I finally caught up with the Boss Woman while patrolling the River District late on a Friday night. As I flew through the night sky, she was below me, in the driver seat of a stolen convertible sedan, racing through the mostly empty streets of the Dark Water. Two of her henchwomen were with her, one in the front and the other in the back. They hadn’t noticed me, yet. I flew high overhead, trailing them a bit, easily keeping up as they charged madly through intersections and around corners.
The Boss Woman had been in hiding ever since our first encounter. She had been stripped of her position as leader of the female Reavors and humiliated—A humiliation for which she blamed me—but she had not lost all of her power. Boss Woman still had resources, resources that she frequently used to attack me. Determined to get her revenge, she had sent a steady stream of bounty hunters and assassins after me. I had defeated them all, but had been unable to track down the Boss Woman herself.
Though I have established a fairly comprehensive net of informants in and around the River District, the Boss Woman had always been able to elude me. That I had discovered her now, on this night, was the result of pure chance. But when I saw the convertible below, and the shiny bald head of the black woman driving it, I knew that I finally had her.
The sedan roared over a set of railroad tracks that marked the boundary of the Dark Water. The three partners in crime continued down the boulevard in the direction of the docks. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take them while they were moving, and any case, I was curious as to where they were headed. So, I maintained my distance, unnoticed in the clear, star speckled sky.
After covering a short distance, the sedan pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and screeched to a halt in front of an automated teller machine. The two henchwomen got out. The first woman gripped a dangerous looking machine pistol and stood guard. The second quickly approached the machine. She was holding a length of chain, at the end of which was a large metal hook. She slammed the hook through a small CRT screen on the front face of the machine, then fastened it to something underneath before throwing the other end of the chain back towards the car.
Boss Woman pulled the sedan out and around in a tight circle, then backed it in reverse towards the teller machine until its rear bumper was only a few feet away. Shouting orders back to her gang, the Boss Woman revved the big engine of the convertible. I didn’t have to be a genius to know what she had in mind.
The henchwoman in charge of the chain wrapped the free end of it around the bumper of the car several times, then gave the thumbs up. Boss Woman cackled madly as she jammed the transmission into drive and stomped on the gas pedal. The convertible lurched forward, quickly taking up the slack on the
chain, then jerked to a halt as the chain was pulled taught. She stomped the gas again and the sedan’s rear tires screamed. Smoke boiled off the parking lot asphalt as Boss Woman forced the car forward.
Something had to give and it was the teller machine. With a shriek of tearing metal, the armored front panel of the machine gave way, exposing the stacks of twenties that were contained inside. The henchwomen shouted in glee and rushed in to collect their booty. But I was there to make sure that they never laid a finger on it.
I am Ms. Marvelous, a champion of justice. I fight crime wherever and whenever I find it. I have the strength of ten men and the power of flight. These three criminals would be no match for me.
I swept in, landing between the two henchwomen and the machine. I struck a pose, standing tall, my feet apart, my hands on my hips. “What’s the matter,” I said while motioning to the machine. “Your card get stuck?”
My sudden appearance startled them—It was all the advantage I would require. Taking a step forward, I quickly lashed out with a springing side kick that knocked the machine pistol from the first woman’s hands. It skittered across the pavement and came to a rest against the wall of the grocery store. With another single, fluid motion, I grabbed her by the right shoulder and brought my left knee up into her gut. She grimaced in pain and doubled over. An elbow strike to the back of her head finished her off and she crumpled to the pavement.
Her partner swung at me with a wild right that I avoided easily. I countered with a straight left that snapped her head back. Enraged, the henchwoman swung at me again, this time with her left but just as wildly as before. I blocked the blow and grabbed her by the wrist. I shifted my weight and brought the captured arm up and over my shoulder. Turning, so that my hip was firmly lodged in her midsection, I tugged and easily brought her over with a nicely executed Judo throw.
The woman landed heavily on the pavement but I didn’t let go of her arm. Instead, I used my superior strength to lift her back to her feet and then repeated the move, again executing a perfect Judo throw. A second impact with the pavement seemed to take the fight out of her—I let go of the arm and she slumped to the asphalt, whimpering like a child.
As I looked down at her, admiring my work and hoping that I hadn’t inflicted any serious injuries, I was suddenly startled by the roar of an engine. I looked up just in time to see the convertible sedan, the Boss Woman still at the wheel, bearing down on me. She had the car in reverse, her left hand on the wheel, her head cocked at an angle so that she could look back over her right shoulder, her right foot squashing the accelerator pedal against the floor. A crazed grin distorted the lower half of her face. The glinting chrome of the rear bumper was so close I could almost see my reflection in it. I had to react quickly or I would be crushed.
But I couldn’t just leave the henchwoman lying at my feet. Maybe the Boss Woman didn’t care about the life of another, but I did, even if it belonged to a criminal. Grabbing her by the shoulders, I hoisted the henchwoman’s prone figure up and over my shoulder before taking to the sky, straight up. My toes brushed against the trunk of the car as it passed beneath us, but we were clear. The sedan continued on its course, still accelerating, before slamming into and wreaking yet more damage on the already destroyed teller machine.
The force of the crash momentarily lifted the sedan off the ground as its momentum was suddenly and completely halted. It returned to earth heavily, snapping the Boss Woman’s head back and over the seat. Returning to the ground and dropping my passenger, I proceeded quickly around the front of the car to the driver’s side, determined not to let Boss Woman escape me. The car’s engine had died after the impact with the wall and Boss Woman was frantically trying to restart it. She glanced up at me with a look of fear and hate on her fat face. Realizing that it was hopeless, that the car was seriously damaged and wouldn’t start, she stopped twisting the key and instead used her right hand to flip me off. Ignoring the obscene gesture, I grabbed onto the driver side door with both hands and yanked. The door gave way to my strength, ripping open and off its hinges. I flung it over my head and behind me, where it crashed onto the parking lot surface with a loud crunch.
The Boss Woman cursed me and tried to flee through the opposite side of the car, but her massive bulk was wedged under the steering wheel and she didn’t get far. I grabbed two handfuls of her denim jacket and forcibly dragged her from the wrecked vehicle. I threw her to the ground at my feet.
She responded by pulling a knife and slashing at me with it. I dodged the strike by stepping backward, but the Boss Woman used the advantage to get back to her feet, facing me.
“You want some of this, super-bitch?” she said while waving the knife. “You just come and get
it!”
She lunged for me, moving with a quickness that belied her large mass, and slashed again at me.
I raised my right arm to block the blow and the blade caught me just below the elbow. But the Caantonium serum that has changed my cell structure and made me strong has also given me a degree of invulnerability—Though my skin is as soft and smooth as that of a normal woman, it is hard to cut. The blow from the knife stung and left a nasty welt, but it didn’t seriously hurt me.
Ignoring the knife momentarily, I lashed out with a left hook that was low and clipped her on the shoulder. The force behind it knocked her into the side of the car, but she recovered quickly and came back with a wide, swinging swipe of the knife that caught me just as I was moving in on her. The blade slid across my bare abdominal muscles, leaving a second welt in its wake. I backed off, rubbing the painful red mark with my hand.
We circled each other, both wary, both looking for an opening. When she lunged at me again with the knife, I knew I had found one. Sidestepping to my left and allowing her stabbing motion to carry her past me, I raised my right hand and chopped downward with a hard strike that nailed her behind the
head. She fell forward onto her face and lost her grip on the knife. It slid across the pavement and came to rest several feet away.
Rubbing the back of her head and groaning loudly, the groggy Boss Woman slowly got to her feet. She turned and faced me, her fleshy face quivering in anger. Veins protruded noticeably from the temples of her bald head. Spittle flew from her mouth as she cursed me. I didn’t think it would do any good, but I figured I would give her the opportunity to surrender.
“Give it up, Boss Woman,” I said while striking my pose. “You’re finished!” Her reply was as I expected. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”
Shrieking like the insane witch she was, the Boss Woman rushed me, her arms flailing. At the last moment I dodged, diving to my left and extending my right leg behind me. Her feet tangled with mine and she fell face first onto the hard pavement. I was back up in a flash, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck with one hand and the seat of her pants with the other. Lifting her off the ground, I flexed my powerful muscles and sent her flying into the air, up and over the convertible sedan. She landed hard on the other side, bouncing once and rolling before coming to a rest against the wall of the grocery store.
Thinking she was probably finished, or close to it, I took my time walking around the car and towards her prone body. But the Boss Woman had a surprise for me. Just as the fates had looked graciously down on me earlier in the evening-- when by pure chance I had stumbled across Boss Woman and her henchwomen driving through the streets of the Dark Water-- they now looked down on the Boss Woman with the same grace. For although my display of strength had sent the Boss Woman flying into the pavement, it had also dropped her right on top of the machine pistol that I had previously knocked from the hands of the first henchwoman.
I approached confidently, not knowing the danger that awaited me. The Boss Woman lay on her side, the machine pistol hidden behind her bulk. As I pulled her to her feet, she swung the weapon around and unloaded its mortal contents directly into my torso—A crescendo of automatic fire ripped through the still air of the night. I screamed in pain and surprise as the slugs slammed into my chest and physically lifted my one hundred and thirty pound frame off the ground. I fell to the asphalt four feet away, on my back, dazed and in pain.
The fact that I was still alive confirmed that my Caantonium induced invulnerability had again protected me. My skin was badly bruised and welted, but unbreeched. The Boss Woman stood above me, a crazed smile of gapped and yellowing teeth plastered across her face. She was laughing loudly.
“You’re mine, now!” she screamed in victorious glee. “You’re mine, now, super-bitch!”
Pointing the weapon again at my prone form, she squeezed the trigger and unloaded the second half of the clip. Flashes of light and flame leapt from the barrel of the machine pistol and again the sound of automatic fire filled the air. I tried to raise my hands to protect myself, but it was hopeless. She raked my body up and down, from my head to my feet. I screamed again as the metal slugs pelted my body. I could seemingly feel each bullet as it ricocheted off of my skin, until finally all the points of pain seemed to merge into one. After what seemed like an eternity of torture, and when the clip was finally emptied, I lay still on the pavement, feeling as if every bone in my body had been pulverized.
But the soft whimpering that escaped from my lips confirmed that I was still alive. Boss Woman’s laughter ceased, replaced by astonished ravings.
“You can’t be alive! You can’t be! What does it take to kill you? What do I have to do? Tell me! Tell me how to kill you!” She dropped the gun and crashed down on me, the full weight of her bulky form straddling me, crushing down on my chest, stomach, and arms. She wrapped her meaty hands around my throat and squeezed. I gasped for air but was getting none. I tried to lift my arms, to raise them in my defense, but they were pinned beneath the Boss Woman’s legs. My boots scraped vainly at the pavement as I tried to squirm free, but could find no traction. My lungs were burning. I needed air.
I could feel the darkness beginning to creep in on my mind. The lights were going out. I fought for consciousness, fought to keep my eyes from rolling back into my head. I looked up into her hateful face—She stared back with crazed eyes that seemed to glow red in the darkness of the night. Behind her, the sky was painted with flickering lights, the real stars of the night sky mixing with the phantom stars that now blurred my fading vision.
Desperate and near the end, I forced my aching body to put aside the pain and take action. Mustering the little bit of strength that still remained in my arms and legs, I arched my back, lifting her
bulk with me, and hoisted her fat carcass up and over my head. Boss Woman had a choice—She could release her grip on my throat and protect herself, or she could fall flat on her face. She chose the former.
Gulping down air, I scrambled to my feet and turned to face her. She was back on her feet just as quickly. She roared in anger, having again been denied victory. Her eyes were wild with rage. The veins on her neck and head seemed ready to pop. She was a beserker, out of control. She rushed me, again going for my throat.
“Enough!”
My voice rang through the night air with a resolve that surprised even me. As the Boss Woman came wildly forward, reaching for me, I met her with a powerful right uppercut that connected on the chin and nearly tore her head off. Her obese form was lifted off the ground by the blow, flying backwards several feet, beyond the spot from which she had started her furious charge. She landed with a crash on her back, the wind being forcibly expelled from her lungs. She squirmed in pain for a moment, then went limp, unconscious to the world.
After this display of strength, the two henchwomen were more than willing to give up without the need for further violence. I dragged them over and set them next to their unconscious boss so that I could keep an eye on them until the police arrived. I could already hear the sound of sirens—No doubt someone had heard and reported the two bursts of gunfire.
The first henchwoman was still a bit groggy, but ready to talk. “We knew it was risky, coming out with you looking for us and all, but we needed the money,” she said with a dejected shrug. “We needed the money to pay for drugs. Everything else we could pretty much steal. But not the drugs. We needed money for that. And for the…”
The henchwoman hesitated, as if unsure she should reveal more. But this was the end of the road. She knew she would be in jail, soon. It didn’t matter. “…and the bounty hunters. We needed money for that, too.”
“That money was wasted, don’t you think?” I asked with a smug smile.
“Yeah, pretty much.” She looked at her sleeping boss. “But the Boss Woman wanted you real bad. She was always talking about how she was going to get you, and all. She hated your guts. Thought you were the reason things weren’t going so good. That’s why we had to rob this teller machine. We needed the money. We were broke. Boss Woman spent everything on bounty hunters.”
“And I beat them all.”
The henchwoman looked up at me with an amused look on her face. “No, not all of them. You didn’t beat all of them.”
“What do you mean? Are there more?”
“Just one, I think. I don’t know a name, but the Boss Woman had me deliver a bag of cash over to the old Five Flags amusement park. I met the bounty hunter there, in the arcade next to the roller coaster. She was a big gal—“
“Gal?” I asked. “The bounty hunter is a woman?”
The henchwoman snorted. “Yeah, that’s right, a woman. The boss said she was tired of the
other bounty hunters screwing up. Said she shouldn’t have sent men to do a woman’s job, or something like that. I don’t know why she thought we needed her. I told her we could do the job ourselves, though after tonight… Anyway, we paid her a lot of money and she’s probably still there, sometimes, at the old amusement park. Damn, here come the police!”
I raised my left arm over my head and took to the sky. The police would be able to sort things out without my help. I was elated that the Boss Woman would finally get a just reward for her crimes, but also worried about this new bounty hunter. The idea that someone was after me, hunting me, sent a chill up my spine. I remembered that the Soi-Kai had been able to discover my secret identity. It was only due to his unique sense of honor that my secret hadn’t been made publicly known. If this new bounty hunter were to somehow find out—
I pushed the worrisome thought from my head. Thanks to my newly acquired information, I
knew the location of the bounty hunter’s base of operations. It was an old, abandoned, amusement park, not far from my normal patrol routes. There would be time to deal with this mysterious woman, whoever she was. She would find that Ms. Marvelous is difficult prey for any hunter.
But for now, I needed rest. I headed back to my apartment at Sunset Studios. It was late and I was tired, but I slept fitfully. The Boss Woman, laughing like a mad woman and standing above me with a machine gun in her hands, visited my dreams. I awoke in a cold sweat—But the Boss Woman was in jail, now. It was my own self-doubts that haunted me.
My enhanced cell structure heals quickly. By the next evening, when I again took to the sky, most of the welts and bruises on my body had disappeared. I was again one hundred percent and ready for battle. Flying through the sky, wearing my skin-tight costume, my self-doubts also disappeared, replaced with confidence. I am a superheroine. I am a champion of justice. I am Ms. Marvelous!
On this night, I was the hunter. I headed for the Five Flags amusement park. The remains of a wooden roller coaster, painted white and silhouetted against the dark horizon, marked its location. A rusting Ferris wheel stood guard, its compartments creaking as they gently swung in the light breeze. I descended, touching down at the entrance to the arcade. Once filled with the flashing lights and ringing bells of pinball machines, the abandoned arcade now stood dark and silent, memories of better times past all but forgotten. I stepped through the open doors cautiously, alert and ready for any danger.
A thin green carpet covered the floors. It barely cushioned the hard cement beneath. The machines that had once crowded the room had long since been removed, leaving nothing but open spaces. Here and there, rectangular wooden pillars jutted up from the floor and served as supports for a low, plastered ceiling. There was little to see here, except—
Through the darkness, near the far wall, I could make out the shadowed forms of several objects.
I approached warily, suspicious of a trap, but all I found were the makings of a primitive campsite. A bedroll lay on the floor, with some articles of clothing laid out in neat piles beside. Nearby, a small, propane cooking stove had been prepared for use, along with several bottles of fuel. A small,
backpacker’s set of pots and pans were organized alongside. An unlit candle lantern hung by a string from the ceiling. All in all, it was fine little campsite, and I figured that my bounty hunter had been living here during the day and hunting me at night.
I found a bag of foodstuffs, and another bag, too, though this one contained more interesting items. I opened the bag and peered inside, trying to make out its contents in the dim light of the abandoned arcade. It contained weapons, the most prominent of which was a hunter’s crossbow. A quiver of specially designed bolts accompanied the bow. I also found a large Bowie knife, a bullwhip, a hatchet, some netting, and several items that I couldn’t immediately identify. I wanted to inspect them further, but a noise behind me, at the entrance to the arcade, interrupted me.
I took cover behind a pillar near the little campsite and looked back, just in time to see a woman enter. She was tall, standing just over six feet, and muscular. She had the body of an athlete and the movements of a cat. Her tremendous physique was accentuated by her clothing—She wore a body suit that tightly hugged her chiseled form. It was colored tan, with green, camouflage stripes. Equipment and weapons were strapped or otherwise fastened to her forearms, shoulders, and thighs. Her feet were covered with black, ankle high, boots.
The woman pulled a cigarette lighter from a hidden pocket in her costume and lit the candle lantern, basking the campsite in a warm glow of flickering light. I could see that she had blonde hair, cut short above her broad shoulders. High cheekbones and evenly spaced features highlighted a strong, though beautiful, face. She was older than me by ten years, and her eyes seemed to exude a wisdom that can only come from lessons that have been hard learned. I watched her from the shadows as she took a deep breath and sighed—For a brief moment I thought I saw a hint of disappointment or frustration on her face. Little did she know that the prey that had so far eluded her was now so close at hand.
But I was no longer the prey. I was now the hunter. I waited until she turned, so that she was facing in my general direction. It’s not my style to attack from behind. With a bolt of speed, I leapt from behind the pillar and flew straight at her. She looked up, her eyes opening wide in surprise. I accelerated, hitting her in the midsection, my shoulder driving through her with a perfect tackle. The impact with her powerfully built frame was heavy, but I wrapped my arms around her and continued forward, carrying her with me. We flew through the small campsite and crashed into the far wall, her back taking most of the force of the collision.
I let go of her and was surprised that she remained upright. I grabbed her by the fabric of her costume, at the top of her chest near her throat, and roughly pushed her again against the wall.
“We haven’t been properly introduced,” I said with metal in my voice. “I’m Ms. Marvelous, and you made a big mistake aligning yourself with the Boss Woman.”
I turned and pulled, releasing my hold on her and sending her flying head first through the air toward the opposite side of the campsite. I expected the big woman to land hard on the floor, but to my surprise she ducked a shoulder, curled into a ball, and rolled easily to her feat, in a crouch and facing me.
“I am Huntara!” Her voice was as strong as her physique and bore a Russian accent. “And we shall see who has made the mistake!”
She rolled again, this time to her right, reducing the distance between us and allowing her to pull something from a pouch strapped to her left arm. Huntara threw the object at me with a fluid, practiced motion. Three strands of rawhide extended outward from the spinning object—To late I realized it was a bolo. At the end of each strand was a small weight, like a fishing sinker. The bolo hit me at my midsection. The spinning strands coiled around my body, trapping my arms against my slender waist.
Huntara seemed pleased with herself. She stood to her full height and put her hands on her hips. “You should not have come here, Ms. Marvelous. It was foolish thing to do. But I thank you—Thank you for saving me the time required to track you.”
“You haven’t won, yet, Huntara,” I replied. “I think you will find that I am not so easily defeated!”
Clenching my fists and gritting my teeth, I flexed my powerful arm muscles and pushed outward. The rawhide strands bit into my flesh, but then gave way to my strength. With an audible rip, two of the three strands tore and the bolo fell harmlessly to the floor.
“Impressive!” Huntara exclaimed. “Perhaps I have underestimated you, after all. Just as you, perhaps, have underestimated me!”
She leapt at me with the speed and agility of a lioness. We grappled, each of us having a good grip on the other, our legs squarely beneath us and our feet planted firmly on the ground. She was powerful—super-powerful. I didn’t know the source of her great strength, but it was nearly a match for my own. And she was testing me, just as I was testing her. We each wanted to know. We each needed to know. Which of us was the strongest?
She stood taller than me by several inches, but I used her stature to my own advantage. Getting my hands under her shoulders, I pushed upward, lifting her off the ground and taking away her leverage. No longer able to use her powerful legs for support, Huntara found herself at my mercy as I shifted my grip and hoisted her over my head. Pointing her ahead of me, I took three quick steps toward a wooden pillar and flung her like a javelin. She crashed headfirst into the pillar with a loud crunch and fell to the floor, on her face.
I have to give her credit, though. Huntara was tough. With effort, she pulled herself to her feet and faced me. “By the great defenders of Tuloth!” she cried out. “You are very strong, Ms. Marvelous. I will grant you that. But I have hunted animals stronger than you and I will yet be victorious!”
Reaching into a pouch strapped to her right forearm, Huntara extracted a small cylinder. It was shiny, metal, and about the size of her hand. Using her thumb, she flicked a trigger at the base of the cylinder. In the blink of an eye, it expanded, extending outward into a five foot staff. Walking confidently toward me, Huntara began spinning the staff, waving it expertly in front of her, then from one side of her body to the next. She was obviously a master of this weapon.
I took a fighting stance, but was unsure of the best way to proceed. She took advantage of my hesitation, moving in quickly on me and delivering a sharp blow to my left shoulder. As I grimaced in pain, she dealt me a second blow with the opposite end of the staff, this time to my right thigh. I yelped and went to one knee.
She quickly raised the staff over her head, then brought it down toward my own with tremendous force. I barely dodged the blow, diving to my right and rolling awkwardly into the middle of the campsite. She followed me and swung the staff again, narrowly missing my head. I bounced to my feet while dodging another blow, then leapt up and over a strike aimed at my legs. As I landed, I fired a backhanded left that clipped her on the cheek. Her head snapped to the side and she went down in a pile.
I tried to follow up on my advantage, but Huntara recovered quickly and used the staff to sweep my feet out from under me. I fell hard, on my back, and she leapt on top of me, putting the metal staff
across my throat. I grabbed it in both hands, pushing back with all my strength and relieving the pressure on my neck. Again, we were joined in a contest of might, but this time she had the advantage. She was on top of me, pressing down with the full weight of her body—The staff slowly edged downward until it was again pressing across my throat.
I pushed back with everything I could muster, again putting some distance between the staff and my neck. But it was no use. Huntara had the leverage and I knew was going to lose this battle unless I did something quickly. The staff was just in front of my chin. I saw the trigger she had used to expand it from its original, cylinder form. I wondered—Might the trigger also cause the staff to retract?
Figuring it was my only hope, I edged my left hand down along the length of the shaft until it was next to the trigger. Maintaining my grip on the staff, I stabbed at the trigger with my forefinger. As quickly as it had expanded, the staff now retracted, sliding through our grips and returning to its original shape. With nothing to hold it up, the cylinder fell harmlessly onto my chest, then rolled off and onto the floor. A surprised Huntara fell forward onto me as well, but I extracted her with a combined kick and push that sent her tumbling.
“I am not an animal to be hunted!” I said as I pulled myself to one knee. “And you will not be victorious. Give up this madness and surrender. The Boss Woman is in jail. Perhaps if you agree to testify against her, the authorities will go easy on you.”
A hint of a smile formed on her face. “You are a valiant and resourceful warrior, Ms. Marvelous, but the time for surrender has not yet arrived. I never meant to imply that you are an animal—Only that I have hunted all the great beasts of the world. What are you compared to these? How can you hope to escape the great Huntara? No, perhaps it is you that should consider surrendering, for I promise that you will not emerge victorious from this battle.”
With the agility of a cat, she leapt at me. I was ready for her, though, and dodged to the side. Spinning on my right foot, I extended my left leg and clipped her with a leg sweep as she landed. Her ankles shot out from under her and she fell to the floor, landing hard on her right hip. Leaping over her and somersaulting on the opposite side, I drove a reverse mule kick back at her head. It was a difficult move, intended to end the fight-- The aim was a little bit off, but still managed to clip her on the shoulder. Huntara grunted from the impact and the force of the blow sent her skidding across the floor.
To my disappointment, she rolled and returned to her feet, still in the fight. I ran at her and leapt feet first, dropkicking her in the chest. The big woman flew backward, narrowly missing a pillar and instead falling to the ground, on her back. Again she returned to her feet, though now some of the catlike agility she had possessed earlier seemed to be missing.
“Give it up, Huntara,” I said again. “It’s over!”
“By the defenders of Tuloth!” she responded. “I will never surrender!”
I rushed her, not wanting to give her a chance to recover. But she was still quick and she sidestepped my springing jump kick. My momentum carried me past her, giving Huntara the split second she needed to remove a bunched up net from the pouch strapped to her left thigh. The net was made from a sheer material, lightweight and compact, and bundled in such a way that it could be expanded to its full size almost as quickly as it was removed from the pouch. Using it with a practiced speed and expertise, Huntara flung the net over me as I spun to face her. Caught off guard by the unexpected move, my struggles did little but further entangle me in the net. I lost my balance and slumped to the floor— Huntara used the opportunity to wrap me tightly, binding me from head to toe, until I was thoroughly ensnared.
I lay on my back, my arms pinned to my sides and my legs bound tightly together. Though the netting was sheer and lightweight, it was made from an inexplicably strong material. Huntara stood over me, breathing heavily, a sheen of sweat on her face.
“You have given me a good fight, Ms. Marvelous,” she said wearily. “I congratulate you on your effort. But the battle is over. You will not escape the net.”
But her words lacked conviction. We both knew that the net could not hold me for long, anymore than it could have held Huntara herself. Already, my super-strong fingers were ripping holes in the fabric. I would soon escape and then the battle would be mine. Huntara was nearly out of tricks. I could see from the expression on her face that she was growing tired. There was not much fight left in her.
Sensing the same, Huntara acted quickly to subdue my struggles within the net. Flipping me roughly onto my stomach, she used her own strength to rip a hole in the net, over my ass. Driving her left knee into the small of my back to keep me still, Huntara pulled back the material of my costume, exposing my anus. I squirmed, trying to get free, knowing what she had in mind, but her grip on me was tight. I was in trouble. Huntara had been hired by the Boss Woman—She knew what the Boss Woman knew.
She knew my weakness.
Those of my kind, females that have been injected with the Caantonium serum, are strong. We have super-powers. But we also have a weakness. It’s called the Sartak—A type of sensory overload brought on by sensual stimulation. At the very least, it can send us into a kind of shock. At the most, it can kill us. The Boss Woman had discovered my weakness during our first battle. She had shared the information with her bounty hunters. Huntara knew. She knew how to beat me.
She reached into her last pouch, the one attached to her right thigh. She pulled out a thin, white object. It was an enema stick, a devious creation of the Boss Woman originally made for the entertainment and punishment of her gang of female Reavors. It tended to have a more devastating result when inserted into me.
I squealed in protest as she slipped the point of the stick into my anus. I clenched, trying to keep it out of me, but the ceramic stick penetrated me easily to its full six-inch length. She turned a small knob at the exposed end of the stick, causing tiny stubs to extend along its shaft and hold the stick in place.
“No! Please… stop!” I cried out as she worked the stick inside me with her finger. Waves of pain and unwanted pleasure washed over my body. My struggles hastened as I felt the beginnings of the Sartak come over me. I knew that I didn’t have much time, but Huntara’s knee was still planted firmly in my back, holding me down. The netting was wrapped tightly around my legs, binding them together. I had ripped much of the netting around my upper body and arms away, but the enema stick within me was sapping my strength. Each time I moved, the stick wiggled inside me, sending new sensations
throttling through my body. Agitated by Huntara’s fingers, the stick worked itself around inside me, making my anus scream with pangs of pleasure and pain.
“Aaaagggh!” I groaned as Huntara continued to work the stick. She pulled back more of my bikini bottom, exposing my nether lips. Still groping my ass with her thumb, she slid her forefinger down through my tightly bound legs until it found the edge of my womanhood. My struggles lessened as she slipped the tip of her finger inside my pussy. The Sartak was taking me over. My legs seemed far away and unfeeling. My arms were weak and distant. All I could feel was the enema stick inside my burning anus and the tip of the finger that was probing my most sensitive areas.
Suddenly, Huntara removed her hand from between my legs and turned me gently over onto my back. Kneeling over me and sensing my weakness, she pulled the remaining netting away from my upper body and then folded back the tapers of my costume so that my breasts were revealed. I resisted, but when she brought her mouth to my right nipple and began suckling, my arms fell weakly to the floor at my sides. An involuntary moan escaped my lips as she sucked and teased the nipple, then ran her tongue around the outside edges of my small cup. The fingers of her right hand began playing with my left breast, caressing and stroking it, then pinching down on the enflamed nipple.
“Stop… please…” I moaned again, louder this time, as the Sartak threatened to overtake me. My nipples were becoming hard marbles under her expert touch, swelling until I thought they might explode. They jutted upwards, granting her lips and fingers access, as if begging for more. I had never before been touched in this way by a woman—Huntara seemed to know exactly where and how my body needed to be touched, where it needed to be caressed, where it needed to be stroked. She was like an experienced traveler, her fingers and tongue venturing forth across my body with just the right amount of pressure and tempo.
She shifted her attack from my nipples to my neck, nibbling me there in just the right spot, before returning again to my breasts. Leaving her hand there, stroking the sensitive base of my swollen right breast, she brought her mouth up to mine and lightly kissed my lips. Moving her face beside mine, she nibbled my ear and whispered into it. “So, it is true,” she said with a soft, almost sympathetic voice. “You are vulnerable to this type of attack. I am sorry it had to come to this. But it will be over soon.
Don’t resist—Give in to the inevitable.”
I whimpered in protest. “No… don’t do this… Please…”
“Shush, child—It will be over soon.”
Huntara gently removed the netting from my legs, unwrapping it and tossing it away. I lay flat on my back, no longer restrained, but helpless to defend myself. My body was burning. I couldn’t feel my legs. Through the fog that had overtaken my mind, I tried to command my arms to move, to lash out at my attacker, but they lay limp and unresponsive on the floor. All I could feel were my bursting nipples and my aching anus. My clitoris, swelling with blood, now peeked out from its hiding place at the top of my nether lips. It begged for a finger to stroke it, and Huntara was willing to oblige. Parting my legs so that I lay spread eagle, she lay beside me, on her left hip, her right leg draped over my own. Sucking again on my right nipple with her mouth, her right hand found its way down over my stomach until it reached softly over my exposed pubes. My body shivered as her fingers brushed against my swollen clit. We lay like that for a long moment, her forearm across my midsection, her fingers lying lightly atop my burning clitoris, the only sounds in the abandoned arcade being my soft moans and the sucking of her lips against my right nipple.
“Aaaahhhh!” I groaned as the tip of her middle finger penetrated my most sensitive region. All my resistance was gone. Within me the beginnings of an enormous orgasm were growing. Her finger flicked in and out of me, now penetrating my aching pussy fully with each thrust. As she inserted and then retracted it, she dragged it across my burning clitoris, causing pangs of sensation to course through my body.
My back arched under her, lifting my breasts higher into the air and thrusting my nipple further into her mouth. “Stop…Don’t do… this…” I pleaded. Ignoring me, Huntara removed her finger from my pussy long enough to grope my ass and send a jolt of pain/pleasure through me as the enema stick was jostled inside of me. Lubricated by the juices of my pussy, her middle finger plunged deep in my anus, so
that it joined the stick and further stimulated my already tortured ass. At the same time, she inserted her thumb fully into my throbbing pussy. I screamed out as the sensations threatened to overcome me completely. Her powerful hand grasped me unmercifully, clenching and releasing, driving her thumb and finger in and out of me over and over again.
Drawing circles around my swollen nipple with her tongue, she used her left hand to pull my limp right arm out and away from my body, drawing it over my head. She attacked the side of my breast with her mouth, sucking and licking as if she were feeding on it. I moaned loudly as my breast seemed to swell to the point of exploding. My hard red nipples pointed skyward like sharp, swollen, barbs. I thought they might burst at any moment.
I tried to think of escape. I tried to cut through the fog of the Sartak and find a ray, any ray, of hope. But all I could feel were my swollen nipples. All I could think about was my aching pussy and ass. The massive orgasm building inside me was nearly to the point of erupting. I bit my lower lip and tried to hold it back. I had to do something quick. I had to find a way to escape. I had to—
“Aaaaagggghhhh!” I screamed out as Huntara pinched my swollen clitoris and rolled it between her thumb and finger of her left hand. My body shook violently as the huge orgasm finally rushed over me. I jerked under her grasp, the muscles of my legs becoming rigid and raising my hips off the floor.
Juices flowed freely from my pussy, dripping down her fingers and onto the carpet. I screamed again as she worked the thumb of her right hand deeper inside me, working it around and drawing out every last bit of energy that the orgasm could provide.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of both pleasure and torture, I slumped back to the floor, spent. Huntara raised herself to her knees. I moaned softly as she extracted her thumb from my burning pussy and her finger from my ass. She knelt over me for a moment, as if deep in thought.
She adjusted my bikini bottom so that it again covered me. She gently folded the tapers of my costume down, back over my breasts. My nipples protruded distinctively from under the thin fabric. She looked at them, as if curious, then cupped my breasts in her hands and ran her thumbs across their sensitive forms. I moaned and bit my lower lip, but could do little to resist. I squirmed under her touch as she continued to rub my swollen nipples. “No…,” I said weakly. “Please… no…”
She pulled her hands away, apparently having decided not to torture me further. I was completely helpless before her. My strength was gone. The Sartak had overwhelmed me. I looked up at her with half-closed eyes that couldn’t seem to focus. I wanted to beg for mercy, to beg for my life, but I was too tired. I couldn’t find the strength even to say the words.
Huntara stood and walked away. I lost sight of her. I don’t know how long I lay there, on the cold, hard floor, but eventually the fog of the Sartak cleared and I was able to sit up. Dragging myself to my knees, I knelt there on the floor, my shoulders slumped and my arms dangling limply. I forced my head up and my eyes to focus. Huntara sat calmly against the wall at the far end of the campsite, several feet away.
“Ah, the warrior rises. Good!” she said. “I was unsure how much damage I had done to you.” I cleared my voice and spoke, almost in a whisper. “What now? What are you going to do to
me?”
“Yes, that is the question, isn’t it?” Huntara was fatigued, her voice weaker and her Russian
accent seemingly more pronounced. “I suppose I shall just have to leave you here.”
My senses were slowly returning to their normal levels. I could see that the small campsite had been packed up. Huntara was leaving.
“Are you done with me, then? You are not going to finish me off?”
Huntara shrugged. “You and I are alike, in many ways, Ms. Marvelous. We are both…” she hesitated, as if looking for the right word. “…warriors. We are both strong women trying to survive in a
man’s world. I respect your strength and bravery. Had it not been for your, um, vulnerability, you might have had the better of me, today. Never the less, the Boss Woman hired me to perform a job. The terms of the agreement were that I should capture you and bring you here, to this spot, helpless, but not dead. She was very specific on this point. She wanted the pleasure of killing you herself, you see? That she is now in jail, and unable to take advantage of the situation, is not my concern. The terms of the agreement have been fulfilled.”
I pulled myself up, onto my feet. In a strange way, I respected this female titan. “But why do you do these things, Huntara? Why do you do the bidding of scum like the Boss Woman.”
For a brief moment, Huntara looked hurt. But her steely composure quickly returned. “I do what I do. You need not be concerned with my motivations. Be thankful that you fought Huntara and survived. Few have, in the past!”
She slung her equipment over her shoulder bounded away, again reminding me of a lioness. I thought it was too bad that Huntara had chosen the path that she had. She could have been a powerful force for good. And as I collected myself and exited the abandoned arcade, I knew that I was thankful. I had been defeated in battle, but I still lived. Perhaps I would get another shot at Huntara. If the opportunity ever presented itself, I would not hesitate. I would be ready for her next time.