The Maid of Might lands lightly atop the Federal Building in beautiful downtown Metropolis early on the day after she turned the super criminal (and her personal tormentor) MixMaster over to FBI authorities in Dallas, Texas. The Girl of Steel had been in a serious battle with the MixMaster and barely escaped with her life. She had missed a meeting with FBI Agent-in-Charge Mark King and her cousin Superman. Apparently King had need of her services. "Hope they don't mind that I'm late!" the beautiful young blonde thinks as she walks off the building's heli-pad.
Usually Agent King would wait for her to land atop the building. Supergirl has suspected for some time now that he likes to see her skirt fly up, not because he's any kind of gentleman or is following any protocol. Obviously, with Superman involved, the lecher wouldn't be so crude as to scope her ass as she lands. The Maid of Might walks into the building and down a flight to King's office. Her cousin Kal-el (known to the world as Superman) is already in King's office, as is an older man in an unkempt gray suit.
"Superman told me about the call he got from you last night, Supergirl," King begins, offering a seat to his attractive visitor. "Sounds like that MixMaster really does exist and was a tough one to take down." Until now, King doubted that the villainess even existed but was in fact a convenient excuse for Supergirl's failures.
The heroine looks at her cousin, raising an eyebrow. "How much did Kal tell that man?" she wonders. When Superman winks at her, she breathes a sigh of relief - Kal wouldn't tell ANYone anything that might compromise her or her reputation! She turns back to King as he begins talking again.
"I'd like you both to meet Dr. John Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell works for NASA. Dr. Mitchell, why don't you tell our special friends why NASA needs their help," King says, leaning back in his chair.
Dr. Mitchell pulls some sheets of paper out of his attache case - clipped copies of briefing slides with the NASA logo on front. "Yes, hmm, well," he begins, losing his train of thought when Supergirl crosses her legs, briefly baring most of her thigh to the man. "Hmm, yes, well, I currently head a team analyzing Mars and past flights to study the planet. We recently obtained access to previously-classified European and Russian data; my team and I are studying the data.
"Odd things keep appearing in our analysis, dating back to the early 1970s. They came to a head last week. Let's see, where shall I begin . . . Yes, well, back in 1976 several craft went to Mars to scout the planet before the Viking Landers arrived at the planet. Mars 2 crashed when it arrived and Mars 3 managed to send signals for just 20 seconds, then it too went silent.
"When Viking 1 arrived the Orbiter portion began circling the planet. When it was on a flyover of the Cydonia region - around 30 - 40 degrees north latitude - it took several photos. Some say the photos look like a face - human or possibly ape-like. We've always discounted this interpretation - it's just light falling across the landscape ... shadows. Of course the supermarket tabloids say we're covering-up some alien civilization on Mars ..."
"Why didn't you send a lander there to check?" Supergirl asks, leaning forward slightly, her breasts bowing the front of her blue tunic, slightly distorting the large S covering her chest.
"Mmn, uh, yes. Well," Mitchell manages to say, very distracted by the Maid of Might's magnificent mams, "that is a very unhospitable region for a landing. An ancient piece of the crust has thrust up through the surface, breaking the newer crust and scattering debris. Combine that with wind and erosion and you get ground that is too strewn with boulders and sand pits. Barely a square meter that's flat and solid; not enough to land anything on.
"Things were quiet for a number of years thereafter and we had contractors process the data we collected from the Viking missions. At the same time the Russians continued to send probes to Mars. We began to get interested again and laid plans for a robotic landing after collecting some fresh data about the planet. Back in September, 1992 we lost track of one such space probe called Mars Observer. It was supposed to enter orbit around the red planet but failed to respond to radio signals. We assumed that the probe was malfunctioning and tumbling out into deep space. After a while we wrote it off.
"Three days ago, the Italians contacted us about a gamma ray burst from Mars."
"Gamma ray burst?" Superman asks, leaning forward himself. "I thought those were associated with stars, not planets."
"Indeed, indeed, so did we," Mitchell continues. "The Italian-Dutch BeppoSAX satellite came on-line recently to study GRBs - uh, that's Gamma Ray Bursts, Supergirl, in deep space."
The Girl of Steel grinds her teeth at the scientist's condescending remarks but decides to listen to his tale before melting him with her heat vision - or her more powerful sarcasm.
"We've been observing them since the late 1960s," Mitchell continues, "but since the atmosphere absorbs them only space-borne platforms can detect them. When a burst occurs there is a spurt of gamma rays, then residual x-rays, radio waves and even visible light. We've seen GRBs as far as 12 billion light-years away!"
"What has this to do with Mars," Superman asks, fidgeting somewhat at the lack of action.
"Well, to make a long story short ..." Mitchell replies.
"Too late" Supergirl says under her breath.
"W-what? Oh, ha, yes, of course, Miss Supergirl. Well, two days ago our Mars Global Surveyor detected a gamma ray burst - millions of times smaller than others we've seen, but still remarkably powerful. It was like a coherent stream shooting up from the surface of Mars toward the moonlet Phobos. It then ... well, it then seemed to, ah, ricochet from Phobos to a point above the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Then from that point above the asteroid belt there was a second, much more powerful GRB and a coherent beam ... an expanding cone actually, of gamma and other rays, radio waves, even light waves."
"Tell them the conclusion of your smart boys," FBI agent King interjects.
"Hmm, yes. Well," Dr. Mitchell stammers. "One theory is that there is a powerful transmitter on Mars that just sent a signal outside the system, bouncing it first off Phobos, then off Orpheus, a large asteroid. Look at this photo of Phobos ..." Mitchell hands photos to the three others. They see a grayish potato-shaped object, oblong more than round, with a large indentation in one end.
"Phobos is a strange little thing. It's about 22 kilometers long and maybe 19 kilometers wide. Its orbit is only about 378 kilometers above the Martian surface - so low it sometimes doesn't seem to be above the horizon! It circles the planet twice a day. The Russians sent two probes to study it back in 1988. Phobos 1 went silent as soon as it took up station. Phobos 2 lasted just a little longer before it too fell silent."
"Probably built by Mir engineers," Supergirl scoffs softly.
"Hmm? Do you have a question, Miss?" Mitchell asks, looking like a stern school teacher at a disruptive student.
"No, just thinking aloud, Professor," the Maid of Might replies, barely able to suppress a laugh. "WHAT a DWEEB!" she thinks.
"Take a look at this photo. It shows Stickney crater - that large crater on one side of Phobos," Mitchell suggests.
"This ... this looks familiar," Superman says, holding the Phobos photo. "STAR TREK! The reflector dish on the front of the starships!"
"So, Superman is a Trekker?" Mitchell says, raising an eyebrow and looking over the tops of his glasses at the Man of Steel. "Well, that's the same conclusion we drew. Many of us believe that Phobos was not originally from Mars, it's too light, it just doesn't fit. An analysis of its mass indicates it is not even solid rock."
"You said there was a burst of gamma rays from the surface," Supergirl interjects. "Where on the surface?"
"From the Face on Mars," Mitchell replies. Silence from all for few minutes as this revelation is digested.
"So you want us to investigate?" Superman finally asks.
"Well, we need information about Mars, Phobos and Orpheus. We have sensor packages that can be placed on each ..."
"So what's the problem?" Supergirl says brightly, "we'll just zoom up there, drop off the packages and ..."
<Kara,> Superman says in his native Kryptonian, <restrain your impetuous nature. There's more here than meets the eye.>
"Hunh? What was that Superman?"
"Just a comment to Supergirl ... in Kryptonian. What do you want from us?"
"Picture a clock face. At this point, if we treat the sun as the center of a clock's face, Earth is between the 10 and 11, Mars is at the 6 and Orpheus is at the 3. Mars and Orpheus, of course, are farther away from the sun. Also, Orpheus is several million miles above the solar system's plane. How quickly can you get to the two locations?"
"We need to talk, first," Superman says. Turning to Supergirl, he speaks in Kryptonian to her, <Kara, I need to tell you something about our powers. A scientist at Star Labs studied me a few years back and concluded that our powers are a unique result of our body makeup and this planet and its sun. Our bodies are very dense and have facets - parts of the DNA itself, that process and use certain types of electromagnetic radiation and visible light. Plus the low gravity of Earth makes our muscles that much stronger than humans.>
<I've learned that when I go into space and fly away from the Sun, away from its electromagnetic waves and light, my powers start to degrade. I had Star Labs make a space suit and vehicle for me to travel beyond the orbit of Mars because I'm just too weakened that far away.>
<On Mars, your powers will be substantially reduced - maybe down to 80 percent of what you have now. On Orpheus, your powers might be as low as 60 percent.>
<But, but you go to other galaxies!> Kara interrupts.
<Yes, but by leaving Earth, then slipping into hyper-space. My powers don't degrade in hyper-space and I can travel across vast distances. Of course, if I LEAVE hyper-space near a red star, or too far from a younger star (like Sol), I'll be too weak to get back into hyper-space.>
<So do we refuse this guy?>
<No, Kara! But I'll go to Orpheus in my spacecraft. It's farther from the sun and from Earth. You and I will go to StarScience Labs first and see if they can equip you for a mission to Mars and back. I'll join you on Mars after I finish at Orpheus. Since you haven't flown that far into space, I want to be sure you'll be able to survive while weakened by your distance from the sun.>
"We'll take your packages, Dr. Mitchell," Superman says in English. "Why don't you assemble them at JPL in Pasadena, California. We'll come by the day after tomorrow and take them. The fastest solution would be for me to take a set to Orpheus and to have Supergirl take sets to Phobos and Mars ..."
"Just Mars, Superman," Mitchell interjects hastily. "We don't really care about Phobos ... it may be just a relay station. Also we don't have enough equipment on hand, nor do we have enough time to get enough commercial off-the-shelf technology together to set up sensor platforms for all three sites, so let's just go with Orpheus and Mars itself."
After discussing a few more details, the meeting adjourns. The two red-, blue- and yellow-clad heroes walk to the roof-top heli-pad alone. They immediately fly to StarScience Labs where Superman and a friendly scientist create a space suit for the Maid of Might ... just in case she has any problems during her mission to Mars. The suit protects her from the cold of space, gives her a radio so she can communicate in the vacuum of space (albeit with a VERY low-powered signal), and the suit has connections for oxygen and food containers if she needs those during her time in the suit. None of these things were ever needed on her flights in space around Earth but ...
A million years before Homo Sapiens began building flood control works in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, a ship from the Seeders entered the Sol system. Seeders were an early star-faring race from the galactic core. As their ships and people spread outward through the Milky Way, they dropped small settlement parties on likely colony worlds. In this system they decided that the third and fourth planets might be good sites for colonies. Several thousand colonists were settled on each planet before the immense Seeder colony ship left the Sol system.
A virus wiped out the settlers on Earth just a few years after their landing. Only a few survivors managed to flee to Mars. They brought the virus with them and soon every Seeder in the Sol system was dead from a Terran virus. Before the last Seeders died, they left automatic equipment in operation on Mars and elsewhere in the system. Some were little more than beacons for other Seeder ships, advising them to avoid the system and a killer plague that resisted all efforts to eradicate it. On Mars an automated sentry system was created to detect and warn other Seeders if life from the third planet threatened to develop a space-faring capability. Anything that left the third planet and went outside this system would threaten all other Seeders with the virus that had killed the Seeders in the Sol system.
The orders programmed into the Sentinel were simple: observe life in the system; take samples for analysis; prevent exploration beyond the system. For almost a million years, the Sentinel watched the skies of Mars and sent robots to maintain the beacons. No Seeder ships ever returned to the system, not even to service the Sentinel. And to ensure that any space-faring creatures exploring this system WOULD visit Mars, the gigantic image of a Seeder was carved into a mountain on the face of the planet. The image was covered with a protective shield but eventually time and the elements destroyed that shield and began eroding the lure.
Time passed.
Sentinel had weapons platforms in the asteroid belt. Over forty craft from different alien races were destroyed by Sentinel's weapons during its watch. Many more such craft flew into the system but those forty made landings on the third or fourth planets. Sometimes they left Earth or Mars with specimens on board. The risk of infection, of carrying plague when they left the system meant Sentinel had to prevent them from leaving the system. They were ... prevented.
Time passed.
Sentinel registered the first uses of radio on the third planet. Then it registered the use of television. While humanity struggled through a bloody century of massive technological change, Sentinel learned the languages used on the third planet. Then Sentinel observed the rush into space. As long as unmanned craft had no compartments which were shielded from the cold hard vacuum of space, Sentinel ignored their movements past the orbit of Mars. Space would kill any virus spores. Some craft flew right past its weapons platforms on their way to the outer planets and beyond. No beings from the third planet (except one blue-clad figure) ever ventured farther than its moon so Sentinel had no need to go on full alert. When the blue-clad figure left the third planet's atmosphere, it often disappeared as if it entered another reality. The Sentinel would continue its routine messages every 10 Seeder time cycles (roughly 280 revolutions of Mars or 526 revolutions of Earth around Sol).
The routine message sent recently ricochetted off the small booster station in low Mars orbit and flew off toward Orpheus. Once there, the relay station pumped up the signal and sent it toward a central information nexus near the galactic core for distribution to other Seeder locations. This latest message reported that one of the planets under quarantine here, the third one, was moving into space. Also, the report described the strange figure that sometimes flies from the third planet and makes a jump into hyperspace before Sentinel's weapons can stop it.
Sentinel concludes its report by stating that it is continuing to fulfill its mission.
Two costumed figures land in the parking lot of the Jet Propulsion Lab. The hero and heroine carry large boxes with "STARSCIENCE LABS" prominently displayed on the sides. They meet with twenty or thirty scientists who brief Superman and Supergirl about the instrument packages that need to be placed on Mars and Orpheus. After demonstrating how to deploy and start the packages, the two heroes open their StarScience Labs boxes and pull out clothing and equipment. Both super beings quickly don shiny silver suits and attach helmets. Superman connects one pallet-load of equipment to an anchor point on a small white jet-like aircraft with his "S" on its nose. As he climbs into the cockpit of the small flyer, he radios his cousin and says in Kryptonian, <Kara, take it nice and easy going out there! Check your powers from time to time. I'll join you in a day or three!>
<Thanks, Kal-el,> the Maid of Might replies via radio. As the flyer heads away from JPL, the young woman grabs a handful of cables and takes flight, hauling two pallets behind herself as she flies upward toward space. Her famous red, blue and yellow costume is now covered by a shiny silver suit and helmet. Only the shapely curves of her hips and breasts differentiate her from her cousin. The opaque shield on the helmet allows her to see out but blocks others from seeing her face or lovely blond hair.
Moments later Supergirl passes out of Earth's atmosphere and turns toward the Red Planet. Back at JPL, the scientists had told her she had to lead the planet - she couldn't just aim at Mars and fly there, she had to aim for a point AHEAD of Mars, to meet it when she reached its orbit. Superman had guessed that she might take twenty-four to forty-eight hours to reach the planet, so she was shown how to sight the planet, then pick a point ahead of Mars where they could meet. He gave her a route which would cause her to pass inside Venus' orbit and use the sun's gravity as a slingshot to increase her speed toward Mars. She finishes her calculations and, with a last wistful look at home, she thrusts her thighs together and launches herself toward the planet and soon her super body and the pallets with her supplies and the sensor package trailing her are travelling through space at an increasing speed.
Over a day later, the Maid of Might slows her speed as she rushes toward the Red Planet. "Kal was right!" Supergirl muses, "I'm EXHAUSTED! And I've had to use two of these bottles of air so far! I'll be glad when I finish this job and can get back to Leesburg!"
She glides toward the Martian surface and soon her super vision, which is much less effective out here than on Earth, enables her to see the Face on Mars. She uses powerful leg muscles to slow her speed and all her strength is needed to slow her and her cargo pallets. Supergirl has to continually correct the course of herself and her cargo; only occasionally can she take time to check the planet rushing toward her. She primarily looks over the horizon toward her landing point at the Face of Mars. After several hours of strenuous effort, an exhausted Maid of Might lands near the jaw of the Face. She stands before a construct almost a mile wide and maybe half again as tall.
Supergirl sits on the cargo pallet and connects another oxygen bottle to her suit. Her star-fueled muscles ache from the tremendous effort she has exerted over the last day and a half and her body is actually dehydrated from all the perspiration she has pumped into her suit. Slowly, the Maid of Might rises to her feet and begins to deploy the JPL instrumentation. As she works, she fails to notice a opening that appears behind her on the base of the Face.
Superman's spacecraft had flown at maximum burn against the direction of rotation of the solar system and was able to reach the vicinity of Orpheus as Supergirl was landing on Mars. At this distance from the sun, Superman's powers are considerably reduced. He's barely able to see the asteroid with his super vision and is unable to see through more than a few feet of the rock's surface.
Sentinel's sensors had detected the SuperJet when it was still over 5,000 miles from Orpheus. The small craft was clearly on a 'high burn* path heading out of the system. And there was clearly a life form inside the craft. Calculating the trajectory back to its source revealed that the ship came from the third planet. At the bottom of craters on the surface of Orpheus, panels slid aside to reveal a variety of weapons - missiles and *ray guns* that shoot particle beams, photon streams and other exotic energies. There are even several devices which can hurl rocks like buckshot from a shotgun. Sensors on the large rock begin tracking the small white spacecraft and the fire direction computer on the 'roid begins calculating the optimum time to begin firing its various weapons.
"Can't see much with my super vision," the Man from the Stars says into his cockpit recorder a few minutes later, "but I think I see some movement - it's the kind of out of the corner of my eye stuff - when I focus on where I thought I saw movement, I don't ... Wait a minute! There's a hole at the bottom of one of the craters! Great Rao! The other craters seem to have false bottoms ... weapons!
"Hmm. Starting evasive maneuvers."
The SuperJet begins jinking and rolling on its approach to Orpheus. Behind the craft, the cargo pallet follows the physics law of angular momentum and resists the violent twists and turns. Eventually one sharp course change snaps the cable between the pallet and the ship, and the load of sensors continues following its last heading. The pallet's course will take it under Orpheus by several hundred miles.
Sentinel's fire direction computer is almost ready to launch its slower missiles toward the white craft when it suddenly changes its course. The FDC continues to track the ship but has to call upon more sophisticated algorithms to predict the ship's path. Obviously the ship or its occupant is aware of the threat that Orpheus poses. The artificial intelligence controlling Orpheus has its FDC activate more weapons and signals Sentinel. The brief report to Sentinel suggests that security has been compromised. The being in this craft was apparently en route to Orpheus and is now certainly executing violent maneuvers to avoid the weapons on the asteroid. The A/I queries Sentinel - should the craft be destroyed since it is obviously NOT going out of the system, but is instead coming TO the weapons station? Sentinel replies with a simple command - "destroy it".
The defensive systems module on Orpheus reports to the asteroid's A/I that the small craft has apparently launched something toward the rock. The object will pass under the platform - close enough to be considered a very major threat to the asteroid if it has powerful explosives on board. A/I orders the FDC to track the second object (much easier since it does not appear to be evading).
The SuperJet is now less than 3,000 miles from Orpheus and the first few beams of energy lance upward from craters on the asteroid toward the craft. Bucket-loads of small rocks launch in a series of ever-expanding cones in an attempt to bracket the space around Orpheus with ship-killing objects. Superman suddenly sees a bright light below Orpheus. The cargo pallet with NASA's sensor suite is hit by a missile and several ray-type weapons at the same time. Super vision shows that nothing remains but a few small bits - this is definitely not just a radio platform but is in fact a sophisticated weapons platform!
"Great RAO! Kara!" the Man from the Stars suddenly says to himself. Without the sensors, there's no reason to go to Orpheus. And obviously going to the asteroid will be a very dangerous undertaking, given all the firepower at its disposal. Suddenly Superman thinks of his cousin and her destination. "What have I gotten her into!? I better get to Mars in case she's under attack, too!"
The SuperJet abruptly veers away from Orpheus and heads on a new course toward the sun. The craft continues to jink and roll as fire from the asteroid trails it out beyond the 5,000 mile mark. As the craft pulls away from the asteroid, speeding in a direction opposite to Orpheus', the A/I on the rock sends another signal to Sentinel. The report says that the attack on Orpheus by the unidentified space craft has failed and the small ship is now on a rough course toward the sun. Drones have been launched and will follow the white craft, reporting both to Sentinel and to the A/I on Orpheus about the movements of the ship from the third planet. Weapons on Orpheus stand down; small machines begin crushing rock and reloading the buckets of the shotguns for the next threat. Computers power down to standby modes. Panels close and once again the bottoms of craters appear to be made of rock. Other weapons platforms in the asteroid belt go on stand-by in case the white jet changes course again.
Orpheus continues its race around the sun, looking once again like a dead rock.
Inside the white space jet, Superman is actually sweating from the tension he feels ... not just from the barrage of missiles and ray beams sent up from Orpheus and the need to avoid them, but also from concern about whatever might happen to his cousin on the Red Planet. As he coaxes maximum speed out of the space craft he calculates it will take at least twenty hours for him to reach Mars and he'll be out of fuel when he gets there. Grimly, the Kryptonian Crimefighter pushes the throttle all the way open. The small ship plunges down toward the sun to use its gravity well to slingshot out to Mars.
Reddish-tinted sunlight washes over a small silvery figure as she unloads and opens boxes, deploying various sensor devices around the base of the large object some call the Face on Mars. Supergirl works in an eerie silence - she has forgotten to turn on the suit's sensors so she hears no sounds from outside her space suit. No wind blows and all she can see are her two pallets and rust-colored rocks between her and the horizon. For a moment she thinks about how nice a Walkman would have been in her suit, then fantasizes about Superman racing toward Orpheus with the song Wooly Bully blasting from his jet's stereo, the Man of Steel riding with the cockpit open and one elbow resting on the edge of the window ...
Supergirl leans over the JPL pallet to remove another of the sensor devices for deployment when she notices a shadow moving on the large crate - a shadow that rises rapidly from the bottom of the crate until it swallows her shadow and covers the side of the box. She straightens and begins to turn toward the shadow when a pair of large metallic cables snake around each side of the girl and cross her front. The two cables quickly wrap themselves around the Maid of Might and tightly pin her arms to her sides. One of the cables is just above her hips, the other pins her biceps and breasts in its crushing embrace.
"Whuh ... WHAATTT!!??" the startled Girl of Steel gasps as the cables tighten and lift her off the ground. "Nnnghh! Cr-crushing me! Hard . . . AAHHH!! ... hard to breathe! Arms ... pinned!" Supergirl shakes her head from side to side and kicks her legs furiously but cannot see her attacker. The helmet on her suit limits her ability to turn her head (without damaging the suit's seals) and she can barely see the five-inch thick cables which have wrapped themselves around her body. As she rises into the air she feels herself being turned toward the base of the Face. "Nnngghh!! Door-doorway ... wasn't there when ... AAIIEEE!! ... when I landed. RAO! H-hurts!"
A large boxy service robot riding on a cushion of air carries the still-struggling Supergirl toward the entrance to Sentinel's facility under the Face on Mars. Even though some of her super powers are weakened by coming so far from the sun, Supergirl is still a formidable force. Her weaknesses, however, are in two critical areas - her super vision and her vaunted invulnerability! Nonetheless, the robot has only had her for a minute or so when she ...
"nnnNNGGGGHHH!!" Supergirl grunts and raises her arms away from her sides. First the cable encircling her waist and wrists screams silently in the thin Martian air, the metal tortured by the incredible stresses she is creating. Suddenly the cable snaps and she is able to bend her arms at her elbows. In a flash she grabs the cable which has pinned her upper body and with a mighty grunt, she rips the cable into three pieces and is free. She drops to the ground, landing on her knees and panting from the exertion.
The robot only had two large cables for bulk item lifting but it also has several multi-jointed arms with various tools at their ends. One large pliers-like arm snakes toward the figure kneeling in the Martian dust and clamps around her neck. As the jaws close around the girl's neck the collar of her suit is crushed and the top half of her helmet falls to the ground. The sudden shift to vacuum causes Supergirl to gasp, then again she cries out in pain as the pliers continues to compress, squeezing her neck painfully. The metal arm rises and lifts the heroine off the ground. Again the robot starts floating toward the opening, the Girl of Steel dangling from the pliers, both hands working feverishly to pry open the jaws to release herself. Again her legs kick in a futile attempt to score a blow against whatever has captured her. Her vision gets cloudy as the device slows the flow of blood to her brain by pinching the blood vessels in her neck.
Supergirl manages to grip the jaws of the pliers squeezing her neck. As she starts to pull them apart she hears the machine straining to resist her powerful efforts. The metal heats from its resistence to her pull and servos inside the jaws whine in protest but the woman is clearly overpowering the jaws. Suddenly another of the robot's arms slams a hammer-like device onto the top of Supergirl's head. As the power of the blow forces the machine to rock forward and almost deposit Supergirl on the ground, she cries from the unexpected pain and her hands release the metal talons digging into her throat. This far from Sol, her invulnerable body isn't quite so invulnerable.
"NGNGNGNHH!" Supergirl cries as the jaws of the pliers again pinch her throat. "N-need air ... (pant) ... need a moment ... NNOOOO!" she wails as the hammer again batters the top of her head. Her arms fall to her sides for a moment as the robot and its stunned captive pass through the portal and enter the Face on Mars. Massive pistons push the door back across the threshhold and the room plunges into darkness as the huge rock and metal barrier seals the room from the harsh Martian environment. The Girl of Steel again hangs limply from the metal jaws as she tries to recover from this latest blow to her head. As the device floats through the cavernous labyrinth under the Face on Mars it periodically pounds the top of her head to weaken her resistence. After the fifteenth or twentieth blow, blows even one of which would crumple an iron wrecking ball into a flat piece of scrap, Supergirl fades into unconsciousness and a small trickle of blood runs down from her nose and alongside her mouth.
"Whuh ... aaoowww!" the Girl of Steel moans as she opens her eyes. "M-my HEAD! Throbbing ... so much pain! Mmnnhh." Dull eyes begin to look around. She first notices that she is in a large room with a very large ceiling - it must be at least forty feet high! Various metal objects are scattered around the room - most have flat bottoms but a few of the smaller objects have small wheels under them. The Girl of Steel then notices that she is still hanging by her neck. Although she experiences some pain from the constriction of her neck by the metal jaws, her level of invulnerability is high enough for her to ignore the pain. Also, although the room has the same rarified atmosphere of Mars, she is still able to draw a ragged breath sufficient for her needs. The temperature in the room is well below freezing and her breath creates small clouds with each exhalation.
"Maybe if I don't resist, this thing will drop me," she reasons ... HOPES!
A dull humming sound begins off to one side of the Maid of Might. She tries to turn her head but cannot. As the sound becomes louder, she begins to wonder what new hassle she can expect. Slowly a massive object comes into her line of sight - a large rectangular metal box riding on huge metal wheels. The device turns toward the helpless heroine and rolls toward her, stopping just a few feet from her face. She guesses that the box might be fifteen or twenty feet high, maybe ten feet wide on each side. There are no apparent seams or other breaks in the face of the box - the wheels on either side are partially-contained in the body of the box.
Several of the other metal objects in the room begin to move toward the blonde and the box, taking station on either side of the box. One small box rolls forward from a door at the back of the room and stops below Supergirl's left hand. <I AM SENTINEL. THE SMALL UNIT BESIDE YOU WILL COMMUNICATE BETWEEN US,> the little box says. <YOU CAME FROM THE THIRD PLANET. I HAVE MONITORED YOUR ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM FOR SOME TIME NOW. I UNDERSTAND YOUR COMMUNICATIONS. ARE YOU NATIVE TO THE THIRD PLANET ... EARTH, AS SOME CALL IT ... OR ARE YOU FROM ANOTHER PLANET?> She deduces that the big box is speaking through the small one, somehow. Radio?
"Well, if you can understand me," Supergirl says, "you know you must let me go! I'm Supergirl! I'm not here to hurt you, just to learn about you."
<WAIT ... PROCESSING ... SUPERGIRL ... KRYPTONIAN. YES, I HAVE DATA FILES ON YOU. YOU ARE ALIEN TO EARTH. YOU ARE ... AN INTERESTING BEING.>
The Girl of Steel is indignant. This ... this machine has not released her! She has no desire to make small talk with a ... a BOX! "LET ME GO!!" she yells in a shrill voice. "You can't hold me here!" Again her hands move to the metal clamps around her throat and she begins to take hold of the clamps.
There is silence for a moment.
"Masters?" she asks, "who are your masters?"
There is no reply to her question. One of the other robots (she realizes now that the room is full of robots) floats toward the heroine, riding an air cushion. The front lower half is a large bowl with some kind of liquid in it. Six large metal arms with various types of clamps reach toward Supergirl and clasp various parts of her body - ankles, arms, torso and her head. She squirms and tries to break free but has no leverage. "Gngnh! STOP THIS!!" she cries as the first robot releases her neck. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!?" she screams as she thrashes in the powerful grip of the robot. The woman is pulled toward robot #2 and turned so that her body is parallel to the floor, face down. "NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!" she screams piteously as the metal arms begin to lower her toward the liquid.
As the SuperJet roars through space toward Mars it passes inside the orbit of Venus, racing in an arc around the sun. Superman feels his powers increasing as the influence of the sun recharges and revitalizes him. He turns back toward Orpheus to see what the asteroid is doing. As his super vision begins reaching out toward the rock, he spots one, two, then three and even a fourth small vehicle in his wake, flying in a large diamond formation in pursuit. Any way he turns, one of them can immediately follow him while the others try to catch up.
"First you try to kill me, now you spy on me," Superman says to himself. "That's not a very neighborly attitude you have, Orpheus. Maybe it's time I stop running and deal with you!" He raises the canopy of the SuperJet and stands up, facing rearward. After opening the face shield on his helmet, his renowned super vision focuses on one of the probes and a powerful stream of x-rays flows toward the device. After a minute, he scans the device with super vision and can tell that his x-ray vision had no apparent affect on the thing. Another stream, this time a blast of heat vision, hits the same probe and quickly melts it into slag. The Man of Steel smiles as he sees the thing start to tumble, destroyed by his eyes at a range of maybe 10,000 miles! He melts a second of the probes before the others veer away from his ship.
As the SuperJet roars on toward Mars, the Man of Steel watches the two surviving probes as they turn back toward Orpheus' last location. Eventually the gap between his ship and the probes is over 100,000 miles so Superman drops back into his seat, closes the cockpit, and settles in for the rest of his ride to rescue his cousin.
Orpheus receives word from its probes before they run out of fuel and fall silent. They report the fate of the two silent probes. Orpheus signals Sentinel, detailing the last course of the white spacecraft (toward the sun) and what has happened to its probes. Sentinel begins to scan its databases for information about this new object, a white ship that can melt an object from a great distance. There are no entries that explain this craft.
"St-STOP!" Supergirl cries as she looks at the roiling surface of the liquid below her. "Must ... must get FREE!"
The robot's clamps strain to hold the struggling woman. She manages to pull one leg upward in a violent jerk that snaps the clamp and part of the arm off the robot. Freed, her leg flails briefly then accidentally dips into the bowl of liquid below her. A loud hissing sound gets Supergirl's attention and she suddenly sees smoke rising from the leg that is in the liquid. Screaming, the Maid of Might pulls her leg free and is shocked to see that the space suit has been burned off her leg - only her muscular white calf and shiny red boot survived a dip in an obviously very powerful alien acid bath.
Supergirl struggles with all her Mars-enhanced strength and frees her other leg, causing her lower body to drop into the acid vat where she sinks to her thighs. More hissing sounds as more of her space suit dissolves in the alien potion. The stoic robot still holds her with clamps around her wrists, neck and stomach and suddenly lowers the woman into the vat, submerging her completely under the highly-corrosive brew.
As the Maid of Might slips under the surface of the acid, she increases her efforts to get free. Her arms jerk and pull, trying to snap the clamps around her wrists. As much as possible she fights against the clamps squeezing her waist and neck. Her head tosses and blond hairs cascade about but the robots are unaffected by the beautiful woman's plight. Supergirl continues struggling against the robot's clamps and is finally rewarded when she pulls one wrist free. Then the robot drags her head under the surface of the liquid.
While struggling against the robot, as her space suit dissolves in the acid bath, Supergirl accidentally swallows some of the alien acid. While her costume has survived the acid bath, she begins to feel a burning sensation on her skin. The stuff she swallowed begins to burn in her throat and stomach and soon the helpless heroine is screaming in agony from the pains inside her.
"Mpphh. Great Rao!" Supergirl gasps from within the acid bath, "BURNING MY SKIN ... AAARRRGGHHH! MY LUNGS! Oooohhh! Cramps ... stomach is ... on fire! Can't stand ... the pain!"
More of the acid seeps into her cunt, anus and other openings, increasing her torment. Supergirl's struggles slowly cease as the Girl of Steel succumbs to the incredible pain of the acid bath. The noxious fluid flows freely in and out of her body. Finally the robot draws the maiden from the liquid - she hangs limply by her neck, waist and one arm, the rest of her body dangles and her long blond hair falls in wet streamers across her shoulders and face.
Supergirl's body is dumped unceremoniously onto a flat platform serving now as an examination table. She lies on her back, one leg bent and raised off the platform, the other leg is bent but lying on its side, exposing her blue panties. One arm has fallen over the side of the platform is lies stretched sideways at almost a 90 degree angle from her body. Her palm points upward, her fingers are splayed outward. The other arm, her left, lies across her breast, unconsciously trying to cover her luscious tits. She moans and burbles acid from her mouth. She coughs and gags on the stuff like a floater pulled from the surf by a Baywatch lifeguard.
Robots approach the woman menacingly.
The white SuperJet races around the sun and now approaches Mars on a collision course. Skillful piloting by Superman has brought the small craft to within a hundred thousand miles of the planet before the ship's fuel is exhausted. He has no choice - he turns on a locator beacon, opens the hatch, and abandons the craft as it drifts toward the planet called Barsoom by an early writer. Still in the space suit, the Man of Steel launches himself toward the Red Planet. As he accelerates, he groans inwardly ... he can feel how much weaker he is out here in space than back on Earth.
One of Sentinel's, ah, sentinels, spies a small object racing toward the planet and begins tracking it. Analysis indicates it came from the now-adrift white ship/object which had been sighted approaching Orpheus. When the path of the new object is established as one heading toward the Face on Mars, the tracker reports to the planet's defensive systems coordinator. Possibly the white space jet has launched an object toward Mars as it launched something toward Orpheus. The small sensor passes word up the chain of command to Sentinel, which orders its fire direction coordinator to begin targeting the objects. Minutes pass and the moving object is now close enough for action. Phobos is over the horizon so local defensive weapons begin launching missiles and coherent beams of light toward the rapidly-descending object.
Superman sees the fire of several weapons from the vicinity of the Face on Mars and begins evasive moves that will still allow him to approach the planet. As he jinks and darts, missiles burst nearby or the rays from beam weapons pass close beside the Man of Steel. Some of the missiles make small tears in Superman's space suit and as it leaks air, it clings more tightly to his skin. His exertions drain his energy faster in the vacuum of space so far from Sol and he's soon gasping for air as he continues to dodge fire from the surface. As he continues his descent, approaching the planet and the Face on Mars, more fire comes up from the surface and he has to exert more energy to avoid the weapons. All his attention focuses on flying a safe path through this "ack-ack" over the Face.
Phobos rises over the horizon.
"... (pant) Just ... just a few more miles and ... and I'll be there!" Superman says to himself as he continues his descent. He's spied a gap in the defenses and jinks right just as a powerful tachyon beam weapon shoots its ray through space he had just passed through. "Al-almost ... there!" the Man from the Stars grunts to himself as his weakened heat vision hits a missile and causes it to veer off-course and away from his path.
Sentinel's defensive systems coordinator has used its best algorithms to plot the object's course but has not scored a single hit on it! At last, Phobos rises above the horizon and Sentinel's DSC has access to its best defenses. As the rapidly-approaching man-sized object enters Mars' thin atmosphere, the DSC fires one of its megawatt batteries toward Phobos. The blast hits the center of Stickney crater on the moonlet and the energy is circulated within the crater, increasing its strength as it passes from node to node within the reflector array. Micro-seconds later a tremendous energy pulse lances out from the crater, the heart of the beam over three miles wide!
Superman expects to make one last burst of speed to get below the Martian ack-ack. He makes a jink to the west and briefly turns his head in that direction. "NNOOOO!!" he cries as he SEES the beam of energy bearing in on him. He has no time to react, no time to even raise his arms to cover his face. The pumped-up energy blast hammers the tiny figure like a newspaper whacking a spider. Superman's space suit dissolves in the tremendous alien energy ray; the Man of Steel himself blacks out from the shock and tumbles, out of control, past the planet, out of its gravity well, and toward the sun.
Robots on either side of the table extend arms and clamp around Supergirl's arms, legs and head, pinning her to the table. Other arms and tentacles reach toward the woman to begin their analyses. Thin cables with a camera at one end snake onto the table and SLOOOWLY penetrate the Maid of Muscles's body at her cunt, anus, ears, nostrils and mouth. One robot tries to cut open her chest with a finely-tuned laser - her skin smokes a little as any residual moisture from the acid bath is burned-off, but otherwise the laser is unable to do more than redden the ivory flesh between her tits. Powerful drills and cutting tools also fail to break her skin, but several cause her to scream at the pain they inflict on her alabaster skin.
"Nnnghh!" Supergirl moans as the analytical devices probe and push things against and into her body, bringing her back to consciousness. "MRAO!" she mumbles, then gags on several tentacles that have snaked through her mouth, down her throat and are exploring her stomach and lungs.
Suddenly the Maid of Might feels thin cables snaking their way through her anus and vagina. As the tubes work their way into her nether regions, they brush against the sides, sometimes against several points at the same time. To the bound woman this is extremely arousing.
"MMNNAAAAIIIEEE" Supergirl screams and begins thrashing against the robots' restraining clamps. "Nnnhh" she cries as she feels arousal from the tentacles invading her cunt and anus - the one in the cunt has passed deeply into her vaginal tract and started her body to unconsciously lubricate herself. Again her body is betraying her resolve, causing her to almost welcome the rough treatment of cold metal probes.
As she struggles to free herself, she sees other mechanical arms swing across her body, some with drill bits, others with knives, still others with laser-like cutting devices. All take their turn at trying to break through her skin. The drills hurt the worst - they tend to turn and twist and PINCH her skin causing painful spasms to shoot through her nervous system. The lasers and knives just leave long red welts on her creamy skin.
Then the machine with the hooks draws near. As she watches with eyes wide in fear, one hook insinuates itself into her mouth and fastens to one cheek and a second hook enters her mouth and secures itself to the other cheek. Then, even as tentacles continue to throb and pulse in her mouth as they explore her insides, the two hooks begin to pull in opposite directions. Within seconds a pitiful scream rips through the cavernous room as her mouth is spread unnaturally wide. As she continues to scream and cry from the pain, the robot's motors strain and strain and suddenly burn out. The clamps are yanked off her lips and her mouth snaps closed. Her eyes are filled with tears from the insufferable pain.
<WHY IS YOUR BODY SO RESISTANT TO OUR CUTTING DEVICES?> Sentinel asks the struggling woman.
"HUCK HOU!" Supergirl tries to say, her mouth and throat covered by several tentacles. The Maid of Might knows she MUST break free before these machines drive her insane from the pain they're causing. She manages to turn one arm, causing an Indian burn where a machine has clamped the wrist, and is able to use the edge of the lab table for leverage. In a super bicep curl, she pulls her arm upward and wrenches it free from the robot clamp that had held it. At the same time, one leg also frees itself. As other robots move toward her, Supergirl thrashes her free arm and leg, knocking away the mechanical arms and tentacles surrounding her body. A deft karate chop severes the cables in her throat, another chop helps the woman free her other arm from its restraint.
Just as Supergirl manages to destroy or remove enough restraints to sit upright, a wave a nausea sweeps over her, a reminder of her alien acid bath. "Mmnn, ro- ... room spinning," she thinks painfully as spasms shoot through her stomach. "Have to ... fight the pain."
In the seconds it takes the woman to regain her strength, another pair of robots approach the woman's back. One like that which captured her on the surface sends a pair of thick cables out to wrap around her upper body, pinning her arms to her sides. "Nnngghh!" Supergirl cries as she is again trapped by the sinister machines. "Must ... ngh ... must get FREE!"
Before she can act, the second robot puts a metal clamp around her head, completely covering her head, and begins to squeeze it like a lemon.
"MMNNNAAAAIIIEEEE!!" Supergirl screams as tremendous pressure starts to crush her head. The pain is incredible - she can hear the machine's vise-like grip whining and moaning as it tries to crush her indestructible (?) head. Unable to see, Supergirl fires a blast of heat vision at the clamp and melts parts of it. "NooOOOO!!" she screams as she realizes that she's just melted away parts and made it possible for the device to squeeze more tightly. "NNNNAAAIII!" she cries as again powerful forces threaten to crush her body, weakened by its distance from the sun's rays. "Mu-must . . . must not give up ... aaaAOOOOWWWW!! Sooo painful!" the bewildered heroine sobs, unable to see a way to get herself free from these Hellish machines.
Superman tumbles through space for several hours, unconscious and out of control. He finally regains enough of his senses to slow his flight and stop the tumbling. Mars has receded into the distance - he must be over ten thousand miles away from the planet! "Great Rao, what HIT me?" he thinks to himself. Then he notices that his super space suit, made of the most indestructible Earth synthetics, has been virtually destroyed. Only tatters remain - a bit of sleeve, scraps around his waist.
"Kara!" Superman gasps as he suddenly recalls why he was out in deep space. A thrust of his mighty legs and the Man of Steel is again flying toward Mars - much slower than his SuperJet would fly, but faster than any other Earth-created propulsion systems could provide. Every bone and muscle in the hero aches, some very much, but he HAS to see if Kara - Supergirl - is in trouble on the Red Planet. The effort of so much activity so far from the sun has also taken a toll on the Man of Steel. As he races toward Mars, he can feel that he is on his last reserves of energy and in dire need of oxygen and rest.
Sentinel's sensors tracked the object which the beam from Phobos had decisively smashed and driven away from the planet. They were about to cease tracking the object when they saw it stop and turn back toward the planet. Sentinel is duly advised that the object which had been assumed to be a bomb or missile was something else. Long-range sensors and cameras explore the object and see it as the blue-clad figure which had often flown off the third planet and into hyperspace before Sentinel could react. Analysis with Earth TV leads to the inescapable conclusion that the object is of the type: "Superman". Sentinel considers this data for a few moments before issuing new orders to its defensive systems coordinator.
Superman doesn't see Phobos - it has passed across the planet and gone to the far side while he was unconscious. The other moonlet, Deimos, however, IS visible. The Man of Steel alters his flight enough to keep the moonlet between his path and the Face on Mars, reasoning that they can't hit what they can't see. He races toward Mars, straining his mighty muscles and taxing his body. As he nears Deimos, he's panting, gasping for oxygen to replace that burned by his muscles. This has to be a quick battle!
Cameras and other sensors on Deimos track the Man of Steel. Information passed to Sentinel includes a conclusion that Superman's speed now is slower than during his first attack. Battle planning computers assess this as most likely: a) a more careful approach to deal with Sentinel's defenses more efficiently or b) the "Superman" thing is operating at lower efficiency/effectiveness. New orders flow to the DSC and weapons ready for his appearance. Weapons on Deimos are ordered to stand ready to fire, but to not reveal themselves until needed.
Superman roars past Deimos just a few miles behind the moonlet as it races over the planet. As he rounds the moonlet, he can see the Face on Mars! The absence of defensive fire confirms his suspicion that Deimos prevented the ... WHOEVER ... on Mars from detecting his approach or firing at him. Believing his approach was undetected, Superman eases back slightly on his speed to conserve some energy for the battle ahead. A sheen of ice on his brow attests to the fact that he's perspiring from his exertions.
As the Man of Tomorrow flies to within a few miles of the surface, a dozen beam weapons in craters around the Face on Mars fire simultaneously, sending powerful alien rays toward Superman. Lulled by the lack of response from the planet, Superman had not been zig-zagging this time, but is on a relatively direct course. A predictable course! The beams converge on him less than a mile above the Face on Mars. The tremendous energies hammer every square inch of his indestructible body, quickly rendering him unconscious. As his body starts to blast backward into space, beams from Deimos strike the unconscious hero and drive his body back toward Mars. Moments later, the limp body of Earth's most powerful super hero smashes into the rocky plain a few miles from the Face on Mars. Sentinel sends robots on air cushions out to collect this 'second specimen*.
Supergirl whimpers and moans as the powerful and massive cables wrapped around her torso squeeze and tighten, crushing her arms into her ribs and compressing her breasts against her chest. At the same time, the remorseless clamp around her head continues to press against her skull. The pain, the pain! She can't focus on breaking her arms free because the pain caused by the machine trying to crush her head is too distracting. Then she suddenly screams as a whirring vibration starts in her lower body. She shudders in a paroxysm of pleasure thundering upward from between her legs.
A new robot moves forward and the survey cables retract from her cunt and anus. As the cables pull out, she moans from the sensation, ashamed that she is even partially-aroused by these mechanical devices. The pleasure caused by those cables slowly ebbs and Supergirl hopes she can concentrate on freeing her arms. As she continues to try to free her arms, to burst the cables around her body, she feels herself being lowered backward toward the table top. One leg is still free, is still kicking at anything within reach, but that too is suddenly snared and pinned. Supergirl feels her legs being pulled apart, baring her nether regions again. She struggles with renewed fear and loathing of what this means, but although the cables are weakening, she cannot break them without more leverage!
"NNNNOOOOOOAAHHHHH!!" Supergirl suddenly screams as the head of a four-inch wide drill, designed to crack through the hard rock of the planet, begins to bore into her cunt. More devices clamp her waist and effectively pin the helpless heroine. Naked, alone, blinded and confined by all the mechanical restraints, Supergirl can only whimper and shudder ineffectually as the pleasure/pain sensations in her crotch arouse her body.
Sentinel is amazed that this being's body was able to resist his all of attempts to cut it open for examination. This being should be dead - nothing else had ever survived the antiseptic cleansing, probing and exploration as had this ... this Supergirl. And the Superman being had proven to be particularly resistant to Sentinel's defense systems. Even the consolidated gamma particle wave bounced off the moonlet had failed to stop him and that had crushed an Aurelian battle cruiser!
These two beings will clearly require more vigorous analytical tools than Sentinel had available in this remote work room. Sentinel seizes a small bit of information in its Supergirl database - something about a recent battle in some place named Dallastexas. The report suggests that she was overpowered by penetration of one of her orifices by part of Superman's body. Until his body can be retrieved from the Martian plane, Sentinel directs one of his robots to insert a drill into the woman's body. Each orifice will be tried until the being's struggles cease.
Superman slowly regains consciousness some time later. As his eyes open, he sees that he is hanging from his wrists, inside some large room filled with an assortment of mechanical objects - robots? - and ... and Supergirl! She lies naked about fifteen feet away atop remnants of her costume. Superman sees that she has massive cables wrapped around her torso pinning her arms to her sides. Another device like a large vise surrounds her head. In horror, the Man of Steel then sees an object - a rod? - slowly turning ... A DRILL! ... one end obviously grinding away inside her vagina! His super hearing detects her moans and gasps, so very weak for such a powerful being!
<Kara! Can you hear me?> Superman shouts in the thin air of the work room, using his native Kryptonian in case ... <If you can't answer, wave one of your hands!>
Seconds pass and finally Superman is gratified to see one hand flip weakly. Then he sees a small robot approach him.
<YOUR GARMENT INDICATES THAT YOU ARE THE SUPERMAN,> the small robot announces. <YOU ARE KRYPTONIAN LIKE SUPERGIRL. YOU ARE OF INTEREST TO MY MASTERS. YOU AND THE OTHER WILL BE ANALYZED. YOU WILL STICK PART OF YOUR BODY INTO THE FEMALE, TO WEAKEN HER SO OUR TOOLS CAN BREACH HER SKIN.>
"Blow it out your ear!" a defiant Superman replies. He struggles to get free and finds that he is able to lock his legs around the base of the robot which holds his wrists. From this secure perch, he strains with every fiber of his being and triumphantly shatters the two metal clamps which had held his wrists. His hands quickly move to the clamp around his neck and in seconds, this too is ripped apart by the Man of Steel, dropping him to the floor beneath where he lands on his knees. Immediately half a dozen of the robots begin moving toward him, their arms and tentacles waving menacingly.
<Kara! I'M FREE!> Superman shouts, <I'll try to help you in a minute>.
As the robots near him, Superman rises and picks up the small communications robot and pitches it like a fast ball at a large robot with a tub of liquid in front of it. The smaller robot hits the front of the large robot with such force that the larger robot is turned to one side and knocked over onto its side, spilling its alien acid on the floor. Within seconds, several of the ground-effect robots grind to a halt as their wheels or treads dissolve in the powerful substance. As one robot's tentacles reach for the man in blue, he deftly snags them and begins spinning in one spot, holding onto the robot's cables and causing it to whirl around him, knocking over most of the remaining robots. When the last one has fallen, Superman releases the tentacles and the now-smashed robot flies across the work room to hit one of the robots hovering over the helpless Maid of Might.
While her cousin was being brought into this room, the poor Maid of Might was lost in a sea of orgasms caused by a large drill boring into her vagina. Sentinel didn't understand sex but was vaguely aware that this part of the female anatomy was susceptible to manipulation. A large-diameter drill bit was inserted into the woman's vagina and as it slowly ground its way into her, abrading the walls of her vagina, Supergirl began to be stimulated by both the action of the drill bit and, sadly, her predicament. She realized that she was developing a disturbing ... preference for being dominated and sexually abused. Recently, she had experienced this situation far too often and was shocked at her perversion.
Supergirl barely hears her cousin shout something in Kryptonian. The machines have her tightly restricted and between the crushing pressure on her skull and the incessant drilling inside her body she's being driven her insane with pain/pleasure. Suddenly her whole body shudders and the cables squeezing her torso suddenly weakens and the cables loosen their grip on her. Fighting against her weak body and the pleasure/pain in her cunt, the Girl of Steel makes one last effort and peels away the cables, freeing her arms and easing the crushing pressure on her tits. She immediately reaches upward and by main force alone removes the vise grip around her head.
Gasping like a fish out of water, fighting for her life, the Maid of Might sits up enough to wrap her hands around the drill probing her honey sac. Gritting her teeth, Supergirl grunts and manages to pull the drill out of her body, triggering a massive orgasm at the same time. "MMMNNNNNHH!! she cries and falls backward to lie limply on the table, moaning, her hands holding her cunt and rubbing her clit to prolong the orgasmic pleasure. Two robots still hold her legs out at a wide angle but otherwise the girl is free, she just doesn't care at this point. She just doesn't have any strength left to fight, or even to flee.
As Superman works his way across the workshop floor toward the large robot in the middle, he bats away or crushes robots which rush from Supergirl's side toward him. He tries to burn some with his heat vision but it's too weak. <Good girl, Kara!> he yells in encouragement when he sees her free herself from most of the robotic restraint.
Pausing to catch a breath, Superman is gratified to see that there are only four robots left in the room! Two hold Kara's legs, the others are the large box-shaped one and a smaller one with a variety of arms and tentacles (some broken). As the latter approaches, Superman picks up a thick arm from one of the destroyed robots and swings it like a club, knocking over the advancing robot. As its tentacles reach toward him, Superman leaps into the air and flies toward the large boxy robot. The device turns to retreat but Superman has built up enough speed to slam his shoulder into the side of the box with tremendous force. The box rocks but continues to move toward a back exit from the workroom. The Man of Steel falls to the ground, groaning from the pain in his shoulder!
The box gets within a few feet of an exit from the work room before Superman gets back to it. Standing in front of the huge wheeled juggernaut, he raises his hands as if he's stopping a fleeing 1961 Corvair instead of a huge alien artifact. As the box rams into the Man of Steel, it pushes him back toward the opening. Superman strains and grunts and uses all the extra strength he has on the lower gravity planet of Mars, but the box continues to push forward. Finally, desperately, he begins hitting the box with the most powerful x-rays he can muster this far from the sun. He plays his vision across the face of the box, trying to fry the alien electronic circuits with more x-rays than they would ever encounter on this planet. As his eyes jangle more and more of its circuits, the unit begins to lose control of itself and of the other robots in the room. Suddenly the unit stops pushing toward the exit and just a few feet from the exit it grinds to a halt. Thin wisps of smoke leak from a few pin-holes in the sides of the box. The other robots still working also cease to operate.
Taking no chances, Superman runs to the side of the box and slips his hands under the skirting above the treads. Grunting, he lifts the box upward until it topples onto its side with a tremendous crash. Having stopped this robot, the Man of Steel rushes to Supergirl's side just as the girl has managed to free herself from the two robots holding her legs. She's sitting on the examination table, holding shards of her torn costume to cover her breasts and crotch. Her head is down with her chin on her chest. Her beautiful blond hair hangs in wet strings across her shoulders and breasts. She is sobbing silently, shaking as she slowly recovers from the abuse she's received from the robots.
<K-Kara!> Superman pants, <Let's get out of here before anything else attacks us!>
<Mnn, okay, Kal,> the girl replies, dreamy-eyed and not quite here after the recent physical and sexual assault on her body. <I don't think we have to worry, Kal. That big box thing was Sentinel. It was the robot running this nightmare.>
<What? You mean THAT box ran the robots here and on Orpheus?>
<Well, I don't know about Orpheus, but it talked like it was the boss for the whole system!>
<Let's see if we can get off-planet. If we can, we'll know that we did kill it. Ah, what are we going to do about clothes for you?>
<I've got some spares at home - shorts, not a skirt, and a different top with longer sleeves, and a longer cape. What about our space suits? Won't we need them to get home?>
<If we get off Mars, Kara, I'll find my SpaceJet. You can sit in it while I push it home. I'll spend a few minutes inside getting air, then we can take turns riding inside or pushing it back to Earth. Let's GO!>
The two super beings, a man in blue and a blonde in bare white skin, fly out of the Face on Mars and quickly zoom toward outer space. The pallet load of equipment lies unused on the ground behind the departing pair. In the large cavern under the Face, some thirty robots lie in various piles of junk across the floor.
There is a huge bulge on the Martian surface called Tharsis, a bulge almost 6.5 miles high and 2,500 miles across. Deep inside Tharsis is the remnant of the failed Seeder colony. At the center of the complex is a large, immobile supercomputer that calls itself Sentinel. Sentinel works by delegating tasks to various subordinate controllers, for operation of weapons platforms, operations on the surface of Mars, even for routine repair work. Now, as Sentinel's sensors report back through its chain of command that the two super beings are leaving the planet, Sentinel decides to let them leave. More information must be gleaned from their media, more analysis must be done, before another attempt to capture, subdue and analyze them can be attempted.
Also, the low-level supervisor robot and its drones in station 38 need to be replaced. Not a problem - that robot and its drones were very minor entities, something like gardeners or janitors, useful only for the most simple tasks of cleaning and servicing the more powerful robots. And Sentinel still has twenty of its communications robots available, so the loss of the one that had been dispatched to help the supervisor robot was only a minor inconvenience to Sentinel.
Time will pass.