"Lousy, stinking bastards . . ." Green Lantern hisses angrily. He and several members of the Justice League are seated around the conference table inside the Metropolis headquarters of the Justice League of America. Three guests in the room are Supergirl, Batgirl and Mark King, Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's office in Metropolis.
"Calm down, Lantern," Batman says, patting his friend on the shoulder, "we're all angry and disgusted with this vile attack against the country, with the indiscriminant murder of thousands of innocent people."
"Yet with all our powers, there's nothing we can do . . ." Lantern continues, looking despairingly at his colleagues in the League.
"But there is Lantern," Wonder Woman advises, putting her hand on GL's other shoulder, "and you're best suited to help the terrific heroes up there and in Washington, the many brave firemen, police and rescue workers. Get up there and use your ring to help clear rubble from the site. Maybe our charter says we can't participate in a war against sovereign countries, but we CAN help the courageous public safety officials in this country."
"I guess so, Princess," Lantern sighs, looking at the lovely brunette at his side. He puts his hand atop hers and pats it to thank her for her strength and understanding. She turns slightly in her seat to smile at him and the sound of her costume crinkling as her body shifts is the only sound in the vast League hall. "Just boils my juices that these insane beasts hide behind an old and honorable religion as their rationale for killing innocents," GL says as he looks into her deep brown eyes.
"I know how you feel," Supergirl adds. "There is nothing I can do, either, with all my powers, now that the attacks have been done."
"I think we are agreed, then," Batman says after the room falls silent for a minute, "that Lantern will go up to New York to render any assistance he can. Princess, can you see what help you can give down in Washington? Great! Now, we also need to consider the issue of Superman's absence. Any thoughts, Supergirl?"
"Before Luthor captured me," Supergirl begins, "Kal said he was trying to find out who was smuggling people into the U.S. and who was smuggling advanced military technology out of the country. I was working the people smuggling angle when Luthor trapped me.* I'm pretty sure Superman was looking into the technology theft angle."
"That's right, he was," King says. "We've had several sensitive items turn up missing in the past few weeks, from S.T.A.R. Labs, LexCorp, and from some smaller defense contractors here in the Metropolis area. Superman was going to try to get a lead on who was taking the stuff. First, they stole several pulse rifles, whatever those are, from LexCorp. Luthor said he'd have his people work on recovering them, but he hasn't reported any progress yet. We had hoped that Superman would have been able to stop the recent theft of the sonic cannon from S.T.A.R. Labs but as you know, he wasn't available.* In any event, we do know that InterGang wasn't going to sell the cannon overseas, so that was a false lead anyway. But then some electronic gizmos for Tomahawk cruise missiles, being worked on by LexCorp and some IVIS technology . . ."
"Excuse me, IVIS?" Wonder Woman interrupts.
"Uh, yeah, it's a new thing the Army's developed," King explains. "IVIS is a black box that goes into Army combat vehicles and is used to link them all together, so they can share info - where they are, where the enemy is, etc. Enhances what the Army brass call "situational awareness" - enables battalion and brigade commanders react faster to enemy moves and changing battle conditions. Anyway, a local firm, Irving Electronics, was working on some of the sets, trying to improve their performance. All five sets were stolen a week ago.
"We can't let them or the cruise missile stuff get overseas, especially now," King continues, "because if anyone knows how they work, they could disrupt their operation, jam them, feed computer viruses into them. Lordy, there's no telling what damage future enemies could do if they had those gadgets to pick apart and examine!" King says, banging his fist on the table top.
"Well, at this point, we have several members who are going to be busy elsewhere, and several who are still on medical leave," Batman says, grimacing behind his black mask. His left arm is still in a sling - Supergirl broke it while she was a thrall of Luthor. "No offense, Supergirl, but your injuring us couldn't have come at a worse time - and I know it wasn't your fault!"* he finishes, looking at the Maid of Might and raising his right hand, gloved palm toward the Girl of Steel.
"No offense taken, Batman," Supergirl says sheepishly, her face reddening slightly from her obvious discomfort. "But at least Batgirl and I can help you, Mr. King," she concludes, looking at the agent. She's never really liked the man - he makes her skin crawl, the way he looks at, no, the way he DEVOURS her body.
King considers her offer for a moment. Supergirl hasn't been entirely successful on missions for him, he believes. Sure, she ultimately gets the job done, but she's sloppy and brash. "Typical airhead blonde, but with super powers," he thinks to himself. And Batgirl is an unknown to King. "All right, Supergirl," he finally sighs, deciding there are no viable alternatives, "we'd appreciate your help. Your's too, Batgirl."
"Sure, it'll be fun!" Batgirl says, smiling. She looks at the blue, red and yellow-clad heroine across the table and smiles.
"I'm not sure that's the right attitude to take," the Caped Crusader says, admonishing his young friend. "Agent King, do you have any leads for our two young heroines to follow?"
"Last night, half a dozen other Army radios were stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs, radios used by Special Forces," King explains. "Each radio has a small electronic tag inside, a failsafe device to help locate the radios when they're in the field. But the radios didn't have a full charge, so we can't pick up the locator signal from the tags. Maybe you folks can somehow acquire the tag's frequency and home in on the crooks."
"Just let me know their frequency, and I'll rig up something for Supergirl and Batgirl to use," Batman says. "Well, if there's nothing else to discuss, let's adjourn. Lantern and Diana have to get to work!" The assembled heroes and heroines rise from the table and while Agent King, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman leave the Hall of Justice, Batman and the two young heroines head back into a League workshop.
"I've tried to find the radios but their power must be very low, if they're even still in the Metropolis area," the Dark Knight says to Supergirl and Batgirl, several hours later. "I can't pick up their signal. So I've made up one for you to carry, Supergirl. Maybe if you fly low over the city in ever-widening circles, you'll be able to pick up the signal. I've already alerted Homeland Defense that you'll be in the air over the city and that you're not a threat."
"Not usually," Batgirl interrupts, grinning and poking Supergirl in the bicep.
"Be nice, Batgirl," Batman says sternly. "This is nothing to joke about!"
"Oh, of course, chill out, Batman!" Batgirl replies, pouting. "Supergirl knows I was just kidding her!"
"Sometimes I'm not so sure, Batgirl," Supergirl replies, raising her left eyebrow and looking at the black-clad woman. "I'll get started at once, Batman. Just show me how this thing works and what to look for."
"Okay, but also take along this radio," Batman replies, handing her a small box. "When you find the radios, call Batgirl and she can join you and help you retrieve them and the other stolen military technology."
"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever," Supergirl says, distracted by the blinking lights on the device to locate the radios. A second later, her face becomes grim as she thinks about the possibility of Batgirl being harmed by whomever has stolen the technology. Robin is still recuperating from the beating he took while helping her retrieve the sonic cannon.
"Supergirl!" Batman says, noticing the distant look in Supergirl's stunning blue eyes, "be sure you call Batgirl when you find the radios! I want BOTH of you on this mission!"
"Yeah, sure," Supergirl says, looking at the Dark Knight. "Let's get started, Batgirl." Supergirl stuffs the radio into her skirt's waistband behind her belt buckle and begins walking toward the door, her skirt and cape swishing against her thighs, the heels of her red boots clicking on the tiled floor of the Hall of Justice.
Five hours later, the Maid of Might is still flying in an ever-widening circle over the city, her course is now over some of the suburbs. Still no luck at spotting a signal from the stolen radios and the sun is beginning to set. "I'm going to call it a night after another hour or so," Supergirl tells Batgirl over the small radio she's carrying to communicate with the young crimefighter. "I'll meet you at . . . hold it, I think I'm getting something . . ."
"What's that? Come back, girlfriend," Batgirl replies over the radio. "What's yer 20, good buddy?" she adds in a fake southern accent.
"Hunh? Uh, hold it . . . yes . . . Batgirl, I've definitely got a signal!" Supergirl radios. "There's a big building out route 84, maybe three miles west of Jacksonville. I'm over the building now and Batman's doohickey says the radios should be in that building. I'll go in to check it out - I'll call if I need your help, okay?"
"Batman said we should do this together, Supergirl," Batgirl reminds the Girl of Steel. "I can be out there in half an hour - can't you just wait for me to get there? Can you see the radios with your super vision?"
"Lotsa lead down there, Batgirl, can't see much," Supergirl replies, scanning the building with her super vision. "Wait, there . . . I see some military-looking metal boxes, containers. I'm going down there, join me as soon as you can! Supergirl out!"
"Wait, Supergirl!" Batgirl pleads over the now-dead circuit. Repeated attempts to regain contact with the Girl of Steel fail. "Supergirl found something," Batgirl tells the Dark Knight. Grimly determined, Batgirl rushes out of the Hall of Justice and hops onto her bat-cycle. She fires up the 1000cc engine in her modified BMW motorcycle and slips a helmet on over her cowl. As she roars away from the Justice League HQ, she mutters in her helmet several crude observations about Supergirl's maturity. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Behind her, the Batman begins radioing other members of the League.
As her red skirt flutters, briefly exposing the thin blue fabric between her creamy white thighs, Supergirl lands outside the entrance to the three-story building. As the Girl of Steel looks around, standing with her hands on her hips, her cape and fine blond hair blowing slightly in the evening breeze, she sees a wide parking lot and several small one-story buildings - offices and workplaces. The three-story, however, appears to be closed and unused. The Maid of Might walks to a nearby door and with a mere fraction of her power bursts the padlock and opens the door. Inside, the building appears to be a large warehouse of some kind, with many piles of boxes, in various sizes, sited in stacks around the floor. The floor is heavily coated with dust. Along one wall are workbenches with various tools, all unfamiliar to the Girl of Steel. In the back part of the building the Maid of Might spots a two-story high structure - the office complex for this building?
Supergirl crosses the middle of the warehouse by gracefully leaping into the air and gliding slowly over the tops of the stacks of boxes, landing just in front of the office structure. "Odd," she muses to herself, "there's lead sheeting covering this whole mini-building! Now why would . . .?"
Supergirl suddenly spots a huge metal door, similar to that which one might find on an old bank vault, in the middle of the front of the structure. She moves over to it and scans the door with her supervision. Like the rest of the facility, this door also has a lead lining, but on the inside surface. She uses her super vision to watch the door's locking mechanism and turns the wheel, changing direction as each tumbler falls into place. In a heartbeat, the door's lock is bypassed and the Girl of Steel easily pulls open the heavy door. Her face beams with an angelic smile as, inwardly, she congratulates herself for successfully defeating the locking mechanism without using her great strength. "Let's see what they're trying to hide in here," she says, stepping through the opening in the wall.
When the Maid of Might gets inside, she gasps suddenly at what she sees, and one slender hand raises to hover in front of her left breast. At the far end of the vault, the Man of Steel is hanging on the wall, his forearms and calves encased in some kind of shiny metal. "Great Rao!" Supergirl exclaims, "Kal!" She immediately races across the 30 intervening feet and stops just in front of her bound cousin.
"What have they done to you!" Supergirl asks. The Man of Tomorrow is hanging from his forearms about a foot off the ground. Long metal tubes cover his forearms, from elbow to wrist. Two more cover his legs from knees to ankles. His tights and shorts have been pulled down to his knees and his blue tunic rolled up above his massive pecs. His eyes are closed and his head is down on his chest. His face and neck are tinged slightly green. The Girl of Steel immediately thinks of the last time she found him like this, a captive of her foe, the MixMaster.*
As Supergirl stands before her bound kin, a familiar weakness slowly begins to overcome her. Looking more closely at Superman, she recoils slightly when she sees a quarter-inch thick steel ring around his neck, a ring with a very thin band of green running around the outside edge. "K-Kryptonite!" Supergirl moans as she feels her mighty body weaken. She sags forward slightly and rests her palm against one of Superman's huge pecs. There's not enough of an obviously-synthetic form of green-K on the necklace to kill her or Superman, but enough to drain her (and his) powers. The green tinge in Superman's skin suggests that he's been exposed to the stuff too long.
Grimly, the Maid of Might reaches up to pull the ring off her cousin's neck. As her hands touch the metal band, her body completes a concealed electronic circuit that now runs through her body, down through her shiny red boots and into a wide metal plate on the floor. There is a brief CLICK and a hydraulic arm in the ceiling above her activates and drives downward, pushing a wide, thick block of depleted uranium. With incredible speed, the block rams downward and hits the Girl of Steel on top of her head.
"Uunnh!" Supergirl moans as the titanic force hammers her head. The force of the mighty blow knocks the unprepared Maid of Might to her knees, then sideways to her left, where she sprawls on the cold metal floor, her left arm pinned under her body, her right hand covering the top of her head where the block hit. Her right leg is pinned under the block, trapped between it and her left leg. Her golden hair is scattered around her head like a halo. Supergirl lies for a moment, slightly stunned, then twists her body and rises up to sit on her butt. Behind her, other electrically-activated motors swing the heavy metal door back to its closed position, locking the Maid of Might in the room with her cousin. Suddenly a series of bright strobe lights begins flashing in the room, filling it with intense white light for fractions of a second. Due to the intense strobing effect, the Maid of Might fails to nnotice that the background lights in the room also dim to a dull red color.
"Mu-must be MixMaster," Supergirl realizes as she grabs her boot and pulls her foot from under the dull gray block. Dr. Allie Collins, a.k.a. the MixMaster, can take any group of ideas or tools and combine them into her own unique killer application. She's inflicted severe punishment on the Maid of Might several times in the past using sophisticated technology to defeat the powerful heroine. The intricate use of high-tech here is a sure sign of MixMaster's handiwork.
Still seated on the floor, Supergirl looks up and decides that she's going to have to remove the hydraulic arm and the block to get back close to the Man of Steel, to free him. She slowly rises to her feet, moves around so that the arm-and-block are between her and her cousin, and wraps her hands around the foot-thick column of the arm. Grimly determined, the Girl of Steel pulls and steps backward, slowly bending the arm. Sounds of metal straining beyond its limits fill the vault-like room as she slowly but steadily bends the shiny steel shaft of the hydraulic arm. At the same time, she's unwittingly completed another electronic circuit, this one running through the steel arm, her body, and a metal plate on the floor.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKK
"AAAIIIEEE!!" Supergirl screams when suddenly hundreds of thousands of watts of electricity flow upward from the floor into her boots. She shudders briefly as the tremendous energy flows through her super body, then is suddenly blasted backward away from the arm. Arms flailing uselessly, the Girl of Steel sails backward several feet, landing ignominiously on her butt, sliding and then falling onto her back. Once again she lies slightly stunned, looking upward at the ceiling. "Nnnh, th-that HURT!" she pants as her body tingles with the tremendous energy still coursing through her lovely body.
Once again, but somewhat slower, the Girl of Steel rises to her feet and looks at the bizarre trap. "Definitely the hand of MixMaster here," she concludes, shaking her head to clear away the last effects of the electrocution. "Well, I don't want to get another shock, but I've got to move that junk to free Kal. Maybe if I hit it from one side?"
Supergirl quickly moves to one side of the arm-and-block and then uses her flying ability to float a foot above the metal floor . "One good push!" she says resolutely, then places her hands on the steel hydraulic arm. Using her flying power, she slowly pushes the arm and again the room fills with the sound of tortured metal being bent. As an added assault on the arm, she directs her heat vision at the top of the arm, near where it enters the ceiling. The steel begins to melt and hot metal slides down the arm, coating her hands and wrists. Her invulnerability protects her from the intense heat as she continues to destroy the arm.
Even as she works, she can feel herself slowly weakening again from the green-K ring on Superman. She's gotta get that off him and away soon if she's going to be of any use to the man. Suddenly, there is a loud CRACK and the arm separates into two pieces. The one connected to the gray block bends and Supergirl immediately finds herself flying over the contraption, across the room and into the wall on the far side. She slams head first into the hard metal wall with incredible force, denting it slightly before sliding down the wall onto the floor.
"MMnnnh," she moans, again somewhat stunned by the force of the impact with the wall. Supergirl rises to her feet and is surprised that she has to use the wall to help herself get to her feet. The green-K must be affecting her worse than she thought! "Come on, girl," she says to herself, "shake it off! Kal needs you!"
Supergirl rises into the air a foot off the floor and floats back to the Man of Steel. Hovering in front of him, she reaches down and grasps what's left of the arm-and-block, lifts it, and carries it three feet to the side, out of the way. She then returns to her cousin, floating in front of him. Again the green-K begins to sap her strength and she has a little trouble keeping in the air in front of Superman.
The Girl of Steel shakes her body and arms like a puppy drying itself, then wraps her hands around the steel band around her cousin's neck, moaning briefly as her hand comes in contact with the synthetic green-K. With a grunt and spectacular display of her strength, she manages to snap the ring and bend it apart. When she gets it spread far enough, she slips it off his neck and tosses it to her right where it hits the wall and drops to the floor, ten feet away. She drops down to the floor, her vision slightly blurred from the effects of the green-K on her system.
After resting for a minute to regain her composure, Supergirl rises into the air again and wraps her hands around the massive metal cuff on Superman's left forearm. As soon as her hands begin to squeeze and deform the metal, delicate sensors inside the metal are tripped. As the Maid of Might works, she doesn't see a small panel open off to her right. A hidden pulse rifle, stolen from LexCorp, suddenly shoots a powerful tachyon blast, aimed to pass a foot in front of the Man of Steel and five feet off the ground.
"AAAIIIEEEE!" Supergirl screams as the blast hits her right side, just above her hips, and throws her violently across the room once more to slam sideways into the far wall. She drops to the floor again, this time seriously stunned, one hand holding her side where the blast struck her. "Oh, Ruh-Rao, what IS th-this place?" Supergirl asks herself as she struggles to remain conscious. She looks over at the far wall but the port that rifle fired from has closed and the lead lining of the wall hides the rifle's location. For a second. Then Supergirl's amazing eyesight spots the thin line around the port and, rising to her feet, walks unsteadily toward the port. When she reaches it, she smashes her left fist into the port.
"What?" she gasps as the panel only dents, doesn't shatter. "This - this is impossible! I can't be THAT weak!" Suddenly she realizes that the ring with the synthetic green-K is only two feet away from her, at the base of the wall. She staggers over to the foul thing, picks it up (grimacing when her skin again comes in contact with the deadly material), and tosses it toward the far corner of the vault, some thirty feet away. After pitching the thing away, she sags to one side and only by quickly putting a hand on the wall does she remain on her feet. A few moments later the dizziness from the green-K passes and she moves back to stand in front of the gunport. Once again her small fist smashes the wall but the port merely crumples a bit more. The astounded woman looks at the damage she's done, unable to believe that two of her mighty blows haven't punched through the wall.
"I hit that wall hard enough to sink a battleship!" she thinks. "What's going on here?" One last time, the Maid of Might prepares to hit the port, grimly spreading her feet apart for better traction. She places her left hand on the wall above the port and smashes the small dented panel with her right fist, throwing all of her star-born strength into the blow. This time the wall crumples and falls away, revealing the muzzle of the pulse rifle.
Supergirl reaches inside the small cavity and as her hand nears the barrel, an electric eye inside the cavity trips and causes the rifle to suddenly fire another burst. The tachyon energy smashes into her hand, knocking it out of the narrow cavity. The burst continues outward, hitting Supergirl in her belly right above her belt buckle. "AAAOOOOWWWW!!" she screams as the blast throws her across the room, to slam her back into the far wall some twenty feet away. Again she slides down the wall, settling her butt on the floor and on the boot of her left leg, which is now curled under her body.
This time Supergirl briefly loses consciousness from this second powerful blast and her chin drops down onto her chest and her arms fall limply to her sides. Seconds later, the Girl of Steel regains consciousness and through bleary eyes looks across the room. Slowly, PAINFULLY, she struggles to her feet, again using the wall to help her rise. She starts to walk back across the room and falters briefly, sagging at her knees from the incredible pain wracking her abs and the terrible pounding her body has taken in the past ten minutes. As she crosses the room, one hand on her stomach to try to ease the pain, she moves sideways to get out of the line of fire of the rifle. When but two feet away from the concealed weapon, Supergirl fires a blast of her heat vision at the barrel to melt it.
"Mmmmh, t-taking too long!" she realizes a minute later. "Whuh - why am I so weak?" The barrel glows a dull red but by this time it should be melted slag! "What the frak is going on!?" she asks herself. Finally, after several more minutes of heat vision, the barrel finally glows bright red and deforms. The Maid of Might totters briefly and her left hand goes to her eyes.
"Oohhh, that's not right!" she thinks, painfully aware of a dull ache in the back of her eyes. "I've never felt pain when using my heat vision," she realizes. "So what else is going on here?" Forgetting her cousin for the moment, the Girl of Steel looks around the room. "I wonder if those flashing lights are doing something to me?"
The weakened heroine moves around the large vault and when under each of the strobe lights, she leaps into the air and smashes the metal grill covering the light, driving her fist upward to shatter the strobe. After a few minutes, all ten of the lights have been knocked out. Once again the Maid of Might looks around the room and suddenly realizes that she's panting! "Now I KNOW something's wrong in here!" she decides. "I shouldn't be panting like this!"
"Hmmm, am I wrong or is it somehow darker in here?" she asks herself. Using her super vision , Supergirl slowly begins to scan the walls, then the ceiling of the vault. As she scans, from time to time her eyes blur, shocking the Girl of Steel. She spots another slit, opposite the one that held the pulse rifle, and undoubtedly concealing another rifle. Then she spots several lights, concealed in the ceiling, filling the room with a dull red light. She also spots a speaker hidden behind a fine-mesh grill and a very tiny camera, like the ones used by surgeons to explore blood vessels inside the human body, over the vault door, also hidden behind a fine-mesh grill.
"Well, I better deal with that other pulse rifle, then I can free Kal," she decides, heading toward the second hidden gun port. This time she hits the port seven times before it finally buckles and falls apart. She's about to use her heat vision on the second pulse rifle when a familiar voice fills the room.
"Ah, sure and begorrah," an Irish brogue begins, "isn't it a pity, me darling! All o' yer grand super powers are leavin' yah - tsk, tsk, tsk," the voice of MixMaster's associate, L. Finn says. "I'm sad to say, lass, but it looks like yer wonderful super vision no longer works! Why, it's like yer vision gets all blurry, like, isn't it, macushla!"
Sure enough, the Leprecaun's magic, transmitted by his voiced suggestions, causes Supergirl to lose the ability to focus her eyes, to bring forth the energy to burn the rifle. Every time she tries to burn the barrel, her eyes blur and her vision clouds.
"Yah know, darlin'," the demented little man continues over the speaker, "you've been workin' so hard, I can see how you'd have trouble even stayin' on yer feet, now. Why, with each step yah take, sure an' it's harder 'n harder to stand on yer feet, isn't it? And of course, flyin' is quite impossible now, as ye well know!"
Supergirl tries to move toward the speaker to destroy it - if she can't hear the little man, he can't work his magics on her. But as she heads toward the speaker, some thirty feet away, each step requires more and more effort to complete. She tries to leap into the air to fly there but falls flat on her belly, her chin cracking hard against the unyielding metal floor.
"Sh-shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" she cries vainly at the disembodied voice.
With what seems to require all her alien strength, she manages to rise to her hands and knees when L. Finn says, "Ah, now that tears it, darlin'! All yer grand strength and ye can rise no further! Why, you need all yer strength jest to stay on yer hands and knees now, doncha?"
Supergirl looks at the speaker with half-closed eyes, hoping, praying for the strength to burn the speaker. Again, as she tries to use her super vision, her eyes get glassy and her sight blurs. She drops her head down in defeat. She's powerless to resist magic, especially the Leprecaun's magical power of suggestion.
As she struggles to remain on her hands and knees some twenty feet from the vault door, she suddenly hears the door begin to unlock. The door slowly opens and three villains she'd rather not see at this time enter the vault - Snapper, a gigantic seven foot tall Lizard-man with a tail maybe a foot long and hands the size of serving platters, MegaWatt, a short fat man, face badly scarred by acne, maybe twenty years old, dressed in a pair of red tights and a red spandex workout shirt, black shorts, biker boots, and a cheesy black mask around his eyes, and Misty, a somewhat overweight young woman dressed in a one-piece black bodysuit, black mask, black calf-high boots and gloves, and a white cape, with a white, stylized cloud on her chest.
"Oh, R-Rao, nooo!" Supergirl moans as she looks up at the trio. She tries to back up, but loses her balance and falls backward, her butt settling onto her boot heels. Snapper quickly closes the vault door and the three villains slowly advance on the gravely-weakened heroine. Again she uses all her strength to try to rise to her feet and again fails utterly to escape the effect of L. Finn's magic. A trace of fear ripples through her body as the grinning trio move toward her.
"Let me play with her first," MegaWatt says, rushing forward. He places a hand on either side of Supergirl's head, his palms on her ears. "You'll get a charge out of this, Blondie!" MegaWatt says, a gap-toothed grin filling his face. Suddenly hundreds of thousands of watts flow from his hands into the woman's head. Her hair flies upward, thin blonde strands waving and snapping as the current flows through her head. Fluids in her body, in her mouth, her vagina, sweat on her skin turn to steam and boil off her body.
"NnNnNnNnnnnnnnnNNNNN!" Supergirl cries out as incredible pain lances through her head. "SSTOOPPPP!" she pleads, "c-can't stand . . . AAAAIIIEEE!!!" but the Hellish energy continues to rip into her head for several minutes until MegaWatt finally pulls his hands away from her head. Supergirl's head, no longer supported by MegaWatt, drops down and her whole body follows as she collapses in a heap, her head on her forearms, her butt in the air. Her knees slowly slide apart and her hips lower to the floor. She gulps in air and her back heaves up and down, the red cape covering her back the only protection from the three fiends. Her mighty body shudders every few heartbeats as she vainly tries to recover her strength, to fight back, or to flee.
"Now ME!" Snapper snarls, brushing past MegaWatt. The lizard-man leans forward and wraps his thick arms around her waist , his crotch looming over her stringy blond hair. He lifts the woman upward and the Girl of Steel suddenly finds herself dangling, upside down, enveloped in Snapper's powerful grip. The beast begins to squeeze her body, his arms crushing against the area between her ribs and her hips. As he pulls tighter and tighter, Supergirl's arms hang uselessly down toward the floor and her legs flop around as if she lacks leg bones.
"AHAHAAAAAAHHHH!!" Supergirl moans, then "NNOOO!! PPLLEEEEAASSEE!" she begs when Snapper bites her between her legs, his top jaw digging into her pudenda, his bottom jaw digging into her butt, driving the blue fabric of her top into her buttcrack ahead of his sharp teeth. Harder and harder the mutant bites the Girl of Steel, louder and louder she cries out in pain.
Snapper releases his jaws from her nether regions and leaps into the air. Once airborne, he spreads his legs out in front of his body in a VEE shape. As the pair plummet downward, Supergirl's blond head hits the floor first, wrapped between Snapper's trunk-like thighs. There is a loud BANG when her head hits the floor, followed by another, much weaker moan.
Snapper gives the girl no chance to recover. He drops her, letting her fall onto her belly, and rises to his feet. Then he bends down and as one massive paw grabs her crotch, the other envelops her head, grabbing hair and the back of her neck. He lifts the stunned heroine into the air and holds her up, with her belly now brushing against the roof of the vault. After letting out a feral roar, Snapper drops to one knee and puts his other leg in front of his body. His powerful hands bring the Maid of Might downward in a sudden back-breaking slam against his upraised knee. When the middle of her back hits his knee, the beaten woman screams like a beast caught in a leg trap, then begins sobbing uncontrollably.
"Th-this can't be happening to me," the blond heroine thinks through the pain, "I-I'm Supergirl!" And as she finishes the thought, she feels her tortured body rise up toward the ceiling again. "no," she says weakly, then feels herself flashing down again.
"UUnnnnhhh!" she grunts as she's again smashed down on Snapper's upraised knee. This time the shock is so great that she blacks out. She quickly regains consciousness, screaming, when Snapper's clenched fists slam down on her exposed belly. For an eternity, the lizard pounds and pounds on the blue fabric over her washboard abs. Pinned between his knee and his hammering fists, Supergirl jerks and bounces with each blow, her cries getting weaker and weaker. One blow smashes the radio hidden behind her belt buckle and the fragments fall to the floor beneath her tortured body.
The mutant finally tires of his game and rises to his feet, letting the blue-clad beauty fall onto the floor, on her side, spent, broken. "Your turn," Snapper says, turning to Misty.
Supergirl is barely conscious and her body is aflame with pain, in her head, her stomach and her back. She can't even turn to face the third villain. Misty steps behind Supergirl and rests one shiny black boot on the heroine's shoulder, then pulls the boot back, causing Supergirl to drop onto her back. Looking upward with barely open eyes, the Maid of Might can see only the outline of the black-clad figure above her.
"N-no more . . . please," Supergirl begs, hoping to end her torment.
"Yah know, Supes," Misty begins, squatting beside the blonde. "When I was a kid in Dallas, me and my momma used to enjoy watching GLOW - the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrasslin'? We'd play together, do wrasslin' moves on each other along with the women on TV. An' in honor of my momma, and to pay you back a little bit for what you did to her, I'm gonna wrassle with yah!"
"Your - your momma?" a puzzled Girl of Steel asks, looking for some sign of life behind the shiny mirror-finish shield on Misty's helmet. Why does this woman think Supergirl did something to her mother? Who the Hell IS her mother?
Misty reaches down and flips Supergirl over onto her belly, then sits on the heroine's butt, facing the back of her head. Misty reaches forward and grabs each of Supergirl's blue-clad arms and brings them up and backward. Supergirl's arms are draped over Misty's upraised knees, causing Supergirl to bow her back and raising her upper body off the floor, thrusting her breasts forward. The Girl of Steel groans from this new pain, but when Misty then reaches forward and clamps her hands on Supergirl's chin and pulls her head back, back, back, Supergirl's groans become very loud moans and cries for mercy.
Misty's black catsuit is a special suit, designed by MixMaster and enhanced with a powerful exo-skeleton giving the woman the strength of thirty men. Coupled with special vitamins designed (well, stolen) by MixMaster, the slight girl has the strength of fifty men - more even than Snapper! Misty slowly continues pulling Supergirl's head up and back, bending her backward in an unnatural way. Supergirl's boots begin to hit the floor as the heroine vainly tries to ease the pain in her back by flailing her legs.
"MMNNNEEEEE!!!" Supergirl screams through clenched teeth as the pain becomes unbearable. Her arms hang uselessly across Misty's legs, elbows on Misty's thighs, hands dangling down by Misty's butt. Supergirl's breasts seem ready to burst through the front of her blue tunic - two luscious mounds straining against the fabric, tenting it, distorting the yellow and red S on her chest. And still Misty continues to bend Supergirl backward.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Misty releases Supergirl's jaw and the heroine flashes forward, slamming her face onto the cold metal floor. Her arms flop off Misty's legs and as they hit the floor, another deep groan slips from Supergirl's red lips. "Nnnooo . . . more!", Supergirl begs in a weak, slurred voice, her cheek lying on the cold floor, her hair scattered in sweaty yellow strands across her shoulders and back and on the floor.
"Yes, more," Misty says softly, rising off the Maid of Might's butt. Misty turns and reaches down, grabbing one of Supergirl's ankles in each gloved hand. Misty then pulls the heroine's legs upward, bending them back toward the Girl of Steel's head. As Supergirl's hips start to rise off the floor, Misty places first one black boot, then the other on Supergirl's butt and uses her weight to drive Supergirl's hips back onto the floor. Misty continues to lift Supergirl's ankles up and toward her head.
"Uh, uh, no, st-stop, nnNNOOO!!" Supergirl cries as her thighs suddenly begin to burn from being bent backward. Her fists beat futilely on the floor and she shakes her head from side to side as the slight, black-clad villainess continues to pull the heroine's legs up and back. Drool falls from Supergirl's mouth as the pain short circuits her control. A thin trickle of urine stains the blue fabric between her legs, then begins to pool on the floor and her skirt.
"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!!" Supergirl screams as incredible pain wracks her legs and lower back. The pain feels as if her back is going to break at any second, but again, as it reaches a peak, Misty suddenly releases Supergirl's ankles and her red-booted feet flop down onto the floor. Supergirl tries to draw in more and more air, her lungs straining for breath, as she lies face down on the floor, barely conscious and in incredible pain. "Why am I so weak, vulnerable?" she wonders as her heart races. "I'm Supergirl, this shouldn't be happening to me!"
Misty suddenly turns around and drops to her knees, one on either side of Supergirl's chest, poised over the middle of Supergirl's back, right above the red and yellow S on her cape. Misty grabs a handful of blond hair and lifts Supergirl's head off the floor. Misty turns the heroine's head sideways, then puts a finger in front of the wheezing heroine's mouth. A thick black mist begins to flow from the villainess' glove into the Maid of Might's mouth. More and more of the black mist flows into Supergirl.
At first, the Girl of Steel is too busy gasping for breath and her eyes are mere slits, so she's oblivious to what Misty is doing. Suddenly, Supergirl's eyes snap open and her body shudders. A heartbeat later Supergirl begins wheezing in loud gasps, trying desperately to breathe.
"Ah, so you finally know what's happening, huh?" Misty asks the struggling heroine. "I'm filling your lungs with the thickest, heaviest mist I can make. I'm gonna keep pumping it into your lungs until there's nothing in there but a thick, solid mass of my special mist. Then you're gonna die, Supergirl, just like my momma did!"
Supergirl realizes the girl might be right. In her weakened state, for some reason her body now craves oxygen. She can't control her body's attempt to breathe, and yet she can't get more than a trace of air in her lungs. She thinks, "this must be what it's like to drown!" as her breath becomes more and more labored. She coughs, hoping to clear her lungs, but the relief is only temporary - Misty continues to pump her thick black cloud down Supergirl's throat.
After several minutes, Supergirl's chest stops heaving and her eyes close. Misty continues to pump her cloud into the Maid of Might's mouth and a trickle of runny black ooze seeps out of the side of Supergirl's mouth and from one nostril. Suddenly, the door to the vault slams open and MixMaster strides into the vault screaming, "That's enough, Misty! Don't kill her - yet!"
MixMaster is in her costume, a super soldier body suit prototype stolen from an Army research lab. Her dark gray full-body suit is made of special fabrics packed with an exo-skeleton and unique, one-of-a-kind capabilities. The featureless fabric hugs every curve on her remarkably fit and athletic-looking body. She has a large belt with several pouches on it and a small back pack. A special helmet covering her whole head sports a face shield with a mirror-like finish. Shiny black pike-heel, knee-high boots and black gloves made made of the same stuff as her body suit complete the outfit. Her super suit gives her sophisticated sensors, invisibility on the infrared and electromagnetic parts of the spectrum, the strength of fifty men, and a variety of unique weapons. Her regular workouts and frequent use of experimental drugs have augmented her strength and reflexes far beyond those of other humans, even Misty's.
"No, she's gotta die!" Misty screams back, tears streaming down her cheeks behind the shiny finish of her helmet's face shield. "Bitch's gonna pay for her crimes!"
"Yes, darling, certainly, but AFTER I get what I want from her!" MixMaster says, joining her three minions. "Stop it, stop it now, and get that gunk out of her. I need her to be alive. At least for the next day or so. Then Snapper can fuck her senseless, MegaWatt can screw her and burn off her titties if he wants, and you can kill her. I promise, just let me get some of her eggs and DNA, okay!" MixMaster puts a gloved hand on Misty's shoulder and begins to squeeze. A second later, Misty nods her head and kneels beside the near-death Maid of Might.
Misty holds the palm of her hand before the blonde's mouth and tendrils of black begin to flow out of Supergirl's mouth, back into Misty's glove. A minute later, the ooze stops flowing and Misty rises, letting Supergirl's body flop onto her back. Her mighty chest is noticeably unmoving!
"MegaWatt, if you please?" MixMaster says, turning to the scruffy man in red while pointing at the heroine.
MegaWatt leans down and puts a hand over each of Supergirl's tits, covering the blue mounds on her chest. He looks up at MixMaster and smiles.
"Now, MegaWatt, you know that's not the most effective way to jump start a heart, even a Kryptonian heart. Put a hand over her heart and send a blast into the woman."
The grinning goon frowns briefly, then lifts his hands off the heroine's breasts. He puts the palm of his right hand down between the twin mounds, close to the left side of the "S" on her chest. He closes his eyes briefly, then his hand hops off her chest as a powerful blast of electrical energy slams into her body. No response. MegaWatt sends another powerful blast into Supergirl's body. Still no response.
"Give it one more try, MegaWatt," MixMaster says. "I really should have watched you three! If you've killed her . . .," she says, looking at her minions.
"Third time's the charm, boss," MegaWatt interrupts confidently. He rubs his palms together and puts his right hand back on Supergirl's breast. For the third time a powerful blast hammers the woman's body and this time her body bounces off the floor and she suddenly deeply inhales in a loud wheeze before dropping onto her back. Her eyes are still closed but now her lovely chest is slowly moving up and down as she draws a few ragged breaths into her battered body.
"Well done, MegaWatt!" MixMaster says! "Well, I'm very pleased with this. The lead walls, the long-wave red sun radiation and the green-K weakened her, L. Finn clouded her mind with his magicks, and you three hammered her into a dead lump. THIS, my friends, is how a crime team should work! Brains, coordinated attacks, consistent destruction of our inhumanly-powerful foe's strengths and defenses, until victory is obtained. I think you all deserve your diplomas, my friends. You have just graduated from my College of Criminal Arts and Sciences!"
"As long as I get to kill her!" Misty says grimly, standing on the other side of Supergirl's body.
"You will, child, but later," MixMaster says in a consoling voice. "Snapper, you and MegaWatt go get the X-frame we made for our new guest, bring it in here, and get her mounted on it. Time's awastin'!"
The sleek black motorcycle glides slowly, almost silently between two buildings a hundred yards away from the huge warehouse. Batgirl stops the big bike, lithely slides off the saddle, and leans the machine against the wall of one building. She quickly covers it in a cloth which, from a distance, disguises the fact that there's a motorcycle beneath it. Satisfied that her bike is safe, the Gotham heroine deftly moves, from shadow to shadow, across the intervening space to the side of the warehouse. "I'm sure glad I let Batman talk me into this new costume," she thinks. Her new costume is all-black, made of a Kevlar and rubber-like substance that protects her from bullets and knives. Gone are the gawky yellow boots and gloves, replaced by black ones of the same fabric as her bodysuit. Her red wig is no longer needed - a cowl made of the same material covers her entire head just like Batman's. The overall effect is to render the woman almost invisible in the darkness.
A few moments later, Batgirl presses her index finger against a bump on her neck, activating a radio link to Batman and says, "I'm up on a ledge outside the building, Batman. I can see inside - it's a big warehouse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've put on the night vision goggles you gave me," she adds in a slightly disgusted voice. A pair of small, high-tech goggles attached to her mask and held over her eyes by Velcro fasteners allow her to see hands-free in no-light situations. The floor of the warehouse below her is as clear as if it were bathed in green light. "No, nothing," she continues, whispering, her voice picked up by the throat mike woven into the throat part of her cowl and sent to a satellite over the city then down to the Hall of Justice's radio, "there aren't even any footprints on the floor - I can see dust piles on the floor, Batman."
"Hang on," she says a heartbeat later, "there's movement . . . holy CRAP! Batman, there's some guy who looks like a Vince McMahon reject . . . What?" she asks, pressing the speaker embedded in the cowl deeper into her ear. "Skip it - obscure cultural reference. One guy looks like a TV wrestler, the other is a, well, a giant freakin' lizard! No, FREAKIN' lizard, not leapin' lizard. Sheesh! They're carrying something . . . wow, it looks like one of the Marquis de Sade's toys - it's a big metal thing shaped like an X."
"Sounds like some of MixMaster's crew, Batgirl," the Batman replies. "I don't like the sound of this, Batgirl. That X-frame thing can have only one purpose. If Supergirl went into the warehouse and you can't see her . . ."
"Wait one," Batgirl interrupts, "they've stopped - they're outside of what looks like a bank vault, Batman. Okay, they've opened it - I'll increase the magnification, see if I can see into the vault. No, all I can see is shadows, some movement, but nothing I can make out. Obviously there's several more people inside. Okay, they're closing the door - the guy who looks like a wrestler is still outside - he's heading away from the door - going up some steps into a kind of office over the bank vault."
"MixMaster's gang is too powerful for you to take on by yourself, Batgirl," Batman says gravely over the radio. "Keep an eye on the vault - if they have Supergirl, they probably have her in there. I'm going to see if I can get any help for you. DON'T GO IN THERE, Batgirl, MixMaster and her people are not to be taken lightly, especially if they've already taken out Supergirl and Superman!"
"Roger, copy that, Batman," Batgirl says, settling in for a long surveillance. "I hate to think what they can do to me if they HAVE captured both of the Kryptonians," she thinks. "Especially if they did it without a honkin' big piece of Kryptonite!"
Several hours later, a badly battered Supergirl finally manages to open her eyes. "Mmmnnh," she moans, "c-can't believe . . . the p-pain!" She wearily lifts her head off her chest and looks around. She's still in the vault but her costume has been removed and tossed aside. Her naked body hangs on something off the floor. Some kind of metal structure, she can see. Her wrists, ankles and waist are bound to it by thick metal restraints. She tries to yank her right hand free but, straining as hard as she can, the metal refuses to yield. She tries to burn it with her heat vision but nothing happens.
The clicking of boot heels on the metal floor causes the Girl of Steel to turn her head to her left. Her eyes widen (in fear?) as MixMaster slowly and confidently steps around from behind the Maid of Might to stand before her. "Finally awake, Stupid-girl?" MixMaster taunts arrogantly. The villainous doctor steps close in front of the bound blonde and envelops one of the heroine's taut breasts in a black glove.
"Get . . . get your hand off me!" Supergirl protests. Smiling behind her helmet's face shield, MixMaster slowly begins to squeeze the now-soft flesh, increasing the pressure until Supergirl moans in pain and a grimace fills her face. "Nnnh, stop it!" Supergirl pleads as her foe continues to abuse the creamy white breast. As tears start to flow from her blue eyes, Supergirl begins gasping and begging for the pain to end. MixMaster merely pulls her hand back off the tit, then pinches its nipple between thumb and forefinger. As the Maid of Might wails piteously, MixMaster applies incredible force to pinch and pull the nipple. After several minutes of punishment, MixMaster releases the nipple and drops her hand to her side. There are finger-sized bruises on the sides of Supergirl's boob and the nipple is a deep red color, severely in contrast with her other, pinker nipple.
"Well, well, well," MixMaster begins, gloating, "looks like the red sun radiation and lead-lined vault have done their job."
"Whuh - what do . . . you mean?" Supergirl pants, gritting her teeth to help ride out the pain in her sensitive breast.
"Why, I studied you Kryptonians - lotsa stuff on the Internet about you and Supie," MixMaster explains. "I also got some e-mail about your short time in prison down in Virginia.* You come from a high gravity, red sun system. I can't change the Earth's gravity - yet - but I can recreate the radiation of a red sun, and block out 99 percent of Sol's radiation. So all those lovely powers which you get from the yellow sun - invulnerability, super vision, super hearing - all gone! Poof! And from your failure to burst those bonds, a lot of your famous strength is also gone. Oh, I'm sure you still could bench press a Buick, but the way I've got you hanging off that frame, you've got no leverage and no way to burst your bonds.
"You know, Blondie," MixMaster continues, placing a hand on either side of Supergirl's stomach, "I've had two weeks to study ol' Supie under the effects in this room. Do you know that the cells in your body are incredibly dense? Much like your brain, I suspect. I tried to cut him with various implements but the only thing that managed to slip through his, how shall I describe it, his thick skin, was an industrial cutting laser. You Kryptos are solidly built, I must say.
"But I've managed to learn a lot about him, nonetheless. You two ARE susceptible to heat, cold, drugs and gasses now, you can be damaged, but you are still quite strong, as I've said. The longer we block the rays of the sun from hitting your super body, the weaker you'll get as your super energy fades away. Imagine how thrilled I am at being able to knock out the mighty Superman or the amazing Girl of Steel with a simple chloroform-soaked rag! A first!
"Since I've had my fun with Superman these past two weeks it's time to have some fun playing with you, little girl," MixMaster says, suddenly digging her thumbs into Supergirl's body above each hip. After a second, Supergirl begins to whimper from the pain but MixMaster seems oblivious and just continues to dig her thumbs and then her fingers into Supergirl's body. After she screams like a wild beast from the pain, MixMaster relents and pulls her hands off Supergirl's waist. Deep purple stains in the skin above the Girl of Steel's hips testify to the power of the villainess' enhanced strength.
Again the Maid of Might tries to free herself but all she accomplishes is a rattling of the frame. A dejected heroine glares down at the villainess and shame suddenly sweeps over Supergirl as she sees her naked body reflected in MixMaster's face shield, her breasts sagging and swaying slightly. Her breasts have NEVER sagged or swayed before - they've always seemed to defy gravity due to her perfect Kryptonian physique. Supergirl stops trying to burst the bonds and falls limp in her cuffs, her body bobbing slightly as she sobs silently.
"Now, Supergirl, I'm going to ask you a question I asked you back in Dallas a few months ago," MixMaster says, moving closer to the captive cutie. MixMaster places one gloved hand on Supergirl's stomach, the other on the inside of her left thigh, just below her vagina. "Do you make eggs like human women, for reproduction, or what? How often are you fertile. Do you menstruate? How do you Kryptonians create little Kryptos?"
"Go fuck yourself . . ." Supergirl replies, then screams "AAOOWWW!" when MixMaster hammers a powerful blow against the heroine's exposed stomach. MixMaster's other hand reaches up and grabs some of the blond hairs outside Supergirl's snatch and pulls sharply on them, causing the Maid of Might to scream in pain. For several minutes.
MixMaster finally releases Supergirl's pubic hairs and waits while the once-mighty heroine whimpers helplessly, tears streaming down her face. After a few moments of standing silently in front of her captive, MixMaster suddenly bursts into a flurry of jackhammer-like blows against Supergirl's stomach, chest and face. Faster and faster she pummels the helpless heroine, ignoring her screams and cries. MixMaster finally lets up the relentless punishment and steps back slightly. The small motor in her backpack whirrs to life as it tries to cool the villainess' body. Bruises start to form on Supergirl's body as she gasps and moans helplessly.
"I . . . I left Krypton when I was very young," Supergirl finally says through teary eyes. "I never got the birds-and-the-bees lecture from my parents, MixMaster. I don't know how we reproduce, I don't know how or even if I can conceive a baby, okay? Please stop this and let us go. Kal was an infant when he left Krypton - he can't know anything, either."
"Well, now, that's a reasonable explanation, Supergirl," MixMaster says, placing her hands on either side of Supergirl's chest, beneath her armpits. "I believe you. So you've never had a menstruation?"
"No," Supergirl admits, uncomfortably aware that the woman's gentle touch on her ribs is starting to arouse her.
"I got a bucket of semen from Blue Boy last week - Misty and I played with his tool for hours and when he finally shot his load it hit the door down at the far end of the room! Thirty fuckin' feet away! Imagine if he still had all his powers? Oh, you don't have to imagine, do you, ha, ha, ha? He hosed you back in Dallas, didn't he?* And you never got pregnant or had any other reaction to that?"
"No, you bitch, heeeeEEEEEE!" Supergirl screams as MixMaster's thumbs suddenly begin to dig into the blonde's breasts, forming deep dimples at the outside edge of each mound. "AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII!" Supergirl screams as MixMaster begins to dig her fingers into the heroine's back. "Ssstopp!" Supergirl begs, hoping against hope for the pain to stop.
Minutes later, Supergirl again sags in her restraints as MixMaster stops her torment. "You're still too feisty for me, Supergirl," MixMaster says. "You need to learn who's in charge, now. Show some respect for your betters. I think I'm going to do some more research about you and Supes. We got some blood and hair samples from you after you, well, died. Had to use the laser (that's why your butt is so sore, by the way). Too bad about the eggs, though. Maybe we can do something under these red lights, splice your DNA into something from Supie or, well, or from me." MixMaster turns and begins to walk away from Supergirl, toward the door at the far end of the vault.
"Rest up, sweetie," MixMaster yells over her shoulder. "I promised MegaWatt he could come in and play with you when I've finished with you, and sweetie, I'm finished!" A cold chill flooded Supergirl's body as MixMaster's comment sinks home. Then the heavy vault door slams shut with a finality that brings more tears to the eyes of the woman who was once the strongest woman on the planet.