RAVEN STRIKE 2

Birds of Play

by RW

"I need to see you," Stan Kelso says over the phone.  "I have an assignment for you."

Kate Windrunner, a.k.a. Raven, grimaces at the phone.  She doesn't like the head of the Dallas office of the Super Heroes Foundation (SHF) and she doesn't like the crappy assignments he often gives her.  As a member of the SHF, she receives money and other support in exchange for her help on contracts with a variety of customers.  Her jobs have mainly been as a glorified security guard - a rent-a-cop in tights.

"That might a bit hard," she tells Kelso a moment later.  "I've lost my costume again."  She's gone through three costumes since becoming Raven.  Even though the Trimblers, special things in her blood, create a thin force field around her body, protecting her and her clothes, criminals still manage to remove or destroy her costumes.

Kelso says nothing for a few moments, then says, "That might not be a problem.  Come down here as fast as you can, in your street clothes if you have nothing else."  He hangs up before Kate can respond.

Kate reluctantly puts down her cell phone and picks up her leather jacket.   Wearing a blouse and jeans, she heads out of her apartment in north Dallas and begins the drive downtown to SHF headquarters, in a federal office building.  She's riding her souped-up Honda ST1100 motorcycle, a muscular crotch rocket the SHF provided to her.  She prefers to ride it only when dressed as Raven but, since she's responding to Kelso's call as Raven and doesn't HAVE a costume ...

Forty minutes later, after parking under the federal building and riding the elevator up to the sixth floor, Kate enters the offices of the SHF.   She exchanges greetings with Meg, the friendly, 30-something secretary, who sends her back to Kelso's office.  As Kate walks into the man's office, she stops in the doorway and gapes at Kelso's visitor.

"You ... you ... you're Robin!" she gushes in an uncharacteristic 'groupie-like' voice.  She stands in the doorway, her mouth open, her eyes as wide as dinner platters at the sight of the Boy Wonder in his black costume seated in front of Kelso's desk, one leg hooked over the other, a broad grin on his face.   He looks impressive in his costume and cape with red-highlights, made from fabrics specially developed by Wayne Industries for American crimefighters.

"Well then, I guess it's okay for me to wear this costume, hunh?" Robin replies.  He rises and extends a hand toward Raven.  She finally realizes that it's her turn to move, so she reaches out and begins to vigorously pump his hand.  "Take it easy there, Raven," he says, wrenching his hand away from her.  "I don't have super powers or metal parts."

"Oh, uh, sorry," Kate stammers.  "You're Robin!"

"I think we're past that point in the conversation, Raven," Kelso says in a gruff voice.  "Can you please take a seat?"

Barely aware of her actions, Kate crosses the office and settles into a chair beside the Boy Wonder.   She's stunned.  What is he doing here and how does it involve her?

"When you worked with Supergirl, she noticed that your costume was made of bits and pieces that didn't match.(1)  She also said you have a 'Goth' look to your outfit.  Anyway, Supergirl pulled some strings, called in some chits, and had Wayne Industries and Batman whip up something new for you to wear," Robin says.  He opens a large nylon gym bag at his feet and pulls out a clump of black fabric.   He hands the fabric to Kate and says, "Here!  See if this fits!"

Still in shock, Raven picks up the strange dark material and shakes it, revealing a costume similar to Robin's but with the profile of a red-colored bird's head above the left breast.  "Sorry about the red raven," he apologies, "but a black bird on a black suit wouldn't show."   Kate rises to her feet and takes the duffel bag from the Boy Wonder and walks out of the office.  Like a zombie, she moves down the hall to the women's locker room and a few minutes later emerges.  She glides back to Kelso's office as if she's on a cushion of air.  "How's this look?" she asks demurely as she stands in the doorway, hands on her hips, feet slightly spread apart.

The new costume is jet black with a kind of pebbly surface.  It tightly covers her 5'6" 36C-23-33 body and looks as if it's derived from Batgirl's costume, except it has a V-neck that exposes the top of her breasts and it has a partially-concealed zipper running the length of the front of her body.  Extra material in the right places lifts and separates her breasts, highlighting them.  The costume has black flat-heeled, calf-high boots and gauntlet-style gloves that run up to the middle of her forearm.   There is even a half-cowl that covers the top half of her face and the top of her head but leaves her hair, in back, and her ears exposed.  The fabric fits her like a second skin and when she put it on, she noticed that the fabric was only 3/16th of an inch thick at the most.  The force field projected by the Trimblers, those odd particles in her blood, will protect this costume from some attacks.

<TWEEEEEEEEET> Robin whistles in appreciation when he sees the curvy, black-haired heroine.  "There are two more copies in the bag, if you need them," he says, struggling to maintain control of his voice.  "You'll also find three modified utility belts - only four pouches on each.   Kara said you, uh, like to carry weapons."  Robin looks down at the floor, embarassed at his body's reaction to the image before him.

"Harumph, well, that leaves little to the imagination," Kelso snarls, finally averting his eyes away from the woman.

"My God, Robin, thank you THANK YOU!" Raven gushes, rushing the Boy Wonder to envelop him in a tight bear hug.  Her breasts grind against his and her entire body rubs against him.  The creak of their costumes rubbing together fills the silence in the small office.  She impulsively rises on her toes and kisses Robin's lips as she hugs him.

"Mmmnphh!" Robin tries to protest, then lets her kiss him.  When her tongue presses against his lips, he parts his own and the two black-clad crimefighters begin to seriously kiss each other.

"Ahem, Raven, Robin, can we get down to business now?" Kelso says, obviously upset with 'his' heroine's behavior.

Raven releases the Boy Wonder and sits down, somewhat embarassed by the warmth flooding her body.  A surreptitious glance toward Robin brings a slight smile to her face.  Around the edges of his small mask, his face has turned very ruddy.   Also, he's moving slowly and with stiff legs as if he's trying to maneuver in his suit while having a serious erection.  The way Robin sits confirms her conclusion.   "What is this thing made of?" Raven asks a second later.

"Usual stuff Batman and I use in our costume.  Oh, and Flash, too," Robin says, smiling at the woman.  "Wayne Industries makes the fabrics.   It's a two-layer thing.  The inner layer is a unique fabric that wicks moisture away from the skin so you don't overheat.  The outside is a mix of rip-stop nylon and Kevlar©.  Flash, Batman and I have a pretty thick outer layer but Supergirl said you're invulnerable, so your's is more nylon than Kevlar© and isn't as thick.  The boots are mostly a faux leather and the gloves are mostly nylon.  Oh, and Supergirl said you drive a motorcycle?  We put in a black duster-style coat in the bag for you, too.  It should reach down to just below your knees.  It has loops for your legs so you can wear it when on your motorcycle.  Might keep you warm in the winter or give you something to wear when you don't want to advertise your costume."

"Robin isn't here to just give you a new costume and steal a kiss, Raven," Kelso says sternly.  "He's come down here to find out who helped MixMaster.  We're frankly very concerned that she was able to recruit three of our people to work for her.  Our people are supposed to be crimefighters, not criminals.   Supergirl persuaded some of East Coast super heroes that something is bubbling down here and it all revolves around the late and unlamented MixMaster - Dr. Collins.  I'd like you to work under him to gather any information he needs so we can establish that she wasn't using us as her recruiter."

Raven looks at Kelso in shock, then turns to the Boy Wonder.  "How ... how long will you be down here?  Do you need transportation.   Where are you staying?"  She rapidly wonders whether her apartment is clean enough for him to use.  He's more than welcome to ride on the back of her bike!  Maybe she can move some things down to her storage ...

"Uh, calm down, Raven," Robin replies.  "Batman says I can stay here for a week to ten days, then I'll have to return to Gotham.   Wayne Industries was gracious enough to fly me and some gear down here and I'm staying at their local guest house in University Park."

Kelso ushers the two crimefighters out of his office before Raven can reply to Robin.  As they mill around outside his office, trying to figure what to say to each other, Robin bends his head to the left, then to the right.  A cracking sound in his neck makes him smile and he says, "Gotta work the kinks out.  Flight was long and boring."

"Well, we're both dressed for it - wanna work out in the gym?"

Minutes later, the two enter the SHF gym for a light workout.   Force and a costumed male named Banshee are already in the gym using free weights.  Both gape at the surprise entrance of Robin the Boy Wonder and Raven's new costume.  Force is a 5'3" Latina dressed in a pink body suit with a pink hood, white boots, and a white and pink cape.   Banshee is 5'8" tall with an average build.  His costume is a green body-suit with brown leather boots and gloves and a small brown mask over his eyes.

"Force, Banshee, you two may have heard of Robin, the Boy Wonder," Raven says, smiling broadly.   "Force has a psionic power, Robin," Raven explains, "and Banshee can direct sound from his mouth into a target and do anything from shatter glass to melt metal.  Well, since they're using the weights, yah wanna spar?"  After showing off her new costume and letting Force drool over Robin, Raven leads him to another part of the gym onto some mats.

For the next twenty minutes, slowly at first, then faster and faster, Raven and Robin throw kicks and punches at each other as they spar.   Very few painful hits are scored since each is an experienced martial artist more than capable of blocking attacks.  Finally, Robin begins a series of kicks and punches which slowly forces Raven backward across the mats.  Suddenly the woman spins around and seems to run from Robin.  He takes a few steps after her, then skids to a halt when she abruptly leaps straight up and begins a slow backward somersault heading as if to pass over his head.   At the midpoint of her flip, with her body curled into a tight ball, her hands reach down and she clubs him on his back, knocking down onto his belly.  She continues the roll and lands on her feet behind him, facing him.  She quickly drops onto him, her butt pinning his to the floor and one hand in the middle of his back pinning his chest to the floor.

Laughing, Raven asks, "Had enough, Boy Wonder?"

Robin flails his arms but her strength is far greater than his and he can't get at the woman or off the floor.  He finally sags and yields to the woman.  After helping him up, Raven is about to suggest they get started looking for MixMaster's trail when slow clapping begins.   Turning as one, they see Thunder standing in the room's doorway, clapping slowly and loudly.  "Well, well, well," he says as he walks across the room toward the duo.  "I heard you were here Robin but had to see for myself.  I see you've met our little Indian princess.   My name is Thunder and I'm sorta the top dawg in this office."   He stands 5'10" and is very muscular, looking like a body builder on steroids. He wears brown knee-high lace-up boots, brown above-the-knee spandex bicycle shorts, brown 'Dago-style T-shirt', wrist-length gloves, and a short mask.

Thunder crosses the gym, ignoring Raven's eyes flashing daggers of anger at his racial slur, and reaches out to shake hands with Robin.   The two begin to shake and when Kate sees a gleam form in Thunder's eyes, she takes a half-step toward him.  "He's playing his little domiation game again!" she realizes.  The first time they met, he squeezed her hand as if to crush it and only her own super powers prevented him from doing so.(2)  He must be doing that shit with Robin.

She's about to break them apart when Robin suddenly grimaces and yanks his hand out of Thunder's.   "H-hey there, big fella, take it easy, okay?" Robin says, smiling at the muscle-man.  "I'm only human and I break!"

"Sorry, Robin," the man replies.  "Sometimes I forget my own strength, eh Banshee?"  He looks at the green-clad man who returns a  weak smile, then heads out of the gym with Force close behind.  Thunder raises his right hand as if he's about to pat Robin on his left shoulder but Raven quickly reaches up and stops the downward-sweeping arm, assuming the muscular man has another 'game' in mind for Robin.  For a second, she and Thunder look at each other even as they apply more and more force against the other.  Both of them begin to shake slightly from the incredible energy each is using to overcome the other.  His powerful muscles inexorably force her hand down toward Robin's shoulder.

"C'mon, Raven," Robin suddenly interrupts.  "I need your help on that Justice League business.  Can't leave them waiting while we all get to know each other.  Catch you later, Thunder,"

"Gotta ... nnnhhh ... go, Thunder," Raven says, deftly diverting the downward motion of the man's arm, causing him to overbalance.  Even as she releases his forearm, the big man stumbles and almost falls to his knees.  Raven and Robin walk around either side of him and out of the gym.

"He's a pompous shit, but he is probably, somewhere deep, deep, DEEP inside, a nice, warm, cuddly super hero," Raven says, laughing.  She still hasn't decided whether she is attracted to him for his power, or repelled by his ego.  Or even attracted by the ego of a powerful metahuman who, in many ways, is like her.

For the next few days, Raven meets with Robin in his Wayne Industries guest house in University Park, a few blocks off Mockingbird Lane and US 75, not far from her first (and mostly unsuccessful) foray as a crimefighter.(3)   The house is a large, old three-story with a fenced yard, a multi-car garage and a big, secluded back yard.  Robin brought his Robincycle with him from Gotham.  When they're not hacking into computers or discussing methods to track down MixMaster's trail, they often take time to go into that back yard to spar with each other.  At her insistence, they work out on the large asphalt driveway leading to the garage.  The intense workouts get pretty violent but neither wants to hurt the other so, like good warriors at practice, no major injuries occur, no attitudes flare to the surface.  A local staff comes in each morning to clean the house and grounds and prepare meals for the guest, who remains hidden in his room while they're doing their work.

"I've searched everything I can think of," Robin tells Raven very late one afternoon.  "I even 'googled' her name and alias but the closest thing I found in 99,000 links was MixMaster Mike of Beastie Boys fame."

"What about the properties I told you about," Raven asks.  She had given Robin information about buildings in which she or Supergirl had confronted MixMaster.  "I've visited most of the places without finding anything," Raven adds.  "I didn't get to the house south of Waxahacie.   Wanna spend tomorrow riding around, checking out her hideouts?"

"Sounds like a plan," he replies, smiling at the woman.  "I didn't get much on her properties.  I'm going to hack into the phone records, though, and see what I can find for those addresses."

"Maybe we should look into the people who worked with her down here, check out their homes. Mentat, Diablo ... who else?"

"I'll ask Batman to get a list from Supergirl." He turns off the laptop and turns to look at the woman and says in a soft voice, "So, you never told me, Raven, do you go on patrols to fight crime here?  Do you have a particular super-villain nemesis?"

"Uh, I'm not allowed to go on patrols," she says disgustedly, looking down at the floor.  "I haven't been deputized by the local police.  Oh, sure, I can interrupt a crime in progress like any good citizen or protect someone or some place like a security guard, but I can't go out looking for criminals.   Even if I do find criminals in the midst of a crime, if I'm not careful on how I handle them, it could be their word against mine and I might be thrown in jail for excessive use of force or some other lame crime.  Lord knows there are enough criminals here that need to be brought to justice!  I just wish I could do more!

"As far as any super-villains, well, except for MixMaster, the closest I've ever been to a super-villain is the Garza brothers.  Mostly I just fight small-time crooks and street gangs."

"Well, then, what do you do when you leave here?  Just go home?"

"Pretty much.  Watch TV while working out.  What about you?"   Raven looks up and stares deeply into Robin's eyes.

"Same thing."  There is a long pause when neither says anything, but both stare intently at each other's eyes through their masks.

As if on cue, both begin to lean forward and their lips lightly touch.   Suddenly Robin's gloved hand reaches behind her head and pins her lips against his.  His tongue begins to probe and poke at her lips and she willingly opens them, letting him penetrate her mouth and spar with her tongue.  Raven moans softly at his kiss, then wraps her arms around his back and pulls him closer until his chest crushes against her breast.   When his other hand presses against her lower back, then slides upward along her side, she shudders and moans and becomes more frantic in her kissing.  Their tongues move like striking cobras, each trying to dominate the other.

Their kiss seems to last forever.  Finally Robin's hand slides around her body from her ribs and deftly begins to slide the zipper down from between her breasts toward her crotch.  When he has it down most of the way, he raises his gloved hand upward to envelop one of her breasts, which he gently squeezes.   When she doesn't respond, he squeezes harder and harder until another moan signifies some measure of success.   Raven responds by running a gloved hand up the inside of Robin's thigh to his crotch.  She pushes the thick fabric slowly inward, pressing his manhood against his body.  Now the Boy Wonder moans from pleasure and the two explode in a fury of caresses and long, hard strokes.   While his left hand continues to caress and stroke the back of her head and neck, Robin's right hand works feverishly on her breasts and then reaches down to press against her crotch, crushing the fabric of her costume against her hidden clit.

After several long minutes of caresses, they break apart and look wistfully into each other's eyes.   "Robin, would you mind if I removed your costume?  You can keep your mask.  And maybe you could help me get out of my costume?"

"I've already seen your face, Raven, so I guess turnabout is fair play.   Yes, I'd like to have you take off my costume while I remove yours.   Are you really sure you want to do this, though?"

Raven considers for a second.  He'll only be here a few days.   Does she really want to share herself with him?  How can she NOT be intimate with this man?  He's intelligent, caring, considerate, a great crimefighter, and he has a killer bod!  She's been raped several times since becoming a crimefighter but she's never willingly submitted herself to a man.  Finally, the sight of his brown eyes helps her make up her mind.

In a deep, throaty voice, Raven says, "I do want you to take off my costume, Robin, as much as I want to take off yours.  And I want to have sex with you.  Please."

The two crimefighters rise to their feet and Robin slowly reaches up and removes his mask.  While Raven begins to slowly open the hook-and-loop fasteners on the back of Robin's costume he kicks off his short boots.   After opening the back of his costume, she has him pull off her calf-high boots.  Then each person begins to 'unwrap' the other - removing the other's costume slowly, sensually, as if peeling a banana.   Raven's mask is fastened to the neck of her costume and so Robin removes it from the top of her suit and drops it on the floor.  Robin's thick fabric doesn't peel off him so much as it pulls away from his body.

When their costumes are down at their waists, Robin stops and reaches up to cup each of her succulent breasts in his hands.  His forceful handling makes Raven moan and close her eyes from the pleasure of his touch.   The Boy Wonder leans forward and gently kisses her on her eyes and lips and is gratified when she moans and shudders from his attentions.   When he stoops and begins to suck on her left love mound, Raven's head falls backward and again she moans deeply.  "Gods, how good this feels!" she exults as pleasure surges through her body.  "Don't let this turn bad on me!" she silently begs the fates, worried that her rape experiences might make her resistant to 'real' love-making.

As the Boy Wonder begins to nibble on the small but swelling pink mounds at the ends of her breasts, his hands continue to peel the new costume off Raven's body, down past her hips, down her thighs, and toward the floor.   When his hands reach her thighs, he slides his left hand between her legs and against her love canal.  This shocks Raven so much that she totters and nearly falls down.  Robin pulls his hand out from between her legs, noting with satisfaction that it's very wet, and finishes removing her costume.  He then shakes his hips and his uniform falls to the floor on top of hers.

The woman squeaks when the youth suddenly lifts her off the floor, one hand behind her back, the other under her knees, and begins to carry her upstairs.  "You sure you can handle me?  I'm not too heavy?" she asks, nuzzling his neck.

"<puff> Just stay ... <unh> off the pasta a while <pant>" and they reach the second floor.  Inside the master bedroom, Robin drops the heroine onto his bed and looks down at her lovely light-olive skin and shoulder-length black hair.  "You look wonderful," he tells her.

"My name is Kate," she tells him.  Kate reaches up and slides a hand along the outside of his thigh, then over to wrap it around his tool.   "C'mere, and show me what makes you the Boy Wonder," she laughs.   As she tugs on him, the young man comes forward and gets on his knees between her legs.  After she positions the tip of his member against her nether lips, Robin thrusts his hips forward and slides past her hand into her well-lubricated love canal.

"Ooohhh, you're tight, and warm," he gasps as his tool slides completely into her.  "And call me, uh, Richard," he says.  "If I tell her my name is Dick, at this time, she's gonna bust out laughing at me," he realizes.  Slowly, then with increased fury, Dick's dick thrusts into Kate and pulls out, and she works her hips in concert with his moves.   Her arms wrap around his back, holding him close to her body.  He uses the opportunity to kiss her face and her breasts.  Kate rocks her head back and just enjoys his moves, letting the pleasure wash over her body.

She's just about to achieve orgasm when she feels Dick suddenly go rigid and begin shooting into her.   Not wanting to disappoint him, she fakes an orgasm at the same time.  Several long seconds later, Dick collapses onto her body and sighs, "We came almost at the same time!  Wasn't that lucky?"

"Yes, Richard, very lucky," Kate lies.  She holds him tightly, pinned against her chest, as her body seethes from unreleased passion.   She even bites her lip at one point and regrets that he didn't take her all the way.  "Damned invulnerability.  I'm probably not as sensitive as a normal woman.  That or I've been raped too often!"

Eventually he rolls off Kate and lies snuggled beside her.  "I hope you don't think you're done," she says, kissing his cheek.

"No, but give me a second to rest, okay?"

"I don't think so," she replies and rises to her knees beside him.   She deftly uses the bed cover to dry him off, then bends over to take him into her mouth.

"Ooohhh, yyeeessss," Dick moans as her tongue begins to work on his tool.  She expertly tongues the sides and bottom of him, and gently nibbles the end of his sword.  She sucks and slides her lips up and down his short shaft and mere moments after beginning, notices a reaction from him.  Emboldened, she wraps some of the blanket around two fingers and then slides them into his anus.  The lad's reaction is quick and vivid.  He gasps loudly and raises his hips off the bed.  His tool also flashes out to nearly its full size.  Again she penetrates his 'back door' and Dick moans loudly from the unique, powerful and clearly new experience.  So much for those rumors about him and Batman ...

"Well, now that's the Boy Wonder I wanted to see," Kate thinks as his tool hardens in her mouth.   Suddenly his hand finds her crotch and as she works on him, he begins to work two fingers inside her vagina.   The passions inside her are still close to climax and his fingers make her shudder as she gets closer to fulfillment.  Then his forefinger finds her hidden and blood-engorged clit.  The touch of his finger, pressing the wee nubbin against her pelvis, sends an electric shock through the woman.

Before Dick can react, Kate rises and throws a leg over the young man and slowly settles down onto his crotch, deftly guiding his sword into her awaiting sheath.  Her eyes close and she wets her lips with her tongue as his now-restored manhood fills her body.  She sits on him for a moment, then leans forward and puts her hands on his chest.   "Welcome to Dallas, Richard," she says between soft kisses planted on his cheeks and upper body.  Dick reaches up and begins to gently massage her breasts while moving his hips in synch with hers.

"You need to squeeze me a lot harder, Richard," Kate says, her eyes half-closed from the sensation of his manhood inside her.  "Ooooohhhh, yyyeeeeesssss!" she moans when he squeezes her breasts with all his strength.   Then he pinches her nipples as hard as he can and her little yelp brings a smile to his face.  A second squeeze, accompanied by an upthrust of his hips, hits her like a sledgehammer and Kate suddenly has a massive orgasm.  "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH, YYYEEESSSSS!!" she moans as her body shudders from his attentions.  "DDDOONNN'TTT SSTOOOPPPP!!" she begs as his hard tool continues to ram through her nether lips and the mound of skin above his member thuds against her clit.  She angles her hips the right way to increase the impact on her love bud and suddenly a second orgasm sneaks up on the woman.  This time Kate rocks upward and screams "AAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE, III'MMM CUUUUUMMMMIIINNNGGGG!!"

Kate knows that each orgasm drains away some of the unique energy stored in the Trimblers inside her blood, but she doesn't care.  She'll have plenty of time to 'recharge' and anyway, it's been a long time since she's willingly had a lover.  She can feel a third orgasm building when Richard suddenly drags his fingernails across her taut belly.  She might not have felt him, fully charged, but now the effect is electric.   Kate rocks backward, crying out as the third orgasm hits her body and shocks her mind.  She almost falls off the lad but his strong hands hold her in place.

"Ooohhhh, Richard," she coos as the young man suddenly begins to thrust, with enthusiasm, in and out of her pussy.  She bounces on him as if on a mechanical bull and the bed begins to rattle from the force of his lovemaking.  "Mmooorrrreee!" she moans but ...

Suddenly a loud male voice says, "The kid's up here, and he's got a broad with him!"

Both crimefighters stop the ride simultaneously and turn to look toward the door.  Anguish is clearly written on Kate's face because she was so close to another climax.  Dick is just stunned - he too was close to a orgasm.  Both see a man blocking the doorway and aiming a snub-nosed .38 cal. at them.  He's got half a pantyhose over his head.   Kate tries to clear her head from the orgasms but with Dick still in her and her body on the verge of orgasmic release, she can't focus on anything other than how he feels inside her and the budding orgasm.  She tries to rise off him but the gunsel waves the pistol at her and commands her, "Sit still, honey, till the boss gets up here."

Dick hands Kate a section of the blanket and she covers her waist and upper body, hating the way the thug in the door is looking at her body.   She suddenly feels very dirty, despite the good feeling she gets with Dick inside her.  As the two wait, each caresses the other's body, to reassure themselves that they probably aren't in too much trouble, them being super heroes and all.

Moments later, two more masked men join the first and crowd the doorway.  One has a Glock 9mm semi-automatic, the other an ugly little Uzi machine pistol.   "Are you Bruce Wayne's kid?" the Glock guy asks Dick, moving to stand beside the bed.  When the youth doesn't reply, the man whips the pistol across Dick's face, cutting into his cheek with the front sight.   "ANSWER ME, KID, WE DON'T GOT A LOTTA TIME!"

Kate reaches down to dab at Dick's cheek with part of the bedspread.   After glaring at the man for a short time, the lad replies, "Yes, I'm Richard Gordon, Mr. Wayne's ward."

"Get up.  We gotta run.  Put your pants on, Gordon," the man, obviously the boss, says.

"What about her, boss?"

"She ain't worth nuthin', leave her here.  On second thought, with her along to beat on, she might help us keep the kid in line," the boss quickly decides.  "Getcher clothes on, girlie."

Kate immediately realizes the only clothes she has here are her Raven costume.  Can't put that on!  She thinks quickly, then replies, "He picked me up in a bar last night.   He tore my clothes off before we got up here.  I don't have anything else to wear."

A few minutes later, Dick and Kate hustle down the steps and out of the mansion.  Dick's wearing pants and a t-shirt, Kate has on a pair of his sweats (expensive threads, made of mixed fabrics and fortunately no cotton) and one of his silk dress shirts (with her breasts struggling to push through the chest area).  Both are barefoot.  Fortunately, the thieves didn't recognize the piles of black fabric on the floor in the den as the costumes of a pair of super heroes.  The duo are hustled into a delivery van and seated on the floor in back.  Their hands and legs are bound with duct tape, then their bodies are taped together, back to back.  Both are blindfolded with black cloths as the van speeds away from the house.

"So you know Mr. Wayne, huh?" Kate whispers to Dick.  She also deduces that Bruce Wayne is probably the famous Batman.  Stands to reason ...

"What are you doing to us?" Dick asks the thugs.

"Holding you for ransom, of course," the boss says.  "We figger we kin get mebbe ten million bucks for you from old man Wayne.  The chick we'll give to you, if your the man pays up.  Now you two shaddup.   We gotta keep an eye out for coppers."

The two hostages sit fairly quietly for the next twenty minutes.   Kate can't do anything - the orgasms really drained her energies and she needs time to recover.  Dick obviously is also waiting for the right time to strike without revealing his secret identity.  When the van finally stops somewhere, the blindfolded duo are carried down some steps and seated on metal chairs.  Their arms and legs are duct-taped to the chairs and they can hear the three men moving around the room.   Finally they hear the boss dialing a phone.

After ten minutes, the boss holds the phone near Dick and commands him to talk.  It's Bruce Wayne.   "Yes, Bruce, some guys picked me up.  I was with a date, that 'raven-haired beauty' from Dallas I told you about."  The phone is yanked away and the thug continues talking to Wayne about ransom demands.

"Don't worry, uh, Kate," Dick says, trying to feign unfamiliarity with his bedmate.  "We'll be out of here by lunch time.  Mr. Wayne will gladly pay to get us ..."

"Wayne says he won't pay us, kid," the boss suddenly interrupts.   "I said I'd give him a day to decide, then we start sending pieces of you back to him.  Doug, you guard them while we go upstairs.  I'll send some food down later."

Several hours later, Kate begs for a chance to use the bathroom.   The man guarding her cuts the duct tape holding her to the chair and leads the blindfolded woman to a room.  "If that blindfold is loose, you'll be shot.  We've taken off our masks and we can't have anyone recognizing us for the police, girly.  So if you come out of the bathroom without it, expect to be shot.  Got it?"

"Yes sir," she says meekly.  In the bathroom she removes the blindfold and cleans the cum off her legs and the edge of her pussy.  When she finally finishes in the bathroom, she puts her hands on the ends of the metal towel bar and begins to twist them together.  The metal groans but doesn't bend as easily as she hopes it might.

"Get out here!" the guard bellows from outside the small room.   Kate covers her eyes and leaves the bathroom.  Her outstretched wrist is quickly grabbed by the guard and he guides her back to her seat and tapes her to it.

"Are you all right?" Dick asks softly.  Fortunately, the guard either doesn't hear or doesn't care.

"Getting better," she replies.  "You have no idea how drained I am after what we did."

"I see," he replies.  "Our blond friend gets drained after intercourse, too."

"SHUT UP!"

"Just a little longer," Kate says.  "Wow.  Has he had sex with the S-girl?" she wonders silently.

Sometime in the morning, some six hours after their capture, Kate suddenly pulls up her arms against the tape holding them to the metal folding chair.   At first, nothing happens, then there is a ripping sound as the stout gray tape splits apart.  "What the Hell?!?" the guard says, rising from his seat and moving toward Kate.  She immediately reaches up and slips the blindfold off her eyes.  Just in time to see the man aim his .38 at her chest and pull the trigger.  <BLAM>  A shot rings out in the small room and the round hits her left breast.  The impact knocks her mound to one side but her force field is thick enough to turn the bullet aside.  It passes back and crashes into the wall off to one side.  As the man moves closer toward her, Kate reaches down and rips the tape off her ankles, freeing herself from the chair.

Kate rises to her feet and knocks Dick onto his side, with the bottom of the metal chair between his body and the thug.  She then takes a half-step toward the gunman, leaps into the air, and snap kicks at him.   Her bare foot hits the man's jaw just as her head hits a low wooden crossbeam above her.  Both drop to the ground, the man unconscious and Kate's vision blurred from the powerful hit she gave herself.  She reaches over to untie Dick but then hears a commotion at the top of the stairs.

"What's happening?  Cut me loose!" Grayson yells as Kate rises to her feet and adopts a defensive stance to face the men rushing down the steps.

"Phil, what was that shot ..." the boss says as he and Doug reach the bottom of the stairs.  Only the boss has a weapon, his Glock.   He snaps off a shot at the feisty young woman and his jaw drops when the bullet hits her belly and bounces away.  The unarmed thug takes a second to process this information, then turns and runs up the steps.   The boss fires a second shot as Kate starts to move toward him.  She staggers from the impact of the round between her breasts but before the man can fire a third time, she leaps at him and bats the gun out of his hand.

Her head slams into his belly and momentum carries them backward across the room, hitting the steps with a loud thud, with Kate lying on the man's body.  She rises and plants a hand down for support and realizes too late that the steps are made of wood!  As soon as her hand hits the riser, she jerks backward in shock from the energy arcing from her body into the wood.  This overbalances Kate and her knees slide off the man's body and hit steps lower down.  She loses her balance and as her hands flail about for support, they grab wooden support pieces.   Kate screams from the sudden pain at the same moment that the gang boss recovers enough to whack her chin with the palm of his hand.

The powerful hit knocks Kate backwards and her head hits the concrete floor before her body lands at the foot of the stairs.  The woman is dazed and in pain with her left heel on the lowest step and her right foot curled under her butt.  As the Trimblers discharge their energy into the wood, her foot bounces off the step, trailing arcs of energy behind it.  The gang boss looks at the struggling woman but doesn't understand why she's flopping on the floor and moaning.  He moves rapidly down to the bottom of the steps and grabs Kate by her hair.  He then drags her back toward his other captive, unaware that by pulling her off the steps, he's actually helping the stricken heroine recover.

Phil gets back to his feet and rejoins his boss.  "What happened, Jack?" he asks.  He rubs his jaw where Kate kicked him.

"How'd she get loose?"

"I dunno, Jack," the man says.  "One minute she was tied up, then she raises her arms and tears the tape."

As this conversation occurs, Kate listens, only half-aware of what's happening as her mind and body recover from the shocks of her short contact with the wooden steps.  She hangs by her hair from Jack's left hand, looking up at his back.  As he starts moving again, this time toward Grayson, Kate recovers enough energy and reaches her left hand up and around the front of Jack's left leg.  He trips and releases her hair, giving Kate precious seconds to put down the two thugs.  Just as she springs to her feet, two handguns fire and a pair of slugs hits her back, pushing her forward two steps.  She spins around in time to catch two more slugs, one on her belly and the other high on her chest.

"Unh," she grunts, "ENOUGH!" and she charges the two thugs.  Before either can snap off another round, the raven-haired beauty slams into them and knocks them back across the floor of the basement.  The two men desperately try to stop the black-haired powerhouse, clubbing and punching her and even firing one more shot at her at close range.  Nothing stops the woman, though, and she soon batters both men unconscious.

As Kate gazes down at the two thugs, she hears a sound on the steps.   She turns and sees the third man, Doug, standing on the steps, holding his Uzi.  "Make a move and I'll fire," he warns her, waving the barrel in her general direction.

"Shoot me and there's a good chance you'll hit these two," she replies, waving a hand over the two unconscious men.  "Or make me very, very angry.  Do you feel lucky today?"

Doug thinks for a moment, then spins and rushes back up the steps   Kate can hear doors slamming as the man flees the house.  A small smile barely forms on her face.

"Are you all right, Mr. Grayson?" she asks in a formal voice.   "I would be remiss in my bodyguard duties should harm come to you," she adds, in case either of the two men left on the floor are faking unconsciousness.

Dick quickly realizes her scam.  "I'm fine, and I'll make sure Wayne Industries knows that you performed your duties well."

After releasing Dick from his bondage, Dick looks at the two thugs and says "That one's the gardener!"

"Someone in the house must have told him which bigwig was staying there and he decided to get rich quick," Kate says.  "Let's call the police and get back to work."

"Uh, right, work."  He wistfully thinks about their interrupted intercourse.

After taping the two thugs together, once again Dick has to carry Kate up stairs, this time so her bare feet won't have to touch the wooden steps.   As they await the cops, she slowly begins to tell him about her problem with plant fibers, about the ongoing struggle to avoid clothes and towels made of cotton.

"That's a pretty bizarre weakness, isn't it?" Dick asks.

"Oh, and a weakness for the color yellow or green rocks from outer space isn't?" she replies tartly.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I see your point."

Early the next day, the two young heroes roar south on I-35E from Dallas toward Waxahachie, Texas.  Both are in their costumes and on black, high-speed motorcycles.  At times they reach speeds of 120 mph.   A device on Robin's bike alerts all police that a crimefighter is on a hot case, so to speak, so no one pursues and stops the duo.  South of the city, off I-35, is a farm that MixMaster used to lure the Girl of Steel into a trap.(4)  The duo hope to find the house and check it and the grounds for any information.  They follow Supergirl's directions and race south about 30 more miles, then west, then north on FM 2618, a local Farm-to-Market road.  The old ranch house soon appears, set back from the road a hundred feet and surrounded by trees.  The youths slowly drive their bikes up the gravel driveway and park near the barn.

"This going to cause you any problems?" Robin asks his new partner, now aware of her weakness to plant fibers.

"This new costume leaves little of my skin exposed so I shouldn't have any problems, Robin," she replies confidently, using his costumed name now that they're both in uniform.  The house is gutted from a recent fire, as is the nearby barn.  As the two youths look around, Robin says, "Supergirl said there was some kind of underground room near the barn."   As he strolls toward the barn, he says,  "I'll see if I can find it."

Raven begins moving toward the house.  "I'll see if I can find anything in the house," she yells as she crosses a wide porch and enters the rickety three-story structure.  As she pokes around the house, Robin begins his search for the hidden underground room used to torment the Girl of Steel.  Raven slowly explores the first floor of the house, looking at the fire-charred remains but finds nothing useful.  She is about to climb the kitchen stairs to the second floor when suddenly the tile and wood floor beneath her feet cracks and breaks, unable to bear her weight after being damaged by fire.  With a yelp of helplessness, the heroine plunges downward into the house's basement and lands hard on her butt.

"Well, that was interesting," she kids herself after she picks herself up.  Raven looks around the dark basement and quickly realizes that this must have been some kind of lab.  Beakers and test tubes and other tools of science litter the room.  The woman carefully sifts through the rubble, looking for anything that might link the villainess to the Super Heroes Foundation (or to some other group or person).

She finds an old freezer that opens like a coffin and after lifting the lid upward, recoils at the stench inside it.  Her reaction isn't fast enough - some of the vapors enter her lungs before she backs away from the freezer.  Raven waits for the fumes to disperse and watches the thin gray cloud rise from the freezer and fill the basement.   She finds herself coughing several times from the gunk in her lungs and her eyes fill with tears.  At one point, she falls to one knee and puts a hand on her chest as she has a massive coughing fit.

Eventually the cloud disperses and Raven's coughing fit fades away.   The resolute crimefighter rubs the tears out of her eyes and pulls herself to her feet using a lab table for support.  "Man, that was some rancid shit!" she kids, hoping it wasn't anything but foul-smelling chemicals.   Once again she tries to look inside the freezer.  Beneath a thin remnant of the toxic cloud, she sees nothing except some broken beakers and plastic jars.  "No way to tell what that cloud was," she realizes.  "I sure hope it wasn't dangerous."

Raven is about to leave the basement when she spots a small piece of paper in the bottom of the freezer.  She picks it up and puts it into one of the pouches on her utility belt for examination later.   Satisfied she's not going to find anything else in the house, she flexes her powerful leg muscles and leaps up through the hole she made in the basement roof.  As her body rises through the hole, her utility belt snags a piece of the wooden floor and stops her.  Raven lands roughly with her upper body pressed against the tile floor of the kitchen, her thin waist in the hole and her legs dangling into the basement.   "CRAP!" she shouts as her gloved hands try to gain a hold on the dirty tile floor.   She slowly begins to slip back into the basement but at the last second she spreads her arms and places a hand on either side of the hole.   She then uses her mutant strength to pull her body up through the hole.   "I'd have thought my titties would have stopped me from jumping through the floor, not my belt!" she thinks, laughing at her 'escape'.

Raven rises to her feet and heads toward the front door.  Outside the kitchen there is a long hallway to the door, over a hardwood floor.   As the heroine begins to walk along the floor, suddenly her feet begin to burn!  She looks down and sees the floorboards and her boots but no reason for the strange sensation.  Obviously the wooden floor is doing something to her, but why, since she's wearing boots?  As she lifts one boot off the floor, there is an electrical arc like the one she felt the day before in the kidnappers' basement when her bare foot was on the wooden steps.  The confused woman sprints across the floor and slows when she reaches the front door.  When her hand touches the wooden door, she squeals and pulls her hand back - energy arcs between her gloved hand and the door show that her new costume, for some reason, isn't protecting her from plant fibers!  She kicks the door and it flies open, letting her rush through and onto the (wooden) porch.  She immediately feels pain on the bottoms of her feet again and has to leap to get off the porch.

"What the Hell is happening to me?" she asks herself.  "I just came across that porch and it didn't affect me!"  Robin is nowhere in sight and she's suddenly worried about her mutant powers.  She moves down the walkway and stoops to pick up a thin lead pipe lying near the path.  As her hand wraps around the pipe, she again feels intense pain through her gloves from contact with the grass under the pipe.   After lifting the pipe off the ground, Raven examines it briefly, then tries to bend it.  After several minutes' exertion, she drops the pipe.  There is an expression of mild shock on her face.  She was unable to bend it but she should have been able to do so.  Walking on wood also should not have burned her feet.  What's going on?

Her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a shout from the Boy Wonder.   "I found the torture room!" he yells.  The bottom half of his body seems to be buried in the ground but he's just standing on the steps leading down into the hidden room.  Raven begins to jog toward her companion, glad that there is a gravel driveway beneath her feet.  When she nears the barn, she sees that she has to cross about ten feet of grass to join Robin.  Gritting her teeth, the woman begins to walk toward him.   Once again, her feet slowly begin to burn and she can hear a crackling sound when she lifts a boot off the grass.  The last few steps are made on the tips of her toes and she almost trots the last two or three feet to minimize contact with the grass.

"What's that?" Robin asks, pointing at the woman's boots.  "Looked like you were being electrocuted by the grass!"

Standing on the stone steps leading into MixMaster's concealed torture room, Raven gathers her breath.  "I dunno, Robin," she explains.   "Suddenly the costume doesn't seem to offer any protection against plant fibers."  She tells him about crossing the hall floor in the house and the front porch.

"Well, you didn't have any problems when you went into the house, did you?"

"NO!  That's what's got me confused."

"Did anything happen in the house?"

Raven describes the incident in the basement.  Robin has her wait on the steps and runs back into the house.  He returns a few minutes later.  "I found a bit of that mist inside that freezer.  I have a sample and I'll send it to Gotham for analysis.  I think maybe there was something in that mix of chemicals that's affecting you.  Have you noticed any other changes?"

"While you were gone, I rested here on the concrete," she says, "and could feel myself recovering from the draining of energy when I was on the grass.  As I got stronger, I seemed to have sharper senses, kinda.   I could see a bit farther and more clearly, I could hear better, and the smells!  I can smell your sweat right now," she says, smiling at the youth.

Robin fidgets, then finally says, "Well, let's just hope this is temporary or something Batman can fix!   Let's see what's downstairs, shall we?"   The two crimefighters descend through the gaping hole where the door was knocked off its hinges and plunge into the Stygian darkness of the underground room.   Robin quickly pulls a mag-lite from his utility belt and lights the room.

Raven says, "You know, I almost could see without the light, Robin.   I like this effect!  I hope Batman leaves it with me."

"I'll bet it's all related to that gas you inhaled, lady," he says, flashing the light at a pile of trash along one wall.  Twenty minutes later, the two heroes leave the underground room.  They've found nothing useful anywhere in it.

"This trip wasn't a complete waste," Raven tells the Boy Wonder.   She shows him the torn slip of paper taken from the bottom of the freezer.  The paper has a phone number and the words, "Tuono, Omeg..." with the rest of the second word torn off.  Neither hero can decipher the message but are sure that it's a phone number and name that was copied down and misplaced.  As the duo leave the underground torture room, Robin offers to carry Raven across the grass to her bike.

With true super heroine pluck, Raven runs across the grass, her boots crackling and sparking every time she touches down.  She only yelps once, near the end, but reaches the gravel around her bike.  Robin soon joins her and together the young crimefighters begin the ride back to Robin's base in University Park.

A day later the two young crimefighters are lounging in the living room of Robin's Dallas home, discussing what they have so far on Dr. Allie Collins' trail in her life of crime as MixMaster.  The slip of paper Raven found did have a phone number, a cell number which Robin traced back to 'Omega Society'.  Nothing else could be found on the Internet or in Dallas P.D. records but the Texas Department of Public Safety (the state cops) DID have a reference to the Omega Society as a criminal organization in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  They also found that one of MixMaster's hideouts was rented by an Omega Industries.  Possible locations for the Omega group turned up nothing else, so at this point, all the duo has is the name 'Tuono' and the society.  Nothing links MixMaster to the Super Heroes Foundation.

Robin had more carpets put in the house, downstairs and in the bedroom, to form a barrier between Raven and the wood floors.  Now, after twelve hours of tracking down leads and scouring the Internet, Raven knows that their work is done for the day.  Like a cat rising after a nap, Raven unfolds herself off the chair on which she's been sitting cross-legged and slowly crosses the carpet to the Boy Wonder.  She makes a grand show of putting each foot up on the couch beside the lad and guiding his hands as they help her pull off her boots.  She then slowly removes her two gauntlets and drags each one across his face before dropping them on the floor beside the couch.  Robin looks up at the busty woman and smiles as she slowly descends to the sofa, one knee on each side of his thighs.  She takes his face in her hands, one on each cheek, and begins to kiss him.

They spend the next few minutes kissing each other, harder and harder, as they rub the tops of their bodies together.  The only sounds in the room are the loud crackling of their costumes rubbing together and throaty, luxurious moans from Raven.  Their tongues flurry together like a Jedi knight facing a Sith Lord and both are soon consumed by their passions.  Robin stops caressing her body long enough to pull down the zipper on the front of her catsuit with his teeth.  He peels the costume away from her torso, baring her taut breasts, which seem to be aimed at his eyes.  Robin presses forward and begins to suck on her left mound as his hands continue to peel off her costume.  She helps and soon her black costume is off her body and lying on the floor beside her boots.  Her mask quickly joins the pile on the floor beside the sofa.

Raven tries to remove Robin's costume but he's pinned to the couch and there isn't anything she can do unless she wants to lift him off the couch.   Since one of his hands is now plunging fingers into her vagina and teasing her clit while he sucks on her breast and teases the other with his free hand, she's in no position to break away.  "OOOOOHHHHHH, YYYEESSSS!!" she cries out as his deft fingerwork drives her up toward an orgasm.   Higher and higher her juices boil and when he bites hard on her nipple, her body convulses from a powerful orgasm that has Kate gasping and moaning.

An intensely-frustrated woman pulls Robin to his feet and tosses him over her shoulder.  Robin yelps and says, "Please be gentle with me!" in a playful voice as the naked woman rushes up the steps to the master bedroom.  A moment later, his costume is on the floor and he's on her, plunging his tool in and out of her honey sac with lusty abandon.

"OOOOOOHHHHH MMMYYYYYY GOOOODDDDDD!!" Kate cries out when her body shudders from another powerful release.  Dick seems to be insatiable - he still hasn't cum and she's building toward her third release!   Can this be the same 'quick shot' from a few days ago?  The boy suddenly shows real promise as his hands skillfully bring her to a swift and mind-numbing orgasm.  She's never been this easy to 'get off' but now his touch seems to ...

THE GAS!! she suddenly realizes.  As she tries to stop the plunging hero, another strong orgasm rips through her body and seems to be followed just seconds later by another.  Then another!  She's rapidly losing consciousness from the assault on her mind from the intense pleasures but she can't seem to get Dick's attention.  His eyes seem glassy and unfocused and he just continues to hammer and hammer her, harder and harder.

"God, Ruh-Richard, st-stop ... oooohhhh ... please ... nnnnhhhh no more!" she begs but the lad is lost in his assault on her body.  Kate tries to push him off of her her but her arms feel like strings of spaghetti.   Hard as she tries, she can't push him off her body.  She drags her nails across his hairless chest, drawing blood from several deep furrows, but still the youth plunges and plunges into her.  Two more orgasms fire off and her mind swoons from the passion flooding her body.   "Stop ... oh, please stop," she softly begs, lightly slapping Dick's cheeks in a vain attempt to get his attention.

Suddenly he explodes inside her.  His back arches and he rises off her, thrusting his hips against her body as his seed pours into her body.  On and on he continues to fill her body, as if he has a limitless supply of cum.  Kate is barely conscious and her body just rocks and bounces in response to his thrusting hips.  Two more orgasms fire off before he finishes.   Her eyes roll back as her mind shuts down from overstimulation.  Her eyes close and her breathing slows but her body continues to shudder from orgasms as Dick continues pumping cum into her.

Several minutes after shooting the last of his load into Kate, Dick finally collapses onto the unconscious woman and, like her, loses consciousness.   Silence fills the darkened mansion.

The next morning, Kate and Dick awaken in the same bed.  Dick is still lying on her and she can barely keep her eyes open.  Exhaustion still fills her as she tries to recollect what happened yesterday.   Suddenly the fog lifts and she recalls the way her body reacted to intercourse with him.  And how he seemed to 'zone out' while inside her.   "Robin ... RICHARD!  Wake up!" Kate says, shaking the lad.  At least she now has enough strength to shake him.  "Oh, Richard, please wake up!" she says, finally managing to slip him off her body.  He plops onto his back beside her and after repeated shaking and shouting finally claws his way back to consciousness.

"What the Hell happened last night?" he asks.  His eyes are blurry and his mouth feels like a horse cavalry drill field.  After a parade during a heavy rain storm.  He looks down and notices the tracks left on his chest by her nails.  "What did you do to me?"

"To YOU?" she snorts.  "YOU were out of control!"  She tells him how he seemed to be a raging rapin' machine she couldn't stop.   She admits that her body has never been as sexually satisfied as it was last night.  Dick grins and his chest puffs out in pride.

"She's much easier to be with than Diana or Kara," he thinks.   "With her, I feel like I'm just a boyfriend.   Well, a lover!  A GREAT lover!  <chuckle> This is what I wish I could have had with Barbara but she just wasn't interested in me for some reason."

After their morning toilet, the two crimefighters wrap towels around their bodies and head downstairs.   Over fresh coffee, Kate explains her theory.  "I think that the chemicals I inhaled have enhanced my senses so much that I can see, hear, taste and smell better, but the downside is that I can sense plant fibers and lose energy to them more easily, too.   And apparently, the sense of touch is also much more enhanced.  Your touch, having sex with you, just seemed to overwhelm me," she says, caressing the top of his hand.  "Richard, I couldn't help having multiple and powerful orgasms with you.  They just drained me.  At the end, I was too weak to stop you and lost consciousness."

"I must have seen you asking me to stop," Dick says.  "How come I didn't stop?  Did you even TRY to stop me?"

"Of course, Richard," she says in a miffed tone, "but you were 'not here' - I don't know what else to call it.  You looked like you were hypnotized.  Or drugged!  But how did ...?"

Grayson snaps his fingers.  "Pheromones!" he says.  "Your body must have been emitting some kind of super-love-goddess pheromones.   Like the love gland of a musk ox ..."

"Excuse me?" she arches one eyebrow and says, half in jest.

"No, wait, what I mean is that some animals emit pheromones to attract and hold the attention of a potential mate.  Humans do it when they sweat but our noses don't consciously recognize them.  Your glands are in your armpits, around your face, and, uh, 'down there'.  You must be emitting super-pheromones when you're aroused.  You must have done that to me.  Probably the result of the mist you inhaled.   If this is what happened, there's no way I could have resisted the sub-conscious need to make love to you."

Kate briefly blushes at his cute notion of 'making love' when they really just fucked mindlessly like a pair of dogs in heat.  Then a realization forms and her Irish temper flares.  "Well, that really tears it," she says, slapping a palm on a counter top.  "How the Hell can I be a goddamned super heroine if a cloud of 'fuck-me pheromones' are following me around!?   I could be out on a job for the SHF and suddenly some hero next to me - oh my gosh, a HEROINE next to me, even, suddenly decides I should be fucked!   This is horrible!"

"I've sent some samples of the mist to Bruce," Dick says, trying to calm Kate down.   "He also has samples of your blood.  He should get back to us in a day or so.  Until then, we have to cool it, sexually," Dick frowns.  Their little bubble of happiness suddenly seems to have popped.  Kate doesn't want to risk another sexual encounter with Dick because having sex with him was so totally draining.  She can't risk that, not knowing when her special powers will be needed.  They spend the rest of the day riding around Dallas on their motorcycles.  Both are in costume but the fun is definitely over.

They also risk another hand-to-hand combat session in costumes on the paved driveway in the back yard.  Robin pulls out all the stops and manages to land several punches and kicks on Raven.  They quit after half an hour, leaving the Boy Wonder panting from the intense physicality of their workout.  "At least my powers are still working," Raven says.  "But I don't think I was able to give 100 percent.   I didn't work as hard as I might have.  Robin, I was getting pretty tired at the end, there."

"Thank heaven ... <pant> for small favors," Robin grins as they head back into the house.

On his last day in Dallas, Dick Grayson and Kate Windrunner, dressed as normal folk, stand in the general aviation lounge at Dallas' Love Field waiting for the Wayne Industries plane to load his mound of luggage and take young Master Grayson back to Gotham City.  Dick tells Kate the results of the lab tests of the substance that might have affected Raven's powers and weakness.  Batman tested the mist and told his young ward that it was a mix of some common chemicals and some others which he was unable to decompose to their basic parts.  The Dark Knight mixed small doses with blood samples drawn from Raven and found that the mist seems to rapidly envelop the Trimblers in her blood and give them an odd sheen.

"Obviously," Batman's report concludes, "this mist in her blood must ramp-up the activity of her 'Trimblers', making them more quickly burn more of her stored-up energy, giving her more intense experiences with her abilities and senses.   I have chemists and biologists looking at the samples.  At this point, we don't know when or if the chemicals will wash out of her body.  Raven should expend as many calories as she can to speed up her metabolism in the next week.  Then send another blood sample to me c/o Wayne Industries.  We can see if the amount of chemicals in her blood decreases over time."

"Are you going to tell the SHF?"

"Richard, I didn't even tell them that plant fibers weakened me!   I didn't encounter any when I went through their tests in Georgia and I don't feel comfortable sharing my, uh, my problems with just anyone."

"I feel so honored!"

"Stop that, you tease!" the young woman says, smiling broadly.   After Dick boards his plane, Kate watches from the lounge window until the plane taxis down the runway and begins the long flight back to Gotham.   She sighs deeply and heads out to the parking lot.  She has a long ride back to her crappy little apartment on her Rebel.  Up on the plane, Dick Grayson settles back into his seat with a beautific smile on his face.

===============================

Comments and suggestions are always welcome; send to rw5xxx@excite.com

(1)  Missions of Supergirl #35   <return to the story>

(2)  Foundation #4    <return to the story>

(3)  Raven Takes Wing Part 2  <return to story>

(4)  Missions of Supergirl #08   <return to the story>