Crimson Flare was barely conscious as she lay on the floor. When Nancy removed\nher mask and Morly pressed the camera in for a close-up of the exposed face of\nMitropoulos’ Avenger, the event was like so much of the torment that had already\nbeen inflicted on her in this room: She was aware that it happened, but she was\nin no condition to prevent it, or to even resist. As the black vinyl was pulled\naway from her face, her only response was what could only be described as a\nwhine. When the camera pushed in on Karen’s face, she turned away from the\nintrusion, though it was likely it was more in response to the lights attached\nto the instrument than in an effort to protect her identity.
\n‘Who the fuck are you?’ Nancy stared at the girl beneath her. She reached down\nand took a firm grip on her chin, turning her face back toward the camera.\nWeakly, gloved arms reached up, trying to block the bright lights stabbing her\nno-longer-masked eyes.
\nToo exhausted, barely understanding the question, Crimson Flare remained silent,\nexcept for another whimper.
\nNancy slapped her face, cracking the hard crust that had formed from the\ncombination of dirt and cum. A grimy film of the detritus was wiped across\nKaren’s mouth and she tasted the filthy mixture again. From somewhere, the\nbattered heroine heard the demand again. ‘Who the fuck are you?’
\nThe helpless, exposed Champion sighed. She just wanted everything to stop.
\nFinally, she said, almost inaudibly, ‘Let… me go. I’ll go… away.’ She was\npleading for her life, she knew. The haze created by Chan’s serum was\ndisappearing. Agony was replacing the delirium and lassitude that had surrounded\nher.
\nWhen her prisoner had made the plea, Nancy knew that it would not be long before\nher physical strength would be restored. She looked across the room at Ed, again\nclothed, relaxing on the floor, and still staring at the girl who had been the\nobject of his attack minutes earlier. ‘Tie her wrists,’ Nancy said quietly. Ed\ndidn’t move, his reverie unbroken.
\n‘Tie her fucking wrists, you idiot!’ she ordered again, glaring at him and\nbaring her teeth. As quickly as he could move, he stumbled to his feet, grabbing\nthe nearby twine that had earlier been discarded. He wrapped the same rope that\nhad been used earlier to weaken the heroine around her wrists again. Ed enjoyed\nthe feeling of Crimson Flare’s satin gloves, and the imagined sensation of the\nsoft skin within them, as he fumbled to immobilise her limbs. With her wrists\nbound and resting upon her stomach, the Maiden of Mitropoulos felt her strength\nfall away. And her body, deprived of its strength, was now wrapped in agony, and\nshe twisted and convulsed from the pain that was no longer held at bay by her\nstrength. She cried out weakly. Nancy watched, fascinated by the writhing form\nof the naked superheroine.
\n‘So, bondage really is sexy for you, isn’t it, little girl?’ She reached toward\nthe chain running between her captive’s breasts and gently, tantalisingly traced\nthe links first in one direction and then the other, finally rubbing each round\nknob in turn. When Karen continued to twist her body, responding to the\nthrobbing anguish that had gripped her, Nancy became convinced that her\nerroneous conclusion was, in fact, true. She grabbed the chain and pulled the\nhapless Champion of Women up from the floor.
\nVaguely, slowly, awareness gradually returned to the disheartened heroine. She\nwas conscious of her nakedness and of the pain that now swallowed her. She knew\nthat the pain was centered in her sex, but that that was only part of the agony\nsurrounding her. She slowly began to actually distinguish things around her.\nNancy and one of her henchmen were fully clothed, while the other thug, the one\nwith the camera, was half-naked. He continued to move around her with the\ncamera. She tried to recall, What was it Stacy had told her? Use the pain, find\nthe center of the pain and drive other distractions away. Her mind was very\nslowly becoming more focused; bewilderment and confusion still confounded her\nsenses, but the intense pain inside her was one thing that was clear. When she\nturned her concentration to that sensation, it seemed to magnify, swelling\ninside her to envelope her entire being, inside and out. Tears welled in her\neyes as she squeezed them shut. She pulled her legs up to her chest; sweaty,\nfilthy thighs pressed against mauled, bruised breasts and the clamps that were\nattached to them, and she contracted her body into a semi-fetal position. As the\nbattered Champion of Women then unfolded her form, she cried out, releasing all\nof the suffering of the last several days in a howl of sheer agony.\n‘AAAAAaaaaaagggghhhhhhkkkkkkgg!’
\nNancy relished the scream. Her enemy was beaten, on the verge of finally being\nbroken. The video would become not merely a record of her victory, but a\ntestament to her power. As Morly continued to record the end of the heroine, the\nredhead walked to the collection of objects she had set out earlier. She picked\nout a collection of weights and returned to the still-quivering girl. And a few\nmoments later, these black and silver icons hung from the exposed Champion’s\nbreasts and clit, secured there by new clamps, new sources of agony and\nhumiliation for America’s Darling.
\n‘So how do you think your fans will like your new “look”?’ Nancy asked. ‘Too\npunk? Too goth?’ She flicked one of the dangling ornaments, one that hung from\nher most intimate area, with her index finger. She smiled as her prisoner\nwinced.
\nNancy directed Morly to return to a frontal shot of their captive as she resumed\nher interrogation. ‘I’m serious, Crimson Slut. Who the fuck are you? What’s your\nname?’
\nKaren wanted to lie, to protect her identity, to defy, at long last, her\ntormentor. But she was afraid that if she did so, and it was found out, Nancy\nwould have other ‘toys’ in the bag with which to torture her. ‘K-Karen. K-Karen\nPerry,’ she sighed. Morly’s camera captured the confession.
\n‘Well, K-Karen,’ Nancy mocked, ‘how did you get to be the Crimson Whore?’
\nThe hapless heroine tried to catch her breath. Exhaustion and pain continued to\ntake their toll on her, even as she searched for a way out of her delirium. The\ninterrogation was giving her more breathing space, an opportunity to find that\nelusive focus for which she had been searching. Finally, she said, ‘I… I was\nalways very strong, even as a child. I don’t know why… or how. I learned… to\nhide it. I didn’t want to be treated like….’ She stopped, not wanting to say\nwhat she was thinking. But she wanted to give Nancy enough of the truth so that\nwould be satisfied, though not enough to endanger others.
\n‘How did you hide it?’
\n‘By never using it… in public. But a lot of the time… I beat boys who didn’t…\nwell, they didn’t….’
\n‘Yeah, I know what you mean. So you had this strength. Why become Crimson Slut?’
\n‘I couldn’t simply do nothing with it.’
\n“That’s one option. But isn’t it expensive? What do you do for money?’
\n‘I… I have a small trust fund.’ This was true enough, and could be confirmed. It\nwould protect Stacy’s role in Crimson Flare’s creation.
\nThe question-and-answer session also allowed Karen to begin considering her\noptions. She had already begun to cut away at the ropes at her wrist. Ed had\ntied them hurriedly and sloppily and she knew she would quickly be freed,\nrestoring her strength. She had to keep Nancy occupied long enough to finish the\njob.
\nBut Nancy’s attention was shortly attracted to the severe discoloration on\nKaren’s chest. ‘What is that?’ she asked peering narrowly at the bruise. She\nreached her hand out to touch the purple and black contusion. In investigating\nthe curious mark, the redheaded sadist jabbed her fingers, stiff as a\nknife-edge, hard against the damaged ribs. Pain shot through the bound Champion\nonce again and Nancy felt something give under the pressure.
\nAs Crimson Flare twisted her body to get away from the intrusion, Nancy smiled\nbroadly. ‘Ape! You wonderful, stupid shit! You broke her ribs!’ She pressed her\nhand again toward the wound.
\n‘No,’ Karen whimpered, the pain clear in her voice, as she turned away from\nNancy’s inquiring fingers.
\n‘No?’ Nancy was furious. ‘No?!’ The redhead straightened up very quickly and\nsignaled to Ed, who had been watching. ‘I’ll teach you—“NO!”’
\nEd grabbed her from behind and pulled her roughly to her feet, so that her bound\nwrists were now tight against her torso, her elbows pulled sharply back. The\nbruise was visible in the crook above her left forearm, and Karen grimaced as a\nfresh pain wrapped itself around her chest. Nancy immediately shot a hard right\njab, which landed directly on the mark. ‘Eeeeeeeggggghhhhhkk!!’ the poor girl\nscreamed as the fractured bone was aggravated by the new shock of Nancy’s blow.\nHer vision faded to black; red and white fireworks exploded in that darkness,\nand the heroine sagged in Ed’s grip. The broken edges bone cut away at internal\norgans, giving rise to a feeling of nausea. The claw ceased its work as the\ncombination of Ed’s restraint and the new damage weakened her once again. But\nbefore she even had time to think, another powerful punch smashed against\nCrimson’s jaw as Nancy’s uppercut stretched and twisted the heroine’s neck.\nGlorying in the weakness of her nemesis, Nancy suddenly unleashed her fury in a\nvicious attack against the helpless avenger. A hard left cross to Crimson\nFlare’s cheek elicited an anguished cry. But it was the next blow, a straight,\nhard right to the discolouration on her chest, gave rise to a shriek of such\ninfinite pain that even Nancy paused. Karen’s left leg collapsed under her and\nher whole body sagged in Ed’s grip. And with each successive blow, one after\nanother, the ornaments dangling from her breasts and sex swung freely, as if\ntrying to free themselves from their tight grip on the Maiden of Mitropoulos.
\nNancy watched with unhidden joy as Ed pulled the petite form of the crimefighter\nto her feet. She felt satisfaction as a right and then a left cross smashed\nagainst the Champion’s cheekbones, drawing further groans of pain from the\nhelpless figure. This, she thought, this was what victory felt like. When she\ndrove a level jackhammer blow once again against the bluish-black target that\ndiscoloured Crimson Flare’s chest, and she heard the satisfying whelp from the\nbattered, exhausted heroine, she stepped back and examined the slumping form\nbefore her. Unmasked, her mystery gone, Crimson Flare didn’t look quite so\nbeautiful. She was attractive, to be sure, but the mask created an allure that\nwas unmistakable, and which was unmistakably missing from this girl. The smeared\nmuddy concoction that covered her face and jaw didn’t help, and the tears now\nflowing freely down her face, resulting from the combination of pain and shame\nrevealed her to be only a weak little girl. Nancy watched her mouth moving,\ntrying to form words: ‘Please.’ ‘Stop.’ Her body seemed infinitely smaller than\nearlier, now that she was desperately trying to curl her form to ease the pain\nin her ribs. Every once in a while her body jerked spastically, as she wept,\nquietly for the most part. The coating of sweat and filth that covered her did\nnothing to return Crimson Flare to her former glory. Even the satin gloves, the\nscuffed black leather boots, and the still-shiny black vinyl cowl now mocked\ntheir wearer, rather than enhancing her. The clamps secured to her body dangled\nthe objects attached to them like a cheap stripper’s tassels. More than\nsatisfied, Nancy turned to make sure that Morly was still getting the\ndegradation of Mitropoulos’ Guardian.
\nMorly could hardly believe what he was seeing as he squinted through the\ncamera’s eyepiece. Here was Crimson Flare, unmasked, moaning in pain, naked to\nthe world, and revealed as nothing more than a little girl whose aspirations\ndidn’t match her capabilities. Just days ago, even though they had been holding\nthis Champion of Women prisoner, he and Ed still spoke of Crimson Flare in\nhushed tones. But Nancy’s triumph would destroy this heroine forever, smash her\nface in the mud, make her a laughing stock in the underworld. And he was\ncreating all the evidence that they would ever need. His place in the criminal\nhistory of Mitropoulos was assured.
\nHe moved to capture the debased heroine from a new angle, and, keeping the\ncamera on the humiliated form of the victim, he turned his head and stared as\nNancy returned to the implements of torture she had laid out on the blue table\nearlier.
\nInstead of selecting one of the toys that had been set out earlier, toys that\nmight yet find a part to play in the heroine’s degradation, Nancy reached down\nto the rack that hung from the lower part of the table, where one might expect\nto find billiard cues or bridges. She came up with a shiny red spreader bar,\nalmost three feet long, with chains and a lock attached to each end. She walked\nslowly, smiling, back toward her helpless prey, fingering the device. ‘Put this\non her, Ed,’ she ordered.
\nAfter a moment’s pause, when it appeared that the thug was unsure about what to\ndo, Ed released the heroine and stepped toward his superior to retrieve the\ndevice. The pillaged form of Crimson Flare simply crumpled to the floor. Unable\nto move, moaning in agony, the Champion of Women felt her legs spread by Ed’s\nfumbling fingers. She lay on her back, with her wrists bound, laying on her\nchest, and though she was aware of the compromising image Morly was capturing of\nher, the pain that racked her body made it impossible for her to resist.
\nEach time Nancy had driven one of her hard body blows to the avenger’s weakness,\na white sheet of pain enveloped the avenger, obscuring all other sensations. The\nMaid of Mitropoulos had been so badly battered by the redhead that she was\ncompletely dependent upon Ed’s restraining her to remain upright. When he\nreleased his hold on her, her legs simply gave out from under her, and she\ncrumpled forward and rolled over onto her back.
\nThough she had not seen the device that Nancy had brought into play, she felt\nEd’s hands first spreading her legs, then wrap something around her booted\nankles. Her mind was so far from her present predicament that she even failed to\nuse this opportunity to resume cutting away at her bonds. That thought only\nentered her mind as Ed finished his work, deliberately fingering the\nleather-covered ankles of the captive. By then it was too late, as Ed roughly\npulled her to her feet, yanking her elbows back and pressing her bound wrists\nhard against her stomach. With the ropes flush against her tight stomach\nmuscles, the heroine was again in no position to take advantage of her claw. She\nfelt the chain linking the nipple clamps lightly brushing her chest and she\nrealised that her legs had been spread obscenely. The image Morly was capturing\nwould show her as nothing less than a slut.
\nThe powerless Maiden now stood with her feet spread almost a yard apart, with\nall of the invitation that that position offered from a beautiful, naked, young\nwoman. Still dazed from the beating she had absorbed, she swayed back and forth,\nunable even to keep her head up. And yet, still another blow followed from the\nvindictive moll, a short, sharp uppercut that drove right onto her pubic bone.\nShe tried to pull her thighs together, but the bar prevented any defense against\nthe next two punches that caught her on exactly the same point. Again a cry of\ntorment filled the room. One of the blows had landed directly on the dangling\nornament in that area and a sharp sting of agony pierced her body. Shrieking\npiteously, Karen attempted to pull her legs up into some sort of fetal\nprotective posture, but she was simply too weak. All she could do was absorb\nmore of Nancy’s punishment, feebly crying out as she desperately tried to find\nsome way out. She pleaded with her attacker to stop this assault. She felt\nconsciousness slipping by degrees from her, and she found herself asking, Why?\nWhy would this happen? Why would she die at the hands of this monster?
\nThe next punch landed flush against Karen’s cheek. Her head twisted sickeningly\nand she felt fresh blood flow into her mouth, mixing with the sediment and cum\nthat still marred her face. A final blow to her stomach, just above her bound\nwrists, drained all the air from her body. The battered Champion looked\nquizzically at Nancy, her eyes getting wider as she tried to draw a fresh breath\ninto her beaten body. But her body refused to comply, and she noisily,\ndesperately, gasped for air.
\n‘Let her go,’ the criminal moll told her shaven-headed minion, who still\nrestrained the beaten heroine.
\nAs Ed did so, Crimson Flare, heroine of Mitropoulos, Champion of Women, now\nunmasked, stripped, and bound, her legs spread wide by the bright red bar and\nher body decorated with clamps and weights, tottered for barely a second, and\nthen fell on her face to the floor. The sound of her head striking the hardwood\nechoed through the hall, making even Ed wince.
\nNancy only smiled.
\nMorly stopped filming for a moment, and then, to avoid the wrath of his boss, he\nmoved to a different angle and continued his coverage.
\nThe redhead considered that she was almost through with the defeated\nsuperheroine. Almost through. Taking a single step so that her feet were\nperpendicular to the petite girl’s torso, she aimed one final kick at the\nblue-black target on her chest. The blow she landed carried with it all of the\nremaining fury of the sadistic criminal.
\n‘Aaaaarrrrrhhhhhhh!!!’ The harsh whisper of pain exploded from the Champion of\nWomen as Nancy’s boot, spotless now from Crimson Flare’s humiliating cleansing,\nfound its mark, sending the girl twisting from the floor, landing several feet\naway on her back.
\n‘Let’s go!’ Nancy said, as she led the two men toward the door.
\nBehind them, the unmoving body of the defeated Maiden of Mitropoulos was the\nevidence of her victory.
\nStunned, swallowed by an agony that wouldn’t go away, Karen lay on her back,\nstaring up at the globs of light that bathed the room in a pale yellow glow. It\nwas full minutes before she had the presence of mind to realise that she was\nalone in the rehearsal hall. Seconds after that, she remembered the claw that\nwould permit her to free herself from her bonds. Freedom meant escape. She could\nflee this place of torture and pain. If she escaped from this place, she might\nalso finally escape her alter ego.
\nAs she cut away the last of her rope bonds, she reflected on the suffering she\nhad been subjected to as Crimson Flare. She thought back of how often she had\nbeen raped and savagely beaten; how the worst criminal elements had targeted her\nfor destruction or humiliation; how she had endured the pain and degradation;\nand how she had come to understand the reasons for this mistreatment. One after\nanother, her opponents had told her that she had been targeted not because she\nwas fighting for justice or against crime, but because she was a woman. Even her\nerstwhile allies, the police, hated her for this selfsame reason; they wished to\nsee her fail, to see her destroyed. Because she was a woman.
\nWell, if that was how they felt, they can go back to fighting crime without her.
\nAs the last strand of rope was cut and her arms fell to the floor, the surge of\nstrength that rushed through her body overwhelmed the pain that had dominated\nher senses. The agony that she felt everywhere, in her chest, in her crotch,\naround her jaw, all disappeared, replaced by a dull throbbing. When she sat up,\nshe was reminded of the clamps and weights that decorated her sweaty, filthy\nbody and she saw the bright red metal rod that spread her legs. Reminded of her\nhumiliation, she felt herself involuntarily redden; then she began to undo the\nclamps and remove them, first from her sex and then from her breasts. As each\nobject was removed, she hurled it from her presence, as if sheer distance would\nerase the shame that she had endured. Finally, she reached down and broke the\nspreader bar in two, at the same time tearing away the chains that encircled her\nblack leather boots.
\nBut before Crimson Flare disappeared from Mitropoulos, she thought, she would\nhave to erase all memory, all evidence, of what she had undergone here. As she\ngot to her feet, she stumbled. Reaching down toward her knees with her hands,\nshe placed the crimson satin against those black-booted gams that were the\ndelight of all of Mitropoulos, trying to catch her breath and to steady herself.\nSeeing those symbols of her heroine persona, she thought back on Stacy and how\nshe had given her life to preserve Crimson Flare. Well, Stacy, she thought,\nmaybe we were wrong, after all.
\nShe walked as quickly as she could to her costume, discarded on the floor\nhalfway across the room. As she picked up the ultra light material, shimmering\nin the bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling, she once again admired the sequined\nspandex; thinking about the first time had put it on, and how it had felt\nagainst her skin. Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered how Stacy had\nlaboured over its design; and she felt a thrill run down her spine as she\nrecalled its cool tautness against her body. She remembered how she used to love\nto swell her chest against the spandex, to feel it grip her breasts and stretch\nto its limit against her ribcage. It exuded strength, and wearing it she felt\nstrong. The boots and the gloves only added to that sensation. The way her belt\nsettled on top of hips and the way the baton rested against her thigh\ncommunicated to her that same sense of strength.
\nFor the last time, she thought, and she stepped into the uniform of the Maiden\nof Mitropoulos. Nearby she found her black vinyl mask. It had not weathered her\nbeating well: the vinyl was scratched and scarred, and one of the eyeholes had\nbeen ripped at the edge. She smoothed the tear and gingerly placed the\nform-fitting mask on her face. Adding her black belt, she completed her costume.\nOnce again, the Champion of Women was fully prepared to fight her enemies.
\n‘You know what we ought to do with her…’ Nancy walked into the room, carrying on\na conversation with her thugs, who remained in the hall.
\n‘No, what?’ Crimson Flare replied, walking purposefully toward her enemy.
\nThe redhead’s jaw dropped when she saw the heroine, fully garbed and masked. But\na moment later, she smiled, her confidence restored. ‘Why, K-Karen, how you’ve\nchanged.’
\n‘You’re going to jail. You’re going to admit to the crimes that I’ve been\ncharged with and you’re going to pay for them. Or, I swear, I’ll kill you.’
\n‘You’re a heroine, Crimson Slut. You can’t do that. You’ve got to stand for\ntruth, justice, and the American Way.’ She was smiling broadly.
\n‘In one thing you’re right,’ Crimson said evenly. ‘My career is over. The\npolice, the criminal elements, everyone… they hate me because I’m a woman. So\nwhen I’ve settled with you, Crimson Flare’s career as a crimefighter is over.’\nShe took another step toward Nancy. ‘You’re under arrest.’
\nNancy rushed at the heroine even before she had finished talking. Aided by the\nelement of surprise, she wrapped her arms around the masked Guardian of\nMitropoulos and the force of her rush drove the two women back toward the\nrisers. The Champion fell on her back with Nancy on top of her, still firmly\nholding the petite form in her freckled arms. Once again Crimson’s cowled head\ncracked against the wooden flooring, but this time her great strength allowed\nher to keep her wits about her.
\nAs the two women bounced on the second level of the risers, the powerful\nsuperheroine whipped her arms outward from her body, forcing Nancy to break her\ngrip. In a whirl of speed and power, Crimson Flare turned Nancy’s attack against\nthe larger redhead. In a moment, the masked avenger was behind the criminal, her\nhands firmly gripping her opponent’s wrists, and she was pulling underworld\nqueen toward the tattered rope lying on the floor where only minutes earlier she\nherself had been held bound and helpless.
\n‘N-n-no!’ cried Nancy. ‘I will not!’ She pulled and struggled, tugged, yanked,\nand twisted in an effort to get free.
\nIn a surprise move, she twisted her body and jumped toward the heroine. The\naction forced Crimson to release her grip on Nancy’s wrists in order to defend\nherself. Once again the two women slammed onto the floor. This time, Nancy’s\nweight momentarily drove the air from Crimson Flare’s body as she landed on the\nlittle girl’s diaphragm, temporarily stunning the heroine. In that instant, the\nredhead was up and running toward the door.
\n‘Ed! Morly! She’s loose!’
\nBut before the redhead could reach the exit, Crimson Flare was again on her,\nusing her strength and speed to advantage. The heroine wrapped up her enemy in\nher powerful arms, only to have the larger woman push off from the floor,\nupwards and backwards, trying to drop the Champion on her back again. But this\ntime it failed, and Crimson Flare countered the move by spinning around in a\ngreat arc before releasing the criminal from her powerful arms.
\nNancy screamed as she flew threw the air. It would have been funny, and\neminently satisfying to America’s Darling as she watched, but the strength of\nthe toss hurled the gangland queen not simply across the open space of the\nrehearsal hall, but also against the painted-black glass of one of the large\nwindows that pocked the face of the building. She crashed through the portal and\nout into the night sky, still screaming, as she fell three stories to the street\nbelow.
\nShocked, the exhausted crusader ran as fast as she could to the gaping hole that\nopened out to the city night. The cool night air felt refreshing against her\nbody, and the dawn, just beginning to her left, seemed to offer a beautiful,\ncloudless morning. In the faint light, Crimson Flare could make out below her\nthe cast iron fence that separated the Conservatory from the sidewalk and\nstreet. The top of the five-foot fence was lined with spear points, purely\ndecorative at the time of construction, but many now rusted or bent. And across\nthis formerly formidable array, three stories below her, Crimson saw the twisted\nbody of her redheaded tormentor. Three of the iron spikes had pierced her\nabdomen, a diagonal line of bloody tips that crept up her body from her navel to\nher breast. One more bloodied spear point held her thigh in place on top of the\nfence. Her other leg hung down on the outside of the property, and through the\nmorning light, the heroine could see that it was still dangling loosely,\nbouncing off the vertical iron pipes beneath. Nancy’s dead arms were spread out\nin a cruciform manner and her head was almost invisible as it hung down toward\nthe grass and litter inside the fence.
\nCrimson Flare let out a soft sigh, both of relief and dismay. The most important\nperson who could clear her of the criminal charges against her was dead. But\nthat person had also been her most vicious enemy. Turning back to the room, she\nheaded toward the exit. Before she was halfway across the room, however, she was\nstopped in her tracks.
\nIntense pain shot through her head, as if someone were cutting away at her brain\nand skull. Oh, god, the Nemissesitor! Her black boots clumped on the wooden\nfloor, her speed slowing, the evenness of her stride mangled by her loss of\nbalance. The Champion of Mitropoulos looked at the exit as she slipped to her\nknees. There, smiling, was Ed, pointing the weapon at her. Crimson dropped her\ngloved hands to the floor in an effort to support herself, but finally she\ndropped her head and closed her eyes. The agony created by that infernal machine\nwas simply too much. She slid to the floor, the pain pronounced on her face, her\nbody shaking. Had she killed Nancy only to wind up at the mercy of her thugs?
\nAs she lay helpless on the floor of the rehearsal hall, several loud reports\nfrom below her snapped the Maid of Mitropoulos back to her present reality.\nPushing with all her strength, she raised her body and pulled her legs up under\nher hips. Sinking back on her haunches, she listened as two sets of feet raced\nheavily up the stairs. Raising her masked face toward the doorway, Crimson was\nastonished, moments later, to see Maria Blakeman, hugging the walls, creep\naround the corner and into the room. The police officer lowered her gun when she\nsaw the heroine.
\n‘Crimson Flare. Are you all right? We saw you at the window and—’ she said in a\nrapid-fire manner, reminiscent of Joe Friday on Dragnet, but more truly\nreflecting her concern for the well-being of America’s Darling.
\nBefore the heroine could answer, her partner, Officer Tim Westbrook, stormed\ninto the room, holding his gun on the exhausted crimefighter. ‘Crimson Flare!’\nhe shouted. ‘You’re under arrest! You have the right to remain silent….’
\n‘Wait, Tim,’ Maria said to him. ‘Before we multiply the mistakes that have\nalready been made in this case, let’s do some investigating.’ She turned to the\nheroine, who was just now slowly rising to her feet, and asked, ‘What’s been\ngoing on here?’
\nCrimson Flare began when she had left the officer’s car. It seemed now to be\nmonths or years, rather than days, ago. When she mentioned Ape and his\nactivities in the old Conservatory, the officers’ interest picked up. ‘Ape\nGreystook! What happened to him?’
\nCrimson immediately recalled Ape’s fate. She started walking toward the exit.\n‘Follow me,’ she said.
\nShe walked to the room where Ape was lying on the bed. As she led the officers\nin, Ape’s shallow, laboured breathing could barely be heard. ‘Oh, my god, he’s\nstill alive!’ Crimson shouted. ‘Quick, call for help. Nancy prevented me from\ngetting him help when I injured him.’
\nIn mere minutes, medics were strapping the huge criminal, tubes running into his\nbody from many sources, to a stretcher and preparing to carry him down the three\nlong flights of stairs to street level. As they wheeled him into the hall, the\neyes of criminal and crimefighter met. He saw the worry and sympathy behind the\nmask, and he remembered what he had overheard in the minutes immediately\nfollowing his injury; he had heard Nancy demean him again; he had known that\nNancy would let him die; Crimson Flare was confident that she would have her\nname cleared as soon as Ape was able to speak.
\n‘There were two other men, besides Nancy and Ape, who were here. Nancy’s the\nwoman who fell through the window,’ Crimson explained.
\nMaria responded first. ‘Those two other men ran into us when we entered the\nbuilding. We had no reason to stop them, but they just started shooting at us.\nThey’re both dead on the first floor.’
\nOfficer Westbrook, sensing that his arrest was slipping away, looked at the\nGuardian of Mitropoulos suspiciously. ‘Fell through the window? From where I\nstood, it looked more like she was thrown through the window. Throw by someone\nwith remarkable strength.’
\n“Stop it, Tim. It’s over. Ape Greystook and Nancy Smith’s involvement in\nwhatever was going on here is going to explain a lot of what’s been happening in\nMitropoulos. They’ve been involved in a series of crimes going back over the\nlast five years. When all of this is sorted out, anyone calling for Crimson\nFlare’s arrest is going to look pretty stupid.’
\nCrimson Flare and Maria walked down the stairs together. The officer gave the\nheroine a bottle of water, so that she might clean the filth from her face\nbefore leaving the building. They then walked out into the street, where the\nflashing lights of back-up units, crime scene units, the ambulance, and even a\npolice electronics laboratory—to deal with that mass of computer and other\nequipment the police found tucked away in a room on the first floor—reflected\noff the brick fronts and wet streets around the old music building. ‘I don’t\nwant to know anything that happened in there,’ Maria told her heroine.
\n‘It was pretty rough.’
\n‘I didn’t tell this earlier because you seemed pretty shaken by some of the\nother things I had to say. But… well, you’re the reason there are so many women\njoining the police force, the fire department… I became a cop because of you,\nand that’s true of every woman I know on the force.’
\nCrimson Flare didn’t know what to say.
\n‘If it hadn’t been for you, we might have never done anything with the\neducations we got, or with the opportunities we had in front of us. Too many\nwomen I know went to college, got married, and had five kids.’
\n‘I… I have to… to go.’
\n‘Don’t stop, Crimson Flare. We need you.’
\nThe End
","frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 11","tags":["Crimson Flare","Torture","n/c","humiliation","Bondage","f/f","degradation","Pain","bound","Domination","rape"],"date":"5/8/2023","part":"11"},"excerpt":"Crimson Flare was barely conscious as she lay on the floor. When Nancy removed\nher mask and Morly pressed the camera in for a close-up of…","timeToRead":22,"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part11/"},"author":{"authorName":"Marat","authorEmail":"marat1793@earthlink.net","authorSite":null},"series":{"seriesName":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power","parts":[{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part1/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"1"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part2/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"2"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part3/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"3"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part4/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"4"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part5/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"5"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part6/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"6"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part7/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"7"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part8/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"8"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part9/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"9"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part10/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"10"}},{"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part11/"},"frontmatter":{"part":"11"}}]},"storyStats":{"visits":562},"summary":"Crimson Flare, once a powerful superheroine, is brutally tortured by Nancy, her former ally turned captor, experiencing intense humiliation, pain, and degradation. As Nancy's dominance intensifies, Crimson Flare is weakened, bound, and subjected to excruciating physical and emotional abuse, leaving her vulnerable and broken but ultimately fighting back in a climactic scene where she overpowers Nancy and witnesses her fall to her death.","similarStories":[{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 9"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part9/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 5"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part5/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 10"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part10/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 3"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part3/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 8"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part8/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 6"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part6/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 4"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part4/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 7"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part7/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 2"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part2/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Ape’s Grab for Power - Chapter 1"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part1/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter One"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part1/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Four"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part4/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Two"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part2/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Ten"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part10/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare - The Threat of Pitchblende - Part 2"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflarethethreatofpitchblende/part2/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare - The Threat of Pitchblende - Part 3"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflarethethreatofpitchblende/part3/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Eleven"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part11/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Five"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part5/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare: Blackmail - Chapter Seven"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareblackmail/part7/"}},{"author":{"authorName":"Marat","url":"/authors/marat/"},"frontmatter":{"text":"Crimson Flare - The Threat of Pitchblende - Part 1"},"fields":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflarethethreatofpitchblende/part1/"}}]}},"pageContext":{"slug":"/stories/marat_crimsonflareapesgrabforpower/part11/","templatePath":"./src/templates/stories-post.js"}},"staticQueryHashes":["4139622702","641652024","942210989"],"slicesMap":{}}