Chapter 1 - The Abduction

Chapter 1 The Abduction

Metropolis July 2004

Kara studied her image in the full length mirror in her bedroom. “Better,” she murmured, much better.” She placed her hands on her hips the way she had seen Diana pose. “Yes, this is so much more dramatic. The other look was so sixties.”

She hadn’t changed her costume much in fact, just eliminated certain aspects of it that she considered made her look too much like a little girl. After all, she was almost nineteen. She had kept the scarlet cloak. Cloaks always added an aura of power and mystery to anyone who wore them. But she had discarded the cheerleader skirt, instead covering her loins with a skin-tight high-cut red bikini brief that showed every muscle in her shapely derriere. This was highlighted by a gold band that separated the bikini bottom from the electric blue top. The top itself was a form-fitting short-sleeved outfit that covered her torso from waist to neck and was highlighted by the Supergirl stylized red “S” on a gold shield that served to separate and highlight her high firm breasts. Thigh length red boots also trimmed with gold finished the outfit.

“Nice,” she thought. “If I was a man I’d have an erection just looking at me.” She frowned. That was not an altogether pleasant thought. A few months ago she and her friends Barbara and Diana had been captured and brutally raped and tortured by the arch-villain Lex Luthor. At times she had greatly resented the fact that her physical beauty and that of her friends had made them targets for all sorts of sexual and physical abuse. It was something that she would never forget.

“One day,” she thought, “I’ll have a real boyfriend. One who will care for me as a woman and not just because I have superpowers and a certain superficial beauty.” Just who that boyfriend might be, however, was not immediately evident. It would be difficult to find a man anywhere on Earth who could match her physical attributes.

She sighed. So far the accident of birth that had made her a superheroine had not been altogether kind. She had to reconcile herself to a life of celibacy and loneliness as far as men were concerned. Unfortunately, she had no interest in a same sex romance either. She simply wasn’t constituted that way.

“Kara,” sounded a voice from outside her room. “Supper’s ready.”

“Thanks Sylv,” she responded. Quickly she shucked her costume and put on a bra and panties, followed by a pair of tan hip huggers and a black T-shirt. She didn’t really need the bra, but it wouldn’t do to arouse any suspicions by going without one. She quickly ran a comb through her hair and then unlocked her bedroom door and joined her roommate, Sylvie Levesque.

Sylvie smiled as Kara entered the room. Whatever she had prepared smelled good. “One of your favourites,” Sylvie said. “Chicken cordon bleu.”

Kara grinned. “You’re going to have me fat as a hog. I won’t be able to fit inside my costume… I mean clothes.”

Sylvie did not notice the gaff. The pretty dark-haired French Canadian girl had been living with Kara for several months now. On one of Kara’s first adventures she had been kidnapped along with the superheroine and viciously gang-raped. The incident had left her psychically scarred. But Kara had found a way to cure that. She had taken Sylvie to Paradise Island the interdimensional home of the Amazons. Something about the island aided the healing process, both physically and mentally. Sylvie didn’t remember much of her stay there, but when she had returned her memories of what had been done to he had faded into the recesses of her mind. After that Kara had invited Sylvie to be her roommate, feeling a sort of obligation due to the ordeal she had suffered.

It turned out to be a beneficial relationship. Both young women were students at Municipal University and were able to help one another with their courses. They engaged in the usual girl-talk discussing profs, classes, males, and a variety of other topics. It helped to make Kara’s life less lonely, although the fact that Sylvie actively pursued men and she did not was a bit of a downer sometimes. However, there were far more pluses than minuses, one of the most significant being the fact that Sylvie was an excellent cook, having a natural interest in the culinary arts.

“Mmmm, that smells good,” Kara said as she sat down.

Sylvie smiled. “I know it’s one of your favourites,” she said. “And I bought a bottle of your favourite wine.”

“What’s the occasion?” Kara smiled.

“Three month anniversary of becoming roommates,” Sylvie said, tipping the wine bottle into Kara’s glass.

Kara took a sip and nodded. “This is very good.” Sylvie smiled, obviously pleased. They spent the remainder of the meal in idle chatter. Kara helped clean up and then excused herself, returning to her room. Kara’s cover story was that she suffered severely from insomnia. It helped to explain the fact that she kept very odd hours and that she needed her privacy. “When I get a chance to sleep I have to take it,” Kara had explained. Sylvie had nodded sympathetically having spent many sleepless nights after her nightmare ordeal.

Once in her room, Kara waited for awhile, listening to Sylvie’s movements in the next room. The door to her room was locked and since it was constructed of inch thick titanium was pretty much unbreakable, but Kara wanted to make sure of her roommate. Sylvie had never tried to enter the room after Kara had supposedly retired, but it never hurt to be careful, as Kara had learned to her sorrow on several occasions.

Satisfied that Sylvie had settled down to watch TV, Kara donned her superheroine outfit, stepped to the balcony, and launched herself into space. As she swept upward into the night sky of New Gotham, she moved in a slow spiral. Flying was pure enjoyment and she reveled in the feeling of freedom and power that it gave her. She continued to climb until she was sure that no citizen or villain would see her accidentally.

Her wish to remain invisible to villains was obvious, but sadly ordinary citizens often gave her more trouble than the criminals, complaining that she was some sort of flying voyeur who delighted in using her X-ray vision to spy on their private lives. Others complained because they thought she might cause disruptions to their TV signals. On one occasion she had even been reported as a UFO. It was all very trying considering that she was only attempting to make the lives of ordinary citizens safer.

This night she saw very little out of the ordinary. Everything seemed quiet. It seemed that at last the criminals who operated at night were getting the message. She had certainly turned enough of them over to the police in the last few weeks. Her job was a little bit easier now. It had been that was since she had exposed Lex Luthor and his enormous drug operation in the heart of the city. Now she no longer had to be worried about the police seeking to arrest her on some imagined offense committed against a paranoid citizen.

She swooped over the City Hall and stopped to hover a few hundred feet above the building. That was strange. There was a light on in a part of the building that should have been closed. She focused her eyes and used her X-ray vision to scan the area.

“Goodness,” she thought. “What is he doing there?” Just below the mayor’s office a man dressed in black was tinkering with a small black box. Using her zoom magnification she zeroed in for a more detailed look.

“A bomb!” Well that was something she couldn’t allow. She dropped quickly to the window outside the room where the man in black was fiddling with his deadly device. It took her only seconds to open the window. She used as much care as possible, not wanting to be blamed for damaging public property, and swept into the room.

She landed with a thump, her cloak swirling impressively around her and stood with her hands on her hips as the startled man turned.

“Supergirl!” he exclaimed. He made a sudden movement toward the device he had been adjusting. “What the…?”

Kara grinned. “I took the liberty of burning through the wire connected to the detonator. The bomb is quite harmless. Now I think you should come with me. The police are going to want to ask you a few questions.”

“Blasted bitch,” the man swore. “You might have stopped this one, but you’ll never find out where I placed the others.”

“Others?” Kara asked. “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean?” the man mimicked. “Other bombs of course, you superheroine cretin. Eleven of them. There were supposed to be one for every month of the year, but you spoiled that.”

Kara looked at him. He was a weasel-faced man of average height and build and his face was twisted in a triumphant sneer. “Eleven more bombs? Tell me where they are. Don’t you realize a lot of innocent people could get hurt?”

“I sure as hell hope so. That’s why I planted them.”

Kara grabbed the man by the front of his black shirt. “Tell me,” she said quietly. “Tell me now or I shall have to do something unpleasant.”

The man laughed. “You’re a superheroine. You can’t hurt me. It goes against your code. Hundreds of people are going to die and you can’t do a thing.”

“Let’s go for a little flight,” Kara said, grabbing the man with both hands. Without waiting for a response she picked him up and carrying him as if he was weightless flew out the window.

“What a mess you made,” Kara said. “I hope that no one was down there.” It had taken a little longer than she had thought it would. She had been forced to drop the man three times before he told her what she wanted to know. The last time she had caught him only inches from the ground. As she swept upward with him one more time she became acutely aware of the fact that the terrified man had loosed his bowels.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll tell you, just please put me down.”

“Tell me first,” Kara said. “And give me a detailed account. I’ve got a good memory.”

Ten minutes later she was on her way. She took the man with her, not entirely trusting him to tell the truth. But it turned out that in his fear, he had told her everything he knew. She found the first seven bombs quite easily and disarmed them. The last four were a bit more difficult, and she needed the man’s precise instructions to locate them.

“Bastard,” she thought. “Shielding them with lead. I never would have found them.” The last bomb was the best hidden, and was placed most symbolically high in the vaulted ceiling of the city’s biggest cathedral. Timed to go off Sunday morning it would have brought the stone ceiling down on a nave crowded with worshippers.

“Diabolical,” muttered Kara. She dragged the man with her as she approached the last bomb. Shielded by the lead roofing it was invisible to her X-ray vision. She could have flown over it a thousand times and never suspected it was there.

“Stay there,” she said, releasing the man temporarily while she tended to the bomb. He wasn’t likely to go anywhere. They were both in a crawl space just above the main supports for the immense vault that was the cathedral’s roof. Two strides and she was at the bomb. It was a simple device, but then it would be. No one was supposed to find it in time. She flicked out her fingers and disarmed it. There was a sharp click and then a small “pop.”

“Ooooh!” Kara gasped. “My stars, kryptonite.” She fell to her knees as the all too-familiar pain rushed through her body, freezing her in paralyzing agony.

From behind her came a cackling laugh. “Got you, bitch. You walked right into the trap like the dumb twat you are.”

“Nooo,” Kara thought, “Not again.” She tried to get up. The pain was incredible. As bad as anything she had ever felt. Kryptonite, the one substance that could render her helpless. It robbed her of her super powers leaving her helpless, and filled her with excruciating pain to boot. She gasped, hardly able to draw a breath. Then she felt a hand on the neck of her costume and she was pushed to the floor of the crawl space.

“No please,” she moaned as her hands were drawn behind her back. Almost weeping in fear she tried to escape, but her muscles would not obey her. She felt the touch of rope on her wrists. She was almost sick with dread as her wrists were bound behind her. Tied up and helpless all sorts of frightened thoughts raced through her mind. To be captured and bound was the ultimate in terrifying experiences for most women, much less a superheroine. She knew that she probably faced rape at the very least, and perhaps even worse than that.

The stench of the man assailed her nostrils and she remembered that he had soiled himself when she had forced him to talk. It was almost certain that he would want some measure of vengeance for that. How could she have been so stupid? She had walked right into a cleverly set trap. A trap that was very obviously aimed at her.

It was one of the greatest hazards of being a superheroine. Although feared by criminals, heroines were also a prime target. They were sought out for a variety of reasons, ranging from vengeance to simply eliminating a dangerous threat. Almost always if a heroine was captured she could expect rape and torture. It was almost an automatic. The worst fate of all, however, was to be captured by a sadistically twisted scientist like Lex Luthor. These madmen frequently performed cruel experiments on their helpless heroine captives; experiments that often featured bizarre and painful applications of sexual torture. It was these villains that heroines like Kara feared the most.

Kara writhed in agony. The pain of the kryptonite was beyond description. It felt as if her flesh was being burned from her bones. Sweat drenched her costume as she lay in the power of the man who had captured her. What was his motive in setting such a clever trap? Did he intend to ransom her? Had he captured her just for bragging rights? Or was he working for someone else? And while she was in his power what would he do with her?

“Please, she gasped, “the pain. I can’t stand the pain.” Kryptonite was a brutal substance. Not only did it render her helpless and inflict terrible agony, but it also robbed her of her will to resist, turning her into a sniveling weakling.

“Crying like a little girl,” sneered the man in black. “Well, we can’t have that, at least not now. There will be plenty of time for you to make noise later.”

“Please,” Kara moaned again. “Pl…Mmmpph!” A fowl smelling rag was thrust into her mouth. She tried to spit it out, but the man grabbed her shoulder-length hair and jerked her head back.

“Mmmmppphh! Mmmmppphhh!” Kara protested. Panic inundated her as the rag was shoved deeper and deeper into her mouth and throat. For a few seconds she was sure that she was going to suffocate. The man tied the gag in place with another piece of cloth. Obviously he had come prepared for this, but not so obviously that Kara would have noticed if she had searched him. All she would have found were two rather dirty handkerchiefs and a short length of cord.

Bound and gagged and in terrible pain, Kara lay helpless, tears and sweat streaming down her face. “Alright,” said the man. “Now you’re coming with me.” He pulled a brightly glowing green object from its hiding place slid it into a dull metal tube. Almost immediately the pain diminished and Kara felt her strength return. Actually she felt some of her strength return. Enough that she could get to her feet when the man pulled on her hair. He pushed her forward and Kara stumbled in the gloom. Without her superpowers her sight was no better than average and she no longer had any X-ray vision. The upper reaches of the vault were almost completely dark, and it was with difficulty that she was able to make her way through the gloom to the stairway that led to the lower floor.

Stumbling and falling several times, only the fact that the thug who held her kept a grip on her hair saved her from tumbling the entire length of the staircase. By the time they reached the bottom she was almost weeping in fear and frustration. Captured again. And marched off to face humiliation and pain at the hands of some sadistic criminal. A large tear rolled down her face and fell to the dust of the church floor as they reached the last step. What was going to become of her?