Allison was walking across a dark campus. She had just finished a study session with some of her friends for her microeconomics class. Heading back to the apartment she was feeling pretty confident for the upcoming exam. The off duty American Star was enjoying the quiet time that had come for the superheroine coeds. Nothing serious had come to challenge the girls since their last run in with the Brain Trust.
As a result the girls had extra time to work on school, work, and love lives. Allison had her eyes on a guy from her math class. She knew she’d have to wear a good pair of tights with a short skirt tomorrow; he was a leg man after all. Continuing towards home, Allison was required to pass by the science building. Taking a look at the building she could see that some lights were on in one of the labs. A figure was silhouetted inside, moving around they were up to something.
Her curiosity itching, Allison decided to take a look. She made a quick run to the side of the building. Then she looked around to see if anyone was walking by or heading towards the building. With the coast clear, Allison reached into her backpack and removed than slapped on her power bracelets. Feeling the tingling sensation of her superpowers she then pushed lightly off the ground, taking to the air. Even though her early attempts at flight were wobbly and dangerous, she had now prefect control of her ability to defy gravity.
Even if this turned out to be a wild goose chase she didn’t mind the excuse it offered for her to fly. Coming up to the window she stopped and made sure that whoever was on the inside couldn’t see her. Inside the lab was ransacked and searched. She caught a glimpse of a woman, about Allison’s age going into Dr. Johansson’s office. If this didn’t scream burglary Allison didn’t know what would. Quickly she flew around to an open window a few labs down.
Landing inside Allison was quick to change into her superheroic self. First she pulled her long sleeved shirt off. Underneath was the red and white leotard of American Star. Slipping out of her jeans she showed the room her blue tights. Finally she reached inside her backpack and pulled out her spandex eye mask. Placing this on finished her transformation. Sticking her clothes in her backpack, Star than hid the pack inside the room.
Now she was ready to go, Allison went into full speed and headed for the crime scene. Entering the lab she looked for the burglar. It looked like the intruder was still inside the doctor’s office.
“Alright come on out.” She called when the girl didn’t show herself. Allison heard a sound from the office of Dr. Johansson. Right after that the burglar came out of the office.
She was Allison’s age, just a little taller than American Star and for some reason that the heroine couldn’t figure out, the girl seemed familiar. Like American Star she was dressed in tight fitting spandex and tights. First off her legs and arms were covered in a dark nylon material, maybe a bodystocking. Over that was a pair of dark green elbow length gloves, and a matching sleeveless leotard. Her eyes were covered by a green spandex eye mask.
“You…!” she said nervously. This surprised American Star; most criminals either were pissed or gave up.
“Yes, and if you know what is good for you, you’ll give up.” Allison said placing her hands on her hips. The robber backed away nervously than as if she had some backbone grow into her all of the sudden she stood straighter.
“I don’t think so American Star.” She replied trying to look more confident than she seemed.
American Star decided that she could probably force the girl to back down. Walking up to her she was now only a foot away, “You really should think this over.” Allison said as she grabbed her wrist and squeezed with just enough strength to make the other girl grimace in pain.
“Ow…Well I can do that too!” she yelled. Allison was going to ask what she was talking about when the other girl punched her in the chest with her left arm. American Star grunted as the tremendous force behind the punch forced the heroine to let go and double over.
“How…?” Allison gasped surprised at the strength in the blow. The other girl didn’t respond at first but just stood there, than she clenched her fists together and brought them down on American Star’s head. Star cried out in pain and fell over. The mystery girl than backed away and was rapidly looking around. Using that moment to catch her breath, Allison could see that the girl was paying attention to something, an earpiece.
“Waiting for orders?” Allison asked as she got back up.
The other girl tried to think of a response, “No…I’m not…I was looking for this!” she grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and fired it off at Allison. White CO2 filled the room and caused Allison to lose sight of the intruder. As she turned around in a 360 on her heels trying to spot the girl, she was struck from behind.
The girl in black and green wrapped her arms around American Star’s chest. Allison grunted as the girl’s great strength was placed on her lungs and ribs. Putting her hands on assailant’s arms, American Star pulled trying to free herself from the grip that was pushing the air out of her body. However it was no use, the girl was equal or greater in strength than Allison. She easily held Allison in the air, slowly knocking her out with a bear hug.
After only a minute in the grip of the girl, Allison began to feel sleepy. Fighting to stay awake used up her energy. Her eyes got heavy and she weakly tried to pull free. However it was no use, with a sigh her eyes closed and her head came to rest on the intruder’s body.
The other girl lowered American Star to the ground. Looking over the heroine she was wet eyed, “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be sorry, it went better than I thought!” came over the earpiece. Her unseen boss than gave another quick order, “Alright you have what we came for, get back here, leave her to sleep.” Nodding her head at the unseen voice’s orders, Brianna or Bri as she was know to her friends ran out of the building in the blink of an eye.
Allison heard a soft voice saying her name. Opening her eyes she saw the worried expression of Sara Hayes, dressed in her costume as Ice, looking down at her. Groaning Allison sat up on her elbows. She could see Ice was with Phase (Jenny Klein from The Berlin Connection) looking at her with concern.
“Uh, what are you guys doing here?” she asked still waking up from her forced nap.
Jenny answered, “We heard a report over the campus security of a fight in the science building, and came to check it out.”
“When we got in you were laying here, out cold.” Sara finished, she helped Allison up onto her feet.
Star explained what had happened to the other heroines, “She was strong, but nervous. It was strange, if she had powers why wasn’t she more comfortable using them? Also who was on the other line of that earpiece?”
“Boss, let’s head back we’ll work on this there.” Phase suggested. Sara nodded in agreement.
“Okay let’s get moving.” Allison went and grabbed her book bag than took Phase into her arms and took off; Ice created a trail of her namesake to skate on and followed.
………….
Bri stopped running once she had reached the old science building. It was closed but yet to be renovated. Walking up to a steel gate over a maintenance tunnel, she used her strength to pull open the gate. Stepping down in the tunnel she then closed it and locked it by bending a piece of metal around the lock. Depressed she made her way down the tunnel and towards her ‘boss’.
After a short walk she was inside the meeting place. Set up in an old storage room under the building was her boss. Waiting for Bri was Leanne Nance, while Bri was tall, athletic, and a nice person, Leanne was none of those things. Skinny, not too attractive to her male peers and a bitter person this grad student had no friends. Since she was smarter, Leanne thought she was better. After college she decided to go to grad school at Gerogetown, here she found people equal to her in intelligence but they didn’t like her personality.
So when some of her ideas were considered to impractical, she took it as a personal affront. Leanne was moving to fix it by any means necessary.
“So you had a run in with a goodie superheroine eh?” Leanne asked with a smirk. She was wearing a black blouse with a matching skirt. Boots and pantyhose completed the get up.
“Yes, but you already know that.” Bri answered without enthusiasm. The young woman walked over and pulled a CD case out from her leotard. Handing it over to Leanne, the grad student took it and went over to a laptop that was set up on a table to the side. While she worked on the disk, she continued the ‘de-briefing’.
“The suit was functioning correctly?”
Bri nodded her head, “Yes. No problems.”
“How did your powers compare to American Star’s?” Leanne wanted to know. Bri thought that one over.
“Well I guess all I tested was her strength. We seemed about equal…I took her by surprise.” Bri answered lowering her head. She couldn’t believe she had fought a superheroine and gotten away with it.
“Now, you did as told, don’t worry. On top of that you retrieved the data I needed; I’d say it was a good night.” Leanne smiled, however the praise was empty and both of them knew it. Walking back towards Bri, Leanne handed her small cell phone sized object.
“This will recharge your suit, and give it new programs. I should call you in about a week.” Leanne said.
“Fine…” Bri said. She eyed the room, thinking. Leanne could see this and turned to face the girl again.
“Remember our agreement dear, unless you want a reminder…” Leanne reached into her pocket. Bri’s eyes opened wide, “No…please.”
“Than I suggest you get going.” Bri nodded and ran off at full speed.
Leanne went back to her laptop, reading the file she smiled; her research was coming along nicely.
Hope everyone likes this new story, I'm trying to get back to basics
Later that day the girls were going through the motions of a normal school day. Although they had separate classes, during their free time, the gals followed Allison and kept her covered. Although they weren’t looking for a fight, the badgirl might not have the same idea. First on the list was Jeanie Franklin. She was a cheerleader like Allison, and the two shared an English class together. Looking her over, Allison was confident that she wasn’t the spandex foe she had seen last night. First off Jeanie had shorter hair than the woman she ran into, plus her legs were slightly shorter.
With their first suspect off the list, they moved onto Lena. Allison had lunch with her. At first the young heroine thought she had her suspect. Lena fit the description and had similar hair length and the same eye color. However while talking Allison learned that Lena had been out with her boyfriend Sam during the incident in question, Sara checked the alibi since she was friends with Sam, it checked out.
That left Bri, Allison was less than confident that Bri had anything to do with the crime. Since she had struck out twice so far, she had a feeling the third out was not far away. Allison planned on meeting Bri as she left for track practice. Sitting outside her dorm, Allison pretended to be reading a book. After a few minutes the girl came out of the front entrance. Picking up her stuff Allison walked over.
“Hey Bri do you have a minute?” she asked. The other girl looked over at Allison and smiled.
“Sure…I’m heading for practice, what do you need?” Bri answered.
“Well I haven’t seen ya in awhile, so I thought maybe we could do lunch or something?”
Bri looked over at Allison as they walked, her friend was searching for something, more than lunch, “Gee I don’t know Allison…I’ve been pretty busy this month…I’ll get in touch with you later.”
Bri started moving faster and walked away. Allison slowed down and was disappointed not that she hadn’t found her suspect, but that she had. Bri what are you doing? She thought, heading back to talk with the girls.
……..
Later Bri was back at her dorm room. She had just gotten back from track and was looking forward to taking a shower and cleaning up. Taking off her coat she was standing in her spandex top and running tights with her back to the window. For a moment she went inside her closet to grab a t-shirt when she came out, the girl wasn’t alone.
“Well this looks familiar.”
Bri turned and saw American Star, “You!”
“Yes me, now you better start talking or I’m going to have to take you downtown.” American Star ordered crossing her arms over her chest.
Bri thought about it and decided she had no other choice, “Okay…it was me last night. I was the one who robbed the lab.”
“Why?”
Bri explained to American Star that she was being blackmailed. Two months ago Bri was really being pressed in science. If she didn’t turn the midterm chemistry paper on time and got a good grade, she would go down in GPA and be kicked off the track team. Someone found out Bri was in trouble and offered to help.
“Who found out?” Allison asked. She was shocked that Bri was having so much trouble, why didn’t she tell anyone? Or me, the heroine thought.
“Leanne Nance, she is a grad student. Anyway she offered to type my paper and make it look like my work…she only wanted fifty bucks in exchange, so I took her up on her offer. She gave me the paper and I got a B on it I wasn’t going to fail. When I went to pay her however she said we weren’t done. I reminded her that we had agreed on the price, we were done.”
“She had another idea.” American Star stated. Bri shook her head in agreement.
“Yep, she said I owed her, and if I didn’t do as she said she would let the professor know I cheated.”
Allison was confused, “If she turned you in she’d go down too, right?”
“Nope, she polished a paper on the internet than hacked the school’s search engine for plagiarism so it wouldn’t show up. Nothing connected her to my paper.” Bri said, “I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t see anyway out….” She began to sniffle.
American Star came over and put a hand on her shoulder. They talked some more and Allison calmed the girl down, and learned about her powers.
“Nance is specializing in nano…nano something.” Bri explained trying to say the complex word.
“Nanomachines?” American Star tried.
“Yeah, she injected me with some. They’ve increased my speed, strength, and agility. Basically anything I can do with my body they make better.”
Allison was angry at what had happened to her friend, sure part of the blame was with Bri, but she was now being used as a lab rat, not on Allison’s watch.
……….
“So that’s the situation, Bri is being used by this girl to prove her theories on nano technology. It seems that there haven’t been any side effects. The only problem with the machines is they need to be recharged with an injection of a special cocktail every time she uses them.” Allison explained to her friends. She had left Bri back at her dorm letting her know that American Star would get back in touch with her soon.
“Okay, everything Bri told you about this Leanne Nance is true. She’s a grad student at the school trying to get money and time for her research on nano technology.” Anne explained double checking her laptop, “She lives in an apartment off campus, not too far from here. It seems that she has been turned down for research, they see the idea as too theoretical.”
“One of the professors who turned her down was the doc Bri robbed. It seems Leanne wants to steal what they won’t give her, information, money, etc.” Allison finished.
“I guess not, so what do we do?” Erin asked. Allison had a plan.
“Well we need to clear Bri’s name and get the evidence that Leanne is blackmailing her. Basically copies of the paper she used and the files stolen by Bri would be best, Jenny?”
The youngest of their group smiled, “No problem I’m sure Phase could find what you needed.”
“The rest of us will than take down Leanne when they meet again which should be sometime in the next two days.” Allison finished, she didn’t know what Leanne had up her sleeve so she would make sure to take Erin and Sara with her. Two days later, Allison got the call from Bri; she dialed a clean number used by the heroines. She was going to meet Leanne that evening. Things moved fast after that.
No action in this update, I'll try to fix that from here on out
Jenny was moving through the hallway that Leanne’s apartment was in. She had walked into the building wearing a trench coat and flip-flops. After she had made it into the hallway and saw that the coast was clear she removed the cover ups. Now she was walking around as the costumed crime fighter Phase. She wore a sleeveless black leotard with matching elbow length gloves and a mask. Her legs were encased in shinny skin toned dancer tights. Walking in her stocking feet she approached the door of Leanne Nance.
Putting her ear to the door she listened for any sounds. No one was home, confirming what she already knew. She had been outside the building and watched Leanne leave for a class she had in the afternoon, she was just making sure no one else was in the room. Unlike others Phase didn’t need any special tools to get in the room, she simply walked in. Her ability to phase through solid objects allowed Jenny to walk right into the girl’s apartment.
Immediately Phase moved towards Leanne’s computer which was located in the girl’s room. Jenny took a seat and warmed up the computer. As it was booting up the heroine reached into her glove and removed a small USB device. Anne had loaded a program into the small unit that would allow her free reign inside Leanne’s computer. She bent down and put the unit into the back of the computer. Seating her spandex covered rear back in the seat she saw the log in screen. Using the password given to her by Anne, Jenny was in within seconds. Searching through the computer she found that Leanne had lots of folders with stuff in them, it would take a while to search them.
While Anne was focused on the computer, the front door opened up. Knowing to slowly open it and close it, they approached silently in stocking feet. She removed a folded white cloth from a ziplock bag and placed it in her hand. Moving quietly, she approached the spandex covered figure in the seat in front of the computer. Jenny was too focused; she had finally found the items needed to prove Leanne was blackmailing Bri.
As she printed the files Jenny looked over to the printer and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Instinctively she phased through the chair and jumped to the left. Assuming a fighting stance she prepared for Leanne’s attack, only not to see Leanne.
“Bri?” Phased asked. Standing behind the chair and turning to look at Phase was Bri.
Without a response Bri super sped over to Phase and grabbed her with her great strength. Jenny was too shocked by the sudden appearance and attack, so she didn’t think to use her power. Holding her close, Bri brought Jenny’s spandex clad body close to hers. Pinning Jenny’s arms with her free arm, Bri placed the chloroform soaked cloth to Jenny’s face.
Struggling, Phase breathed in a face full of chloroform. Screaming into the cloth she tried to break free, but only weakened herself further. Her body rubbed against Bri’s as she tried to remove the cloth from her face. Only a few seconds after being first chloroformed Jenny realized that she should try phasing free. However as soon as she tried to use her powers, they didn’t work. She was too weak from the chloroform to use them affectively.
Bri held the crusader of justice as she sank deeper into her arms. With no emotion she watched as Jenny’s eyes fluttered once, twice, than finally closed. Since it looked like Jenny was out, Bri removed the cloth and lowered her to the floor.
It was at this point that Leanne reentered the room, “Good work Bri! Although you can’t really agree or disagree with me.” Bri didn’t know that the nanomachines in her body allowed Leanne to have complete control of it if necessary. All Bri knew was there was blinding pain and then she blacked out. Now the super powered coed was powerless to resist any order given to her by Leanne.
Leanne bent down and took a look at the captured heroine. She ran a hand down the spandex covered side of Phase, “Let’s get out prisoner secured before she wakes up.”
…….
Jenny woke to a splitting head ache and unable to move her arms or legs. Slowly opening her eyes she tried too look around the room. Unfortunately she couldn’t really move her head, just roll it around. It was about than that Jenny realized that she had something covering her face. Although Phase couldn’t see it, there was a surgical mask over her mouth and nose. Something was on the mask; she could smell it but was too out of it to think what it was.
Someone though than held her head by her chin, than removed the mask. Getting a fresh breath of air, Phase coughed slightly and let her vision clear. Resting on her knees was Leanne, the mask in her left hand.
“Ah I see our pesky superheroine is awake.” She said with a smirk on her face.
“What….do…you…two…want?” Jenny asked weakly.
“Us two? Oh you mean poor Bri. You see she is under the control of my nanos, I forgot to mention that to her earlier. Now I’m going to use my little super powered toy to finish my research. But first I want you to answer some questions.”
“I’ll never…help…you.” Phase said defiantly as a chloroformed superheroine could. She tried to focus and phase through her bonds, but couldn’t.
“Don’t try to use your phase shifting powers my dear. In your weakened condition it isn’t possible. Since I don’t know a way to keep your powers from working, I figured just keeping you drugged would be enough. Glad to see I was right.” Leanne laughed. She removed a vile from her pocket and removed its lid.
“Looks like your mask is a little dry, here let me wet it.” Leanne said coyly, as she poured a tiny amount of fresh chloroform on the mask, she than reattached to Phase’s face.
“No….” was all Jenny could say before the mask slipped over her mouth again. Leanne counted to three and then removed her mask. Now she got close to Jenny’s ear.
“Now your going to tell me how to weaken each of your friends…starting with American Star…”
American Star, Electron, and Ice were waiting on top of a high rise in downtown DC. They hadn’t heard from Jenny since she left, which meant something was wrong. First they had searched the Leanne’s apartment. Only to find that there were signs of a struggle and the familiar smell of chloroform. This started a frantic search by the girls to find their missing friend and partner. However after three hours of searching they had turned up nothing.
“This all my fault.” Allison said, seconding guessing her plan. Sara wasn’t going to let her blame herself, “That’s not true Star, Jenny wanted to go remember. Plus if what we know about Leanne is true, I’m sure she’ll call us in a typical villain fashion.”
As if one of Ice’s powers were to read minds, Allison’s cellphone rang.
Picking up she answered, “Hello?”
“Ah, American Star a pleasure to speak to you.” Leanne’s voice came through the other end.
Allison frowned, “Leanne, what have you done with Phase?”
“Oh your friend is sleeping off her trespassing with Bri and I American Star. I insist that you come and see.” The villain taunted, “We are at the old college power plant” she gave them the address, “See you there.”
“She’s told us where Jenny is but…” American Star began.
“It’s a trap.” Ice finished. The patriotic powerhouse shook her head yes. Electron shrugged her shoulders, “There is only one way to deal with that…we spring the trap.”
Allison sighed, “Looks like we don’t have another option.” The three heroines moved off to their gathering with the villainess grad student.
After their short trip over, the three heroines were outside the building. Electron tried to sense any electrical activity inside the building but came up with none. American Star wished one of their combined powers was x-ray vision. She wanted to sneak in, but Jenny was in danger.
“Okay we head in but stay sharp.”
Opening the door, Allison was the first to step inside. Erin and Sara were right on her heels. Closing the door behind her, Sara saw that there was no real light inside. Electron generated a small electrical charge in her hand, providing some light. There were three doors that were unlabeled leading to different areas.
“Okay, so we spit up or put all our eggs in one basket?” American Star asked.
Erin shined the light at them all, “We have just as much chance of being ambushed together as we do alone.”
“Well, I guess that settles that, we can stay in contact with our coms.” Sara said. She reached into a special pocket on Erin’s cape. Handing them some ear plugs all they would be able stay in contact.
“I’ll take this one.” Allison said as she headed for the middle door. Sara headed to take the one on the left, Erin the right.
American Star’s enhanced vision allowed her to see in the dark, so that didn’t give Leanne any advantage. As she moved further down the tunnel she saw something at the end. It looked a figure, but she couldn’t be sure. Allison closed the last few feet and entered a room at the end of the tunnel. Standing there was Bri.
“Bri, it’s good to see ya. Listen you need to tell me where Jenny is, than we’ll get out of here.” Bri didn’t respond.
“Bri?” American Star asked as she got closer. Allison was only a foot away from her friend when Bri lashed out with her pantyhosed leg. The kick caught Allison across the chin. Knocked back and stunned, Star didn’t protect herself when Bri’s left leg was snapped kicked into her abs.
“Why?” Allison cried clutching her abs as she sank to her knees. However this didn’t provoke a response. Bri was quick to press, stepping forward she nailed Allison in the face with a punch and all follow up to her stomach. The punishment pushed American Star up against the wall. Star’s chest heaved with labored breaths, Bri came up to her and pinned the heroine against the wall. Using all the strength she could, Allison tried to break free. It was no use however.
“Ice…Electron…in trouble, need help.” She said, trying to summon her partners except she didn’t get anything through her earpiece but static.
“I’m afraid they can’t her you dear, the walls are just too thick.” Leanne said as she stepped out in her lab coat from the shadows. The grad student was smug with her hands in her pockets as she approached.
“Leanne…Bri help me!” Allison pleaded again. There was no response from her friend.
Leanne smiled and walked up to the emotionless Bri, “She can’t help you dear. My nanos can control her entire body if need be. She is the 21st Century version of Pinocchio”
“Why blackmail her then?”
Leanne smiled, “I hadn’t perfected it yet. However once I knew she had contacted your little super squad, you’d come to help her. So I decided to move forward with my test. It looks like it’s a success.”
“Ice and Electron will stop you.” Allison said as she struggled against Bri’s steel grip. Her struggle and comment only caused the grad student to laugh.
“Ha, your two friends are already in trouble, but don’t worry you’ll see them soon.” Leanne withdrew her hand from her pocket, revealing a small squeeze ball. American Star could guess what it was and tried to break free.
“Now, now, you need to rest before the procedure.” Leanne joked as she squeezed the ball in Allison’s face. A puff of white smoke came out and went into Star’s mouth and nose. The heroine issued a coughed in response. Her eyelids became heavy and her breathing more regulated. As she slipped into dreamland Allison managed to ask a single question, “Pro…cedure…?”
With a final sigh Allison’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, and the heroine’s head and blonde hair fell across her shoulder. Leanne smiled and had Bri step away from the koed super coed, releasing her. American Star let gravity take her spandex covered bum to the floor. Sliding down the wall she landed with a small ouf. Leanne satisfied the heroine was out kneeled next to her and went for her wrists. With ease she removed the power bracelets that Allison wore. Thanks to the info provided by Phase, she knew how to take down each of the superheroines that had fallen into her trap.
…………….
Ice was slowly moving down a path of her namesake. Watching for any trouble she tried a com check with Allison. Static came over the line, causing Sara to swear in frustration. For a moment the skating wonder thought about turning back, but then she heard something from the darkness ahead.
“Who is there?” she asked. Ice prepared to freeze whatever was out there. However instead of an enemy appearing, she heard the noise again, it was a groan.
“Phase?” Sara questioned. Skating forward she closed in on the source of the groan.
After a short trip she saw her young partner tied down to a chair with tons of white rope. Phase was lit by a single lamp hanging above her head. Without thinking, Sara skated over to her friend and kneeled upon reaching her.
“Jenny…wake up it’s Ice.” She said quietly. Ice began to untie Phase. As she removed the large amount of rope, she noticed the increasing temperature. Feeling discomfort was a sure sign that the temperature was going up fast.
“Got to hurry, before it gets too hot in here” Sara said to herself. She continued to untie Phase and fight the coming heat. For some reason Ice couldn’t figure out, too much rope had been used to bind Jenny to the chair. It was taking to long to remove it all. Sara was beginning to sweat, a sign of the growing weakness.
She could her steam and feel the moisture on her skin and skating costume. Taking too long, but almost there, Ice thought. Finally she had reached the last bit of rope over Jenny’s arms, removing it…only to discover duct tape.
“Come on!” she snapped. Phase could only moan in response, she was still out from the chloroform. Ripping the tape off she was shocked to discover, hand cuffs. Inside the steam room, the heat had shot up incredibly fast. White puffs of the hot gas were now filling the area. While Phase slept and was discomforted by the heat, Ice was in danger.
Like kryptonite sapping the life and strength of Supergirl, Ice was feeling the same effects but from heat. On her white tights covered knees, with sweat staining her uniform, she was losing the battle.
“Only…one…way…to free Jenny.” Ice said. Using her powers she tried to freeze part of the handcuffs. If she could get part of the chain brittle enough, she could snap them off and get Phase out of the room. Focusing what was left of her dwindling powers, part of the chain was frozen, but not staying that way.
The heat was too strong, Sara couldn’t keep it up. Now she had to worry about saving herself. First the heroine tried to stand up only to fall back to her knees. Her spandex covered frame was clinging tightly to her, she could barely stay awake.
“Need…to..get out of here….” Ice uttered weakly. Crawling away from Phase she managed to get about five feet before collapsing. She rolled onto her back and tried her com system again.
“Star…Electron….need…help….” Sara managed to get out before she slipped into unconscious.
From the shadows, Bri emerged. Under the control of her nanomachines she couldn’t react with the horror she would have. Going over to the fallen Ice she saw that the heroine was out cold from heat exhaustion.
“Uhh what happened?” Phase said weakly. The actions of her friend and the heat caused Jenny to awake and try and move. However her limbs were still sluggish from the constant chloroforming she had been given. Bri turned and looked back at Phase. She walked over and found a point on Phase’s neck. Squeezing she used the right amount of pressure to send Jenny back to dreamland.
“Ugh.” was all the girl could utter as she went out once more.
…………..
Electron was the only one of the girls who hadn’t been captured yet. Still moving through her tunnel, she found it was longer and to much like a maze. Luckily her light bulb effect in her hand provided enough light to see. Moving down through the tunnel was becoming old. Her irritation reached a peak when she reached a dead end.
“Oh that’s it…time to turn around and try to find Ice and Star.”
Turning and preparing to fly out back to the entrance, a net abruptly fell on top of her. It was heavy and smelled funny. Gripping part of it she pulled, planning on using her super strength to rip it apart. However instead the satisfying sound of snapping materials, she found it tough and unbreakable. Pulling on it also revealed that it was coated with something strange, it smelled like plastic, but it was sticky and getting on her spandex costume.
Suddenly Erin felt lightheaded. Blaming it on the fumes she continued to pull on the material, trying to break it with her strength. Except the more she pulled and stretched the material, the stranger she felt.
“What’s going on…” she asked herself, trying to come up with an answer. Now instead of lightheadedness she began to feel weak. Erin stumbled and fell.
“Ow…that hurt, but I’m still powered, right?”
Electron decided that it was time get out of the net using any mean necessary. She snatched up a handful of the material and unleashed an electrical current on it. Flashes of electricity and the smell of the material melting filled the hallway. The electrified Erin could see she was breaking through, but she was even weaker than before.
“Something…in the net is draining my charge.”
Finally she had broken through the material. Ripping it open she had to work however to escape from the net. Freed Electron stumbled away and quickly sank to her hands and knees. She managed to go forward a few more feet, and then collapse. Falling face down she knew her internal electrical charge was gone, but how? Erin was sure how long she laid on the ground, but she wasn’t getting stronger.
The sounds of boots walking on the concrete came through the tunnel. Erin managed to raise her head to see Leanne approaching. Hands in her lab coat pockets and with a big smiled on her face the grad student approached and then kneeled next to the heroine.
“And then there was one.”
“You…” Electron raised a hand to try and fire a blast off, only to have it fall to the ground; she didn’t have the strength to keep it off the ground.
“Oh Electron you of all people should know, that electricity can’t go through certain materials. The net that fell on you was covered with a special electrical inhibitor. Thanks to your friend Phase I know once you use your electricity it doesn’t reenter your body. So even if it was bursting around you like it was when you escaped, you couldn’t feed on it.” Leanne explained. Reaching into her lab coat she removed another sleepy spray ball. Bringing it down to Erin’s face the student gave her a final word.
“Goodnight.” With a hiss the spray entered Erin’s face and she breathed it in. In no time at all, Erin was out cold on the ground.
“Wakey, wakey dear.” was the first thing that triggered consciousness in Allison. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a single light bulb over head. Slowly the patriotic heroine raised her head and looked around. American Star was lying on her back secured to a medical cot. Thick leather straps bound her wrists, ankles, and waist to the bed. Her body was weak from her gassing, and without her bracelets she stood no chance of escape.
Turning her head to the right she could see Ice and Electron were no better off. Ice lay on her bed bound in the same way, but with a nice hot stage light illuminating her. The heat drained Ice of her powers, leaving her in no position to resist. Electron was left on a bed as well; however she wasn’t bound with leather restraints. A net like material had been wrapped around her, and she was still unconscious. Finally Allison could see Phase. The young heroine was out cold, lying on her bed she had a clear oxygen mask on her face. It was connected to a tank next to her bed.
Putting her head down she could see that her entire team was caught and in trouble. She didn’t get long to reflect on her situation.
“Ah there you are all awake I see.” Leanne smiled. She was standing next to Allison’s bed smugly holding her hands in her lab coat pockets.
“This…is your last chance, Leanne….before we get out of here.” Star tried.
The grad student laughed out loud, “Oh my…sorry but I can’t believe you guys actually say that.”
Allison didn’t have much to say, and thinking about Leanne's comment she had a point.
The grad student controlled herself and moved over to a small table she had in the room. On it were various pieces of medical equipment. Leanne picked up a syringe and IV bag, however Allison was confident there wasn’t saline in the bag.
“These have my nanomachines suspended in the liquid. Once I inject you with them and give them my control command, well you can figure out the rest.” she explained for the captured heroine.
Star struggled but it was no use, she wasn’t going to be getting out anytime soon. Leanne retruned to her position next to American Star, needle in hand.
Sara was too weak to do much but watch as Leanne prepared to put American Star under her control. As long as the light was over her she was powerless. Ice managed to turn her head and look towards Phase and Electron; both of the girls were still out cold, no help there. Close to Jenny’s koed form was another figure, one Sara could see but not identify. It was hiding in the shadows, doing something. Then the form walked forwards, Sara could see her light exposed the extra guess as Bri.
At first Ice was dismayed, Bri was under Leanne’s complete control. Except as she walked closer, Bri could see the girl had her hands behind her back, not the pose of someone under hypnotic control. As she passed by, Bri winked.
“Alright now let’s get that arm prepped dear.” Leanne said. She rolled up Allison’s spandex sleeve, revealing her skin underneath. Tapping a vain she waited for it to pop up so she could insert her nanomachines. So confident in her victory she didn't notice the figure coming from behind her, intent on grabbing her.
Suddenly the grad student was pulled from behind, someone held her by the waist. Leanned managed to yell, "WHAT! WHO IS THIS!"
Then a white cloth appeared and was placed over Leanne’s face. Her eyes bugged out, she knew what was on the rag. Struggling however was no use. With every ragged breath she breathed in more chloroform, and finally got a taste of her own medicine. Quickly the girl was out cold, thanks to Bri. She held the student close for a few more moments than dropped her argoant ass to the floor.
Looking down at Allison she smiled, “Let’s get you out of that.”
“How did you do that? You were under her control?”
Bri shook her head, “For a while…yeah but she didn’t count one thing.”
Allison shook her head not knowing the answer, Bri smiled, “I forgot to recharge the nanos, they wore off shortly after I captured you Star…sorry about that by the way.” Bri's expression showed the guilt she felt for her role all be it forced.
Allison simply shook her head as she was freed from the last of the restraints, “No problem. Let’s get them out of these things fast!” Quickly the two women worked together freeing Ice, Electron, and Phase...
A few days later…
After the whole incident with Leanne was wrapped up Bri presented herself to the proper authorities. Luckily no charges came against the girl. Since she had been blackmailed into committing the thefts and had the support of four of the city’s heroines, she was able to get off almost scott free. Her grade was changed and as a result she failed the class for cheating. Now she had to take it all over again. Bri didn't mind though.
Allison was glad Bri didn’t mind the small punishments made the University. Plus she decided to be a much closer friend to Bri for now on, so she didn’t ever feel pressured like that again. Right now she was slipping her stocking feet into some shoes. Her and the girls were going out.
“Hey Sis, are you sure you don’t want to come with?” Allison asked Anne as she prepared to leave for a dinner with the Bri and Erin. Her wheelchair bound sister shook her head.
“Nope, that’s okay; I have some work to do. I’ll catch ya later.” Her sister shook her head and walked out, “Okay see ya later Anne.”
With her sister gone, Anne pulled up the window she had been looking at. It was a digital blueprint of Leanne’s nanotechnology. Looking at it she saw that there would need to be a few modifications. However is she was able to complete them and rewrite the nano’s programming, she could fulfill one of her wildest dreams. Anne took a look at her chair and then back at her screen on the laptop. She was going to do it.
THE END