It's another beautiful day in the sub-tropical paradise of Oceana. The sun beats down on ancient stucco villas and multi-million dollar resorts alike, driving throngs of sun worshipers to the white-sand beaches, which surround one of the world's most exotic cities.
But even as bikini-clad ladies frolic in the azure waters, the hard-working scientists at the Oceana Meteorological Station tirelessly scan the sky by radar looking for signs of trouble.
Little do they realize the real trouble is walking in through their front door, in the form of the Tempest and her rain-coated thugs. Hang on to your hats folks, there's a storm brewing and only the Silk Specter stands between Oceana and disaster...
Trials of the Silk Specter: Tempest Tossed
By The Cliffhanger
All events and characters in this story are Copyright 1998 by The Cliffhanger
CHAPTER 1: Enter the Tempest
"Please, stay in your seats, Gentlemen," the Tempest held out her arms as her thugs fanned out to enforce her invitation. Water dribbled off their raincoats despite the cloudless 90-degree day. "Whose in charge here?"
"I am, Miss..."
"Tempest. I am the Tempest." The man was lifted from his seat by the Tempest's two sexy assistants, both wearing tight PVC jumpsuits. The Tempest herself wore a flowing translucent gown, which clearly showed the tight white body suit underneath. Her face was pale, but radiated a cold, cruel beauty.
"What is the meaning of this, Miss Tempest? Is this a robbery?"
"You accuse me of stealing? " The Tempest's gray eyes flared. "I should say it is you who've been stealing from me. Day after day of this unending sunshine is zapping me of my vitality."
"But we don't control the weather, we just predict it. And with the tools at our disposal even predicting the weather is a challenge."
"Such a dear boy," The Tempest grabbed the man under the chin and squeezed his cheeks into a distended mask. "In the right hands you'd be surprised what your tools can do. Is that the radar room?"
"Yes, but I can assure you that there's nothing of value in there."
"Oh, but there is. I'll be relieving you of your little electronic toy. But fear not, you won't need it to predict the weather -- I'll predict it for you. It will be warm with heavy overcast skies and rain, gradually building in intensity until Oceana is completely washed away. Now, the keys."
With little choice, the man surrendered his key chain to the looming madwoman.
"Thank you, now its time for a little rainy day snooze. " The Tempest's thugs pulled out umbrellas and opened them.
"What? You can't do that, it's bad luck!" Just then the sprinkler system activated and the meteorologists were doused with water. Apparently, the sprinkler system had been spiked with a powerful tranquilizer, because in moments the entire staff was asleep.
"Quickly now gentlemen, load the radar onto the truck."
"Do we have tim' fer that, Mistress?" One henchman asked in a thick cockney accent.
"What with the welcome we got here last time?"
"Fear not, dear Blackjack. Hydrowoman and Aquagirl are off chasing a well-planned red herring far from Oceana. And as for their guardian angel the Silk Specter, I'm confident the clues we leave behind will lead her directly to our secondary hideout. I've prepared a little ghost-trap for her there."
"I don't know how you could call any trap involving Dinky `little,'" Blackjack smiled evilly. "Still I wouldn't minds watching the Specter get hers."
"Indeed, its high time the Silk Specter paid the price for crossing the Tempest." She looked to her assistants. "Satin, Leather, let us go prepare for our heroic guest."
And speaking of the Silk Specter, its show time at the Strand Theater along Oceana's waterfront. And at the Strand show time means magic. The applause for the last warm-up act quickly dies out, and the crowd strains their eyes in the darkness for some sight of activity on the main stage. Whistles erupt sporadically as dark, orchestral music begins playing in the background. Finally the announcer cuts in.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, the Strand Theater is pleased to introduce the most exciting newcomer to the world of magic today. Please join me in welcoming Oceana's own daredevil illusionist Nina Blackstone." The crowd cheered madly. "The management of the Strand encourages any guests under the care of a physician to consider moving quickly to the nearest exit, because this show is guaranteed to BLOW YOU AWAY!"
"Fire!" came a loud voice. Suddenly the already loud room was rocked by the thunder of heavy explosions. The lights came up and the main stage was set to resemble the deck of a pirate ship. Stage right and stage left were the fore and aft castles of the vessel, elevated eight or so feet above center stage. The "hull" of the ship presented to the audience was made of heavy planks and lined with cannon ports. Stained glass windows adorned the captain's quarters aft and a grinning skeleton wielding a cutlass served as the figurehead pointing the way to the bowsprit. Intricately carved railings lined the gunwales of the set, and glowing Victorian lamps dotted the deck. Several thick masts rose up from the stage supporting an intricate web of sails and rigging, and the Jolly Roger few from the highest point. A greasy pirate manned the wheel on the stern castle, and beside him stood a huge richly dressed brigand with a greasy black beard. Other pirates manned the row of short cannons. In the distance to the rear of the stage, another ship was clearly visible flying the flag of England. The smoke trailing from her cannons betrayed that she was the source of the thunderous booms.
"Fire you dogs! Death to the puppets of King George!" The guns of the pirate ship went off with deafening roars. Smoke quickly diffused throughout the theater lending a surreal element to the scene and drawing the crowd into the battle.
The British privateer fired again. At one point the gunwale of the pirate ship exploded in a cloud of splinters, sending men flying. A yard fell from atop one of the masts and clattered to the deck.
"She's pulling along side!" the pirate captain bellowed over the din of cannon and pulsing music. "Prepare for boarders." The men moved away from the cannons and produced pistols, whips and swords. "100 doubloons for the one that brings me Captain Blackstone's head!"
The cutthroats snarled as men suddenly swung in from all directions, some dressed in the red of the Royal Marines, others in white and blue of the Royal Navy. Leading the charge was a young woman, dressed in a billowy white silk blouse and black tights with a broad leather belt and a thigh-length boots. Her thick coppery hair flowed exotically behind her and her large green eyes were intense as if she really were an avenging British privateer.
The stage degenerated into a maelstrom of deadly combat, with Nina's magic mixed seamlessly into the action. One minute a pirate swordsman disarmed her, but with a smooth motion of her arm a new saber appeared in her hand. At another point, a man took careful aim at the lithe captain and fired his pistol, but Nina produced the bullet in her teeth and continued the battle. Then she intercepted one of her own men as he was being cast overboard, producing a thin metal hoop and placing it in his path of travel.
Briefly the man seemed to disappear, but then reappeared through an open porthole over 20 feet away.
As the action progressed in a dizzying blur of stunts and illusions, more and more of the British warriors slumped to the deck dead while the number of pirates, if anything, seemed to increase. Finally, Nina was alone against the ugly mob, and they closed in for the kill. But just as it seemed she would be drowned in a sea of bodies, the beautiful teenager produced a glowing orb, which seemed to hang suspended above her hand. The buccaneers stared at it -- along with the audience -- in rapt attention, as the sphere grew larger until, at last, it burst to reveal a huge snarling tiger.
The men ran in terror and Captain Blackstone seized the moment to lift a heavy cannon ball from the locker near one of the guns. With an effort she hurled it skyward, and even as it ascended the iron shot was transformed into a flock of white doves, which flapped out over the heads of the audience as if in warning to other ships far over the horizon. The illusionists watched them dramatically from center stage, the calm before the final storm.
Once the tiger was gone and the pirates flooded back onto the stage to finish the job they had started. Captain Blackstone met them head on, pistol in one hand saber in the other. The battle was extended and elaborately choreographed, but finally the shapely privateer was disarmed. As the music built she was led struggling to kneel before the Pirate King, who laughed cruelly and pointed upward into the rigging, where men were already stringing a hangmen's noose from the highest mast. Nina's wrists were secured behind her back with iron manacles, and a wad of cloth forced into her mouth then secured with a silk scarf. Other manacles joined by a short chain were secured to her ankles and a gang of nimble cutthroats hauled her up the main mast to the middle yard.
Nina's booted feet were placed at one end of a tightrope strung between the masts some 30 feet above the stage. The audience got a final look at Nina Blackstone's soft-featured face before a large silk bag was slipped over her head and down over her body, shrouding all of the magician but the soles of her boots. Then the pirates slipped the hangman's noose around Nina's throat, pulled it snug and, jeering crudely, prodded her out onto the tightrope. Bound hand and foot, gagged, and encased in silk, the performer's footing on the rope was precarious. But the men prodded her on with sharp swords until Captain
Blackstone was midway between the two masts. She swayed dangerously on the thin line, and could only struggle weakly at her bonds lest the exertion throw her off balance.
The music approached a crescendo as the Pirate King motioned to his men stationed at either mast. The crowd moaned as the men produced torches and set either end of the rope ablaze, trapping the doomed Captain Blackstone between them. The flames eagerly consumed the rope even as they crept ever closer to the feet of the British Captain. The seconds dragged agonizingly on as the shrouded teenager seemed to work ineffectively at her restraints, suspended 30 feet in the air, and completely cut off from all communication.
No one in the audience breathed. They just stared at the silken form, the rope pulled tightly around her throat. Every now and then the magician's head would move from side to side and the silk over her mouth would bulge in and out with her breathing. The rope burned for an impossibly long time, until the tension was maddening. Then the unbelievable happened: it snapped. The last slim purchase on life suddenly disappeared from beneath the feet of the redheaded privateer and the noose snapped tight.
But then the silk shroud amazingly went slack and slipped from the noose, drifting slowly down to the stage. Captain Blackstone was gone! The Pirate Captain turned to face the crowd and removed his hat in consternation. Suddenly, a sword was thrust through his back emerging from the center of his chest. Blood streamed down the front of his white ruffled shirt as he slumped to the deck. Behind him stood Nina Blackstone, bloody saber clutched in her gloved right hand.
The stage went dark and the crowd went wild.
Nina sat before the mirror in her dressing room carefully removing her makeup and basking the glow of a job well done. In recent months her act had become a bore compared to her nocturnal life as the Silk Specter, Oceana's newest masked vigilante. But the act still gave her a pretense to travel when it suited her, and the local celebrity status gave her access to some areas that would otherwise be off limits. Besides, there was still something exciting about being bound by pirates and forced to walk a tightrope high above the stage while the once rowdy crowd looked on mesmerized.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Strange, since the security at the Strand was very strict.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, love. Elizabeth." The voice was feminine with a delicious British accent, and it triggered some very strong memories from Nina's subconscious. At least the mystery of how security had been breached was solved.
Nina ran her fingers through her coppery shoulder-length hair as she stepped over to the door. Beyond it stood Elizabeth Sterling, better known to the criminals of London as the Gray Mouser, a costumed crime fighter unequaled in beauty and courage. Elizabeth was no more than two or three years older than Nina and stood about an inch taller than Nina's 5 foot 6. She had radiant strawberry blonde hair, which cascaded down to her shoulder blades, and delicate impassive features that hinted at aristocracy. Her gymnast's body was sheathed in a silky thigh-length black dress with thin shoulder straps. Dark hose and high heels sculpted her powerful legs, and just a touch of gold jewelry completed her look.
The two women embraced warmly. Nina had first met Elizabeth - rather the Gray
Mouser -- while touring with her act in London. At the time, the city was under a crime siege at the hands of a woman known only as the Countess. Nina recognized the name from the journal of her father, which she had discovered after his murder. The Countess was an associate of a shadowy cooperative of criminals and social outcasts known as The Order, a group which Roman Blackstone had devoted his life to thwarting until they finally killed him. Using the information contained in the journal Nina quickly dissected the Countesses' scheme and tracked her to her lair. Making her transformation into the
Silk Specter, she had moved in for the kill.
It was while infiltrating the Countess' country manor-stronghold that Nina met Elizabeth. The Mouser had arrived just ahead of her and the Silk Specter found the costumed vigilante already engaged in a deadly struggled with a dozen henchmen. Nina pitched in and turned the tide of the battle, but even as the two superheroines introduced themselves, the air around them filled with drugged darts. When they awoke, they were the Countess' prisoners.
For the remainder of the night and all the next day, Nina and Elizabeth were left to the mercy of the countess's Ladies in Waiting, who repeatedly tied and pleasured the young heroines in increasingly more stringent bondage, tormenting them with their own passion. That night, Nina and Elizabeth were bathed and perfumed, then dressed in hose and satin tunics with tall boots and circlets of silver around their foreheads (not unlike the costume Nina had chosen for her pirate act). Looking every bit like knights of old they were chained and taken to the banquet hall to meet their deaths.
A large crowd had gathered at the banquet hall, which was centered around a dirt-floored arena. While the guests ate, Nina and Elizabeth were chained to bondage poles on either side of the Countess. During dessert, the two vigilantes were mocked as "chastity belts" complete with huge vibrating dildos were presented to the countess. Nina remembered struggling desperately as the short skirt formed by the hem of her tunic was lifted and the belt pulled tightly around her hips. The crotch strap was raised into position and the shaft was forced home through the fragile hose. After hours of nonstop sexual arousal the sensation of the lubricated monster inside her was maddening. The first orgasm tore through her body even as she was dragged away for further preparation.
Nina and Elizabeth were hung by their wrists from overhead rings facing each other only a few feet apart. Both women writhed under the touch of the dildos now invisible beneath their tunics as men slowly began encasing their bodies in gorgeous suits of armor. Elizabeth's suit was dazzling silver adorned with lions, while Nina's was polished ebony decorated with golden dragons. The suits were fully authentic, except that the individual pieces were secured together with a rivet gun instead of straps. Clearly, the Countess didn't intend for either heroine to ever get out of their splendid attire.
The Countess spoke some words of doom, which Nina didn't hear, lost as she was in sexual delirium and the beautiful countenance of the Gray Mouser. But with the final words, large ball gags were forced into the women's mouths and intricate helms were riveted into place. The next thing Nina knew, she was lifted skyward and deposited on the back of a great war-horse, snorting and fiery. She was led to one corner of the arena and a long steel-shod lance was placed in her hands. She tried to resist holding the deadly weapon, but servomotors concealed in the suit forced her hands to comply.
A roll of drums and a wave of the Countesses' hand sent the two young adventuresses hurling against each other at lethal speeds. Nina fought with all her strength to move the steel-shod lance, but the servos held it pointed directly at the Mouser's intricately adorned breastplate. The impact was crushing, and both women were thrown from their horses, landing heavily on the ground. Neither lance had pierced the heavy armor, though, so the stunned avengers were remounted and set for another charge.
The punishing tournament would proceed until one knight was impaled, and the crowd cheered more madly with each pass. On several occasions Nina managed to stay on her horse, but on others she was knocked completely unconscious by the double impact of lance and earth. On one of these occasions, however, even as her head swam and her vision grayed, Nina noted to her surprise that the servos in her armor were no longer functioning. Looking down through the grill covering her face, she could see that a box fastened to the waist of her suit was shattered, which must have contained the batteries for the motors.
On the next joust, she took careful aim at the battery box on the Mouser's armor. She neatly crushed the box, even as the Mouser shattered yet another lance against her weakening breastplate. Miraculously Nina had been able to remain on her mount, and the Mouser's freedom of motion was restored. They were then free to simply ride out of the arena to safety. Elizabeth called in the SAS in time to round up most of the crowd, though the Countess herself managed to slip away in the confusion.
Nina had spent the next week convalescing at Elizabeth's flat in downtown London. Both had been covered with bruises after the deadly joust, but after a week sharing each other's company they were out prowling the dangerous streets of the River District as the Gray Mouser and Silk Specter. Nina's face flushed thinking of the long intimate nights before the roaring fire they had enjoyed "tending" to each other's wounds.
All these thoughts flashed through Nina's mind the instant she peered into Elizabeth's cool blue eyes. The slight blush on Elizabeth's cheeks betrayed that she was thinking them too.
"Elizabeth! This is such a surprise."
"A fine show," Elizabeth said. "And if I may say, an outstanding tribute to the Royal Navy."
"Thank you. I've been trying to spice it up more recently. Come in." Nina lead Elizabeth into the cramped dressing room.
"You had me on the edge of my seat. The lights, and flashes, the costumes, and everywhere magic. It was all very moving. You certainly didn't show me any of the techniques you used this evening. " Nina had taught Elizabeth how to escape from a number of bonds, and had given her ample opportunity to practice.
"Hmmmmm. So how are things in London? I understand you brought in the Creeper."
"Yes. Brought in a dozen other lesser rafs as well. But all in all its been quiet, though I must admit I've stayed away from the medieval museums of late."
"I understand. If I ever see another suit of armor it will be too soon. So what brings you to Oceana, business or pleasure."
"Business actually. I came to deliver a warning."
"Sounds ominous."
"You judge. I was closing in a real psychotic, possibly a metahuman, calls herself the Tempest. I understand you two have met."
"Yes. Shortly before my tour to England I helped the Silver Sentinel foil one of her schemes. " She had actually saved the Sentinel's butt.
"She's been in England since her defeat here. I understand she rather prefers the weather. But she's recent taken the millions she has stolen over the past year and gone packing."
"Back here?"
"Afraid so. I thought I should let you know. And look here." Elizabeth held up a newspaper clipping from the most recent Oceana paper. It outlined an odd caper, where three women and an army of thugs had drugged the entire staff of the Oceana Meteorological Institute and made off with their Doppler weather radar.
"How odd," Nina commented more to herself. "What could the Tempest want with a weather radar?"
"I'm not certain," Elizabeth's hands were on her hips in a characteristic superheroine stance. "But I wager its skullduggery. Some kind of signaling device perhaps, or a high voltage source. It could even be used as a weapon at short range."
"Thank you for bringing me the information. Sounds like big trouble."
"Want my help, Nina?" the inflection Elizabeth put on "Nina" sent another chill down her back.
"Maybe. But I'll need to collect some information first. You in town for long?"
"Three days, at the Ritz Carlton. The Creeper goes before the magistrate on Monday."
"Alright, I'll call you." Elizabeth pecked Nina on the cheek and got up to leave.
"One thing," she turned form the door. "That last trick. I couldn't see any of the safety lines you said you use for dangerous stunts on stage."
"Yea well, I haven't been using them these days."
"What happens if anything goes wrong, and you slip off that rope while making your way out to the middle?"
Nina smiled. "Lets just say the audience would receive my most heartfelt performance."
"Mad girl." Elizabeth Sterling smiled, and then closed the door behind her.
That night, Nina arrived at her loft apartment in the long-abandoned Spirit Theater. The ornate structure had been willed to her by her father, Roman Blackstone, after his death during a highly publicized escape stunt. In fact, it was the only part of her inheritance that hadn't been stolen by Nina's aunt Hypatia, Roman's sister and bitter enemy, and that was only because Hypatia didn't know about the theater to include it in the doctored will. For years the structure had served as Roman's headquarters for his secret war against the evil of The Order. Now the Spirit, with its many mysteries, served the same purpose for the Silk Specter.
Now showered and dressed down after a long day at the Strand, Nina stared out the window of her spacious loft apartment at the fading tropical day. She had rinsed the coppery theatrical dye from her hair and her glossy black mane spilled over the shoulders of her silk dressing gown. Since starting her stage career, she always appeared in public with her trademark carrot top. Even most of her closest friends thought she was a natural redhead. In fact, she only removed the dye when she was out of the city, or when she was contemplating an outing as the Silk Specter.
Nina absently held the newspaper article Elizabeth had brought regarding the theft of the radar. She had been preoccupied with it since the moment Elizabeth left, and it very nearly cost her during the final show of the day when she almost dropped the heavy cannon ball on her foot. At last, her cat Sabrina leapt into her lap. The appearance of the animal gave her some unexpected insight into the mystery of the Tempest.
"You know Sibi, for a woman obsessed with dreary weather, there aren't many places the Tempest would feel at home in Oceana. But I happen to know that the Oceana Zoo has closed the Amazon Dome -- their special indoor rainforest exhibit -- for 60 days, supposedly due to an outbreak of dangerous tropical insects.
"But what is she up to? I doubt if the Tempest would install the radar system at the Zoo. She'll need high ground, privacy, and power." Struck by another idea, the teenage daredevil whisked into her study, turned to her computer, and began typing furiously. Sabrina followed and purred at her feet.
"They might not have taken the radar to the zoo, but if I can find the Tempest, I can probably persuade her to take me right to it." Nina activated several programs on her computer then bought up the web page for the Oceana Zoo. Password data began to flow across the screen as Nina's computer attempted to crack the remote server. "I think I know how I can thwart the Tempest's plans long enough to give Chief Jacobson a jump on her. But I'll have to sneak into her hideout to get a little more information. Should be back before dinner."
With that, Nina Blackstone entered a few final commands on her computer then headed for the library, where she pulled on an ancient copy of "Martyrs, Magicians, and Madmen." A section of bookshelf swung slowly open, revealing a secret room crammed with the effects of Nina's alter-ego, the Silk Specter. One wall was a long makeup table equipped with anything an illusionist - or superheroine -- could want: simple beauty basics, fake skin, squib bullets, wigs, artificial limbs, even full false faces. On the far wall hung a line of costumes with several cuts, including a wetsuit, a lightweight catsuit, three styles of body suits, and one that was little more than a bathing suit. All were a deep violet-black, hand-made in Italy out of a light-weight elastic fabric called Protex that resembled ultra-sheen silk but was extremely puncture resistant. Near the costume rack was a spacious wardrobe cabinet that held her gloves, masks, footwear and accessories. Along the third wall was another workbench flanked by display cabinets lined with an arsenal of weapons and gadgets.
And in the center of the room rested a gleaming metal skull atop a white marble Corinthian column -- the mysterious Oracle of the Saints Theater. Her father had written of it often in his journals, and told her to listen carefully to its twisted wisdom if she decided to follow in his footsteps as an agent of The White. But so far it had only spoken to her on two occasions, once to acknowledge her decision to follow her father, and once to tell her to begin taking small doses of a strange powder hidden in a secret alchemy lab in the cellar. She had been taking trace doses of the tasteless white powder ever since, despite the fact that Aquagirl's chemical analysis indicated that the powder was in fact a highly dilute paralysis agent.
Nina undressed to her bra and g-string, and then ran her finger down the line of costumes. Since the Amazon dome would almost certainly be wet, she selected a long-sleeve rubberized body suit, cut high at the hips with a waterproof turtleneck collar and silky cape. She began her transformation by pulling on a pair of silky translucent hose, which caught the light but didn't alter her normal tanned skin tone. Then she wriggled into the glossy body suit which was custom tailored to her form. It was skin-tight around her hips and waist then loosened slightly at the bodice to allow room for her full breasts. Shoulder pads sewn into the garment gave her a more angular look, and the sleeves tapered rapidly until they were tight from elbow to wrist. Next, she added thigh-length rubberized boots with high heels and long gloves of the same violet-black as the body suit. Finally, she picked up her eye mask, smeared its inner surface with theatrical adhesive, and carefully pressed it into place.
Now costumed, she moved to the workbench to gear up. First, she extended her left arm and snapped a black bracer around her wrist. It was loaded with several different types of projectiles, including draglines and fiber optic probes. Then she slung her heavy utility belt low across her hips, buckling it into place with a gold buckle bearing her trademark double-s symbol. It contained an arsenal of crime-fighting equipment and was well worth the added weight. Surveying the weapons in the display case, she bypassed her short fighting sword, katanas, and prized 9mm Glok in honor of a taser and her telescoping fighting staff.
As she slipped the 9-inch long staff into its sheath along her belt she was drawn to her image in the mirror. Beneath the form-fitting costume her body was lithe and powerful. The light danced off the subtle ripples on her flat stomach, and the skin-tight high-heeled boots highlighted her thin muscular legs. The utility belt was tight around her thin waist and the cape rustled regally behind her. The mask covered her face from hairline to cheekbones with a thin layer of wet-looking vinyl the same violet-black as her body suit. Her soft full features and wide green eyes were if anything accentuated by the partial concealment.
The voice in her head told her again that this WAS her true identity. As Nina Blackstone the magician, she prepared for months to create a world of illusion. But as the Silk Specter, she lived for the moment in a world that was deadly real. Only her own strength and courage stood between her and horrible death. The excitement, the danger, and the memories of her countless brushes with death - it was like a drug. Her entire body tingled with anticipation at the thought of what the night had in store for the Silk Specter.
Ready for action, the Specter slipped down a fireman's pole at the center of the room that ran to yet another secret room in the storm sewer below. There waited her car, Black Magic, a Dodge Viper modified in England with bulletproof glass, an arsenal of weapons, and a self-healing paint job. Nina climbed in, secured the five-point harness, and threw a few switches.
"Lets go, Black Magic," she said so the on-board computer could check her voiceprint. A green light flashed on the control panel and the Specter was in control. The engine purred to life and, in a flash, the Dark Angel was speeding through the night.
Heading straight for the Tempest's trap.
Though the Specter doubted if the Tempest knew it, it had been she that had foiled her first plan to destroy Oceana. Nina had stumbled onto the villainesss lair in posh Pacific Heights and, using a laser microphone, had learned of all the Tempest's plans, including the fiendish trap she had set for the Silver Sentinel. Given the arrogant nature of super villains, the Specter was confident that the Tempest's new hideout would again be poorly defended. Getting in and out of such a huge place as the Amazon Dome would be easy.
She stopped her car about half a block from the Zoo with its hundreds of acres of landscaped pens and exhibit houses. Fortunately, the Amazon Dome was in one corner of the zoo grounds, easily accessible on two sides.
"Security on," the teenage vigilante murmured to Black Magic as she slipped out of the car and checked her utility belt. The control console of the sleek sports car went dark. Now on her own, Nina trotted off through the deepening twilight, making for the huge dome.
The Silk Specter took full advantage of her petite size, slipping through a small ventilation shaft and into the dome. The interior of the high-tech facility was breathtaking. From her vantage near the top of an artificial cliff, the tropical rain forest sprawled for as far as the eye could see. Scores of birds squawked everywhere, and the trees were dotted with monkeys. Through the middle of the complex flowed a wide river. Small animals frolicked in the shallow rushing water. In the distance rose a small stone pyramid, a replica of an Incan temple. Water streamed from the sky, and the roof of the complex was lost in a low layer of clouds.
"Oh my God," she whispered, clutching the hem of her cape.
The Maid of Mystery could suddenly appreciate the Tempest's wisdom in choosing the dome as her new lair. Defended or not, she could be hiding anywhere in the lush jungle. The natural fauna could completely conceal any number of traps or surveillance devices. The constant rain reduced visibility and would make footing treacherous away from the established walkways. Finally, the Specter's violet-black costume stood out terribly amidst the riot of greens, blues, and browns.
Stumbling into traps was the Sentinel's game. The Specter decided to withdraw and think out a better plan of attack. But then she heard a sound that she couldn't ignore - a cry for help.
"HELP ME! My God, somebody PLEASSSE HELP ME!"
Nina's calm green eyes sought out the origin of the cries. There! Near the river, a dark-haired woman was suspended over the water in a bamboo cage. She had been stripped down to her conservative underwear and her wrists tied over her head. The cage was being slowly lowered towards the water. Despite her fear, the woman was strikingly beautiful and strangely familiar.
"Jill St Marie! The weather woman from Channel 15 news!" So perhaps that was it. The Tempest was getting her revenge on the weather establishment because she blamed them for the long period of perfect weather!
"Shit," The adventuress cursed as she felt the sudden tingle of excitement. Despite the risks she was going in after all.
Cursing her inability to turn away from the almost sexual excitement of a rescue, the shapely heroine secured a dragline to a tree and lowering herself down toward the river. As she reached the first wooden walkway, she got a better look at Jill's predicament. She was still some 25 feet above the water, dropping about a foot every 10 seconds. The Specter had perhaps 5 minutes to save her. Following the rope up from the cage, she could just discern the electrical winch, high up in a tree. No time to stop the descent of the cage, so she would have to free the trapped weather reporter before it was too late.
Fortunately, the cage was only made of wood and bamboo. The Specter pulled a black pistol grip from the rear of her utility belt, took careful aim, and fired. There was a loud report and a heavy grapple fired from the device, trailing a thin line. The hook wrapped around one of the bamboo bars and held fast. The teenage dynamo bounded over the rail of the walkway, sliding at breakneck speed down towards the river. She pulled in the line as she slid, praying she didn't hit a tree in the next few seconds. Then she hit power recoil and the device lifted her cleanly off her feet. She just managed to fend off a tree trunk with a kick as she rapidly ascended to the base of the bamboo cage.
The Specter got her footing on the base of the cage and stood up. The beautiful reporter suddenly stopped screaming and looked gratefully through the bars at her young rescuer.
"The Silk Specter! Thank God you're here!" Jill St Marie lunged toward Nina as if to seek protection from the masked vigilante. "A crazy woman abducted me from the studio. I think she's going to kill me!"
"Not today she isn't," The Specter said as she quickly checked out the bars. They were more solid than they seemed from a distance. "Looks like I'll need to come in through the roof!"
To the Dark Angel's delight, the roof of the cage was only made of woven grass. It was thick and water logged, but no match for the blade in her utility belt. The Specter quickly hacked a small hole in the roof.
"Hurry! My feet are almost in the water!"
The raven-haired heroine dropped into the cage and saw that Jill was exaggerating. They were still some 12 feet above the water. Still, fear was etched into the shapely brunette's face as she struggled beautifully in the tight bondage. The Specter put aside her desire to drink in the image of the trapped reporter and instead cut her free.
"Okay, you're free," Nina calmly instructed looking up towards the roof. "Now let me boost you up through- "
But the Specter's words caught in her mouth. The reporter wrapped her arms gently around her rescuer and planted a long passionate kiss on her lips. The courageous cutie felt the familiar passion that danger and adrenaline always built up in her raise towards the surface. She almost swooned.
The two women locked gazes as the Specter fumbled to think clearly. Her vision seemed to be graying. "Why would the Tempest want to kill you?" She finally asked. Something was wrong.
"She doesn't want to kill me." Nina looked over numbly as Jill St Marie locked steel cuffs around both her gloved wrists. "This trap is meant for you."
The Silk Specter shook her head, trying to shake off the effects of the drugged kiss while Jill slipped the young heroine's booted feet into a set of metal brackets secured to the floor. They sprang shut like bear traps, wrapping tightly around her ankles.
The good news was that the drug was very short lived. The bad news was that teenage avenger recovered just as the scheming reporting secured her wrist manacles to chains hanging from the ceiling. The Specter struggled as Jill activated a small hidden winch, which raised the trapped heroine's hands high over her head.
"This is a trap?" The Specter was in shock. "But how?"
"Yes Silk Slut, a trap set just for you. I was starting to get nervous that you wouldn't show. The Tempest may have used me for her entertainment instead of you."
"But aren't you."
"Jill St Marie? Yes I am, but you can call me Leather. The TV camera just doesn't do me justice, does it?" Jill ran her hands down the Specter's flanks, pausing to knead her firm breasts through the thin costume. "The camera doesn't do you justice either, Specter. I can see now why the Tempest gave so much thought to your delicious demise."
Jill stepped back to face the chained teenager and pulled a small blade from her panties. "The Tempest knew you were a hopeless romantic and would fall for the damsel in distress bit. But now that you're here, lets just dispense with the window dressing shall we?"
The Specter's captor cut a series of ropes near the floor and ceiling and the bamboo facade fell away. The fearless fem now found herself in a cage of gleaming stainless steel, with a gate in the roof providing the only access. A series of five small cameras were mounted at various points on the cage, all trained on the masked avenger.
"So this is a public execution?" The Specter pulled at her tight restraints.
"The Tempest wanted to watch the show from the control booth. She's busy getting the Ionotron running, but she'll be here in spirit. And she brought a little friend all the way from Peru, just to keep you company."
Nina followed Jill's finger down towards the river. A perimeter of fencing with its top just under the surface ran around the area where the cage would enter the water. Within the clear, greenish water bounded by the fence the Specter could make out a very sinister shape, over a foot in diameter at its widest point and over 25 feet long. Its skin was almost translucent as it swam about just below the surface of the water. The Dark Angel's could not force down the expression of horror on her face. It was a Peruvian Water Anaconda, grown to grotesque size by years of constant feeding.
"I think you see now that drowning is the least of your concerns. After we enjoy watching Dinky squeeze the fight out of you we'll release your ankle restraints so he can swallow you whole."
Jill noted that the cage was now only feet from the water. "Wow! I'd better get moving, lest he get two meals for the price of one!"
With a graceful leap, Jill St Marie propelled herself through the opening in the roof then swung the door closed with a heavy clang. She wrapped a chain repeated around the door and padlocked it in place.
"But Jill, you're a pillar of society." Nina pleaded from within the double deathtrap. "Why are you doing this?"
"I guess I just got a little tired of predicting the weather and more interested in controlling it."
"But the Tempest can't control the weather."
"Ahh, not before she met Professor Greenleaf. But now she plans to unleash her own little weather front on Oceana. Pity you won't be around to see it. Put on a good show. We'll be watching" And with that the insane local celebrity was gone, leaving young crime fighter to her cruel fate.
Horror of horrors! Is this the end of the Specter? Will the Tempest permanently alter the weather around Oceana? Tune in next time true believers, the worst is yet to come!
CHAPTER 2: Last Gasp In Dinky's Grasp?
Jill St Marie hurried to the control booth to watch the show on closed circuit TV. When she arrived, she found that the Tempest already had Satin - better known as Tracy Holland, weather women for Channel 5 - in a position to complement the evenings proceedings. She was bound spread eagle to a vertical bondage frame wearing nothing but a silver bikini and high heels. The Tempest was watching the monitors trained on the Silk Specter while idling rubbing a vibrator against Satin's crotch.
"Ohhhh, you did great out there, Leather," Satin cooed. "You should have seen the expression on the Specter's face when you leaned over and kissed her. She loooved it!"
"You're just in time for the fun," the Tempest smiled, implying both the torment of Satin and the televised death of the Silk Specter. "Suit up and help me with Satin. She's been empathizing with superheroines again."
"Oh has she?" Leather stripped off the conservative underwear distastefully and slipped into an extremely tight leather catsuit. She was feeling better already. "A few minutes bound in that cage would cure her of that."
"Ohhh, just look at her," Satin gazed dreamily at the monitor. "Poor girl!"
The Tempest had adjusted the five cameras to highlight different aspects of the Silk Specter's plight. The first camera showed a full-length frontal view taken from the center of the wall opposite the Specter. The second camera was on top of the cage just above the trapped heroine, looking down over the twin peaks of her breasts at the rising water. The third camera was focused on the upper half of the Specter's body, from wrist manacles to belt buckle. The fourth camera highlighted The Specter's lower extremities, from her muscular abdomen to her high-heeled boots. The final camera was focused tight on her youthful face, framed in shining black hair.
The Silk Specter pulled with all her surprising strength at the unyielding restraints as water seeped through the floor of the cage. The Tempest had slowed rate of decent considerably to prolong the grisly plunge. The Maid of Mystery's delicate features and huge green eyes were knit in a gorgeous mix of fear and resolve. Water streamed down her body due to the constant rainfall and the light played off her body suit and shimmering tights.
"Tell me, Leather, what was it like to touch her? To feel her lips?"
"It was not the kind of touching I prefer," Leather suddenly snapped a broad leather whip in mid air, testing the heft. "But she was strong and very confident. Its a pity we can't have a little more fun with her first."
"And she accepted her fate with amazing calm," the Tempest noted. "It was almost as if"
"She enjoyed it?" Leather finished for her. "Yes, the little vixen loved seeing me in bondage and was probably thrilled when I turned the tables. But she sure won't enjoy what happens next."
Indeed. The Specter now pulled deliciously at her bonds as the water level neared her ankles. Dinky was already bumping up against the bottom of the cage, and every jolt increased the urgency of the Nina's struggles. Occasionally, she would turn her delicate gaze almost hopefully up at the trap door above, now sealed with coils of heavy chain. Her cape danced haughtily behind her shoulders.
"Times running out, Silk Specter," the Tempest spoke into a microphone, which relayed the signal to the cage. "Are you enjoying my little ghost trap?"
"Save your breath Tempest!" came the Specter's reply over the loud speaker so all could hear. Her voice quivered slightly despite the courageous words. "You'll never get away with this!"
"Oh but I will and much more. With Hydrowoman and Aquagirl out of town and one pesky adversary in the belly of a snake, Oceana is my storm sewer. But first, I plan to have a little fun while watching Dinky enjoy his midnight snack."
The Tempest ran several coils of rope around Satin's thin waist, and then ran the rope up between her legs. Leather produced a black rubber vibrator and began covering it with lubricant.
"I know all about your crazy plan to destroy Oceana," the Specter bargained. "Killing me won't solve anything."
"Ahhh but it will. With Aquagirl, your confidant, unavailable, I'm certain you've kept your theories quiet, lest the bumbling Oceana Police ruin your case. By silencing you I silence my only true adversary."
Leather pulled aside Satin's G-string and pried open her sex. She forced the buzzing rod completely into Satin's pussy as the tall blonde writhed in pleasure. Leather then lovingly replaced the small patch of silver fabric and the Tempest pulled the waist rope up through Satin's crotch. The rope sank deeply between Satin's labia as the Tempest tied it off, forcing the dildo deeper inside.
"Besides, you and I have a score to settle." The Specter looked startled. "Oh yes, I know it was you who saved the Sentinel and detonated my explosives. And for that you have earned a slow and most unpleasant death. A constrictor snake never refuses food, but a well-fed snake will take its time, slowly squeezing the life out of its prey. It's a sort of game. Dinky is a very well fed snake so he may want to play for several hours. Fortunately, Satin, Leather and I have brought along some toys to keep ourselves entertained as well."
WHACK! "Ohhhh." Leather landed a blow on Satin's breast with a short-bladed riding crop. Satin lurched seductively in her tight restraints.
WHACK! "Ohhhhhh." The whip landed again. Smiling, the Tempest activated the broad area microphone so the Specter could hear the delicious beating.
SWACK! "Mmmmmmh."
Now accompanied by Satin's moans of pleasure the Silk Specter looked in horror as Dinky finally managed to squirm his tail into the cage. She twisted, trying to extract her feet from the heavy magnetic brackets now submerged in several inches of water. The manacles were fiendishly tight, however, and held her completely immobile as the huge snake began coiling himself around her ankles. She had to think fast.
"So what scientific reject has sold you on his invention this time?" The Specter locked gazes with the camera trained on her face. " I hope you didn't pay him in advance."
"I wouldn't go calling Dr Greenleaf a charlatan." Dr Greenleaf - better known as the Alchemist -- was the evil mastermind that created the Lazarus Formula to animate recently deceased corpses. Nina had only narrowly been able to save Hydrowoman and Aquagirl from dueling to the death for the honor of serving as the Alchemist's next zombie. "His latest invention, the Ionotron, will soon have Oceana swimming in torrential rain. His payment will be the destruction of Oceana and the delivery of Aquagirl to him in chains."
"So you need the cyclotron from the radar system to generate a stream of charged particles for Greenleaf's device?"
"That's an excellent observation. You will be by far Dinky's most intelligent meal. Getting a little `touchy' in there, Specter?"
The overhead camera provided an excellent view of Dinky's progress beneath the
Specter's heaving breasts. The translucent anaconda slithered rapidly across the teenage avenger's legs as it rapidly ensconced her in a slimy living cocoon. The arch criminal was pleased to note that the raven-haired beauty's nipples now stood out firmly through her uniform. The combination of the slithering snake and chilly water were taking their toll.
"So there is pleasure in the pain, ehh? Intoxication in the danger."
The intimate details of the Specter's fate fueled the passion of the three criminals was they went about their bondage games. Leather continued to methodically whip every inch of Satin's body; drawing ever more excited moans from the blonde weatherwoman. The Tempest set to work applying painful nipple clips connected by a fine chain to Satin's large breasts. She casually added weights to the chain as Satin surged towards climax.
As the cage dropped further into the water, Dinky was able to make rapid progress at enveloping his victim. Stifled gasps of desperation escaped Nina's lips as the snake's coils reached the level of her waist, just beneath the water. Its blood gave the monster a pink tint but she could easily identify internal organs through the clear skin. The masked vigilante could also vaguely make out the remains of Dinky's last meal moving through his digestive system. She shuddered and pulled again at her chains.
"The Alchemist is a dangerous ally," Nina tried a new track, fighting down her fear. "I hope you've positioned the Ionotron on neutral ground."
"Oh don't worry about me, Specter. I'd be more concerned about yourself." The Tempest pushed a button and Silk Specter's cage suddenly plunged into the water. The Dark Angel had just enough time for a quick breath before disappearing beneath the surface of the murky stream.
In the control booth, Leather switched to a riding crop and began directly punishing Satin's crotch. The Tempest produced several long coils of rope and began methodically wrapping the weatherwoman's breasts. Satin moaned piteously until the Tempest forced a large red ball gag into her mouth and strapped it in place.
"You know, it's a pity I didn't have a dildo stashed in that cage," Leather mused as she whipped another orgasm from Satin's body. "Silkie could have had hours of fun while Dinky asphyxiated her."
"There's no such thing as the perfect deathtrap, Leather, so I always error on the side of lethality. The important thing is that we get rid of the Silk Specter once and for all. Besides, I think she's quite uncomfortable right now, don't you?"
Indeed she was. Now completely submerged, coil after coil of the huge snake wound around the shapely crime fighter. The monster's embrace was firm and slippery as it worked its way up her body. It had completely entwined her from the chest down by the time the Tempest began raising the cage. The Specter gasped for air as her face broke the surface, but she knew the fresh air would be short-lived. Dinky was beginning to constrict in earnest.
"Come on computer," the teenage avenger whispered anxiously. The once soft, slimy snake was now becoming like coils of steel. "Getting tighter."
The Tempest stopped the cage with the Specter's breasts just under water. The bloated snake was unable to maintain its grip on the portion of the trapped dynamo above the waterline so it slipped back down until there was just enough breathing room to prolong Nina's ordeal. Still, the Specter's face showed the pain as the monstrous snake inexorably tightened its grip.
"Starting to get uncomfortable, Silk Specter?" the Tempest smiled. "Well its going to get a lot worse before its finally over. You may want to consider screaming now. In a few minutes you just won't have the breath for it."
The Specter instead used her final breaths to question the Tempest further. Her unimaginable calm sent Satin into a screaming orgasm of empathy.
"It would take ... huge stream of ions to create permanent storm clouds ... over Oceana. What does ... ahhh... the Ionotron ionize anyway."
"Curious to the very end, huh? Suffice it to say that the answer is right under your nose. But I imagine you have more... pressing matters to attend to now."
The Silk Specter tried to speak, but she couldn't manage to muster the breath. Seeing that the snake was beginning to put it to the fiery vigilante, the two villainesss decided it was time to get serious with deliciously suffering Satin. Leather produced a strap-on dildo and fastened it into place while the Tempest removed the crotch rope.
"Now Satin," the Tempest laughed, "Its time both you and Silkie paid the price for your little misadventures."
But just as Leather was about to set to work on her fellow henchwoman, the control room went dark. The Specter's cocooned form disappeared from all the monitors. The computer screens in the control room displayed only gibberish, and all systems in the Dome turned off. Even the rain stopped falling for the first time since the Tempest had taken up residence.
"What is this!" the Tempest bellowed. "Leather, reactivate the Dome!"
Leather sat down at the computer terminal and typed in some commands. Instead of the usual reboot sequence, all of the screens in the control room came up with the bright yellow symbol of the bat. The message "System secured by electronic lock" scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
"That snot-nosed little bitch!" The Tempest squealed.
"Yes!" The Specter sighed in the cage far away from the now mute control room. Her computer had activated the electronic lock right on time. The Dark Angel could only hope that it wasn't too late to save herself from the snake trap. Quickly she set to work freeing her limbs from the magnetic restraints before Dinky started cracking ribs. Once she had her arms free she desperately tried to force Dinky's coils apart just enough to reach her utility belt.
"Leather, fix this thing! I must have the lovely rain or I'll go mad!"
"Its completely dead. I can't even reset the system. From here, there's nothing I can do."
"But there's something SHE can do, I imagine," the Tempest pointed out into the darkened Dome. "Leather, get Satin down. Take some men and fetch the Silk Specter. Use your talents for persuasion to make her undo her electronic lock."
"Thank you mistress!" the women said in unison, elated at the prospect of getting their hands on the raven-haired dynamo.
"After she talks, should we put her back in the snake cage?"
"No, that brat needs to be taught a more brutal lesson." The Tempest considered her options. "After she talks put her in one of your special Venus Playsuits!"
"Yes, Mistress!" Leather beamed.
"Then suspend her in Dr Greenleaf's beta wave amplification chamber with a Class six reamer. Activate your toys at ten-minute intervals. I'll finish off what's let of her when I get back. "
"Oh course Mistress!" Leather clapped her hands in glee. "But the little thing couldn't possibly endure so much..."
"Ahh, but won't she be gorgeous watching her try," Tempest cut her off. "Make sure you get that lock removed before you put her in that chamber. Do whatever is necessary. I must go see if Dr Greenleaf can activate the Ionotron ahead of schedule in case the Dome is ruined. I must have that rain."
With that, the Tempest stormed through the door, off to activate the Ionotron.
"Ohhh, poor Silkie," Satin shook her head empathetically as Leather removed her gag.
"Yes," Leather agreed. "I can hardly wait to get started!"
The Specter never saw the tranquilizer darts coming. She had managed to spread Dinky's coils just enough to squeeze in a finger and activate the taser module on her utility belt. That created enough space around her waist to grab a stun grenade and set it off under water near the snake's head. She had just slipped free of the Dinky and was hanging from the roof of the cage picking the padlock when she heard a `thump' and felt a sharp prick on her neck. The young vigilante managed to pull out the dart just as complete darkness overtook her.
Nina slowly regained consciousness, thinking she had fallen asleep at rehearsal. The dual roles of crime fighter and aspiring magician often forced her to catch naps at odd hours. The incident in the cage must have just been a bizarre dream! Then she tried to rub her face, but found her arms securely bound. In fact, her whole body seemed to be firmly restrained. Slowly, she opened her eyes and was shocked at her new macabre surroundings.
She was tied spread eagle to an X-shaped cross which tilted backward at a 45-degree angle. Leather straps held her at the wrists, waist, thighs, and ankles. She had been stripped naked except for her nylon g-string and her mask. Her entire body glistened with strongly perfumed oil and her hair was greased back along her head.
Looking around, she saw that she was atop the truncated Incan pyramid. The stone alter was just behind her and sputtering torches marked the perimeter of the pyramid's summit. Water burbled up from a fountain before her and emptied out via a broad, shallow waterfall, which commanded one side of the pyramid. Other than the cross to which she was bound, the Tempest had also installed two bondage poles with a high connecting cross bar and a crystal box the size of a grandfather clock near the alter.
Before the bound vigilante stood a woman wearing a body suit of white satin and white thigh-high boots.
"Leather thought you wore a wig," the woman purred. "Looks like she owes me a long session of Malaysian water bondage."
"You're Tracy Holland from channel 5," Nina stated with amazement.
"That's right, but around here they call me Satin." Satin picked up a bottle of oil and began lubricating her hands.
"Both you and Jill St Marie serve the Tempest?"
"That's right," she giggled. "I apologize for the... primitive conditions. But it seems our power is shut down. We'd like you to undo the electronic lock."
"I'm sure you do," the Specter pulled vainly against the restraints.
"Playing hard to get, eh?" Satin went to work adding more oil to shapely heroine's body, caressing her pelvis, abdomen and breasts. "Well I think you'll find I'm immensely persuasive."
"HMMMM," The Specter cooed despite herself. Still, she looked away from Satin.
"Personally, I like you as a brunette," Satin continued her rubdown of the bound superheroine. "Watching you in that cage got me soooo hot, Silkie. You were so calm and heroic, even as Dinky wrapped himself around you. And that costume is unreal."
Satin walked over to the altar of fake stone and lifted the Specter's body suit and cape. Firelight danced off the synthetic fabric. "Too bad you're so petite, or I'd have Leather chain me in the cage for while as the Silk Specter."
"I'd be more than happy to help you out, if you'll just loosen these straps," The green-eyed vigilante smiled sweetly.
"He he. I'm afraid not." She replaced the costume and returned to her prisoner. Satin lifted up on the lower part of the cross and the entire contraption tilted backwards like a teeter-totter. The Specter's head dropped towards the floor even as her crotch was raised to eye level. "You're just a kid. Ever danced beneath the touch of a temptress before? Your prom date doesn't count."
"Stay away from me," Nina warned without much strength as Satin ran light fingers across her sex.
"Ohhh, " Satin purred as she unsnapped the g-string and pulled it away, "I see you're enjoying this already." The Specter's neatly trimmed pubis was already wet from the long oiling and her addiction to danger.
Satin put a hand on either thigh and went to work on the teenage dynamo. Trained fingers gently pried open the Silk Specter's pussy and Satin ran her tongue expertly across her labia, urethra, and clitoris. The temptress occasionally drew lazy circles with her fingers around the young heroine's anus.
The Specter shook her head from side to side and chewed on her upper lip as Satin quickly ignited the fires in her body. Satin knew the perfect mix of light touches and firm pressure to maximize her stimulation. The feeling of complete vulnerability as her exposed pussy pointed skyward further added to her sexual abandon. After only a few minutes, Nina was reaching a climax. Then Satin's caresses were suddenly gone.
"Hmmmmm, you're a hot little bitch, aren't you? We'll just have to be careful." Satin went to work again, this time from another angle, lightly rubbing the Silk Specter's labia and shallowly invading her pussy. Simultaneously Satin ran her fingers lightly across the daring dynamo's inner thighs, raising goose bumps on the petite crime fighter. "But you don't even know what hot is yet."
Satin took her time with the sexy vigilante, repeatedly bringing her the brink of orgasm then leaving her unfulfilled. At first the Specter found this type of interrogation almost laughable. Why would she want to halt such a pleasurable process by talking? But after the 15th denied climax, she was beginning to understand the insidious nature of her fate. The longer she danced beneath Satin's skilled fingers, the more her desire for release consumed her. How long could she maintain her composure before exchanging anything for a screaming orgasm?
And matters were about to get worse. After an hour of expert stimulation Satin denied Nina a final climax then lowered the teeter-totter until she was again facing the masked crime fighter. The Specter's eyes were misty with passion and she moved her hips as best she could in the strict bondage.
"I think it' about time to up the ante, don't you?"
From her chest of toys, Satin produced a triangular strap-on vibrator. She tightly secured the device to the Silk Specter's legs and narrow waist, and then flipped the switch. Waves of warm stimulation spread out from Nina's crotch.
"Ohhhhhhh!"
To entertain herself while the vibrator did its work weakening the Specter's resolve, Satin occupied herself by taking ice cubes to the Dark Angel's firm breasts. "So, how does a slut like you decide to become a superheroine?"
"Tracy, you don't have to do this. Mmmmmmm!" The Specter moaned. "Help me, and I'll help you with the authorities."
"Not a very tempting offer, Specter. Soon the Tempest will own Oceana, and I will rule at her feet. You don't even want to know what we have in store for you."
"Listen to me. Ahhhhh-- the Tempest is a madwoman. She'll destroy Oceana not control it."
"Well, we all hurt the things we love, don't we?" Satin turned up the vibrator, and the Dark Angel hissed in passion.
"Whatever you do to me, the law will stop the Tempest. You still have a chance."
"You don't understand, kid," Satin pressed the ice hard against the vigilante's nipple. "This IS what I am. Tracy is just a public image. She is powerless. Satin, on the other hands, holds the power of life and death." She turned up the vibrator again to illustrate her point.
"Pleassse," the Specter was quivering. "No more!"
"Then perhaps your would be willing to release the electronic lock. You could spare yourself a great deal of additional pain." But the Silk Specter was swirling once again towards orgasm. At the precise moment, Satin turned off the vibrator and stepped back.
"Nooooo!" Nina moaned in unfulfilled passion.
"Now I have a wonderful surprise," Satin opened a small case and withdrew a large syringe. "This is a concoction of estrogen, adrenaline, and several powerful aphrodisiacs. Leather gave me 20 cc's and I was insatiable for three days. I'm sure a superheroine like you would accept nothing less than 60. Now hold still..."
"Hmmmm!" The Specter bit her lip again while Satin injected the fluid into her arm.
"There! Now for some real fun." Satin again lowered the Specter's head to elevate her pelvis and produced a string of large pearls. One by one she began slowly pushing them into Nina's close-cropped pussy. The process took time, and as the minutes passed the chemicals began to take their toll on the spunky teenager. Her body began to quiver despite the unforgiving bondage, and her own sweat began to mix liberally with the oil coating her naked body. Small coos and moans escaped her lips as she struggled to maintain her composure.
"There are over 120 pearls inside you, so we have to be careful," Satin had finished inserting the long string and returned the Specter to an upright position. She licked the sweating, quivering teenager. "Wouldn't want you to cum too soon. Unless, of course, you wanted to tell me how to lift the electronic lock."
The Specter looked long and hard at Satin. "Never, you bitch!" She said at last.
"Such language."
"Hmmm!" The Specter bit down a moan as Satin popped the first pearl out of her vagina and across her clitoris.
"Ahhhh!" came the second pearl.
"Mhhhph!" the third.
"Think how vulnerable you are, Silk Slut," Satin hissed. "The motion of the pearl is enough to drive you ever closer to the brink."
"AHHH!"
"Imagine, the feel of a tongue, or a finger, or worse."
"OHHHH!"
"And it will get worse. Much worse, until you talk." Satin neglected to mention that unspeakable fate that awaited the cute, teenage crime fighter after she talked. Thoughts of the future were getting her pussy hot.
"Ahhhhh! Ahhhh"
The pull of each pearl across the Specter's hypersensitive clitoris was almost a small orgasm in itself. Her whole body screamed for a climax, but each shock left her just short of release. And the worst thought was that there were still over 100 pearls in her cunt waiting for their turn and slide across her clit.
"Nooo! Please stop!"
"The code Silkie (AHHH!)! Tell me the code to reboot the Dome! (AHHH!)"
Satin's passion for the Silk Specter was kindled anew as pearl after pearl oozed across the vigilante's clitoris without breaking her resolve. Satin herself had begged for Leather's pardon after only 10, and that was with only a fraction of the powerful aphrodisiac in her system. The shapely youth was almost lost in sexual delirium, but still she refused to talk.
The Silk Specter hung limply on the cross, exhausted. Sweat drenched her body and her eyes were distant. Her craving for an orgasm now almost completely consumed her, yet her captors would not allow it. Satin sat idly by, knowing that inaction was the worst torture she could now inflict on the bound dynamo. Still, the Maid of Mystery would not tell her the code to the electronic lock.
Leather arrived on the scene dressed in her usual skintight leather body suit, and admired Satin's work. "Satin, you are without mercy."
"120 pearls and not a single orgasm," Satin bragged. "The girl's ready to fuck a fence post. But not a word about the electronic lock."
"Good," Leather smiled and opened a box, which contained several garments of thin, shiny rubber. "I like a challenge. Help me Satin. I've brought our princess a little costume change."
"Good evening Silk Specter!" Leather was amazed at the gorgeous look of defiance still on the Specter's face. "I'm glad to see you and Satin are getting along so well. You'll be happy to know that I've brought you a new costume! Here, we'll help you put it on."
One by one, the two vixens released the Silk Specter's arms and slipped on a long latex glove, which ran almost to her armpit. Then they repeated the process with her legs, encasing each shapely limb in a long sheath of rubber ending at a high-heel sole. For decoration, Leather added a rubber garter on the Specter's left leg just above the cuff of her new "boot." The garter was black and bore the bright yellow symbol of the double-s. They left the Dark Angel's mask in place.
"Please," the Silk Specter begged as Leather carefully positioned the garter just inches away from her exposed crotch. "Please just touch me. Please."
"Of course, I intend to, " Leather sneered. "Unless of course you tell us how to remove the electronic lock."
Tears welled in the Specter's eyes, and then she turned away.
"I've also brought you some new jewelry for you, Specter." She held up several thick leather cuffs with attached steel hoops. "I'm sure you're just... dying to model it for us!"
The stout restraints were added to the Silk Specter's new "costume," tightly enfolding her wrists and ankles. A leather choker completed the Dark Angel's new look.
"All right, let's take our little heroine to the bondage frame," Leather rubbed her hands. "I'm ready for a little midnight workout."
The two cruel bitches were not about to take a chance with their prisoner. As soon as they had released the Silk Specter's arms, they cuffed them behind her back. Before releasing her legs they ran a short chain between her ankle cuffs. The adventuress could only shuffle her feet at best. Finally they added a stout leash to the leather collar, and then led the suffering teenager to the bondage frame to multiply her torment.
The Silk Specter was efficiently secured to the torture posts. First, chains hanging down from the cross bar were locked to her wrist manacles and her arms were raised overhead at 45-degree angles away from her body. Then the short hobbling chain was removed and the Specter's ankle cuffs were secured to a long spreader bar, which was in turn chained to the floor. Leather noted with satisfaction how the high-heeled boots exquisitely highlighted the muscles of shapely avenger's widespread legs.
The Specter stared defiantly at her captors, illuminated by the sensuous flicker of the torches. She could see her real costume, just beyond the women, laying on the alter. Her utility belt rested off to one side.
"So tell me Specter, when was the last time you enjoyed a good flogging?" Leather cracked a whip to test its heft. It was a single-strand bullwhip with a flattened surface to avoid breaking the skin.
"I'm trying to cut down on my floggings, " Nina quipped. "Its so hard on my complexion."
Leather's face turned cold, as she processed the Dark Angel's mockery. The whip descended with a harsh crack against the Specter's back. The pain was electric.
"Ahhhhh!"
"Still feeling haughty, Silk Specter?" She struck again, tracing a second stripe on the Specter's exposed skin.
"I think horny is a better term. Ahhhhhh! But why is the Tempest missing all the fun?" The Specter managed to keep her voice relatively steady, further irritating Leather. The next lash came harder.
"Ahhhhhhh!" The petite heroine was thrown forward in the chains, almost seeing stars. Leather walked around to the front to regard the trapped vigilante.
"The Tempest had pressing business with the Ionotron, which is even now beginning to destroy your city. But she is very displeased about the electronic lock. Let me demonstrate how displeased she is."
Leather licked out with a stream of lashes, one on the Specter's left breast, one on her right, one firmly across her abdomen and another across the small of her back. The Specter writhed in the chains and moaned helplessly.
"Well, I'm sufficiently warmed up! I won't insult your courage by asking you to talk now. As a superheroine, I'm sure you expect only the harshest treatment from your enemies before divulging any information. Satin, gag her."
Smirking, Satin stood before the Specter, and rubbed her hands along the teenager's oil and sweat-soaked body. "You have no idea how hot you look in your new costume." She held up a huge black gag in the shape of a penis, with leather straps to hold it securely in place. "You really should have talked when you had the chance.
Satin carefully forced the penis gag into the raven-haired cutie's mouth. When its entire length was inserted, she secured the straps tightly behind the Specter's head, careful to rub her body against the Specter's ultrasensitive breasts in the process.
"And Satin, another 30 cc's of the Tempest's aphrodisiac, if you please."
"But Leather," Satin looked concerned. "Silkie can't take much more." She ran her finger between the Specter's thighs just below her pussy. Her finger came back coated with the Specter's own juices. "One more shot and her heart will burst in less than 20 minutes. Unless, of course, we get her off big time."
"Yes, that's it exactly." Leather walked slowly around the rubber-clad heroine, "20 minutes to live, Specter. 20 minutes of mounting and unquenchable desire. Unless, of course... the lash becomes your lover's tongue, and the red welts tender kisses." She seized the Specter by her slicked-back hair and forced the Dark Angel to match her gaze.
"You will climax under the caress of the lash, or die."
"Ooookay!" Satin was clearly excited at the prospect of the epic struggle to come. She shakily filled the syringe again as the Silk Specter shook her head in disbelief. Then Satin suddenly stopped, concerned. "But what if she dies?"
"Given the test subject, I'm sure the Tempest will approve of our little experiment. Besides living dangerously adds spice to life, dear Satin. Don't you agree Silk Specter?"
Nina's eyes were pleading as Satin knelt close. "I'm going to enjoy this," she whispered in The Specter's ear, even as she plunged the syringe into the Dark Angel's tit.
"MMMMMHHHH!" The Specter moaned as the injection burned its way into her body.
Almost instantly, she began to quiver and shake anew. The Specter felt her self control slowly slipping away under deluge of passion that was pure torture.
The Specter's strained moans were music to her captor's ears as they prepared for the show. Leather produced a few more torture implements to use on the Specter in case she started climaxing too soon. Satin, in contrast, ran for her favorite vibrator, the better to enjoy the proceedings. She dreamily slipped the device into her own pussy as the Specter struggled in a futile effort to pull her legs together enough to stimulate her own clitoris. That gave Satin another happy thought.
"You know, if she survives, think of the fun we'll have cooling her down. Ohh Silkie!"
Holy nightmare! Is this the bitter end?
Can the Specter possibly climax with the whip as her only lover?
Is Oceana doomed to destruction at the hands of the mysterious Ionotron?
Stay tuned, true believers. Desperate hours are upon us.
CHAPTER 3: Breaking Point
The Silk Specter hung in chains, awaiting her captors' deadly pleasure. She was the confident that her two sadistic interrogators were telling the truth: the dose of aphrodisiac they had injected her with would eventually be lethal. Already her heart thumped like a cannon in her chest and her crotch blazed with white-hot desire. Despite the dire consequences, she gladly would have told Leather anything she wanted to know if only they would grant her some release. That is, except for the obscene penis gag which completely filled her mouth. All she could do now was squirm in her chains while Leather and Satin enjoyed her suffering.
WHACK!
The first lash across her exposed back came almost as a relief. At last she had some sensation to distract her from her rapidly overheating body.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
Leather struck the Maid of Mystery with a steady rain of lashes, each precisely aimed to strike virgin flesh. The force of each blow threw the Specter's 108- pound frame forward against the chains. After the 10th lash, the Dark Angel was moaning urgently through her gag. After the 20th, she could no longer keep her feet. She relied on the cruel chains to hold her erect in the exposed spread eagle position.
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
After the 30th blow, the Specter was getting desperate. The bitter, stinging pain of the lash was not the least bit satisfying and her bondage was carefully designed to make any other kind of stimulation impossible. Even her new "costume" denied her any fabric that might apply incidental pressure to her breasts or pussy. If anything, the punishment of the lash only amplified the torture she was enduring under the influence of the aphrodisiac. And Satin's happy romping on her dildo was almost unendurable to watch.
"What's the matter Specter? Time's running out." Leather taunted as she walked around to face the Dark Angel. The Specter, of course, said nothing.
"Well, I'm here to help you." The evil henchwoman held up a new whip, much shorter than the last and thinner. Very carefully she positioned herself, then lashed out with the whip directly across the Silk Specter's breasts.
"MMMMMPH!" The pain, needless to say, was explosive. But buried deep in the sting was the hint of pleasure that Nina craved desperately. The next blow was mixed with even more pleasure. The third even more. By the 10th lash across her firm breasts, the Specter was gyrating her hips in pleasure.
But her sadistic captors weren't about the let the young heroine off that easily. Migrating off her breasts, Leather began to concentrate on the Specter's thighs and abdomen, causing excruciating pain but no pleasure. The Dark Angel felt herself sinking back into despair. Apparently Satin meant to play a game of chicken with the lithe vigilante's life hanging in the balance.
Sweat poured from the Specter's body, streaming in small rivulets down her rubber boots. Her head snapped back with each blow, sprinkling Satin pleasantly with perspiration. For long minutes, the Dark Angel thought that death was imminent. But still the punishment continued and death didn't come.
"Okay Satin, you'd better help the Specter assume the position. Looks like we're about out of time."
The Specter's head hung limply as Satin released the chains securing the teenage heroine's spreader bar to the floor. The cute brunette was lost in delirium as Satin swung her out and up, then secured the bar to a third, shorter post, leaving the Specter tightly stretched on her back at approximately the same angle as the cross. Then Leather went to work on the Dark Angel's pussy.
Three swift blows brought the Specter back to semi-consciousness. She looked down her body at Leather, who stood just a foot beyond the spreader bar. The overloaded superheroine shook her head in disbelief as Leather slowly raised the whip again. Then she flipped the lash with a resounding... SWACK!
"MMMPH!" The Silk Specter threw her head back and moaned into her gag. The mixture of pain and pleasure was indescribable. As the whip raised again, feelings of horror and desire threatened to tear her in two.
SWACK! SWACK!
The Specter writhed under the lash as Leather reined blow after blow down on her defenseless sex. Satin was now behind her, running her fingers through the trapped vigilante's matted hair and nibbling at her neck.
"That's right, Silk Slut," she whispered. "How does the whip feel against your brave little pussy?"
"Hmmmm! Hmmmm! Hmmmm!" The Specter's moans came in ragged gasps as the warmth rapidly spread out from her crotch. Each horribly painful stroke brought her ever closer to the orgasm she needed to survive.
"Hmmm! HMMMMMMM!" At last her body went rigid and her muffled screams reached a fever pitch. For long moments she threw her head back, eyes shut tight, then she went slack.
She had climaxed under the lash.
"Very good princess," Leather praised harshly. The torturess released the Specter's leg spreader from the support pole. The punished heroine returned to vertical, sagging in her restraints. "Guess you get to live for a little while longer."
"Now that you've popped her cherry, Leather," Satin came forward with two long strap-on dildos. One was blunt and knobbed and the other tapering to a sharp point. Both had small pleasure vibrators to slip into the pussy of the wearer. "How about using the
`Squeeze' to help cool her down?"
"My thoughts exactly," Leather took the pointed strap-on from Satin and began fastening it in place. "Should we remove the gag to see if she has anything to say?"
"Nahhh," Satin shook her head as she put on the belt with the huge knobbed dildo. "I find that superheroine's almost never release any information until they're thoroughly probed."
"True. Might was well spare her the temptation."
Leather raised the limp crime fighter's chains by two feet so they could get into position. Satin wrapped her hands around the Specter's tiny waist and positioned herself so that the huge dildo was up against her labia. Leather stood behind, with her pointed probe sunk deeply into the crevice of teenager's heart-shaped buttocks. The two bitches pressed close against the much smaller vigilante forming the infamous "squeeze." Then they lowered the semi-conscious Silk Specter onto their dildos.
The Specter's reaction was gratifying to her two torturers. She writhed deliciously between them as she was simultaneously impaled on both dildos. The ocean of drugs in her system sent her into immediate and unrelenting orgasm. As Satin had promised, the agony was unimaginable, as every fiber in her body was consumed by sexual fire. Her screams would have been deafening if not for the penis gag still strapped securely in place.
Now lowered to her original position, Leather and Satin went to work on the poor adventuress, pumping the dildos in and out of her tight muscular body. Both villains held the crime fighting cutie tightly about the hips and waist, keeping her pelvis precisely positioned despite her struggles. For long minutes, the Silk Specter knew nothing but constant climax, more powerful than anything she had ever experienced. Then there were slight lulls between orgasms, moments of near control amidst oceans of punishing sensation.
After 25 minutes squeezed tightly between the two bitches, the Specter's appetite finally abated. Her climaxes were now several minutes apart and brought on only by the stimulation of the twin dildos. Sensation had finally begun returning to her outspread arms since most of her weight now rode on the dildo belts of her two torturers. Ever resourceful, the teenage avenger started examining her shackles for a way to get free.
"Looks like she's finally getting her fill," Satin smiled with satisfaction. "I've never seen such a horny little bitch... that survived to tell about it."
"She hasn't survived yet," Leather still had her gloved hands on the Specter's hips, ramming mercilessly. The Specter's small body was jerked skyward with each thrust. "I think we should use the Hive next, don't you?"
"Leather!" Satin protested, "I want to see Silkie in that playsuit of yours! You're going to get her killed."
"Not if she talks."
"Well, at least we should make sure she's thoroughly sated here before we're done. Give her a fighting chance."
"Satin, " Leather suddenly stopped her reaming of the Specter and pulled out the anal dildo. "The Silk Specter is our arch enemy, not your little sister. She'd throw you in jail for life, given the opportunity. Besides, who said we were through raping her. We'll just have to use a little remote control."
Leather produced a broad black belt of thick leather with several heavy buckles. A wide crotch strap ran from front to back bearing two large rubber plugs. The strap was secured at the front by a strong padlock and several rubber tubes hung off the device almost to the floor. It was just Nina's size.
"You're going to make her wear an angio belt, in the Hive?" Satin withdrew her dildo as Leather brought the device around for the Specter to see. "How delicious!"
"Yes, I think we'll have the code to the electronic lock in no time. Remove her gag."
Satin undid the straps behind the Silk Specter's head and slowly removed the long shaft of rubber. While Leather prepared the torturous chastity belt for its occupant Satin also rewarded the Specter by covering her exposed breasts with a tight bikini top of black rubber with a yellow double-s on the left cup. Whatever deadly perils "the hive" entailed, it apparently would leave her chest in tact.
"Silk Specter, I think you now realize that Satin and I play rough. Are you ready for your next little toy?"
Since the Silk Specter still struggled to move her jaw, Leather accepted no response as tacit approval. She ran the heavy belt around the young avenger's waist and threaded the three silver buckles. Nina gasped as Leather pulled the buckles tight with all her strength. Her already narrow waist was pulled waspishly thin.
"Just think how she'd look in a corset and tight leather dress, " Leather mused as she lubricated the rubber plugs on the crotch strap. "Too bad we don't have time for such games."
The sadistic Leather ran the strap between the Specter's spread legs, aligning the large vaginal plug with the Dark Angel's pussy and the smaller plug with her anus. The Specter squirmed in uncontrollable pleasure as Leather forced the plugs in place, and then padlocked the strap to the front of the belt.
"Now you're ready for some more fun, huh Silk Slut?"
The Specter said nothing as the two women removed the chains from her wrist manacles and secured them behind her back. The short chain was again added to her ankles and she was half led half carried to another corner of the pyramid.
The courageous teenager found herself standing before the upright coffin-size box of clear plastic. The front was hinged but currently padlocked shut. There was a hole on the top of the box lined with black rubber. A large tank the same height as the box and over a meter in diameter stood just behind box, shrouded in a leather cover. Two short chains were secured to the floor of the clear chamber and another two chains were secured to the walls about three above the ground. At about buttocks level there was a black panel on the rear wall with a number of small holes. The Specter could vaguely hear a resonant buzzing sound like electrical transformers.
Satin giggled while Leather unlocked the chamber. "Here we are Specter. Satin, help her in." The Specter resisted but it was pointless. The much larger Satin forced her head down and into the small chamber. Nina lifted her head up through the hole in the top of the box as Satin secured her wrist and ankle manacles to the short chains. The tubes attached to the belt, Satin connected to the black panel, then she retreated still giggling. The next thing Nina knew Satin was rubbing a brush across her body, coating her with a sweet-smelling syrup.
"So is this the tickling trap? " The Specter tried to sound defiant as the ticklish brush ran all over her body.
"You could think of it that way," Leather smiled as she walked around to look the Specter in the eye. The Maid of Mystery stood facing the leather-covered tank, away from the door. Satin finished coating the Specter's entire body, and then closed the box. Loud clicks marked the sealing of the padlocks.
"I suppose you realize that the Amazon Dome is closed due to an unexpected infestation of dangerous insects." Leather unzipped the leather cover of the tank. "We brought along a steady supply of them to thwart the zoo authorities for as long as necessary. But they have other useful applications as well."
Leather dropped the cover. The tank before the Specter contained a huge honeycomb literally crawling with huge bees. The buzzing was suddenly deafening. Leather enjoyed the look of revulsion on the Silk Specter's face as she struggled in the chains.
"Killer bees," Nina swallowed hard.
"Yes, killer bees. And you, Silk Specter, are their flower. Satin has completely coated you with the nectar from countless tropical blooms. Once I begin releasing the bees into the chamber you will attract a lot of attention. Still don't want to talk?"
After her brutal treatment so far, it was all the Dark Angel could do to remain defiant. But if she gave in now, all would be lost.
"Then why don't I sweeten the pot." Leather flipped a switch and the rubber ring around the top of the crystal box inflated until it was snug against the Specter's throat. Then she activated another series of switches. The rubber plugs in the daring teenager's vagina and anus suddenly inflated, causing both pain and maddening pleasure in her drug-filled body. The doomed vigilante writhed and struggled in the loose chains as the devices quickly inflated and deflated in rapid succession.
"My God! Nooooo! Please!" The Specter's moans were music to their ears.
"You'll have to do better than that Specter. If you remain still, flapping gently in the breeze, then you're food. But any sudden move and you're a threat to the hive. Killer bees aren't actually poisonous, but they attack in swarms. You're final moments on earth will be most unpleasant."
"Ahhh Ahhhhh Ahhhh, please! Don't do this. Can't hold still! Ahhh Ahhhhh, Please no!"
"Then tell us the code to unlock the chamber!"
"Ahhhhh I ahhhhh can't Ahhhh Ahhhhh. Please! Nooooo!"
"Then I guess you'll just have to take your secret to an early grave, Silk Specter. Let me help you along."
Leather increased the size and speed of the inflations. The Specter writhed madly in the crystal deathtrap as her mechanical rape intensified. Then she watched in horror as Leather's gloved hand hovered over a large red knob. As the dominatrix slowly turned the knob, metal iris valves within the crystal chamber began twisting open.
The buzzing of the bees grew louder as the Silk Specter's flowery aroma permeated the
Hive. Tears streamed down the doomed daredoll's face as sexual pleasure washed through her. Struggle as she might, she simply couldn't stand still. If fact, she would have fallen over immediately if not for the inflatable collar.
Could this be the end of our angelic crime fighter?
How long can she possibly survive in the embrace of the swarm?
Stay tuned true believers.
The fate of the Silk Specter and Oceana hangs in the balance.
CHAPTER 4: The Bee's Knees
Chained and locked in the crystal coffin, the Silk Specter's eyes were wide with horror. Before her the hive grew increasingly more agitated as the aroma of her nectar-coated body permeated the twin chambers. The plugs in her body inflated and deflated rapidly, wracking the teenage superheroine with pain and pleasure. Satin and Leather seemed to enjoy the show immensely as they slowly opened the iris valves, which regulated the tubes linking the Specter's death chamber with the hive.
"Please, Nooo!" The Specter moaned as the first of the bees squeezed through the widening tubes.
"Well, since you asked so nicely. " Leather turned a second knob which controlled the speed of the pumps driving the Specter's belt. The sexual onslaught was still unimaginable, but the spunky crime fighter forced herself to remain still through terrific self-control. But any relief the Dark Angel felt was short-lived as the caress of the belt was replaced by a new equally maddening stimulant: the footsteps of countless bees
"A tickling trap, isn't that what you said, Silk Slut? You had no idea just how right you were. But no sudden moves. Only flowers and corpses are allowed this close to the hive."
The Specter bit her lip and closed her eyes, trying hard to remain perfectly still. The pulsating plugs she could deal with. Her primary enemy now was fear. Fear of the deadly bees, which were landing on her rubber-clad body in droves and fear of the fact that Leather would certainly begin turning up the horrible chastity belt soon. It would not stop until Nina talked or died.
"I think now would be a good time to start talking, don't you?"
The Silk Specter's skin literally crawled as insects formed a thick layer over her entire body. The mass was actually much heavier than she would have suspected. Many bees were already returning to the hive, having lapped up their fill of nectar off their flower. But for every bee that left, two arrived to take its place.
"Oh god," The Specter muttered under her breath. Her skin itched everywhere but she didn't dare scratch. Any movement at all was extremely dangerous. In fact, the complete immobility was becoming torture in itself. In her exhausted state she wouldn't last long. She had to find out the location of the Tempest's Ionotron and quick.
"I still don't hear any thunder outside, Leather," she almost whispered. "Sounds like the Ionotron is a failure."
"That's not the kind of talking I had in mind. But if you want a use for your tongue for something other than telling me the access code, let me help you. Why don't you pleasure Satin."
"Ohh, wonderful!" Satin clapped. She quickly climbed atop the tank housing the Hive, and laid on her stomach facing the Specter. Their faces were inches apart.
"Have you ever pleasured another woman before, little heroine?"
"Not while covered with bees," the Specter admitted.
"Well, the same principle applies to both. Be very... careful."
"And for every minute Satin avoids climax," Leather added. "I will turn up the compressors attached to your belt by one notch."
"Guess you'd better be good," Satin kissed the Silk Specter on the nose then turned onto her back and unsnapped her body suit. She slid along the slick surface of the plastic until the Specter's head was deeply embedded in her crotch.
"Better get to work hero girl," Leather urged. For emphasis Leather turned up the compressor one notch.
With her nose snugly up against Satin's moist sex, the Specter had no alternative but to comply. She went to work on the villain's pussy with almost as much skill as Satin herself. Satin rewarded the suffering teenager with long coos of pleasure. Still, a minute passed with no climax and the Specter reflexively jumped when the rubber plugs inside her began pulsating more rapidly. Despite her best effort, her pelvis was slowly gyrating.
"Better hurry, Specter," Satin stretched luxuriously. "I'd hate to lose such a talented tongue so soon."
Another minute passed and still Satin had not climaxed. With next increment of stimulation from the belt the Specter began building inexorably towards what would likely be a fatal climax. She wanted to talk but buried as she was in Satin's crotch, she could do nothing but continue stimulating the sexy henchman. Satin would climax or the Specter would die. It was simple as that.
"Hmmmm, I've never been eaten out by a woman in a death trap before. Its so dreamy. What could be keeping the Tempest at the cereal factory? She's missing all the fun."
The Specter's breathing hitched. That was the final clue she needed to locate the approximate position of the Ionotron! The Tempest had mentioned that the source of the devices ionic material was `right underneath her nose.' That obviously meant water. Then Satin mentioned that the Tempest was at a cereal factory. The Specter happened to know that the abandoned Tasty-Puffed cereal factory had been sold several months ago. It was right on the river and had over 20 high granary towers. It had everything the Tempest could want: height, strategic location, ample water supply. And power, the Specter added to herself. Well, she was about to take care of that.
"Hmmmm! Hmmm!" The Specter moaned urgently. Satin moved aside and looked at her quizzically.
"Did you say something?"
"You win, I'll talk. Just stop the belt!"
"Tell us the code first."
"Okay: control-alt tempestlock-1."
Leather smiled turned off the compressor driving the belt.
"This had better be right, or I turn it back on at double speed!" She entered the code into her hand-held electronic assistant, which relayed it to the central computer. After a moment, the lights once again activated in the Amazon Dome and rain began to fall.
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Leather reached up and stroked the Silk Specter's matted hair. "You can be very reasonable, when properly induced."
"I wish she could have held out for a just a bit longer," Satin moaned as she reluctantly closed her costume.
"As the Tempest says, dear Satin, business before pleasure. We can celebrate our victory later. But as for you Silk Specter, I'm afraid you've outlived your usefulness. It's time for you to die."
Her hand hovered over the control to the Specter's pneumatic belt. The young avenger again found herself shaking her head in disbelief, unable even to move due the thick layer of bees covering her slim form. She never anticipated that Satin and Leather might actually have the authority to kill her without consulting the Tempest. But after a tense moment, Leather's finger descended on the button immediately adjacent to the dildo control.
"But not here." The Specter's crystal box quickly filled with white mist. In seconds, bees began falling off the Dark Angel's body and collecting in crunchy pile on the floor. "The Tempest wants you for a little experiment first."
The bees were all dead, apparently the gas was some sort of paralytic agent.
Unfortunately, the Silk Specter found that the gas was also having an effect on her. She was having difficulty standing up and her entire body was going numb. Leather noticed the look of surprise on Nina's masked face.
"Works on both bees and human's, hmmm Silk Specter? Well, its fatal to them, but will only paralyze you for a short time."
Leather and Satin left Nina to soak in the crystal chamber for several minutes, until the sexy heroine was certainly paralyzed, held upright only by the inflatable collar. She was still conscious but helpless as a kitten. A second button push evacuated all the gas from the box, and Satin opened the locks.
"What kind of fiendish experiment does the Tempest have in mind?" the Specter asked as her two captors removed her limp form from the box and carried her over to the fake alter.
"Dr Greenleaf has been performing some research on expanding the pleasure center of the female brain." Leather produced a small syringe and filled it with anesthetic. "We have some special surprises waiting for you in Dr Greenleaf's lab. Now hold still."
Leather took the Specter's arm and pulled down the rubber glove. Just as she was about to plunge the needle in the Dark Angel's arm, however, the Specter seized Leather's hand, turned the syringe, and plunged the needle into the shocked bitch's throat.
"WHAT?!" Leather staggered back, but not before the Specter brought her foot up hard into her crotch. Leather doubled over in pain.
"Nighty-night Leather, I'll see you at the arraignment, if you live that long."
Leather slumped to the floor as the Silk Specter rolled to her feet on the alter and seized her utility belt. She pulled out a metal tube and leveled it at Satin. Satin just stared at her dumbfounded.
"But, but... how could you have escaped? What about the gas?"
"The rubber of my `Silk Specter costume' seems to block absorption of chemical aerosols quite effectively, " the Specter smiled. She didn't feel like sharing her true theory that the Oracle's prescription of dilute paralysis agents had artificially boosted her natural resistance. "Just numbed me up in all the right places. Now, if you'll put your hand's lightly on the alter."
Satin complied. The Silk Specter started withdrawing cuffs from her belt, then hesitated and instead let out a kick with all her might. Her toe caught the henchwoman right on the chin and sent her flying backwards. Satin landed flat on her back.
The Silk Specter jumped down nimbly and stood over Satin. "That's for making me eat you out while I was in that box." The green-eyed vigilante snapped on the cuffs then hauled Satin to the bondage pole. She attached one of the chains to the cuffs and lifted the misguided weather woman until her feet were just barely touching the ground.
"And you'll be happy to know that the code I gave you was one of thirty that would have reactivated the Amazon Dome. Each one, however, would also disable a certain part of the cities power grid. When you activated the Amazon Dome you deactivated the Ionotron."
"You're lucky I'm not a vengeful person," The Specter chided the stunned Satin as she cuffed Leather to the other pole. "Like Leather said, seeing you two disgraced and in jail for the next 25 years is reward enough for me. But I think I'll leave you here for the Tempest to discover. I wonder if she'll be as forgiving."
"No please!" Satin begged, suddenly scared, "You caught us fair and square. Take us to jail. Throw the book at us!"
"What's matter, Satin? " Nina secured the other end of the cuff to the bondage pole. "I thought you said the Tempest would be running Oceana in 24 hours. You should be pleased I'm giving you back." The Specter held up the syringe she had used on Leather." I know you're not supposed to share needles, but in your case I'll make an exception."
"Please, Silkie you can't leave us like...this."
After sending Satin off to sleep, the Silk Specter tenderly changed back into her costume and headed to the lobby of the Amazon Dome to call the police. In 20 minutes the entire riverfront would be crawling with Oceana's finest. With any luck, the police would nab the Tempest there and Satin would be spared any retribution. But somehow she doubted it. Arch criminals like the Tempest had a knack for evading police dragnets.
Regardless, Nina had to get back to the theater. As she slipped out of the dome, however, the young vigilante was greeted by a terrifying site: A churning mass of angry clouds, bright with lightening and dark with rain, was building over the Oceana skyline. The unnatural formation seemed stationary over the city, growing larger even as she watched. A chill ran down the Silk Specter's spine as she viewed the awe-inspiring spectacle. Apparently, the Ionotron was working after all.
Ripping her gaze from the stormy skies, she hurried to reach Black Magic. If her captors' boasts about the power of the Ionotron were true, then the Police would need all the help they could get to shut it down. The Tempest, it seemed, might still have the last laugh.
CHAPTER 5: The Deadly Downpour
"That little slut!" The Tempest bellowed as she burst into the Amazon Dome accompanied by a small army of her rain-coated thugs. "Where is she?! The power to the entire river front is shut down and cops are everywhere!"
At first, the Tempest was somewhat pleased that the power was back on in the Dome. The rain fell pleasantly on the artificial rain forest, in stark contrast to the driving storm that blew outside. But then her attention was drawn to the truncated pyramid. Her two assistants were clearly visible at its apex, hanging in chains from the bondage posts.
"Escaped!" The Tempest raged. "Those bumbling idiots had to play with their new toy! Well, I'll give them a toy or two to play with. Bullfrog, bring them down here!"
The Tempest's men hurried to comply.
"The Specter gone," the Tempest considered her position. "Well, that explains the police, and perhaps even the power outage. I'll have to find out just what my two pretty dimwits told that bimbo."
"Shuddn't we be getting out a here mistress?" One of her men asked. "What if the
Specter's tipped off the coppers?"
"Relax, Culvert. The Specter wanted me to find Satin and Leather before the police, hoping I'd dish out a little payback. She thinks she's already foiled my plans for the Ionotron by cutting the power and alerting the authorities. I imagine we've heard the last of the Silk Specter for tonight, considering what Leather and Satin probably did to her before she managed to escape."
"So what do we do with no power?"
"Fools, since the Ionotron is supposed to DESTROY the city, don't you think it would have its own power source?"
"Oh, yea." The men murmured.
"But the internal generators are only powerful enough to sustain a storm. I was relying on municipal power to create the initial cloudbank. As it is, the Ionotron will only create a moderate thunderstorm. But when I get that power back on, it'll be tornadoes, grapefruit-sized hail and gale-force winds for everyone!"
The Tempest's tirade was interrupted by the arrival of her men with Leather and Satin.
"And as for you two, what did you tell the Specter?"
"Nothing Tempest!" Satin begged. "We didn't tell her a thing. It was...it was the Sentinel! They appeared out of nowhere and rescued the Specter. There was nothing we could do! "
The Tempest stared at her groveling assistants in mild disbelief. Finally she turned to
Leather.
"Is this true?"
"Yes mistress. I didn't get a good look at our attacker, but I believe it was the Silver Sentinel."
"Well, he must have come out of retirement to avenge his shattered honor!" the Tempest chuckled, "This could work out better than I thought. Men, back to the cereal factory. Looks like we have a second trap to prepare."
The Tempest started to leave and suddenly whipped around.
"And as for them! Take Satin and Leather to Dr Greenleaf's lab. Have the good doctor's assistants fit each of them each with a labidoprobe and slip them into something uncomfortable. I'll be back to apply the power later."
"Nooo, mistress, nooo!" Satin blubbered, "We didn't have a chance against the Sentinel."
But her words fell on deaf ears. The Tempest whisked out of the Amazon Dome into the stormy night.
The rain fell in buckets in the dilapidated port district of Oceana, and lightening furiously lit up the night sky. Despite the foul weather, police cruisers still blanketed the area as best they could, though many roads were already flooded. The complete blackout in the river district further complicated search efforts. And the freak storm was getting worse, engulfing larger parts of the city. Even if the Silk Specter's tip was correct and the Tempest was in that part of Oceana, it was looking less and less likely that they would find her until after the storm had passed.
But the Tempest, of course, was working to ensure that didn't happen. In fact, she was about to make the storm worse, a lot worse. Despite the lack of power, the Ionotron was working quite well on auxiliary generators. The storm it generated, however, just wasn't powerful enough for the Tempests taste. She put the fiendish mind of Dr Greenleaf on the problem, and he quickly came up with a solution.
If only the police could have seen through the driving rain and lightening-speckled darkness they would have seen the Tempest's henchmen filling a line of 6 huge weather balloons atop the moldering silos of the abandoned Tasty-Puft Cereal plant. The destruction of Oceana was only hours away.
"Dr Greenleaf, you're a genius!" the Tempest praised the unassuming elderly gentlemen at her side. "Using the power of the storm itself to fuel the Ionotron!"
"Its really elementary static electricity, my dear," Dr Greenleaf made a casual adjustment of the long thin steel cable connected to the bottom of the balloon. "Each balloon will funnel almost a giga watt per lightening strike into the power substation that once drove this plant. My men have installed the necessary equipment to store these surges and let then out slowly as useful power. The storm will eventually destroy the balloons, of course, but not before the Ionotron has all the power it needs to run for a week if necessary."
"But that won't be necessary. By dawn the storm will be at full power, and Oceana will be pounded to sand."
"Including this facility," Dr Greenleaf reminded her. "I suggest we remove ourselves to my secret underground lab in the country before we raise the balloons."
"I would, good doctor, but you see, I'm expecting company and he hasn't arrived yet."
"SHE is right here, Tempest!"
"SILK SPECTER!" The Tempest said in surprise.
The light from several nearby flashes of lightening illuminated the Maid of Mystery as she walked like a cat slowly forward. She was now dressed in her full-length costume, complete with long billowing cape that came down to her ankles.
"You're brave, I'll hand you that Silk Specter. And stupid. Men, get her!"
Six men descended on the Silk Specter from all directions. The vigilante lunged at the nearest man, who was caught off-guard by the fierce blow from the lithe teenager. Two punches and a powerful kick sent him sprawling.
The attack, however, gave the others precious moments to close in from behind. The Specter whipped around with a roundhouse kick, but a thug caught her leg. Instantly recognizing the danger, Nina used his grip as a foothold to jump, performing a back flip and landing on her feet just in time to plant a gloved hand firmly in the face of two assailants. She struck one with a second solid blow that sent him reeling.
As she pulled back her arm for a second punch, however, a huge hand seized her wrist. A second henchman grabbed the other wrist, and the two wrenched her around, arms out wide. A third thug took good advantage of the situation to drive a hard fist into the Specter's mid-section. The force of the punch would have dropped her had the other men not been holding her up by the arms. As it was, the man landed two more punches of equal force against the Dark Angel's exposed abdomen.
"Seems Satin and Leather took a little more out of you than you thought," the Tempest observed.
The Specter looked to either side at the men holding her arms, then a look of determination hardened her face.
"Guess its time I gave a little back, then!" She clenched her hands into fists and fired a grapple from each wrist. Each struck the chest of a thug with tremendous force, sending them flying. The graceful heroine made quick work of the remaining men while the Tempest dashed across the dark rooftop.
"There's no getting away!" The Specter polished off the last thug and started after the Tempest.
"I'm not going anywhere Silk Specter. I just wanted to show you something!"
The Specter stopped dead in her tracks. Hanging from a small crane swung out over the edge of the building were two Oceana police officers. Beneath their feet was only the 150-foot drop to the pavement below.
"These two were sent to search this building, based on a tip from you I understand."
"Let them go, Tempest. This is between you and me!"
"So it is. So if you're willing to trade places with them, then we have a deal."
The Specter hesitated. The two men's lives rested on her decision.
"Well, Specter? Do you want them paying the ultimate price for your mistake?" The Tempest urged her thugs to approach the shapely crime fighter. They did so but with new respect for the petite woman.
"Alright, Tempest, you win! Just let them go." The Specter held her arms out and strong hands secured manacles to her wrists. She was spun backward and her arms were secured behind her back.
"A hero even to the end!" the Tempest clapped. "Boys take her to the balloon."
"And what about the coppers?"
"A deal's a deal. Just leave them there, when the building collapses they'll go with it."
"Excuse me Tempest," Dr Greenleaf interjected, "but if we don't get out of here soon, we'll go with it as well."
"One final game, Doctor, " the Tempest took the doctor by the elbow and led him to the balloon. "I had planned an interesting demise for the Sentinel, but Silk Specter will do even better."
The Tempest's henchman secured the masked teenager's wrists to a small trapeze hanging beneath the huge balloon. A second goon secured a heavy leather strap around her ankles, and attached it to a large coil of wire.
"You are about to become a central figure in my master plan, Silk Slut. You see, without the municipal power grid, we have to rely on the power of the storm itself to drive the Ionotron to destructive levels."
"This is insane, Tempest. Don't you realize what you're doing?"
"Of course I do. I'm chaining you to a weather balloon with a long steel cable attached to your legs, and then I'm going to release you into a fierce thunderstorm. You'll become a human lightening rod, supplying energy to the Ionotron even as you're violently electrocuted."
The Tempest sauntered up to the now bound superheroine and wrapped her arms around the Specter's thin waist. After exploring the courageous teenager's body she took the Specter's head between her two hands.
"I had hoped to give a goodbye kiss to the Sentinel, but." She pressed her lips hard against Nina's, and ran her tongue across the Dark Angel's closed lips.
"Then I'll see that he gets it," the Specter locked gazes with the Tempest. "While you go to the gas chamber."
"Your confidence is most exhilarating. And most misplaced. Boys, cast her off."
The Specter pulled at her bonds as the Tempest's henchmen slashed the lines holding the balloon to which she was bound.
"I wouldn't struggle too hard," the Tempest reminded the Silk Specter as the last rope was cut free. "Its a long drop to the ground!"
The Tempest could hardly pull her eyes from the sky, as frequent lightening bolts shed light on the doomed superheroine growing ever smaller in the distance. The cable played out slowly, each foot providing a better target for the lethal lightening.
"My lady, the Specter's done for." Greenleaf implored. "We must leave, NOW."
The evil doctor led the Tempest away toward the elevator, leaving the masked avenger to suffer her final torments alone.
The Specter's heart pounded in her chest as she rose into the tumult. The wind tore at her body and rain stung as it splattered against her in drowning sheets. Thunder rocked her almost deaf and the lightening only highlighted her terrible plight. And through it all was the terrible wondering: which brilliant flash would be the first to strike her ever-lengthening cable.
The cable strapped to her legs grew increasingly heavy as it played out to the full length, which could be supported by the balloon. Gusts tossed the balloon about like a soap bubble, threatening to pull the Dark Angel in two as the cable refused to play out any further. The weight and pressure had almost completely cut off the circulation to the Specter's hands and feet. The odds were now 1,000:1 against her living another minute.
But she still had that one chance, if only fate was on her side. In her wrist bracer she had a small projectile, which actually carried a thin fiber optic cable for remote surveillance. If she could use the projectile to puncture a small hole in the balloon, the weight of the cable would slowly pull her to the ground. If, on the other hand, she popped the balloon entirely, she would plummet to her death in a loose pile of steel cable. The fate of Oceana hung on one roll of the dice.
The Maid of Mystery aimed her numb wrist as best she could at the balloon and fired. There was a barely audible "whup," but the balloon was lost in the darkness. For a long moment the Silk Specter hung in the darkness, freezing, half-drowned, and doomed to die with the next nearby lightening strike. But the next lightening bolt struck a balloon directly adjacent to the costumed teenager instead, and its staggering light showed that there was indeed a fist-sized hole in the balloon. As she had hoped, the human lightening rod slowly began losing altitude.
The next three minutes were torture, as the storm built in intensity even while the balloon descended. The Specter was whipped violently about, and at one point it looked like she might be thrown up against the wall of the grain silo with lethal force. But it was Nina's lucky night, and by the time the weather balloon completely disintegrated, she was only feet above the ground.
"Oh thank god!" The Specter gasped as she rolled up to her knees and worked on the bondage. "That one was too close!"
"Exciting enough for you, Silk Specter?" Nina looked up to see Elizabeth Sterling - the Gray Mouser - splendidly dressed in her silver body suit and tights, her waist pulled extremely thin by her black utility belt. A deadly sword was sheathed at her back, and a black silk scarf was tied around her forehead, framing her angelic face. Water flowed in a steady stream down her slim, powerful body, collecting at her high-heeled boots. She was stunning.
"Did you get them?" Nina panted.
"Of course," The said with her soft British accent. "That's the thing about armored limousines. They keep people in just as well as they keep bullets out."
The Silk Specter finished off the bonds and stood up in the driving rain. "Well, lets get this damned 'Ionotron' turned off before we all drown."
The two heroines made their way for the nearest entrance into the Tasty-Puft Cereal factory. A flip of a switch would again foil the Tempest's plans to destroy Oceana, condemning her to a long stay in the Federal Penitentiary. The Gray Mouser stopped at the door and eyed her junior partner.
"Perhaps when we're done you could show me how you do that trick where you produce a sword from thin air even as the pirates close in on you like a swarm of angry bees. Could come in useful."
"Fair enough. Only, what do you say we forget about the bees."
END