ranks...they have swollen so quickly." Zaria and Alia seemed to ignore what was happening, lost in each other's eyes.
"Master," Sophie said, going down on one knee. "This one's like me. She has supernatural powers - a mind-reader."
"Oh?" Féa arched an eyebrow. "I have some power to see into other's minds...but only during the Rites of Salvation...having her could be a great boon to our cause." She clapped her hands. Instantly, Zaria and Alia snapped to attention, standing straight up, and standing perfectly still. "Take the new arrival to Cordelia. She has rather an admirable knack for introducing my acolytes to their new status."
"Yes, my master," they both said, curtsying.

Alia took Natalya's mummified body from her fellow acolyte, the slinky thief helping her turn the maiden round, before allowing her to flop limply over Alia's shoulder. Though a little taller, alia wasn't as strong as Rachel, and it took her a bit more effort to hold her up. But the busty captive had no power to resist. Alia began taking her off, her lover obediently following.

Sophie and Ocelot didn't move from where they stood without command, but both were a little surprised when the door slammed shut behind them. Sophie found herself shrinking in the gaze of her new master, who bore down on her with black eyes.
"You...I smell the stench of new sin..." Féa said. Sophie dropped so that she was on both knees.
"Wh...what have I done, Master?" Sophie asked, distraught.
"You fought that telepath, didn't you?"
"Yes, Master?"
"And did you use your powers?"
"Yes, I -" Her mouth opened. Sophie suddenly understood. "I clad myself in that tiny, shameful little dress...showing off my body as I fought...oh...I'm so ashamed!"

Rachel looked at her paramour, and felt a forbidden pleasure from seeing her prostrate herself so submissively.
"Master," she found herself compelled to say. "I...have to confess something too..." Féa's cold stare was turned on her now.
"What, child? Speak!"
"I..." The brainwashed thief looked over at Sophie. "I watched her fight...saw her gorgeous legs shown off...watched the hem of her dress flutter around her thighs...and it aroused me..."

The Sin Eater stood before her two acolytes, scowling like a storm.
"After all that I have done for you," she said with terrifying calm, "you betray me almost at once?!" Both damsels shrank back. "I gave you to each other, permitted you your carnal passion as a purifying rite - but this? No, this was a relic of your former life. It must be purged away!" She muttered a chant under her breath, and then extended her hands towards the two damsels.

Summoned into being by the Sin Eater's dark magicks, pure white cords shot out towards the redhead and the blonde.
"Aaah!" Rachel cried out, as the ropes seized her. They swiftly entwined her wrists behind her back, slipping up her arms before cinching them to her back by writhing around her chest, running between her breasts as well as around them.

"Unnhhh..." Sophie moaned, as the ropes seized her too, simply wrapping around her torso from just above her hips to just beneath her breasts - the submissive damsel having placed her arms behind her back just to make it easy to bind her. As it was, her body was easily tied up.

Both maidens felt their legs being bound too. For Rachel, this took the form of two ropes grabbing her just above her thighs, and around her ankles, squeezing her supple limbs together. For Sophie, it was more like a snake, criss-crossing her limbs like a wicker basket's pattern, binding Sophie's long, pale legs so tightly that they were utterly impossible to move independently.

Rachel and Sophie looked at each other, gasping and blushing at the helpless pleasure of being captured and trussed so quickly, aroused by the sight of the other in the same distress.
"Unnh!" they both moaned, as they felt themselves hauled up by her dark tendril. They were sucked towards the hands of the Sin Eater, who grabbed them both with her hands, holding them by the ropes around their chests.

"You little harlots," she hissed. "Your sensuality belongs to me, and it is for me alone to decide if and when it is expressed!"
"Y-yes, Master..." Sophie whimpered.
"We're such sinful creatures...." Rachel sighed.
"You are, aren't you?" Féa said, slowly. She held them closer for a moment, before, turning them, and pushing them forward onto her bed.

"Unhh!" Sophie found herself bent over, her tight, round ass sticking up into the air. She looked to the side to see Ocelot in the same pose.
"We're so bad..." Ocelot said.
"Mmmm..." Sophie sighed. "Please...please punish us, master..." she moaned. She wiggled her behind, half out of an instinctive struggle against her bondage, and half out of rather more submissive motives.

Féa gave Sophie and Rachel a long look. She went right up to them, and placed her hands on the backs of their thighs, her great height meaning that she had to bend down in order to do this. She ran her hands right up to their waists, before taking hold of some of the fabric of the lower halves of their silvery gowns. Then, with two simultaneous, firm tugs, she pulled down - tearing the lower halves of the maiden's gowns clean off.

"Oooh!" the two nubile damsels moaned, feeling their long, supple legs bared to their master.
"You have earned this humiliation," Féa said. "So that you will relearn shame, I will inflict it upon you."
"Yes..." Sophie said. "Please...humiliate us!" She was given her wish, as Féa began roughly caressing her and Rachel's legs, feeling their moist skin, squeezing their supple thighs: Sophie's pale and slender; Rachel's olive-brown, and a touch curvier.


“So smooth…” Féa said, as she ran both hands up Sophie’s legs, from her ankles to her hips.
“Unnnhh…aahh!” Sophie sighed and moaned as she was caressed.
“You keep yourself so lovely…such…vanity…” Féa said, licking her lips.
“Yes…master…” Sophie gasped breathlessly, “I’m so vain…so bad…” Féa’s pupils expanded even wider in her eyes, covering her irises completely. “I should teach you a lesson!” She raised her hand, lifting it as high as she could, before bringing it down hard against Sophie’s tight, round ass.

“Aaaaaaahhhh!!” Sophie moaned, something in the core of her throbbing with helpless pleasure. She felt the sharp sting reverberating through her cheeks. “Aaah!!” She was spanked again, her creamy skin left stinging in an all-too satisfying way. Féa had spanked her right across her heart-shaped behind, leaving her pulsing with servile delight.

Leaving her red-haired, brainwashed slave sighing and moaning, the Sin-Eater turned her attentions to Rachel. She gripped her by the hips, pulling her in so that as she writhed, Rachel was grinding her ass against the tops of her Master’s thighs.


“Unnhhh…” Rachel moaned, as Féa pressed up more and more tightly against her.
“You…you vile, thieving little wretch…” Féa said, a hint of a smile passing over her face. She gripped her more tightly, holding her still. “This is what you deserve…to be a bound prisoner for your crimes.”
“Mmm…yes…” Ocelot sighed. “I should…unhh…be wrapped in chains, naked…and locked away…ahh!” She too felt the sting of the Sin Eater’s hands against her feminine flesh, again shuddered with each dominating blow. She turned her head to look at Sophie, saw her reeling from the overpowering sensuality of the Sin Eater’s punishment.

Half-closed with sultry submissiveness, Sophie’s eyes looked into Rachel’s. She wanted Ocelot to see just how powerless she was.
“This is how easy it is to dominate me…” her eyes seemed to say. “I’d be all yours…so weak and helpless…you could do anything to me…”

As Rachel took this in, Féa took hold of both of them. She tossed them both onto the bed, and then leapt after them. Kneeling between them, she grabbed their asses, squeezing and spanking them over and over as they writhed beneath her.
“Such vile little temptresses!” she hissed. “Such sultry, supple maidens!”

With an almost rabid intensity, the Sin Eater spun them both over. She tore what remained of their gowns, revealing their skimpy, silk bras under the silvery cloth of their dresses.
“Look at you,” she said, seeing them blush with sensuous shame as their chests were exposed. “Your very bodies are wet with sin, so sensual and desirable…” She began fondling their busts, slipping her fingers around and between their supple breasts, feeling the pleasing weight of them as she groped them. “Your bosoms…like ripe apples, wet and beautiful…”

“Unnhh…yes, Master…” Sophie sighed. “How dare we…be so tempting and…so…sexy…”
“Don’t let us get away with it Master…” Rachel added, her eyes closing from the intensity of the pleasure running through her slinky, delectably curvy body.

Féa had no intention of doing so. She grabbed Sophie by the ropes round her chest, and hauled her up, before roughly pressing her mouth against her slave-girl’s.
“Mmmmnnhhh…” Sophie mewed, blushing. “Mmmhhphhh…aahh…” She was thrown down as Féa pulled away, her bosoms heaving with sensual delight. Her lovely skin was slick with sweat, her lips parted.

As Sophie lay panting and sighing on the Sin Eater’s bed, she took hold of her other slave, and subjected her to the same treatment, kissing her plump, red lips with carnal force.
“Mmmphh!” Ocelot moaned, feeling Féa’s hands on her body too.

“Such dirty little beasts, aren’t you?” the Sin Eater said. “So desperately lustful…so desirous of being touched and possessed…” She ran her hands all over their pleasurably writhing bodies, feeling every gentle, feminine contour of the two brainwashed beauties.

She took full advantage of their torn clothing, delighting in the touch of their soft skin. She leaned down, and began furiously kissing their breasts, rapidly alternating between Sophie and Rachel. Now she pressed her mouth into Sophie’s creamy thighs, at another she planted a kiss on Rachel’s flat, tight midriff.

“You taste…of weakness…” she said, rising from her gorgeous captives for a moment. “I…will draw that from you like poison from a wound.” She resumed kissing them, roughly grasping and stroking their long legs at the same time. As they were subjected to this ‘punishment’, Sophie and Rachel looked at each other.

Both damsels’ eyes glistened with subservient pleasure. Both of their half-naked, gorgeous bodies wriggled pleasurably in accordance with the Sin Eater’s whims, straining half-heartedly against their tight bonds. Sharing in their pleasant – deserved – helplessness, the two maidens closed their eyes, and pressed their lips against each other, feeling the sweetness of the other’s kiss.

“Mmm…mmmphhh…” Sophie moaned, feeling Féa stroke her legs while Rachel stroked her tongue. “Yes…yes…take me! Humble me…” she thought, as she allowed Ocelot to take the lead in their passionate, submissive gesture of ardent attraction.

“Unnhh…” Féa sighed, pulling back at last from the wet, wriggling maidens she’d captured and enslaved. “There…now never forget that…” She wiped their sweet sweat from her lips, and moved away. “I have…consumed your sin.”

“Mmmhhh…” Sophie sighed, not breaking the kiss for an instant. Nor, it seemed was there any expectation so to do. Free of Féa’s hands, the damsels turned inwards, beginning to rub their tightly tied legs together, press their moist breasts against each other. Féa watched them for some time, unable to take her eyes off the sumptuously sensuous spectacle.
“Now, you may take your pleasure of each other…as brides, and in the manner that I dictate for you.” She left her bedroom, her body shivering as she even contemplated Sophie and Rachel, turning out the lights to bathe the submissively lascivious pair in darkness, as they entwined their limbs, and breathlessly covered each other’s gorgeous body in sweet, sighing kisses.

[Damselbinder]

“Mmmhhh…mmmmhhh…” Natalya whimpered, as the busty damsel awoke from her chloroform induced sleep. Her yellow-gold eyes blinked slowly, like a moth’s wings drying in the sun for the first time. She tried to move, but she was still bound with humiliating strictness, mummified from head to toe in silk straps.

“Mmmmphh…” Natalya whimpered, feeling the soft, smooth bindings stroke her almost lovingly as she writhed within them. “It wasn’t enough just for her to capture me and bind me…she had to wrap me up like a – a helpless butterfly in a spider’s web!” The metaphor seemed almost too apt. She - beautiful, fragile – had stumbled into what amounted to a trap, caught and subdued with terrifying ease. She hadn’t realised before just what the gap between her and Enhancegirl was. Even with that static gone, she knew Sophie would have absolutely dominated her.

However, it was not Sophie standing over her. It was Cordelia (not that Natalya knew it), tall and slim, her dirty-blonde hair in a rather fetching pixie-cut. Natalya scanned her mind, and didn’t get much from her either – except that she, like Natalya, was special. Before being defeated and taken prisoner by the Sin Eater, she’d even been a superheroine – but that, alas, was all Natalya could get.

It was rather a while before Cordelia took any notice of her. Her whimpers were scarcely any louder than her sighs had been while she slept, and it was only when she happened to glance round that she saw her newest prisoner was awake.

“I hope you’re not like the other one I had in here,” she said. “Rachel made an awful fuss before she was invited into our sisterhood.” She looked at her for a moment. “You seem to have the right idea though. Nice and passive – just as a woman should be.”

“Mmmhh…” Natalya mewed, cheeks crimsoning.
“You’ve even got a sense of shame, I see.” She narrowed her eyes. “Hmm…I wonder what on Earth forced you to start dressing up like a skank and running around fighting crime? I mean, you are a superheroine, right?” Natalya didn’t feel very much like one at that moment.

“I used to be like you, you know,” she said. “Shimmer, they used to call me, on account of how I can do this.” She suddenly vanished completely from Natalya’s sight.
“Whhmphh?” Natalya gawked. Had she teleported?
“Boo,” Cordelia whispered, now standing right behind the maiden.
“Mmph!” Natalya gasped. “She can…turn invisible?”

“What really galls me,” she said, “is that I wasted so much time accomplishing so little. I was never very famous, or powerful…but I wanted to be. The whole reason that I wanted to ‘fight crime’ – as if the petty thugs I battled were the real sinners! – was to satisfy some inflated sense of self-importance. To be like a pompous, arrogant man!” She said the last word as if it were a great curse.

But her countenance altered, becoming gentle – even simpering.
“But then, she found me…freed me with bonds, stripped away all my pride and self-love…and made me a woman again – a true woman.” Had Natalya not been tightly gagged, she might have taken a moment then to draw Cordelia’s attention to the True Scotsman Fallacy, but she did not have the power so to do.

“Your thief friend, Rachel, your fellow heroine, Sophie – they all had the same sin, the same modern weakness of a desire for strength, when submission gives our sex its greatest freedom! You have that too – though you…” She sniffed Natalya’s neck, her movements quick and accurate, though graceless. “…you have it much less than I did. Still – nothing less than total purity is acceptable.”

She continued to ramble on in this vein for rather a while, seemingly with nothing better to do. In fact, the Sin Eater had appointed her a task – to drug Natalya into a dazed, pliable state to make the dark ritual all the easier. But she’d entirely forgotten it. For Insyte’s powers were not the most bluntly impressive – they were of great subtlety.

She was keeping Cordelia from paying attention to her. She was in plain sight – she couldn’t attempt to pretend she wasn’t there. But it was a great deal easier to draw Cordelia’s line of thought away from her duty, and towards the favourite pastime of any fanatic: harping on at great length about the thing about which they’re a fanatic.

As it was, Insyte took the time to really, slowly probe her mind, and find out exactly how this control worked. It certainly wasn’t simple hypnotism or even a fellow telepath. Something thoroughly un-mental was being imposed on the captives of this Sin Eater.

Again, she saw thorns, tendrils wrapped around Cordelia’s mind. Increasing the intensity of this vision, Insyte saw thorny vines binding the helpless, naked former-heroine, holding her true self in. This had been what the static had been trying to keep her from – from this, the source of the vile spell. She didn’t understand how it worked, but she was beginning to understand the parts of the mind it affected, how it suppressed certain parts, inflated others, and introduced entire alien thoughts in other places, for maximally effective control.

With this knowledge, Natalya began straining to unpeel the thorny vines from Cordelia’s mind. Though she was subtle, it took more force than she was used to to even begin to undo the Sin Eater’s work.

And something other than the sheer difficulty of the task fought against her. There was conscious, active malevolence at work, battling against Natalya’s power. Yet she could do it, could feel the thorns un-entwining themselves.

“And that’s why every man should –“ Cordelia stopped mid-sentence. A strange look came over her. “I…what the…what the fuck was I talking about?” Her whole manner changed at once. Her eyes became sharper, her lips drawn back into an asymmetrical scowl. Her accent had changed, even: there were now unmistakable notes of Australian, covered by a New York childhood. “I can’t…can’t fuckin’ remember…”

“Yes!” Natalya thought. “Yes, I’m doing it!” She peeled further and further layers off, feeling a cunning, no-nonsense personality beginning to emerge from the shell of obedience.
“You…you’re a…like me?” Cordelia shook her head from side to side. “Why does that matter…? What am I doin’ here?” A new, clearer light was appearing in her eyes.

“Cordelia!” The door had opened behind Natalya’s head. Broken from her concentration, she looked away – and cut her connection to Cordelia’s mind.
“No!” Insyte thought, her work suddenly undone. Cordelia’s change did not last, and she reverted to her manner from before.

“Cordelia,” Jessica said, striding inside. “Why do you tarry with the harridan?”
“I…I don’t know…” Cordelia said. “Something – I felt so strange…” Jessica looked at Natalya, who resumed her whimpering and mummified wriggling.
“Ah, I see. You weren’t warned about her abilities,” Jessica said. “Sister Sophie tells us that this one is a telepath. She may have been exerting her influence over your mind.”
“I see,” Cordelia replied.
“No…Sophie!” Natalya thought, dismayed that her attempt had been thwarted. “Why don’t you get that I’m trying to help you?!”

“Is there any way to stop her powers?” Cordelia asked. “Telepaths always have some kind of Achilles’ Heel.”
“She does have one, actually.” Jessica bent down to the bound heroine lying before her. “There’ll be none of your clever tricks today, buxom wench.” She took the strips of silk covering Natalya’s nose, and two covering her forehead, and pulled them up and down respectively: covering Natalya’s eyes instead.

“NNNMMPHH!!” she moaned. “NNNNNNMMMPHHH!!” With her eyes covered, Natalya’s second sight was taken from her too. She was plunged into darkness, and her powers were useless. “No…no, what am I supposed to do now?” Natalya thought, whimpering softly into her silky gag. “They’re going to…to make me a slave as well – and then no-one will be able to fight them!”

“Jessica,” Cordelia said. “I need to speak with you a moment.” She glanced at Natalya. “I don’t want the harridan to hear.”
“Well and good,” Jessica replied. The two women left, shutting the door behind them, leaving Natalya stranded in darkness and despair.

“I know that Hypnotra couldn’t hypnotise me…but this is different! It feels…oh, it feels almost demonic – wrong, just – not natural! And now I’m to be inducted into their horrible cult…” A tear escaped her eye, absorbed by the soft material. “Why didn’t I just go with Sophie? Why wasn’t I strong enough to help Rachel and stop her being kidnapped? I’ve failed…in every respect which matters.”

As she harshly chided herself, Natalya heard something. There was a kind of thump and shuffling sound behind her. She turned her head, as though she could see anything, but further answer came there none – until the door opened behind her, and Jessica’s unconscious body slumped down inside.

“Whhmphh?” Natalya heard the thud, but didn’t understand it. She heard footsteps, then felt hands on her body, her face. For just a moment, she thought that someone was doing something…untoward to her. But then, she felt someone take hold of the straps around her eyes, and yank them off with a great tear.

“Mmhh…whhhph?” Natalya mewed, as she found herself looking into the sharp, cunning eyes of Shimmer.
“So, lady,” the freed young woman said, “how the fuck you wanna do this?”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Sophie left Féa’s chamber, eventually freed by Zaria on her master’s orders, she still felt herself tingling all over. She was flushed, and moist, and felt an exquisite delight in being dominated by both her master, and her fellow bride.

She felt her long legs trembling, not covered at all by her torn gown. She could have replaced it almost at once, but she found that she had no wish to – it was a symbol that the Sin Eater had punished and humbled her, and it was only appropriate, therefore, that it be shown to the others.

“It’s so much better being like this,” she thought. She smiled, dazed with pleasure. She felt something wet on her fingers, and absentmindedly looked down at them, prompted by the mildest curiosity possible. Yet what she saw produced genuine shock.

She was bleeding. Not much – it was barely even a scratch - but blood was on her palm. The reason for this was clear, but bewildering. Her fist was clenched, clenched so tightly that she had cut her palm with her fingernails. She had no recollection of doing this, hadn’t felt any pain at all until she’d looked at it. Even now, though she did unclench her fist, it took much more effort than it should have done.

“You there, Sophie.” Jessica’s voice barked from behind her. Sophie obediently turned around. The tall brunette seemed just a little dishevelled, but Sophie had not been given any orders by her master to be investigative.
“Yes, my sister?”
“Come with me at once,” she said. “There is something wrong with this Insyte person. Her powers are not functioning as you described.”
“She needs to look at you,” Sophie said, “she can read thoughts and predict your immediate actions, and she has low level mental influence…what was wrong with that?”
“See for yourself.” She began walking away, and Sophie was more or less compelled to follow her.

She was led to the room in which she herself had been a captive, drugged into sleepy oblivion time after time after time until the Sin Eater was ready for her. She entered, and Jessica shut the door behind her.

She looked around. Insyte was nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t understand,” Sophie said. “You said that – MMGGHHMMPHH!!” Something seized her from behind. An invisible force wrapped around her waist, holding her arms at her sides. At the same time, it pressed something over her mouth and nose, something wet and sweet-smelling.

“Whhhmmphh?!” Sophie whimpered. “What?! I’m being chloroformed? But why?! And – why like this? All the Master would need would be to ask me to kneel and I – I…oohhh…” The stuff was acting fast, and the redheaded beauty was already feeling weak.

The invisible force kept a tight grip on her, and despite her struggles, Sophie was nowhere closer to freeing herself from it. On the contrary, she was growing weaker, the grip seemingly tighter. Her hands batted at whatever held her, and her smooth, white legs shifted clumsily against each other, her feet slipping, the force grabbing her having to hold her up.

She looked forward, and saw Jessica ignoring her plight. In fact, she was going to the room’s other door. She opened it – and Insyte walked in, unbound.
“Whhhmphh…?” Sophie gasped, inadvertently inviting a cloud of light-headedness as she breathed in more of the fumes. “Tr…traitor...traitor!” Sophie thought, realising that she’d been tricked.

“Don’t knock her out completely,” Insyte said. “I don’t know if this will work if she’s unconscious. But up to that – I’d say the weaker the better.”
“Mmmmhhnnmmphh?” Sophie mewed. “She’s…telling them what to do…I don’t get it…ohh…” Her eyelids were fluttering, her arms and legs going limp.

“Stop there, Shimmer,” Insyte said. The force around Sophie suddenly revealed itself to be not a force at all, but a person: Cordelia.
“Right,” she said, taking the cloth away from Sophie’s face.

“You…can’t do this…” the drugged redhead mumbled, almost whispering. Cordelia took her by the shoulders, and spun her around. “No…stop…” she pleaded, as Cordelia’s hands went to her thighs, and lifted her up and over her shoulder. “You…mustn’t…”

Her protests were ignored, and she was laid down on the slab where Natalya had been only a few moments before. She tried to fight, Cordelia swiftly grabbed her arms, and held them together, before Jessica began binding her wrists in white ropes, cinching her hands and forearms against each other.

“Wh…what’s happening?” Sophie whimpered.
“We’re trying to help you!” Jessica said. “Just like your friend here helped the two of us.”
“Wait…what?” Sophie looked up at Insyte. “No! No…oooh…you can’t do that…I belong to her…”
“You belong to no-one, sister,” Cordelia said. “Insyte, let’s do this.”

The telepath was already trying. She was getting a fix on the parts of Sophie’s mind that were restrained – but this was something else entirely. Like before she received a mental image of the constricting energies that kept Sophie enslaved, but it was not like Cordelia.

Sophie was wrapped in glowing purple chains, heavy and thick, her body – her mind – bound from head to foot, gagged too with metal links covering her mouth. Clearly she was naked underneath, for though the chains enmeshed her, the tops of her breasts, her pale shoulders, her thighs – she was clearly a bound captive, but plenty of her lovely body was being displayed.

What she had done before, Natalya judged, would not be enough this time. Using an inner core of power which she rarely had need to call upon, she manifested herself into this psychic plane. She appeared glowing with a violet light, naked, but wreathed in psychic energy.

Insyte reached out to Sophie to try to begin the process of unwrapping her. She started with her mouth, unpeeling the chains with great effort.
“It won’t work,” the astral Sophie said, as soon as her lips were free. “They’ve got me…I’m way too weak to fight it…”
“Don’t say that,” Natalya replied, “I managed to free Jessica and Cordelia, and they’d been under this spell for months! And you’re strong, Sophie, you know that. You managed to fight off the control of Hypnotra herself.”

Sophie looked into her would-be saviour’s eyes. She looked utterly defeated.
“You don’t understand…” she said. “I keep trying…but she always captures me again…”
“She? You mean this Sin Eater?”
“No.”
“Well then who – mmmphh!” Natalya felt something grabbing her, slender fingers clasping her mouth, handgagging the busty maiden. “I’ve delved too far!” Natalya realised that, in seeking to save Sophie, she had opened herself up to terrible peril.

Looking down at herself, Natalya saw fast hands tying her up in purple cords, lashing her wrists behind her back, binding her elbows together, wrapping ropes around her chest to hold her arms in place.
“No!” Insyte’s astral form cried out into the darkness of the psychic plane. She felt someone take her soft, white shoulders, and spin her around. She found herself looking into a familiar face.

“This is my house, sugar,” said the thief. “You play by my rules…” she grinned, and knelt at Natalya’s feet. This was no gesture of submission. Ocelot – or at least some astral shade of her – was simply binding Natalya’s legs, too.

“Stop!” Natalya bellowed, but her command had no effect. Her knees were cinched together, then her ankles. Now tightly tied up, the naked damsel found her power waning, her corona of psychic energy fading away. “What? I’m…getting weaker…”
“That’s what happens to any sexy super-bimbos who wander in here,” Ocelot said, grinning. She shoved Natalya in the chest, and she fell, tumbling helplessly down to the ground.

“Uuuhhh…” Natalya moaned, writhing in her bonds, feeling her powers suppressed. “It’s a trap…” she thought. “For anyone trying to free her…now I’ve been captured too!” The psychic glow around her body faded, her nude body now more and more on show.
“So stupid…” Ocelot said, sauntering over to the beautiful, chained redhead. “As if she could be anyone’s but mine…”

She took Sophie by the chin, and kissed her, the redhead’s eyes meekly falling shut as she returned her captor’s kiss. The thief’s hands went all over her, lustily grasping at her thighs, her bosom, eliciting kittenish whimpers from the enslaved maiden, her lightly-freckled cheeks blushing.

“Sophie!” Insyte called out. “Don’t let her do this to you! You don’t want this!”
“Oh but she does want it,” Ocelot said, rubbing her calf against Sophie’s. “Tell her, Pippi.”
“It’s true,” Sophie said. “Before…all this…Ocelot captured me. I was paralysed…totally helpless…then wrapped up tight and wriggling…and I liked it…she dominated me and I liked it…”

The choice of Ocelot as the sentinel over Sophie’s mind made a great deal of sense now. The Sin Eater was using her own hidden desires as chains in themselves, linking her own slavery to her submissive feelings towards Ocelot.

But Insyte could feel that there was something else there, something in Sophie’s mind that was being held back. It was a far deeper, stronger desire, like a warm river running under the earth, strong but hidden in inky blackness. Yet it was tightly sealed in – not by the spell, as Insyte was surprised to discover, but by Sophie herself.
“It could help her…it could save her!” Natalya realised. “Why is she keeping it locked away?” Her power ebbing away from her, Natalya could only take the merest glance at the barrier Sophie had erected. There was a sense of…unworthiness, as if she didn’t deserve, or could never expect to have, the thing she wanted.

But by the time Insyte realised this, her powers had waned so much that she could look no further. Her bonds seemed to become tighter.
“I’m…I’m defeated…” Insyte whispered despairingly, all the strength drawn out of her.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” Ocelot said to Sophie. “Back in my arms…warm and soft and helpless…”
“I – mmmphh…” Sophie’s mouth was covered by Ocelot’s hand before she could answer. She looked into her captor’s eyes, whimpering softly. “Mmmhhh-nnmmphh…”
“I didn’t actually need an answer, Pippi,” Ocelot said. “I already know that I’m right.” Sophie cast her eyes down, shamefaced and humiliated.

“Please!” Insyte begged, struggling in the ropes which drained away all of the buxom damsel’s psychic strength. “Sophie, please don’t let her do this to you!”
“Oh, sweetie, it isn’t her that you need to worry about now,” Ocelot said. “It’s you.”

She walked over to the naked, bound telepath, and easily hoisted the curvy maiden up to her feet. She tied her even tighter, wrapping ropes around and between her bare breasts, over her shoulders, and back around into a restrictive harness.
“No! You can’t do this! I – won’t let you!” She writhed, feeling Ocelot’s hands all over her, but she couldn’t fight back. “How dare you!” she gasped, as the thief’s fingers stroked her, cupped her breasts, squeezed her shoulders.


“How dare you, Natalya?” Ocelot replied. “Sophie is my property. My slave-girl. And she wants it. I mean, you and I both know that I’m not real. I’m a psychic manifestation, created by the woman you’re fighting. But she made me using Sophie’s psyche. I’m everything she’s not willing to admit that she wants. I’m the whip, the chain, the black-gloved hand slapping her on that pretty little tush of hers.” She smiled, holding Natalya close as she stroked the white skin above her breasts.

”She dreams sometimes about the times she’s been kidnapped, you know.” Ocelot grinned wickedly. “You’re in them sometimes. Remember when you were all captured when you came to rescue her? She certainly does. She remembers you and Spectra writhing sleepily against her when you were stuffed in that little closet, so weak and soft and helpless...” She put her hands on Natalya’s hips, and suddenly the pale damsel felt physically weak, like she was being drugged.

“Unnhh…” she moaned. “What’s…happening to me…?”
“You’ve entered my house, Natalya…” Ocelot whispered in her ear, touching her inner thighs. “So now you’re going to have to stay…for a long time…” She began kissing Natalya’s slender neck.
“Uhhhh…” Natalya moaned, forbidden pleasures running through her body. “No…you can’t…make me…ooohhh…”
“Mmmm…” Ocelot sighed, squeezing Natalya’s soft, white shoulders. “Such a fine woman…so soft…as delicate and pure as porcelain…”
“You mustn’t…I – how are you doing this…? I don’t – don’t even like girls that way…” Ocelot laughed, giving her a playful smack on her tight behind. Natalya gasped, and blushed.
“That doesn’t matter here, Little Miss Telepath,” Ocelot said. “You’re going to feel whatever I want you to feel.”

She laid Natalya down, spinning the naked maiden over, before straddling her, pressing her waist against Natalya’s ass. She reached underneath her, pulling her torso up and squeezing her round, milky-white breasts.
“Mmm…fine pair of double d’s you got there, honey,” Ocelot giggled. “A shame you’re so repressed…I bet there’s plenty of guys who’d love to do what I’m gonna do to you.”
“No…oooh…no…no, no no!” Natalya begged, desperately trying to restore her power, but trapped completely.
“’No, no, no!’” Ocelot laughingly imitated, gripping Natalya’s pale thighs, the phantom doing whatever she pleased with the beautiful young woman she’d esnared.
“No…” Natalya pleadingly whimpered, feeling faint with humiliation, unable to put it into her mind that this was all illusion.
“No!”

Ocelot froze. It had not been she who had echoed Natalya’s protest. She turned around, to see Sophie desperately writhing in her chains, fighting madly to get free.
“You can take me…you can have me…” she said. “But that doesn’t mean you get anyone else! I won’t…let you do this to her as well! Enhance!”

There was a searing, white hot light, blinding – burning. Ocelot shielded her eyes, as the light built and built in intensity – until with a final, shrieking explosion, the chains around Sophie’s body were shattered, and she was clad in the gold, sunlike brilliance of her alternate identity.

“You really want to do this again?” Ocelot said, standing to face her. “It’s not going to work, Pippi. You know that.”
“Fuck you!” Enhancegirl screamed back. “I won’t let you have her! She has nothing to do with this!” She leapt forward, and aimed a furious, flying kick at the phantom thief.

Ocelot stepped to the side, but Enhancegirl didn’t allow her to take advantage, assailing her with a flurry of furious rabbit punches. Insyte watched Sophie’s enraged comeback with amazement.
“She’s so strong…”

“Gyaahh!” Enhancegirl roared, throwing everything she had at Ocelot. But this was not, after all, a real fight. Her powers meant only as much as the psychic plane allowed them to mean. The fight was, therefore, not as uneven as it should have been. Ocelot matched Sophie blow for blow.

Yet even so, as Sophie’s strength waxed, Ocelot’s waned.
“If what she says is true, that she’s the part of Sophie’s consciousness that wants to be controlled,” Insyte thought, “then the very act of her fighting Ocelot should weaken her…” Yet something still concerned her. Ocelot had implied that Sophie had fought back before. While Insyte was glad to know that at least a part of Enhancegirl had been fighting all along, something still concerned her.

“I don’t understand…once Enhancegirl started fighting, she should get stronger and stronger, at least relative to Ocelot…so how could she have lost against her?” As if to say ‘yeah, I know, right?’, Enhancegirl delivered a terrifically strong palm strike to Ocelot’s chin, sending the thief up – and then crashing down to the ground.

Insyte breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps the comment about previous battles was meant in some way metaphorically, or that she’d attempted to attempt to resist before. At any rate, the better nature Sophie Scott had won out in the end, the part of her that would never consider selfish indulgence over the good of another.

“Natalya…” Sophie said. “I’m so sorry…let me help you.” She came over to her, meaning to loose the telepath’s bonds.
“You don’t need to apologise, Sophie,” Insyte said. “The important thing is that you’re free now.”
“No,” Sophie said, sadly and quietly. “I’m not.” She untied Natalya, and the telepath felt as her power returned to her, her naked body once again obscured by the violet glow of her psychic power.

“Sophie, what do you mean?”
“Leave while you can. I’ve broken free before, I’ve beaten her before.” She looked down is despair and dismay. “I always win…but then…” Sophie stopped herself. “Just get out! Leave me here…”
“Sophie, I don’t understand! I -”

The psychic landscape around them seemed to become colder. The ‘sky’ darkened, and Natalya felt a terrible presence making itself known to them. It was hungry, lustful and dark – dark down to the deepest core.

Yet it had not yet taken form. Instead, a nameless dread gripped the two maidens, though for Sophie this was more of a resigned dismay and despair than real dread. A wind kicked up, carrying with it strange, dark particles of some kind. It blew past them, and over them, but it seemed to centre itself on Sophie, spiralling round her and making her lovely red hair billow up around her.

It grasped at Sophie, this wind, clutching her – and doing more besides. Natalya watched in horror, as the wind began tearing Enhancegirl’s dress, ripping thick strands from the fabric. At the same time, a figure appeared within what was now a cyclone around the long-legged damsel.

It was humanoid, vaguely, as if composed of jagged shards of charcoal, with red slits in the position where one might have guessed eyes should be. Natalya recoiled in horror at it, but Sophie just stood there, allowing its long, clawlike fingers to grasp her.

As the wind tore away her dress, and blew off her mask, the shadowy figure began binding her, wrapping her in chains, mercilessly restraining her arms behind her back, shackling her legs together, squeezing her breasts from above and below with links of cold metal.

Natalya was aghast. Sophie had fought so courageously – even with her telepathy dimmed she’d felt burning, powerful desire to fight against what held her, to save someone whom that same darkness threatened. Yet it hadn’t mattered. This new menace was not part of her. It was not a psychic phenomenon, Natalya could tell that much. It was something…else. It was evil. Not narcissistic, or greedy, or destructive – put pure, deep evil. It was like nothing Natalya had ever felt. Against that tide, Sophie couldn’t fight. How could anyone? It had nothing to do with her mental strength, this demonic failsafe that the Sin Eater had installed. It was just powerful.

And yet, perhaps there was a way. Natalya had seen what strength lay within Sophie, but this storm was suppressing it. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
“And,” she thought, “if the Sin Eater could conjure her up a nemesis…then perhaps I can give her a champion.”

“Unnhh…” Sophie moaned, as she felt the last shreds of her costume tear away, felt the shadowy hands grasping and tying her up with chains. She felt her desire to resist waning – the shade wasn’t interested in Natalya, so it didn’t matter. She could be captured, humiliated, enslaved…it didn’t matter, as long as it was just her.

“You don’t matter…” the darkness whispered in her ear. “You’re nothing. You’re a pretty girl who runs around debasing herself and battling futilely against pitiful opponents – and you’re hardly even a match for them! You like being helpless because you know that it’s what you deserve…you’re pathetic.”
“I know…I know…” Sophie mewed desperately.
“Quite right. It’s about time you realised it – everyone else has. You know she thought you were pathetic, don’t you? You know she’s given up sneering at you – now she just laughs. How could she do anything else? You didn’t really think she could be your friend, did you? Wait a moment…oh, you were beginning to think – ahahaha!”

Sophie was drowning in darkness, in toxic, all-encompassing shame. She felt as though her very self was being gradually ground away. All was darkness, and defeat. She felt her eyes begin to close. What was the point in seeing herself captive again?

Yet even in that darkness, there was light. Sophie found herself prompted to open her eyes again, and saw a point of brilliant white light burning through the dark tempest around her. It tore open a hole in the swirling, black vortex, no longer a light, but a human figure.

Sophie felt something warm in her chest, an exciting, comforting, exhilarating feeling that filled her with a deep, pervasive happiness. She felt that this light was everything good, and strong, and noble in the world – and she loved it.

The light took on a clearer shape now. Tall, and slim, but no less strong for its slenderness. It parted the darkness, and its light now coalesced clearly into the form of a woman. Light poured out from her, the demonic presence burning away in her radiant brilliance.

The chains melted from Sophie’s body, the dark figure driven away, burnt to nothing, screeching like a banshee.
“Ooh…” Sophie sighed, as – freed – she began tumbling to her knees. But the figure of light caught her, and held her up, clasping her close in feminine affection.
“You’re safe now,” she said, stroking Sophie’s hair gently. “You’re in my arms…”

The two women, Enhancegirl and her maiden of light, drew each other close. A relieved, warm smile passed over Sophie’s face, as she leaned upwards, closing her eyes. The two kissed, gently and lovingly – and light poured out from the point where their lips met, filling the whole psychic space with tender warmth…

_______________________________________________________________________________

“Aaahh!” Natalya gasped, as she withdrew from the psychic vision. She fell back, panting. “Am I…is this real?” she asked, to a bemused Jessica and Cordelia. “Please, I know this sounds like a stupid question, but is this real?” The two looked at each other and nodded. “Thank heavens…” Natalya said, getting back to her feet. “How long was I in there?”
“In where?” Cordelia replied. “Is this, like, a psychic thing? You were with your buddy there for about a minute.”

Insyte turned her head towards where Cordelia pointed, and saw Sophie sitting up, slowly, and carefully. She stood up, not looking anywhere in particular. There was a shriekingly stark psychic disconnect between before and after Insyte had started on her, and she was still weakened by her semi-chloroforming.

She knew that she had been brainwashed and enslaved, could remember that twisted mockery of a wedding, could remember capturing Natalya, and then afterwards begging the Sin Eater for punishment. She knew, even, that Insyte had freed her, that…something had gone on in her psyche, that Insyte had helped her get free – but those events had taken place deep within her subconscious.

Insyte watched her, sensing as the confusion was replaced by comprehension, a taking stock of her present situation – and then, a flicker at first, growing into a clear flame, and then, with every moment building, growing hotter, and stronger. After a few seconds, Sophie was shaking with blood red rage.

“She’ll pay…” she whispered. She leapt to her feet, adrenaline and fury pushing through her drowsiness. “She’ll fucking pay for this!” She slammed her fist down on the slab, the pain in her knuckles almost pleasurable – it was her pain, her will.

“Too damned right,” Cordelia said. “But how? She’s not like a normal super. I’ve been her…” She stopped herself. “I’ve been controlled for months. I’ve been thinking…but I still can’t figure out what her powers are. She’s got that tendril thing…she can shoot bolts of energy…”

“I don’t know how she did it,” Jessica added, “but she managed to turn off your powers, Sophie, when she first captured you.” Féa’s strict enforcer had been changed almost as much as Cordelia. She’d been a policewoman before being taken by the Sin Eater, a fraud investigator. Her harsh bossiness was replaced by a calm, considered nature, her intellect helping her to remain calm after her sudden release from Féa’s control.

“She can do that?” Natalya asked. “She could switch off our powers?”
“No,” Jessica said. “Not you or Cordelia.”
“I get it,” Sophie said. “It’s because I’m a shifter.” ‘Shifter’ was a sort of slang term for superheroes who had to turn their powers on and off, like Enhancegirl or Spectra. “She figured out how to copy the energy that turns my powers off.” She clucked her tongue. “Do any of us have the slightest idea what the hell she is?”
“She’s fucking dead is what she is,” Cordelia said. “Close enough, anyway.” She was, as she reminded herself, a superheroine. “You don’t kill people, remember?”

“What do we do about the others?” Natalya said. “If you bring them to me, I should be able to free them, but…I mean, when I fought you before I –“
“Don’t worry.” Shimmer showed why she had the name she did, as light wavered and flickered around her. She vanished from sight. “I’ll get ‘em outta the way. Enhancegirl – that’s your hero name, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll keep the rest of the goons of your back. You were doing pretty well against her before – so you and the telepath take down the ‘Sin Eater’.”

“Alright, then,” Jessica said. “I suppose that’s decided…” She turned towards the door. “We’ll try to catch her unawares,” the detective said. “And I think I know how.”
“I’m thinking the same thing,” Sophie said. “But just before we do this…” She turned to Insyte, and much to the raven-haired telepath’s surprise, she embraced her tightly.

“Thank you…” she said. “Thank you so much, Natalya…”
“It’s – it’s alright,” Natalya said, a little embarrassed.
“Thank you for not fucking listening to me. Thank you for rescuing me…” She broke away, but still clutched her by the hands. “I…god damn it, I need a better expression than ‘I owe you’!”
“It’s what we do,” Natalya said. This was an internal realisation as well – Ivan had been right. “I…it means so much to me to be able to help people…” She smiled warmly.
“Okay, mushy stuff outta the way,” Sophie said. “Let’s kick that psycho’s ass.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So many have been saved today,” Féa said, once more robed, once more presiding over her altar. “Perhaps the winds of change are blowing in our direction
“It’s wonderful, Master,” Zaria said. “You give the world so much of yourself…we can never possibly repay you.” Once more, she and Alia stood behind their Lord, shooting coy glances at each other every now and again.
“I know,” the Sin Eater replied. “But the world…alas, the world doesn’t realise the good that I do.”
“We realise it, Master,” Alia said. “We know how much we owe…”

The doors to the chapel opened, and Féa watched with satisfaction as another helpless maiden was brought ever closer to being under her power. Insyte, her wrists and ankles bound, was slung over Jessica’s shoulder, the tall brunette followed by Sophie.

Natalya appeared to be unconscious, and Féa noted a particularly humble subservience in Sophie’s countenance. She smiled. The redhead had been so fierce and powerful… and now she was little more than a simpering, servile slave-girl.

Jessica laid Natalya’s curvaceous body flat on the altar.
“She is ready for you, Master,” she said. “Soon, another fallen woman will be raised from sin.”
“One day, all will be so,” the Sin Eater declared. “Sin will be left to the vile race of men, while women shall find their virtue in obedience.”
“Yes, Master,” Sophie chimed in. “We’ll all be so virtuous and pure…so subservient to the…” She stopped. “I can’t – I can’t keep this up.”

“What? What on Earth are you talking about?” the Sin Eater said. Was this rebellion? No, that was impossible. “Speak, girl!”
“It’s just…you know what, I’ve been captured before. Hell, I’ve even head people mess with my head before. It’s the…the bullshit you’ve got coming out of our mouths. That’s the worst crime of all."
“You – how dare you say those things? I am your Master, your saviour!” the Sin Eater raged, her dark energies gathering might, manifesting in a black aura surrounding her body. “You will submit to me!”
“Submit to this, you sack of shit.”

That wasn’t quite the signal – but Natalya understood. The ropes around her wrists not knotted at all, she easily slipped them, jabbing a syringe she’d hidden in her palm towards Féa’s thigh.

But Insyte was no Enhancegirl, and her reactions weren’t all that fast. Féa saw her moving, and grabbed her wrist just before the needle penetrated her skin.
“No!” Insyte gasped. She looked up at the Sin Eater, only now seeing her for the first time. Her dark eyes, her alabaster skin, her outrageous height. Insyte looked up at the woman who’d ensnared so many others – and she was terrified.

“You little cur,” Féa hissed. “Did you really think such a simple trick would work on me?!” She took Insyte’s arm, grasping it with painful tightness, and using nothing more than her own physical strength, she hurled Insyte off the altar.

“Uhh!” she cried out, landing hard on her back. “D-don’t stop!” she called out to the others. They had no intention of so doing. Jessica was closer, and got to Féa first, striking at her with her telescoping staff.
“Even you have betrayed me?!” Féa roared, sending out a bolt of white energy towards her former acolyte.

“Aah!” Jessica dodged it, but she was no great fighter. She overbalanced, and while she didn’t fall, she made herself easy prey. Féa closed the gap between them with one stride, and gave her a vicious, backhanded slap right across her face. It sent the investigator flying, and she crashed into one of the pews.

“Enhance!” Sophie called out, transforming mid-run into her heroic identity, and activating her powers. She vaulted Natalya, kicked off the altar, and delivered a vicious flying kick to the back of the Sin Eater’s head.

“Aarrgh!” the woman cried out, falling back a few steps. She towered over the 5’6” redhead, but Sophie squatted even lower, ready to spring in any direction depending on what the Sin Eater did. She lashed out with her tendril, using it to strike, rather than grab. Sophie ducked it, feinted to the right, and then tried to close the gap.

For all her smug self-importance, Féa had seen Enhancegirl’s viper-like speed in close range combat, and elected to keep her distance. But even though she knew Enhancegirl’s skill, she didn’t for an instant consider the possibility of being defeated. Last time, she had been weakened from completing Ocelot’s ritual. This time, she was at full strength.
“Haaahhh!” she roared, and a wave of black energy burst out of her body.

“What?!” Sophie gasped. There was no way of avoiding it. She clutched her arms in front of her head to try to brace herself, but she was hurled back. She landed, catlike, on her feet. But she felt odd – tired.
“That stuff isn’t just concussive force,” she realised. “It saps your strength, too.” If the Sin Eater could do that every time she got near her, things would be very difficult for the close range fighter.


Things were proceeding much more easily for Shimmer. Even without her powers, she was more than a match for Allison, who was injured, and Claire, who simply wasn't very good. As it was, both of Féa's servants lay helplessly on the floor of the cell where Ocelot had been imprisoned, roughly bound and gagged in duct tape, and drugged into unconsciousness.
"Believe me, girls," Shimmer said, "you'll be thanking me later." She flicked her fringe, her tight, white bodysuit making her look very fetching indeed.

Cordelia turned around, eager to get back to the fight with the Sin Eater. But she found that her path was blocked.
"You...filthy, sinful traitor!" Rachel stood, a look of cold fury in her eyes. She was still in the torn remnants of her clothes from when she'd been stripped and fondled by her Master, and her rage seemed a good match for the torn clothing. "After all that the Master has done for you...have you no shame? No sense of humility?"
"You're walking around in your underwear, and you're talking to me about -" Shimmer stopped herself. "I'm sensing that reasoning with you ain't exactly gonna be productive," Shimmer said. "Look, lady, I know you're not yourself, so I'll make this as painless as I can." She cloaked herself, vanishing from Ocelot's sight.

"Show yourself, harridan!" Ocelot shouted. "If you've any shame at all then - OOFF!" Ocelot took a full power shot to the stomach. "Uurrghhh..." She fell back, winded fairly badly. "You...coward..."
"Hey, I'm just using what my mama gave me," Shimmer retorted. Treading lightly, she moved round to Ocelot's side, and kicked her in the back with her calf.

"Aahh!" Ocelot was sent sprawling onto the floor. Her head jerked back as she landed, like she'd struck it hard against the concrete floor.
"Oh, shit!" Shimmer exclaimed. "That don't look good..." Concerned that she'd broken Rachel's neck, she carefully approached her fallen body. She wasn't stupid - she knew that this could easily be a trick.

"Ooohhh..." Ocelot moaned, slowly getting up. She rubbed the part of her head which had been hit. "Where...where am I?" She looked around, dazed and disoriented. "I was...here before...captured..." She looked down at herself. "Wow, uh, okay. What the hell happened to my dress? God damn it, that thing was expensive!" She tried to get her bearings more, until her eyes came to rest on the bound, gagged pair that Shimmer had captured.

"Wait, I remember now," she said. "I was...she made me... Oh god, Sophie! I -" She started breathing hard, gasping for air. She clutched her chest. "What - the - hell - is..." She fell back against a wall, clutching her chest. She looked like she was having a full blown anxiety attack.
"Oh, Christ," Cordelia thought. "I must have shocked her out of it somehow - guess she hasn't been controlled too long..." She uncloaked, and took Ocelot firmly by the shoulders. "Hey, Rachel. Look at me." She did so. "You've been hypnotised. I mean, I don't know what else the fuck to call it - anyway, we were fighting, and you got a bump on the noggin, see? Kind of shook it out of you."
"You -" Ocelot narrowed her eyes. Her breathing slowed down - she seemed calmer. "Wait, you're...saying, I got hit on the head, and it broke my...hypnosis, or mind-control, or whatever?"
"That's about the size of it."
"Sounds pretty implausible to me."
"Well, hey, I'm not writin' the rules, am I?"
"You don't get it," Ocelot said. She smiled. "When I say 'it's implausible'..." With sudden violence, she delivered two terrifically strong chops to Cordelia's traps, the muscles between her neck and her shoulders. "...what I mean is, you're an idiot."

"Uuuunnnhhh...whh...what?" Cordelia moaned weakly. It felt as if all the strength was draining out of her. "Unnhhh...I...my body...ohhh..." She tried to become invisible, but her cloak fizzled and faded. She mewed, shocked that she'd been tricked, before falling in a crumpled, unconscious heap at Ocelot's feet.
"You stupid little whore," Ocelot hissed. "As if I could ever be such a failure."

[DrDominator9]

Friggin' Fantastic!! Great fight scenes. Remarkable psychic battles back and forth. Sexy knockouts. This chapter has it all. Heroine peril gold. You had me at "mmmpphh!"

[Damselbinder]

“Mmmhhh…mmmmhhh…” Natalya whimpered, as the busty damsel awoke from her chloroform induced sleep. Her yellow-gold eyes blinked slowly, like a moth’s wings drying in the sun for the first time. She tried to move, but she was still bound with humiliating strictness, mummified from head to toe in silk straps.

“Mmmmphh…” Natalya whimpered, feeling the soft, smooth bindings stroke her almost lovingly as she writhed within them. “It wasn’t enough just for her to capture me and bind me…she had to wrap me up like a – a helpless butterfly in a spider’s web!” The metaphor seemed almost too apt. She - beautiful, fragile – had stumbled into what amounted to a trap, caught and subdued with terrifying ease. She hadn’t realised before just what the gap between her and Enhancegirl was. Even with that static gone, she knew Sophie would have absolutely dominated her.

However, it was not Sophie standing over her. It was Cordelia (not that Natalya knew it), tall and slim, her dirty-blonde hair in a rather fetching pixie-cut. Natalya scanned her mind, and didn’t get much from her either – except that she, like Natalya, was special. Before being defeated and taken prisoner by the Sin Eater, she’d even been a superheroine – but that, alas, was all Natalya could get.

It was rather a while before Cordelia took any notice of her. Her whimpers were scarcely any louder than her sighs had been while she slept, and it was only when she happened to glance round that she saw her newest prisoner was awake.

“I hope you’re not like the other one I had in here,” she said. “Rachel made an awful fuss before she was invited into our sisterhood.” She looked at her for a moment. “You seem to have the right idea though. Nice and passive – just as a woman should be.”

“Mmmhh…” Natalya mewed, cheeks crimsoning.
“You’ve even got a sense of shame, I see.” She narrowed her eyes. “Hmm…I wonder what on Earth forced you to start dressing up like a skank and running around fighting crime? I mean, you are a superheroine, right?” Natalya didn’t feel very much like one at that moment.

“I used to be like you, you know,” she said. “Shimmer, they used to call me, on account of how I can do this.” She suddenly vanished completely from Natalya’s sight.
“Whhmphh?” Natalya gawked. Had she teleported?
“Boo,” Cordelia whispered, now standing right behind the maiden.
“Mmph!” Natalya gasped. “She can…turn invisible?”

“What really galls me,” she said, “is that I wasted so much time accomplishing so little. I was never very famous, or powerful…but I wanted to be. The whole reason that I wanted to ‘fight crime’ – as if the petty thugs I battled were the real sinners! – was to satisfy some inflated sense of self-importance. To be like a pompous, arrogant man!” She said the last word as if it were a great curse.

But her countenance altered, becoming gentle – even simpering.
“But then, she found me…freed me with bonds, stripped away all my pride and self-love…and made me a woman again – a true woman.” Had Natalya not been tightly gagged, she might have taken a moment then to draw Cordelia’s attention to the True Scotsman Fallacy, but she did not have the power so to do.

“Your thief friend, Rachel, your fellow heroine, Sophie – they all had the same sin, the same modern weakness of a desire for strength, when submission gives our sex its greatest freedom! You have that too – though you…” She sniffed Natalya’s neck, her movements quick and accurate, though graceless. “…you have it much less than I did. Still – nothing less than total purity is acceptable.”

She continued to ramble on in this vein for rather a while, seemingly with nothing better to do. In fact, the Sin Eater had appointed her a task – to drug Natalya into a dazed, pliable state to make the dark ritual all the easier. But she’d entirely forgotten it. For Insyte’s powers were not the most bluntly impressive – they were of great subtlety.

She was keeping Cordelia from paying attention to her. She was in plain sight – she couldn’t attempt to pretend she wasn’t there. But it was a great deal easier to draw Cordelia’s line of thought away from her duty, and towards the favourite pastime of any fanatic: harping on at great length about the thing about which they’re a fanatic.

As it was, Insyte took the time to really, slowly probe her mind, and find out exactly how this control worked. It certainly wasn’t simple hypnotism or even a fellow telepath. Something thoroughly un-mental was being imposed on the captives of this Sin Eater.

Again, she saw thorns, tendrils wrapped around Cordelia’s mind. Increasing the intensity of this vision, Insyte saw thorny vines binding the helpless, naked former-heroine, holding her true self in. This had been what the static had been trying to keep her from – from this, the source of the vile spell. She didn’t understand how it worked, but she was beginning to understand the parts of the mind it affected, how it suppressed certain parts, inflated others, and introduced entire alien thoughts in other places, for maximally effective control.

With this knowledge, Natalya began straining to unpeel the thorny vines from Cordelia’s mind. Though she was subtle, it took more force than she was used to to even begin to undo the Sin Eater’s work.

And something other than the sheer difficulty of the task fought against her. There was conscious, active malevolence at work, battling against Natalya’s power. Yet she could do it, could feel the thorns un-entwining themselves.

“And that’s why every man should –“ Cordelia stopped mid-sentence. A strange look came over her. “I…what the…what the fuck was I talking about?” Her whole manner changed at once. Her eyes became sharper, her lips drawn back into an asymmetrical scowl. Her accent had changed, even: there were now unmistakable notes of Australian, covered by a New York childhood. “I can’t…can’t fuckin’ remember…”

“Yes!” Natalya thought. “Yes, I’m doing it!” She peeled further and further layers off, feeling a cunning, no-nonsense personality beginning to emerge from the shell of obedience.
“You…you’re a…like me?” Cordelia shook her head from side to side. “Why does that matter…? What am I doin’ here?” A new, clearer light was appearing in her eyes.

“Cordelia!” The door had opened behind Natalya’s head. Broken from her concentration, she looked away – and cut her connection to Cordelia’s mind.
“No!” Insyte thought, her work suddenly undone. Cordelia’s change did not last, and she reverted to her manner from before.

“Cordelia,” Jessica said, striding inside. “Why do you tarry with the harridan?”
“I…I don’t know…” Cordelia said. “Something – I felt so strange…” Jessica looked at Natalya, who resumed her whimpering and mummified wriggling.
“Ah, I see. You weren’t warned about her abilities,” Jessica said. “Sister Sophie tells us that this one is a telepath. She may have been exerting her influence over your mind.”
“I see,” Cordelia replied.
“No…Sophie!” Natalya thought, dismayed that her attempt had been thwarted. “Why don’t you get that I’m trying to help you?!”

“Is there any way to stop her powers?” Cordelia asked. “Telepaths always have some kind of Achilles’ Heel.”
“She does have one, actually.” Jessica bent down to the bound heroine lying before her. “There’ll be none of your clever tricks today, buxom wench.” She took the strips of silk covering Natalya’s nose, and two covering her forehead, and pulled them up and down respectively: covering Natalya’s eyes instead.

“NNNMMPHH!!” she moaned. “NNNNNNMMMPHHH!!” With her eyes covered, Natalya’s second sight was taken from her too. She was plunged into darkness, and her powers were useless. “No…no, what am I supposed to do now?” Natalya thought, whimpering softly into her silky gag. “They’re going to…to make me a slave as well – and then no-one will be able to fight them!”

“Jessica,” Cordelia said. “I need to speak with you a moment.” She glanced at Natalya. “I don’t want the harridan to hear.”
“Well and good,” Jessica replied. The two women left, shutting the door behind them, leaving Natalya stranded in darkness and despair.

“I know that Hypnotra couldn’t hypnotise me…but this is different! It feels…oh, it feels almost demonic – wrong, just – not natural! And now I’m to be inducted into their horrible cult…” A tear escaped her eye, absorbed by the soft material. “Why didn’t I just go with Sophie? Why wasn’t I strong enough to help Rachel and stop her being kidnapped? I’ve failed…in every respect which matters.”

As she harshly chided herself, Natalya heard something. There was a kind of thump and shuffling sound behind her. She turned her head, as though she could see anything, but further answer came there none – until the door opened behind her, and Jessica’s unconscious body slumped down inside.

“Whhmphh?” Natalya heard the thud, but didn’t understand it. She heard footsteps, then felt hands on her body, her face. For just a moment, she thought that someone was doing something…untoward to her. But then, she felt someone take hold of the straps around her eyes, and yank them off with a great tear.

“Mmhh…whhhph?” Natalya mewed, as she found herself looking into the sharp, cunning eyes of Shimmer.
“So, lady,” the freed young woman said, “how the fuck you wanna do this?”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Sophie left Féa’s chamber, eventually freed by Zaria on her master’s orders, she still felt herself tingling all over. She was flushed, and moist, and felt an exquisite delight in being dominated by both her master, and her fellow bride.

She felt her long legs trembling, not covered at all by her torn gown. She could have replaced it almost at once, but she found that she had no wish to – it was a symbol that the Sin Eater had punished and humbled her, and it was only appropriate, therefore, that it be shown to the others.

“It’s so much better being like this,” she thought. She smiled, dazed with pleasure. She felt something wet on her fingers, and absentmindedly looked down at them, prompted by the mildest curiosity possible. Yet what she saw produced genuine shock.

She was bleeding. Not much – it was barely even a scratch - but blood was on her palm. The reason for this was clear, but bewildering. Her fist was clenched, clenched so tightly that she had cut her palm with her fingernails. She had no recollection of doing this, hadn’t felt any pain at all until she’d looked at it. Even now, though she did unclench her fist, it took much more effort than it should have done.

“You there, Sophie.” Jessica’s voice barked from behind her. Sophie obediently turned around. The tall brunette seemed just a little dishevelled, but Sophie had not been given any orders by her master to be investigative.
“Yes, my sister?”
“Come with me at once,” she said. “There is something wrong with this Insyte person. Her powers are not functioning as you described.”
“She needs to look at you,” Sophie said, “she can read thoughts and predict your immediate actions, and she has low level mental influence…what was wrong with that?”
“See for yourself.” She began walking away, and Sophie was more or less compelled to follow her.

She was led to the room in which she herself had been a captive, drugged into sleepy oblivion time after time after time until the Sin Eater was ready for her. She entered, and Jessica shut the door behind her.

She looked around. Insyte was nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t understand,” Sophie said. “You said that – MMGGHHMMPHH!!” Something seized her from behind. An invisible force wrapped around her waist, holding her arms at her sides. At the same time, it pressed something over her mouth and nose, something wet and sweet-smelling.

“Whhhmmphh?!” Sophie whimpered. “What?! I’m being chloroformed? But why?! And – why like this? All the Master would need would be to ask me to kneel and I – I…oohhh…” The stuff was acting fast, and the redheaded beauty was already feeling weak.

The invisible force kept a tight grip on her, and despite her struggles, Sophie was nowhere closer to freeing herself from it. On the contrary, she was growing weaker, the grip seemingly tighter. Her hands batted at whatever held her, and her smooth, white legs shifted clumsily against each other, her feet slipping, the force grabbing her having to hold her up.

She looked forward, and saw Jessica ignoring her plight. In fact, she was going to the room’s other door. She opened it – and Insyte walked in, unbound.
“Whhhmphh…?” Sophie gasped, inadvertently inviting a cloud of light-headedness as she breathed in more of the fumes. “Tr…traitor...traitor!” Sophie thought, realising that she’d been tricked.

“Don’t knock her out completely,” Insyte said. “I don’t know if this will work if she’s unconscious. But up to that – I’d say the weaker the better.”
“Mmmmhhnnmmphh?” Sophie mewed. “She’s…telling them what to do…I don’t get it…ohh…” Her eyelids were fluttering, her arms and legs going limp.

“Stop there, Shimmer,” Insyte said. The force around Sophie suddenly revealed itself to be not a force at all, but a person: Cordelia.
“Right,” she said, taking the cloth away from Sophie’s face.

“You…can’t do this…” the drugged redhead mumbled, almost whispering. Cordelia took her by the shoulders, and spun her around. “No…stop…” she pleaded, as Cordelia’s hands went to her thighs, and lifted her up and over her shoulder. “You…mustn’t…”

Her protests were ignored, and she was laid down on the slab where Natalya had been only a few moments before. She tried to fight, Cordelia swiftly grabbed her arms, and held them together, before Jessica began binding her wrists in white ropes, cinching her hands and forearms against each other.

“Wh…what’s happening?” Sophie whimpered.
“We’re trying to help you!” Jessica said. “Just like your friend here helped the two of us.”
“Wait…what?” Sophie looked up at Insyte. “No! No…oooh…you can’t do that…I belong to her…”
“You belong to no-one, sister,” Cordelia said. “Insyte, let’s do this.”

The telepath was already trying. She was getting a fix on the parts of Sophie’s mind that were restrained – but this was something else entirely. Like before she received a mental image of the constricting energies that kept Sophie enslaved, but it was not like Cordelia.

Sophie was wrapped in glowing purple chains, heavy and thick, her body – her mind – bound from head to foot, gagged too with metal links covering her mouth. Clearly she was naked underneath, for though the chains enmeshed her, the tops of her breasts, her pale shoulders, her thighs – she was clearly a bound captive, but plenty of her lovely body was being displayed.

What she had done before, Natalya judged, would not be enough this time. Using an inner core of power which she rarely had need to call upon, she manifested herself into this psychic plane. She appeared glowing with a violet light, naked, but wreathed in psychic energy.

Insyte reached out to Sophie to try to begin the process of unwrapping her. She started with her mouth, unpeeling the chains with great effort.
“It won’t work,” the astral Sophie said, as soon as her lips were free. “They’ve got me…I’m way too weak to fight it…”
“Don’t say that,” Natalya replied, “I managed to free Jessica and Cordelia, and they’d been under this spell for months! And you’re strong, Sophie, you know that. You managed to fight off the control of Hypnotra herself.”

Sophie looked into her would-be saviour’s eyes. She looked utterly defeated.
“You don’t understand…” she said. “I keep trying…but she always captures me again…”
“She? You mean this Sin Eater?”
“No.”
“Well then who – mmmphh!” Natalya felt something grabbing her, slender fingers clasping her mouth, handgagging the busty maiden. “I’ve delved too far!” Natalya realised that, in seeking to save Sophie, she had opened herself up to terrible peril.

Looking down at herself, Natalya saw fast hands tying her up in purple cords, lashing her wrists behind her back, binding her elbows together, wrapping ropes around her chest to hold her arms in place.
“No!” Insyte’s astral form cried out into the darkness of the psychic plane. She felt someone take her soft, white shoulders, and spin her around. She found herself looking into a familiar face.

“This is my house, sugar,” said the thief. “You play by my rules…” she grinned, and knelt at Natalya’s feet. This was no gesture of submission. Ocelot – or at least some astral shade of her – was simply binding Natalya’s legs, too.

“Stop!” Natalya bellowed, but her command had no effect. Her knees were cinched together, then her ankles. Now tightly tied up, the naked damsel found her power waning, her corona of psychic energy fading away. “What? I’m…getting weaker…”
“That’s what happens to any sexy super-bimbos who wander in here,” Ocelot said, grinning. She shoved Natalya in the chest, and she fell, tumbling helplessly down to the ground.

“Uuuhhh…” Natalya moaned, writhing in her bonds, feeling her powers suppressed. “It’s a trap…” she thought. “For anyone trying to free her…now I’ve been captured too!” The psychic glow around her body faded, her nude body now more and more on show.
“So stupid…” Ocelot said, sauntering over to the beautiful, chained redhead. “As if she could be anyone’s but mine…”

She took Sophie by the chin, and kissed her, the redhead’s eyes meekly falling shut as she returned her captor’s kiss. The thief’s hands went all over her, lustily grasping at her thighs, her bosom, eliciting kittenish whimpers from the enslaved maiden, her lightly-freckled cheeks blushing.

“Sophie!” Insyte called out. “Don’t let her do this to you! You don’t want this!”
“Oh but she does want it,” Ocelot said, rubbing her calf against Sophie’s. “Tell her, Pippi.”
“It’s true,” Sophie said. “Before…all this…Ocelot captured me. I was paralysed…totally helpless…then wrapped up tight and wriggling…and I liked it…she dominated me and I liked it…”

The choice of Ocelot as the sentinel over Sophie’s mind made a great deal of sense now. The Sin Eater was using her own hidden desires as chains in themselves, linking her own slavery to her submissive feelings towards Ocelot.

But Insyte could feel that there was something else there, something in Sophie’s mind that was being held back. It was a far deeper, stronger desire, like a warm river running under the earth, strong but hidden in inky blackness. Yet it was tightly sealed in – not by the spell, as Insyte was surprised to discover, but by Sophie herself.
“It could help her…it could save her!” Natalya realised. “Why is she keeping it locked away?” Her power ebbing away from her, Natalya could only take the merest glance at the barrier Sophie had erected. There was a sense of…unworthiness, as if she didn’t deserve, or could never expect to have, the thing she wanted.

But by the time Insyte realised this, her powers had waned so much that she could look no further. Her bonds seemed to become tighter.
“I’m…I’m defeated…” Insyte whispered despairingly, all the strength drawn out of her.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” Ocelot said to Sophie. “Back in my arms…warm and soft and helpless…”
“I – mmmphh…” Sophie’s mouth was covered by Ocelot’s hand before she could answer. She looked into her captor’s eyes, whimpering softly. “Mmmhhh-nnmmphh…”
“I didn’t actually need an answer, Pippi,” Ocelot said. “I already know that I’m right.” Sophie cast her eyes down, shamefaced and humiliated.

“Please!” Insyte begged, struggling in the ropes which drained away all of the buxom damsel’s psychic strength. “Sophie, please don’t let her do this to you!”
“Oh, sweetie, it isn’t her that you need to worry about now,” Ocelot said. “It’s you.”

She walked over to the naked, bound telepath, and easily hoisted the curvy maiden up to her feet. She tied her even tighter, wrapping ropes around and between her bare breasts, over her shoulders, and back around into a restrictive harness.
“No! You can’t do this! I – won’t let you!” She writhed, feeling Ocelot’s hands all over her, but she couldn’t fight back. “How dare you!” she gasped, as the thief’s fingers stroked her, cupped her breasts, squeezed her shoulders.


“How dare you, Natalya?” Ocelot replied. “Sophie is my property. My slave-girl. And she wants it. I mean, you and I both know that I’m not real. I’m a psychic manifestation, created by the woman you’re fighting. But she made me using Sophie’s psyche. I’m everything she’s not willing to admit that she wants. I’m the whip, the chain, the black-gloved hand slapping her on that pretty little tush of hers.” She smiled, holding Natalya close as she stroked the white skin above her breasts.

”She dreams sometimes about the times she’s been kidnapped, you know.” Ocelot grinned wickedly. “You’re in them sometimes. Remember when you were all captured when you came to rescue her? She certainly does. She remembers you and Spectra writhing sleepily against her when you were stuffed in that little closet, so weak and soft and helpless...” She put her hands on Natalya’s hips, and suddenly the pale damsel felt physically weak, like she was being drugged.

“Unnhh…” she moaned. “What’s…happening to me…?”
“You’ve entered my house, Natalya…” Ocelot whispered in her ear, touching her inner thighs. “So now you’re going to have to stay…for a long time…” She began kissing Natalya’s slender neck.
“Uhhhh…” Natalya moaned, forbidden pleasures running through her body. “No…you can’t…make me…ooohhh…”
“Mmmm…” Ocelot sighed, squeezing Natalya’s soft, white shoulders. “Such a fine woman…so soft…as delicate and pure as porcelain…”
“You mustn’t…I – how are you doing this…? I don’t – don’t even like girls that way…” Ocelot laughed, giving her a playful smack on her tight behind. Natalya gasped, and blushed.
“That doesn’t matter here, Little Miss Telepath,” Ocelot said. “You’re going to feel whatever I want you to feel.”

She laid Natalya down, spinning the naked maiden over, before straddling her, pressing her waist against Natalya’s ass. She reached underneath her, pulling her torso up and squeezing her round, milky-white breasts.
“Mmm…fine pair of double d’s you got there, honey,” Ocelot giggled. “A shame you’re so repressed…I bet there’s plenty of guys who’d love to do what I’m gonna do to you.”
“No…oooh…no…no, no no!” Natalya begged, desperately trying to restore her power, but trapped completely.
“’No, no, no!’” Ocelot laughingly imitated, gripping Natalya’s pale thighs, the phantom doing whatever she pleased with the beautiful young woman she’d esnared.
“No…” Natalya pleadingly whimpered, feeling faint with humiliation, unable to put it into her mind that this was all illusion.
“No!”

Ocelot froze. It had not been she who had echoed Natalya’s protest. She turned around, to see Sophie desperately writhing in her chains, fighting madly to get free.
“You can take me…you can have me…” she said. “But that doesn’t mean you get anyone else! I won’t…let you do this to her as well! Enhance!”

There was a searing, white hot light, blinding – burning. Ocelot shielded her eyes, as the light built and built in intensity – until with a final, shrieking explosion, the chains around Sophie’s body were shattered, and she was clad in the gold, sunlike brilliance of her alternate identity.

“You really want to do this again?” Ocelot said, standing to face her. “It’s not going to work, Pippi. You know that.”
“Fuck you!” Enhancegirl screamed back. “I won’t let you have her! She has nothing to do with this!” She leapt forward, and aimed a furious, flying kick at the phantom thief.

Ocelot stepped to the side, but Enhancegirl didn’t allow her to take advantage, assailing her with a flurry of furious rabbit punches. Insyte watched Sophie’s enraged comeback with amazement.
“She’s so strong…”

“Gyaahh!” Enhancegirl roared, throwing everything she had at Ocelot. But this was not, after all, a real fight. Her powers meant only as much as the psychic plane allowed them to mean. The fight was, therefore, not as uneven as it should have been. Ocelot matched Sophie blow for blow.

Yet even so, as Sophie’s strength waxed, Ocelot’s waned.
“If what she says is true, that she’s the part of Sophie’s consciousness that wants to be controlled,” Insyte thought, “then the very act of her fighting Ocelot should weaken her…” Yet something still concerned her. Ocelot had implied that Sophie had fought back before. While Insyte was glad to know that at least a part of Enhancegirl had been fighting all along, something still concerned her.

“I don’t understand…once Enhancegirl started fighting, she should get stronger and stronger, at least relative to Ocelot…so how could she have lost against her?” As if to say ‘yeah, I know, right?’, Enhancegirl delivered a terrifically strong palm strike to Ocelot’s chin, sending the thief up – and then crashing down to the ground.

Insyte breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps the comment about previous battles was meant in some way metaphorically, or that she’d attempted to attempt to resist before. At any rate, the better nature Sophie Scott had won out in the end, the part of her that would never consider selfish indulgence over the good of another.

“Natalya…” Sophie said. “I’m so sorry…let me help you.” She came over to her, meaning to loose the telepath’s bonds.
“You don’t need to apologise, Sophie,” Insyte said. “The important thing is that you’re free now.”
“No,” Sophie said, sadly and quietly. “I’m not.” She untied Natalya, and the telepath felt as her power returned to her, her naked body once again obscured by the violet glow of her psychic power.

“Sophie, what do you mean?”
“Leave while you can. I’ve broken free before, I’ve beaten her before.” She looked down is despair and dismay. “I always win…but then…” Sophie stopped herself. “Just get out! Leave me here…”
“Sophie, I don’t understand! I -”

The psychic landscape around them seemed to become colder. The ‘sky’ darkened, and Natalya felt a terrible presence making itself known to them. It was hungry, lustful and dark – dark down to the deepest core.

Yet it had not yet taken form. Instead, a nameless dread gripped the two maidens, though for Sophie this was more of a resigned dismay and despair than real dread. A wind kicked up, carrying with it strange, dark particles of some kind. It blew past them, and over them, but it seemed to centre itself on Sophie, spiralling round her and making her lovely red hair billow up around her.

It grasped at Sophie, this wind, clutching her – and doing more besides. Natalya watched in horror, as the wind began tearing Enhancegirl’s dress, ripping thick strands from the fabric. At the same time, a figure appeared within what was now a cyclone around the long-legged damsel.

It was humanoid, vaguely, as if composed of jagged shards of charcoal, with red slits in the position where one might have guessed eyes should be. Natalya recoiled in horror at it, but Sophie just stood there, allowing its long, clawlike fingers to grasp her.

As the wind tore away her dress, and blew off her mask, the shadowy figure began binding her, wrapping her in chains, mercilessly restraining her arms behind her back, shackling her legs together, squeezing her breasts from above and below with links of cold metal.

Natalya was aghast. Sophie had fought so courageously – even with her telepathy dimmed she’d felt burning, powerful desire to fight against what held her, to save someone whom that same darkness threatened. Yet it hadn’t mattered. This new menace was not part of her. It was not a psychic phenomenon, Natalya could tell that much. It was something…else. It was evil. Not narcissistic, or greedy, or destructive – put pure, deep evil. It was like nothing Natalya had ever felt. Against that tide, Sophie couldn’t fight. How could anyone? It had nothing to do with her mental strength, this demonic failsafe that the Sin Eater had installed. It was just powerful.

And yet, perhaps there was a way. Natalya had seen what strength lay within Sophie, but this storm was suppressing it. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
“And,” she thought, “if the Sin Eater could conjure her up a nemesis…then perhaps I can give her a champion.”

“Unnhh…” Sophie moaned, as she felt the last shreds of her costume tear away, felt the shadowy hands grasping and tying her up with chains. She felt her desire to resist waning – the shade wasn’t interested in Natalya, so it didn’t matter. She could be captured, humiliated, enslaved…it didn’t matter, as long as it was just her.

“You don’t matter…” the darkness whispered in her ear. “You’re nothing. You’re a pretty girl who runs around debasing herself and battling futilely against pitiful opponents – and you’re hardly even a match for them! You like being helpless because you know that it’s what you deserve…you’re pathetic.”
“I know…I know…” Sophie mewed desperately.
“Quite right. It’s about time you realised it – everyone else has. You know she thought you were pathetic, don’t you? You know she’s given up sneering at you – now she just laughs. How could she do anything else? You didn’t really think she could be your friend, did you? Wait a moment…oh, you were beginning to think – ahahaha!”

Sophie was drowning in darkness, in toxic, all-encompassing shame. She felt as though her very self was being gradually ground away. All was darkness, and defeat. She felt her eyes begin to close. What was the point in seeing herself captive again?

Yet even in that darkness, there was light. Sophie found herself prompted to open her eyes again, and saw a point of brilliant white light burning through the dark tempest around her. It tore open a hole in the swirling, black vortex, no longer a light, but a human figure.

Sophie felt something warm in her chest, an exciting, comforting, exhilarating feeling that filled her with a deep, pervasive happiness. She felt that this light was everything good, and strong, and noble in the world – and she loved it.

The light took on a clearer shape now. Tall, and slim, but no less strong for its slenderness. It parted the darkness, and its light now coalesced clearly into the form of a woman. Light poured out from her, the demonic presence burning away in her radiant brilliance.

The chains melted from Sophie’s body, the dark figure driven away, burnt to nothing, screeching like a banshee.
“Ooh…” Sophie sighed, as – freed – she began tumbling to her knees. But the figure of light caught her, and held her up, clasping her close in feminine affection.
“You’re safe now,” she said, stroking Sophie’s hair gently. “You’re in my arms…”

The two women, Enhancegirl and her maiden of light, drew each other close. A relieved, warm smile passed over Sophie’s face, as she leaned upwards, closing her eyes. The two kissed, gently and lovingly – and light poured out from the point where their lips met, filling the whole psychic space with tender warmth…

_______________________________________________________________________________

“Aaahh!” Natalya gasped, as she withdrew from the psychic vision. She fell back, panting. “Am I…is this real?” she asked, to a bemused Jessica and Cordelia. “Please, I know this sounds like a stupid question, but is this real?” The two looked at each other and nodded. “Thank heavens…” Natalya said, getting back to her feet. “How long was I in there?”
“In where?” Cordelia replied. “Is this, like, a psychic thing? You were with your buddy there for about a minute.”

Insyte turned her head towards where Cordelia pointed, and saw Sophie sitting up, slowly, and carefully. She stood up, not looking anywhere in particular. There was a shriekingly stark psychic disconnect between before and after Insyte had started on her, and she was still weakened by her semi-chloroforming.

She knew that she had been brainwashed and enslaved, could remember that twisted mockery of a wedding, could remember capturing Natalya, and then afterwards begging the Sin Eater for punishment. She knew, even, that Insyte had freed her, that…something had gone on in her psyche, that Insyte had helped her get free – but those events had taken place deep within her subconscious.

Insyte watched her, sensing as the confusion was replaced by comprehension, a taking stock of her present situation – and then, a flicker at first, growing into a clear flame, and then, with every moment building, growing hotter, and stronger. After a few seconds, Sophie was shaking with blood red rage.

“She’ll pay…” she whispered. She leapt to her feet, adrenaline and fury pushing through her drowsiness. “She’ll fucking pay for this!” She slammed her fist down on the slab, the pain in her knuckles almost pleasurable – it was her pain, her will.

“Too damned right,” Cordelia said. “But how? She’s not like a normal super. I’ve been her…” She stopped herself. “I’ve been controlled for months. I’ve been thinking…but I still can’t figure out what her powers are. She’s got that tendril thing…she can shoot bolts of energy…”

“I don’t know how she did it,” Jessica added, “but she managed to turn off your powers, Sophie, when she first captured you.” Féa’s strict enforcer had been changed almost as much as Cordelia. She’d been a policewoman before being taken by the Sin Eater, a fraud investigator. Her harsh bossiness was replaced by a calm, considered nature, her intellect helping her to remain calm after her sudden release from Féa’s control.

“She can do that?” Natalya asked. “She could switch off our powers?”
“No,” Jessica said. “Not you or Cordelia.”
“I get it,” Sophie said. “It’s because I’m a shifter.” ‘Shifter’ was a sort of slang term for superheroes who had to turn their powers on and off, like Enhancegirl or Spectra. “She figured out how to copy the energy that turns my powers off.” She clucked her tongue. “Do any of us have the slightest idea what the hell she is?”
“She’s fucking dead is what she is,” Cordelia said. “Close enough, anyway.” She was, as she reminded herself, a superheroine. “You don’t kill people, remember?”

“What do we do about the others?” Natalya said. “If you bring them to me, I should be able to free them, but…I mean, when I fought you before I –“
“Don’t worry.” Shimmer showed why she had the name she did, as light wavered and flickered around her. She vanished from sight. “I’ll get ‘em outta the way. Enhancegirl – that’s your hero name, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll keep the rest of the goons of your back. You were doing pretty well against her before – so you and the telepath take down the ‘Sin Eater’.”

“Alright, then,” Jessica said. “I suppose that’s decided…” She turned towards the door. “We’ll try to catch her unawares,” the detective said. “And I think I know how.”
“I’m thinking the same thing,” Sophie said. “But just before we do this…” She turned to Insyte, and much to the raven-haired telepath’s surprise, she embraced her tightly.

“Thank you…” she said. “Thank you so much, Natalya…”
“It’s – it’s alright,” Natalya said, a little embarrassed.
“Thank you for not fucking listening to me. Thank you for rescuing me…” She broke away, but still clutched her by the hands. “I…god damn it, I need a better expression than ‘I owe you’!”
“It’s what we do,” Natalya said. This was an internal realisation as well – Ivan had been right. “I…it means so much to me to be able to help people…” She smiled warmly.
“Okay, mushy stuff outta the way,” Sophie said. “Let’s kick that psycho’s ass.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So many have been saved today,” Féa said, once more robed, once more presiding over her altar. “Perhaps the winds of change are blowing in our direction
“It’s wonderful, Master,” Zaria said. “You give the world so much of yourself…we can never possibly repay you.” Once more, she and Alia stood behind their Lord, shooting coy glances at each other every now and again.
“I know,” the Sin Eater replied. “But the world…alas, the world doesn’t realise the good that I do.”
“We realise it, Master,” Alia said. “We know how much we owe…”

The doors to the chapel opened, and Féa watched with satisfaction as another helpless maiden was brought ever closer to being under her power. Insyte, her wrists and ankles bound, was slung over Jessica’s shoulder, the tall brunette followed by Sophie.

Natalya appeared to be unconscious, and Féa noted a particularly humble subservience in Sophie’s countenance. She smiled. The redhead had been so fierce and powerful… and now she was little more than a simpering, servile slave-girl.

Jessica laid Natalya’s curvaceous body flat on the altar.
“She is ready for you, Master,” she said. “Soon, another fallen woman will be raised from sin.”
“One day, all will be so,” the Sin Eater declared. “Sin will be left to the vile race of men, while women shall find their virtue in obedience.”
“Yes, Master,” Sophie chimed in. “We’ll all be so virtuous and pure…so subservient to the…” She stopped. “I can’t – I can’t keep this up.”

“What? What on Earth are you talking about?” the Sin Eater said. Was this rebellion? No, that was impossible. “Speak, girl!”
“It’s just…you know what, I’ve been captured before. Hell, I’ve even head people mess with my head before. It’s the…the bullshit you’ve got coming out of our mouths. That’s the worst crime of all."
“You – how dare you say those things? I am your Master, your saviour!” the Sin Eater raged, her dark energies gathering might, manifesting in a black aura surrounding her body. “You will submit to me!”
“Submit to this, you sack of shit.”

That wasn’t quite the signal – but Natalya understood. The ropes around her wrists not knotted at all, she easily slipped them, jabbing a syringe she’d hidden in her palm towards Féa’s thigh.

But Insyte was no Enhancegirl, and her reactions weren’t all that fast. Féa saw her moving, and grabbed her wrist just before the needle penetrated her skin.
“No!” Insyte gasped. She looked up at the Sin Eater, only now seeing her for the first time. Her dark eyes, her alabaster skin, her outrageous height. Insyte looked up at the woman who’d ensnared so many others – and she was terrified.

“You little cur,” Féa hissed. “Did you really think such a simple trick would work on me?!” She took Insyte’s arm, grasping it with painful tightness, and using nothing more than her own physical strength, she hurled Insyte off the altar.

“Uhh!” she cried out, landing hard on her back. “D-don’t stop!” she called out to the others. They had no intention of so doing. Jessica was closer, and got to Féa first, striking at her with her telescoping staff.
“Even you have betrayed me?!” Féa roared, sending out a bolt of white energy towards her former acolyte.

“Aah!” Jessica dodged it, but she was no great fighter. She overbalanced, and while she didn’t fall, she made herself easy prey. Féa closed the gap between them with one stride, and gave her a vicious, backhanded slap right across her face. It sent the investigator flying, and she crashed into one of the pews.

“Enhance!” Sophie called out, transforming mid-run into her heroic identity, and activating her powers. She vaulted Natalya, kicked off the altar, and delivered a vicious flying kick to the back of the Sin Eater’s head.

“Aarrgh!” the woman cried out, falling back a few steps. She towered over the 5’6” redhead, but Sophie squatted even lower, ready to spring in any direction depending on what the Sin Eater did. She lashed out with her tendril, using it to strike, rather than grab. Sophie ducked it, feinted to the right, and then tried to close the gap.

For all her smug self-importance, Féa had seen Enhancegirl’s viper-like speed in close range combat, and elected to keep her distance. But even though she knew Enhancegirl’s skill, she didn’t for an instant consider the possibility of being defeated. Last time, she had been weakened from completing Ocelot’s ritual. This time, she was at full strength.
“Haaahhh!” she roared, and a wave of black energy burst out of her body.

“What?!” Sophie gasped. There was no way of avoiding it. She clutched her arms in front of her head to try to brace herself, but she was hurled back. She landed, catlike, on her feet. But she felt odd – tired.
“That stuff isn’t just concussive force,” she realised. “It saps your strength, too.” If the Sin Eater could do that every time she got near her, things would be very difficult for the close range fighter.


Things were proceeding much more easily for Shimmer. Even without her powers, she was more than a match for Allison, who was injured, and Claire, who simply wasn't very good. As it was, both of Féa's servants lay helplessly on the floor of the cell where Ocelot had been imprisoned, roughly bound and gagged in duct tape, and drugged into unconsciousness.
"Believe me, girls," Shimmer said, "you'll be thanking me later." She flicked her fringe, her tight, white bodysuit making her look very fetching indeed.

Cordelia turned around, eager to get back to the fight with the Sin Eater. But she found that her path was blocked.
"You...filthy, sinful traitor!" Rachel stood, a look of cold fury in her eyes. She was still in the torn remnants of her clothes from when she'd been stripped and fondled by her Master, and her rage seemed a good match for the torn clothing. "After all that the Master has done for you...have you no shame? No sense of humility?"
"You're walking around in your underwear, and you're talking to me about -" Shimmer stopped herself. "I'm sensing that reasoning with you ain't exactly gonna be productive," Shimmer said. "Look, lady, I know you're not yourself, so I'll make this as painless as I can." She cloaked herself, vanishing from Ocelot's sight.

"Show yourself, harridan!" Ocelot shouted. "If you've any shame at all then - OOFF!" Ocelot took a full power shot to the stomach. "Uurrghhh..." She fell back, winded fairly badly. "You...coward..."
"Hey, I'm just using what my mama gave me," Shimmer retorted. Treading lightly, she moved round to Ocelot's side, and kicked her in the back with her calf.

"Aahh!" Ocelot was sent sprawling onto the floor. Her head jerked back as she landed, like she'd struck it hard against the concrete floor.
"Oh, shit!" Shimmer exclaimed. "That don't look good..." Concerned that she'd broken Rachel's neck, she carefully approached her fallen body. She wasn't stupid - she knew that this could easily be a trick.

"Ooohhh..." Ocelot moaned, slowly getting up. She rubbed the part of her head which had been hit. "Where...where am I?" She looked around, dazed and disoriented. "I was...here before...captured..." She looked down at herself. "Wow, uh, okay. What the hell happened to my dress? God damn it, that thing was expensive!" She tried to get her bearings more, until her eyes came to rest on the bound, gagged pair that Shimmer had captured.

"Wait, I remember now," she said. "I was...she made me... Oh god, Sophie! I -" She started breathing hard, gasping for air. She clutched her chest. "What - the - hell - is..." She fell back against a wall, clutching her chest. She looked like she was having a full blown anxiety attack.
"Oh, Christ," Cordelia thought. "I must have shocked her out of it somehow - guess she hasn't been controlled too long..." She uncloaked, and took Ocelot firmly by the shoulders. "Hey, Rachel. Look at me." She did so. "You've been hypnotised. I mean, I don't know what else the fuck to call it - anyway, we were fighting, and you got a bump on the noggin, see? Kind of shook it out of you."
"You -" Ocelot narrowed her eyes. Her breathing slowed down - she seemed calmer. "Wait, you're...saying, I got hit on the head, and it broke my...hypnosis, or mind-control, or whatever?"
"That's about the size of it."
"Sounds pretty implausible to me."
"Well, hey, I'm not writin' the rules, am I?"
"You don't get it," Ocelot said. She smiled. "When I say 'it's implausible'..." With sudden violence, she delivered two terrifically strong chops to Cordelia's traps, the muscles between her neck and her shoulders. "...what I mean is, you're an idiot."

"Uuuunnnhhh...whh...what?" Cordelia moaned weakly. It felt as if all the strength was draining out of her. "Unnhhh...I...my body...ohhh..." She tried to become invisible, but her cloak fizzled and faded. She mewed, shocked that she'd been tricked, before falling in a crumpled, unconscious heap at Ocelot's feet.
"You stupid little whore," Ocelot hissed. "As if I could ever be such a failure."

[Damselbinder]

"Aaaghhh!" Sophie cried, as she was again thrown back by a wave of dark energy. Féa had hit on a winning strategy, and was mercilessly abusing it. Every time she got anywhere near her, another weakening burst of energy would throw her back. "Ughh...hhh..." Sophie breathed hard. She was tired - and it wasn't that dangerously pleasant, soft weakness that being chloroformed gave her - it felt like she'd been strenuously exercising for hours.

And, at the same time, she'd been dodging Féa's dark tendril, and her energy bolts. For all her incredible reactions, there had been far too many near misses.
"I can't keep this up," Sophie realised. "What the hell am I going to do?"

Insyte had managed to drag Jessica out of the firing line, and was shielding herself behind a strong stone pillar from the Sin Eater's attacks. She didn't know how to help Enhancegirl. She knew, though, that she had to do something. She'd taken some brief glances at Féa's mind, but was wary of getting too close. Still, if she made to attack her, she might be able to prove sufficiently deep that she could take Féa's attention off Sophie.

She came out from her hiding spot, grabbing Jessica's nightstick. She ran at Féa from the opposite direction that Enhancegirl was attacking. The Sin Eater still focussed on Sophie, but semi-blindly sent some energy blasts in Natalya's direction. The randomness meant that it was harder for Natalya to dodge. But she managed, and tried to reach out further into the mind of the Sin Eater.

This was a mistake.

"AAAAIIEEEEE!!" Natalya screamed, clutching her head in pain. Her mind was assailed by forces beyond her comprehension - flashes of darkness, of huge creatures composed of flame and shadow, of violet crystals possessed of horrific power, of non-Euclidean horrors lashing out at her fragile psyche with a thousand needles and a thousand jagged blades.

Reeling, the raven-haired maiden broke the connection, but the damage was done. Horrifically overwhelmed by the terrors she'd found within Féa's mind, she fell backwards, fainting dead away as a sort of psychic self-defence measure.
"Oh, that is it!" Enhancegirl bellowed, seeing her rescuer fall. "You are done!" Gathering her strength, she forced herself into a run. Jessica's nightstick had rolled away from its wielder, and Sophie snatched it up. She drew her arm back, and concentrated.

She allowed herself to feel every mote of dust against her skin, the warmth from the bodies around her, allowed herself to smell the tiny scraps of moss that grew in the cracks in the stones, the scent of sweat and effort from her own skin, allowed herself to see the most minuscule details of every surface, every nook and cranny, every tension and weight shift from her enemy's body - everything. She was pushing her powers as far as they would go, for one reason and one reason only.

"Hyyaarghh!" Sophie threw the nightstick with all her might. It bounced off one of the pillars, then off the ceiling, and continued to ricochet around the room.
"I've seen this trick," Féa said, and moved out of the way as it flew towards her, bouncing off the back wall instead. The Sin Eater grinned - but Sophie wasn't finished. She'd also grabbed a thin, metal candlestick from where it hung on one of the pillars. Swinging it round like she was doing the shot-put, she hurled the candlestick out, where it collided with the nightstick in midair. They both started bouncing wildly, before hitting each other again at an odd angle, causing them both to shoot up from the floor - and strike Féa in the stomach and the throat.

"Hgghhhkk!" Féa gargled, winded and struggling to breathe. Her legs shook, and she fell, just barely supporting herself by grabbing the side of the altar. She gasped for breath, as Sophie slowly approached her.
"How does it feel, huh?" Sophie said. "How does it feel being helpless, like you can't do anything to fight back?" She clasped her hands together, and swung both fists down into Féa's back, slamming her down on the floor.
"Urrghh!!" she cried, hitting the ground hard - a peril of her great height.

"Sin Eater, my ass!" Enhancegirl spat. "You don't even believe your own garbage! You're just a dominatrix with some freaky powers...god damn it, I have more respect for Madam Black than I do for you! At least she knew she was a shit-stain on humanity's backside."
"You...sinful...weak-willed -!"
"Oh, shove it up your ass," the redhead hissed. "Tell me, in what religion does it say 'dressing up in tight outfits - no, no, no; but kidnapping innocent people, brainwashing them, and rubbing your hands all over them - yes, yes, yes! Huh?"
"My masters...care nothing for the primitive, worthless faiths of this world?"
"Yeah, that doesn't exactly -" Sophie paused. "Wait...your masters?"

Sophie didn't have time to ponder the significance of Féa's remark. She felt something at the edge of her senses, someone else coming in. She recognised her scent, recognised it all too well by now.
"Ocelot..." She turned around, ready to face her erstwhile bride.

Ocelot walked slowly, carefully. Dressed in almost nothing at all, she nevertheless put on a breezy confidence. "Sophie..." she whispered, the gentle sibilance sending tingles down the backs of Sophie's legs. "Sophie, my love...why do you want to do this again?"
"H-hey..." Sophie said, remembering that gorgeous as she was, this woman was her enemy. "Last...last time we fought fairly, I was schooling you."
"That's not exactly how I remember it...but that's not what I mean," Rachel replied. "I mean why go back to this? The fighting, the struggle, that only ever ends in defeat? Why not just accept that I've already defeated you - and fall back into my arms..." Listening to the way she talked was like being hypnotised, eliciting just the right reaction at just the right moment to keep Sophie on a string.

"No!" Sophie barked, finding her resilience. "I don't want you - not...not like this..."
"How would you like me then, Sophie?" Ocelot said. "I'm sure our Master will permit us...certain privileges..."
"Is that how you want to live, Ocelot?" Sophie replied. She watched her closely for an attack. Even brainwashed, she was cunning. "You want to be kept on her leash? You want to be the one in charge, don't you?" She hesitated. A grin came across her face. "Well," she thought, "I guess turnabout is fair play..."

"I mean..." She tucked her arms behind her back, batting her eyelashes coquettishly. "Don't you want to be the one in charge? Don't you want to be the one with all the power? I mean...before...when you had me all wrapped up...you didn't want Féa leaning over your shoulder and telling you you had permission, did you?"
"Oh, right, 'cause you know me soooo well, don't you, Pippi," Ocelot said. "Didn't realise that had stuck in your memory so much."
"Well, you make a pretty strong first impression." Sophie bit her bottom lip. "And I doubt you'd be satisfied with just one."
"Well aren't we a little minx?" Ocelot replied. "I'm almost impressed, I -" She blinked, her head shaking. "D-don't you try to get into my head!" Sophie smiled. It was working.

But her game of mental cat and mouse was taking too much of her concentration. She wasn't paying enough attention to see the Sin Eater recovering a little from Sophie's vicious assault. She opened her hand, and sent a white blast of energy towards her red-haired foe. Sophie didn't see it in time. She tried to get out of the way, but it was moving much too fast. It hit her square in the stomach.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Sophie moaned, as energy cascaded around her, sucking the strength right out of her body. "Uuuuuuhhh..." She felt her limbs growing heavy, and weak. Her knees trembled, and Enhancegirl tumbled to the floor, landing on her knees, before slumping onto her side. "Unhh...n-no..." she mewed, turning onto her back, desperately struggling to find her strength, but coming up short. "I can't lose now...I'm so...close!"

Whatever spell Sophie had been weaving, its magics ended. Ocelot was fully under her master's thumb once more. She stood over Sophie, putting her foot on the fallen maiden's chest.
"Surprise, surprise, Enhancegirl," Ocelot said. "You lose."
"No...unnhhh..." Sophie whimpered, batting feebly at Ocelot's leg. "I can't...too weak..."

"Bring her here," Féa commanded, leaning against the back wall for support. "Onto the altar." Rachel nodded. She leaned down, taking Sophie by her bare shoulders, and lifting her up to her feet.
"No..." Sophie whimpered. "Please...don't listen to her..."
"I listen only to her." Rachel reached down, grabbing Sophie's thighs, before lifting the slender redhead up and over her shoulder, allowing her slim arms to flop down her back, her long legs draped over her front.

"No...nnoooooooo..." Sophie mewed, her whole body exhausted and weak as she was carried by her fellow bride, feeling terribly like she'd fallen at the last hurdle. "Unnhh..." she mewed, as she was laid down on the Sin Eater's altar.
"Again you defy your rightful master..." Féa said, standing back to her full height with some difficulty. "But now...I shall remind you...I shall bind you in the chains of virtue, and you shall never be free again!"
"Uuuhh...you...can't do this..." Sophie's voice was shaking. "I can't be a slave again...I can't!"

The weakened redhead writhed feebly on the altar, her long legs shifting against each other. She watched as the Sin Eater gathered up even greater quantities of energy, her dark aura now spreading across the ceiling, across the wall, like a wave of fat flies.
"You...Sophie Scott..." Féa said, "will now belong to me - forever!"

The wave of darkness crashed down, enveloping Sophie, washing over her, seizing and squeezing her body, drowning her in darkness.
"Unnhhh...oohhh..." Sophie moaned, as the darkness sapped her strength, her resistance. She could feel it already, feel the submissiveness, the pleasure in obedience and meek servitude. "N-no...I...won't go back to that!"
"You will," Féa said, "you already are."

Natalya's eyes fluttered, as the swooning maiden came to. It took her a few precious seconds to recover, and when she did she almost fainted dead away again. Sophie captured - the darkness forced upon her once more. The Sin Eater, standing victorious over her defeated foe.
"NO!" Natalya screamed. She drew Féa's attention.

"You have no right to object, harridan," Féa said. "I am saving your...friend...and I assure you, you will be next."
"No, you mustn't!" Natalya shouted, staring in Féa's direction, desperation writ large all over her face.
"You deign to order me?" Féa said, almost amused as Sophie writhed beneath her. "Or are you attempting to use those weak powers of yours?"
"Yes," Natalya said, simply.
"They have no potency, girl," Féa replied. "I cannot even feel you trying to affect me."
"That's because I'm not using them on you."
"Hmm?"

Féa turned around just in time. In time to see the attack coming, that is, not to do anything about it. She saw Rachel - Ocelot - having leaped into the air, her arm drawn back, her teeth bared like a wildcat, her eyes filled with tempestuous fury.
"AAAAAGGHHHHHH!!!" she roared, as she launched the punch like a piston firing. It smashed right into the side of Féa's skull, sending her flying off the platform where her altar was.

She sailed through the air, before all seven feet of her crashed down onto the ground.
"Urrghhh..." she groaned, dazed by Ocelot's furious blow. The thief stood over her, panting, her nakedness now giving her a sense of primal wildness, rather than vulnerability.
"What you did to me..." Ocelot said. "You sick, twisted fucking psychotic - I am gonna do ten times worse to you!" She hopped down to the ground, walking with sureness and slowness towards her fallen former Master.

"Urrkk!" Féa choked, as Ocelot's foot went down on her neck.
"Or, alternatively," she said, "I could just choke you to death right now."
"R...Rachel," Insyte said. She was on her feet now, exhausted as she was from her psychic ordeals. Sophie had, fortunately, made Ocelot a lot more pliable than she would otherwise have been. "You can't kill her!"
"Stay out of this, hero," Ocelot hissed. "Let's see what you think after you've been her slave! After you have your will trampled on and taken from you." She pressed tighter.
"Ghhkk..." Féa batted at Ocelot's calf, but it wasn't budging.
"Ocelot," Natalya said. "Right now, your mind is pliable. If I wanted to, I could force you to stop." Ocelot shot her a black look. "I know. After what's been done to you, it would be an insult - but I'd rather you be insulted than see you become a murderer. She's beaten, Rachel."
"Ocelot..." The thief turned. Sophie was struggling to raise herself up. "Don't...don't let her...make you something you don't really want to be..."

She looked down. Féa was gasping, helplessly batting at her foot. She felt an instinct to step down, to forego throttling her and just crush her windpipe then and there. But she looked back at Sophie's sleepy, half-closed, pleading eyes...and she couldn't resist.
"Aaahh!" the Sin Eater gasped, as Rachel took her foot off.
"You're lucky I've got a weakness for redheads..." she said. "Gah!" She kicked Féa in the head, making it smack down into the ground.
"Uh..." Féa groaned, before she passed out.


There was palpable relief. Sophie clutched her chest, Insyte fell to her knees, and even Ocelot gave a sigh of relief.
"Finally..." Sophie gasped. "We finally beat her..."
"Ugghh..." Jessica moaned, coming to from the Sin Eater's attack on her. "We...we did it!" she exclaimed, seeing her former master's unconscious form. "I'm - I'm free!" She ran over to the other three women, embracing the nearest, which happened to be Ocelot. "I'm free...of that awful, crazed...oh, I don't know what..." She released the olive-skinned thief - and realised that Zaria and Alia were still cowering behind the altar. "Um, guys? I think we've got a little more work to do..."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It took an hour or so of corralling before all of the Sin Eater's acolytes were freed of her control.
"Oh, Alia - Alia!" Zaria cried out, the moment she - the last of them - was freed.
"Zaria..." The two of them embraced tightly, furiously covering each other's necks and faces with kisses. "We're us...we're us..." Alia kept repeating.
"This happened because of me," Zaria said, weeping. "You never would have been taken if it weren't for me!"
"It's alright..." Alia cooed, stroking the hair of her more hysteric lover. "It's alright..."

Claire and Allison sat in stony-faced silence. The things they'd seen and been made to do were not such that they wanted to remember. Both had been slaves for months, and the adjustment was going to take a while. Fortunately, it seemed that more faded the longer they had been under the Sin Eater's control. Still - things were going to be difficult for them.

"I'm...I'm getting the hell outta here." Shimmer had not waited for the others' minds to be restored. "I'm going home. I'm buying a plane ticket back East...back to New York..." She looked at Sophie. "You seem alright," she said, winking. "If you're ever in my part of the world, let me buy you a beer sometime."

As for the Sin Eater herself, they had had to keep her unconscious using the various drugs that she had in large supply, until reinforcements could arrive. Ocelot in particular had kept her chloroformed with disturbing relish. When the van arrived, they were worried that Sophie's contact hadn't exactly delivered. But when the two burly men climbed out, they were at least dressed in the proper uniforms. They didn't look altogether official - but they were representatives of the Penitentiary Supreme, the most advanced superhuman-holding facility in America, and among the best in the world.
"Uh, hey," one of them said, looking at a clipboard. "Uh...which one of you is En...hank girl?"

"Energy bolts...brainwashing...energy constructs...turn off shifters' powers..." A bull of a man scribbled down notes from Enhancegirl's description of what the Sin Eater can do. "Jesus...hey Derek?"
"Yeah?" The smaller man was preparing some kind of container in the back of the truck they'd arrived in.
"What the hell do I classify this as?"
"Look, Bud, if you ain't sure, it's 'Miscellaneous Energy Based Powers'. Covers pretty much anything in a pinch." Bud and Derek were, in fact, both superhumans themselves. They were loading the Sin Eater's unconscious form into a large metal case, filled with high tech equipment, scanners, neural neutralisers, powerful restraints.
"Restraining her powers ain't the problem here," Bud explained, as he and his colleague struggled to get Féa inside. "It's the fact that she's seven feet tall! These restraints don't exactly come in all shapes and sizes."
"So, what," Enhancegirl said, "you're gonna lock her up and throw away the key, right?"
"She's gotta have a trial first, kid," Derek said. "Even us supers still got civil rights."
"Right," Sophie replied. "Well, just get her the hell away from us, okay?" She hugged her arms against her chest, watching Féa intently as the case was shut on her.

A crowd of people had gathered round the white-picket fenced house. Such goings-on were not part of the usual run of life in the quiet suburb. It was the middle of the night, but people were still interested.
"Hey, isn't that Enhancegirl?"
"Hey...and that's Insyte, isn't it?" Some of the crowd started cheering, though given that they didn't understand what the two heroines had actually done, the applause was a little muted.

"Ah..." Insyte turned away from them, shutting her eyes. Yes, she'd been training herself to be more resilient, but after her ordeal it was too hard to stop the crowds' thoughts from painfully assailing her. "I have to get out of here..."
"Yeah, you and me both," Ocelot said. She'd taken one of Féa's white bodysuits, but the slinky young woman was still being ogled. She didn't want to be recognised. She was about to disappear, but there was something she had to do first.

"Hey, Pippi," she said.
"Yeah - mmphh!" Sophie mewed, as she felt Ocelot press her lips against hers. "Mmm..." Sophie blushed, tingles of pleasure running through her sensitive body.
"Thanks, for coming after me, sugar," Ocelot said. Seeing Sophie's blushing, bashful expression, she added, "Oh, was I not supposed to do that? I thought we were married now."
"How can you...joke about that?" Sophie couldn't make eye contact with her. Flashes of what she'd been made to do ran through her mind. Yes, the pleasure had been a product of her brainwashing - but that didn't mean it wasn't a potent memory.
"You can't take life too seriously, Pippi," she said. "I'll see ya around."
"W-wait!" But with expert skill, Ocelot slipped into the shadows, with such stealth even Sophie had trouble tracking her movements. She watched her go, more riddled with confusion than ever.

"Hey, show's over folks!" Derek shouted at the crowd. "Nothin' to see here anymore!" He didn't intend to remove them. He was just making a distraction so that the two heroines could slip away from the crowd. "God, civvies can be such vultures..." he muttered under his breath. He looked back, and saw that the two had made their getaway.
"Okay, Bud," he said. "Let's load up the latest freakshow..."


"I want to thank you again," Sophie said, as she and Natalya - back in their plain clothes - walked through the moonlit streets of suburban Seacouver. "I should have fucking listened to you..."
"We're alright now, Sophie," Natalya replied. "We knew so little about what she could do - we still know so little - it might have ended up worse if I'd gone with you. If we'd both been enslaved by her..." It didn't bear thinking about. She glanced at Sophie, and the redhead was awash with a violent storm of emotion: relief, fear, embarrassment - and flashes of Rachel's body against hers, of legs entwined, and submissive -

Natalya looked away. She could see Sophie's thoughts, but she didn't know how to help her. For all her power, she was no psychiatrist. Mercifully, a cab happened by, and Natalya hailed it.
"Do you want to come with me?" Natalya asked.
"Nah, I'm good." The redhead forced a smile. "I think I'll keep walking for a little while."
"Okay," Natalya said. "But...I don't think you should be by yourself tonight."
"Hey, relax," Sophie said. "I could use a little solitude after what we've just been through." Natalya did not have the wherewithal to answer the point. She drove off, leaving Sophie in the darkness. "I hope she's alright..."

Alone at last, Sophie was left isolated with her thoughts. Féa's face flashed before her eyes, the sinister pleasure recalled, every part of her body touched, caressed - her very mind bent to the will of this dark madwoman. Sophie found herself almost on the point of hyperventilating, could feel her heart pounding in her chest. "I-I'm okay..." she said to herself. "I'm free. I won!" But she wasn't convinced.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed. It had only just reacquired its signal, and delivered her a text sent hours ago. It was from Mariko.
"Didn't mean to be so terse earlier. Wasn't expressing myself correctly. Apologise for offense - realise I was being careless with words." Sophie laughed.
"God damn it, Mariko," she said, "you text like you're writing a telegram." A thought came over her. She looked at the time - 3:23 in the morning. She didn't care - and she dialled.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About half an hour later, a bleary-eyed, half-asleep Mariko opened the front door of her luxurious house. Her short, black hair was messy, but in her long, silver nightgown, she still looked better dressed than most women in ballgowns.
"I realise I offended you earlier, Sophie," she said, "but if you've come to complain, I think the very fact that you insisted on coming over in the middle of the -" She paused to yawn. " - The middle of the night means that I'd conjecture we're roughly even as far as..." Her vision was a little blurry, and she'd barely been able to see Sophie in the darkness.

But now she saw her, and saw that she was trembling.
"Sophie?" she said. "What happened?"
"I - I was..." She couldn't hold back the emotions any longer. She flung herself at Mariko, embracing her tightly, tears streaming down her face.
"S - Sophie!" Mariko gasped. She blushed, feeling Sophie so close to her, and she awkwardly put her arms around the redhead. "What happened?"
"I was - that fucking freakshow brainwashed me!" She gripped Mariko with almost painful tightness. "I was helpless...I couldn't do anything..." She broke away, suddenly embarrassed. "Oh, Christ, Mariko, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...to do that." She looked up at the tall, slender Mistress of Light, her eyes wet. "I just...I needed...oh, fuck, I should just go, I'm sorry."
"No," Mariko said. "You're staying. I have no intention of giving you any choice in the matter. Come. I'll make tea." Mariko's directness, her strength - it was an island of calm and safety in a raging tempest for the distraught heroine.
"Thank you..." she murmured, her breathing calming a little.

Mariko led her inside, to a massive, elegantly decorated kitchen. It was spartan, but luxurious at the same time, the sort of room which said: "Yes, I have money, but I also know when not to use it." Mariko sat Sophie down, and began boiling a kettle.
"Mariko," Sophie said, her voice still quavering, her cheeks still streaked with salty tears. "I didn't mean to..."
"No. Don't talk yet. Wait for the tea."
"Alright," Sophie said. A minute later, Mariko handed her a steaming, dark green cup. She gave it a sniff - it smelled good, but not like anything Sophie had had before.

"I assure you, it's fit for human consumption. Drink." Sophie did so. It was slightly bitter, but intensely rich in flavour. The warm liquid felt soothing, and even though it was a little too hot to drink entirely comfortably, the redhead drank it with relish.
"What is this stuff?"
"Personal blend," Mariko said. She lifted an eyebrow. "Even I have hobbies, you know." She sat down across from Sophie, her jade eyes fixing on her friend's, anchoring her. "Now. Tell me everything."

In the end, there were a few details that Sophie left out, mainly concerning the precise nature of what the Sin Eater had had her and Ocelot do with each other. When she was finished, Mariko didn't say anything for a while.
"Where is this...Sin Eater now?"
"At the Penitentiary Supreme, I'm guessing," Sophie said.
"Fine." Her fist was clenched under the table. "So I've missed my chance to murder her, then?"
"Mariko -"
"Don't be concerned, Sophie, I'm not serious," she said. "I don't believe anyone has the right to take life - but that doesn't mean there aren't people who deserve death."
"I'm not sure she was a person," Sophie said. "I don't know what the hell she was...but I don't want to kill her. Maybe break her nose, though." She smiled slightly.

"There's one thing I don't understand," Mariko said. "Why didn't you and Insyte go together to the Sin Eater's base?"
"I..." Sophie didn't give the real answer. "Because you made me feel like a failure." Whatever unkindness Mariko had done her, she'd more than made up for now. There was no sense in dragging things up. "I was being arrogant, I guess." Mariko looked at her, unblinking.
"It's because of what I said, isn't it? I made you feel as if you had something to prove."
"No, Mariko, it wasn't just...I mean -"
"Well, let me make things very clear," Mariko said, standing up. "I think you can misjudge situations, and that gets you into trouble more often than it should."
"You're telling me..."
"Let me finish," Mariko said. There was something strangely intense about her manner. "I... there are much worse flaws. You have a great deal that others don't. You are brave, and empathetic, and you fight harder than anyone I know to help the people in front of you. I -" She stopped herself. "There, I said it. Now don't expect me ever to be so damned effusive ever again."
"Mariko..." Sophie was touched. A little of the strength of her battered ego was restored. She'd never thought Mariko felt that way about her.

"Come," Mariko said. She led Sophie into her living room, where the two of them sat down on a comfortable, ergonomically designed couch. Mariko turned on the television, putting on some ancient black-and-white Western.
"Jeez, Mariko, a TV?" Sophie said. "Isn't that sort of unsophisticated stuff for the plebeians and the hoi-poloi?"
"Oh, go to hell," Mariko explained.

The two of them sat there in comfortable silence for some time. Sophie found Mariko's very presence soothing, her stillness and poise giving her own disordered mind comfort and strength. As Roy Rogers exchanged fire with the banditos, Sophie found herself relaxing. She felt calm, and safe in Mariko's presence. She found her eyelids fluttering, and she swayed to the side, sleepily snuggling against her beautiful friend. She felt her cheek come to rest on Mariko's shoulder, and she felt as though that was better than the softest pillow in the world. She drifted off to sleep, feeling at least a little bit at peace.

Mariko turned to see the lovely redhead sleeping against her, breathing softly and slowly.
"Sophie?" she said quietly. But the young woman was fast asleep. Mariko smiled a little. She eased Sophie down, moving off the couch as she did, letting her head come to rest on one of the cushions. She found a blanket for her, and covered her with it. She knelt down beside her.

"Oh, Sophie," she said. "Why are you always getting yourself into these bloody situations? I've never known a heroine to be so frequently and esoterically imperilled..." She looked at Sophie's lovely, sleeping face, her gently rising and falling chest. Mariko herself was only half-awake, talking almost as if in a dream. "And it's always me who has to save you isn't it? Even when I wasn't there to rescue you...you come to me anyway..." She began stroking her face, gently caressing her cheeks with her fingertips. "For someone so foul-mouthed, she's so soft...so kind, and funny..." She began stroking the heroine's long, red hair. "Oh, my sweet Sophie...my beautiful, courageous..."

Mariko's eyes widened. In her half-awakened state she'd hardly been aware of what she'd been saying. Her heart thumped in her chest, her breath was short.
"I...oh God, what the hell have I done? I...I love her...I love her!" She stared at the slumbering maiden, shaken with sudden realisation. "I'm completely in love with her..." She slumped back against a wall, the words having exhausted her just to say. She was filled with ardent longing and admiration for the red-haired damsel, now understanding that her willingness to deepen her friendship with Sophie had been much more than that. "What...what the hell do I do now?!"

[DrDominator9]

A very nice conclusion to an excellent story. And hell, we all love Sophie, Marko. Get in line.

Thanks for the great ride, Damselbinder!

[Damselbinder]

A very nice conclusion to an excellent story. And hell, we all love Sophie, Marko. Get in line.

Thanks for the great ride, Damselbinder!

You're welcome, good doctor!

[flirty_but_nice]

Finally made it through this story. Very exciting, job well done!