The Femme Defenders in: Six Little Heroines!

By NoComeupance (nocomeupance@gmail.com)

Part 3: Spanks for the Memories

Author's note: This story follows from Enter the Mind Mistress. You can probably pick up on everything you need here, but reading that story will provide a better introduction to the characters. All characters are my original creations. Or, where stolen, they've at least had the serial numbers filed off.

Bronco Buster landed, upside down, in a clear, empty tube. She was now face-down on the white metal floor, cowboy hat still perched atop her head, her stomach resting against the side of the clear material that caged her, her bent knees up in the air. The ride down had not been pleasant; it involved a lengthy trip face-down on a metal slide. Her substantial breasts had absorbed most of the friction and were now bright red. Ordinarily she would be rubbing and blowing on them to help calm the burning feeling, but her limbs remained hog-tied behind her back. As such, her tits would have to remain pressed up against the glass for the time being.

“Well now! Looks like you were rode hard and put away wet!” sneered Velvet Glove from her cage, somehow managing to be snide even as she stood in nothing but her skimpy undies and trademark gloves.

After much consideration, Bronco Buster decided that a response to Velvet Glove's painfully obvious imprecation was both unnecessary and unwarranted. She busied herself, instead, with shifting to a more comfortable position. She rocked back and forth a few times, finally managing to tilt herself over, then roll so that her stomach was resting on the ground.

She sighed as she contemplated her predicament. There on the illuminated display case, for all who might care to look, was her costume, jeans, shirt, vest, everything, while here she was, hogtied, naked as the day she was born but for her cowboy hat and a pair of singed sheriff-and-cactus underpants, with a few cactus needles still sticking out of her biscuit for good measure.

Still, she thought to herself, no sense getting' all het up ov'r past mistakes. Ah'd best get tah work getting' muhself outta this here predicament. She began slowly working on the knots binding her wrists.

“Wow, that was better than I could have hoped!” said the mysterious captor, still shrouded in darkness, “I gotta say, I was even a little worried you might beat my impossible round. But, if I'm being totally honest, I probably would have just captured you anyway. I mean, I thought about playing fair, buuuut then I remembered that I'm the villain, and if I'm going to be a villain I should really do it right, ya know? Anyhow, think about any suggestions you might have; I've gotta take care of your friends, but when I'm done I'll get you a pen and some paper and we can figure out how I can improve.”

As she swiveled back around, Bronco Buster took a moment to think to herself. Tarnation! Ah cain't decide if thuh yippin' from this ornery cattle rustler is more painful'n the sting in mah rear. As she thought this, her hand grazed a long needle, sending a shock of pain through her butt and causing her to wince. … Still a tough call...

***

“Based on the length of previous rounds and the time between when last the door opened and now, I estimate the probability that Bronco Buster will not be joining us at 97%. I suggest we move on,” said Mind Mistress.

“We can't leave her behind,” replied Jacky, determined, yet worried about the fate of her closest friend on the team.

“I'm sure it's just an extra-long round!” enthused Zoe, “She's just busy shootin' up all those targets and getting a perfect score! B.B. never misses!”

“I think we'd all be feeling a lot more calm if we just took a minute to mellow out and realign our chakras,” said Flower Power.

“An utterly nonsensical suggestion. Mystical hokum has no bearing on mission performance; we may as well spend the next hour composing Thanagarian tone poems for all the good it would do,” said Mind Mistress, cocking an eyebrow at Flower Power.

“Nothing that helps us achieve greater oneness with the universe is a waste of time. Composing poetry would be a helpful means of moving closer to personal self-realization,” Flower Power replied, blissfully unaware of the sarcasm in Mind Mistress's tone.

“I don't know whether composing poems or aligning chakras will help, but we're certainly not going to make any progress if we keep fighting each other,” said Jacky, who finally felt that the sniping had reached the level where she needed to intervene.

“Sitting in the hall, waiting for Bronco Buster. I'm getting so bored!” Zoe said, then smiled from ear to ear. Literally. When she was met with quizzical looks she explained, “It's a haiku!”

As the assembled rolled their eyes, the strange voice asserted its presence once again.

“Hi! Sooooo you're gonna have to move along without your cowgirl friend, I'm afraid I have her now.”

Jacky winced, while Zoe looked horrified. Mind Mistress only smirked, confirmed in her earlier predictions, while Flower Power remained outwardly oblivious.

“We're going to put an end to your reign of terror... whoever you are!” shouted Jacky, waving her fist in the air.

“I'm sure you will,” the voice smugged, “but not before you get through my next little challenge. Be careful; there's more to it than there may first appear! Are you excited? I'm excited!”

“Alright, let's get moving!” said Jacky, gesturing forward and setting off at a determined march.

“But... B.B....” said Zoe. She shuffled her feet a bit, clearly scared.

Jacky turned and walked back to Zoe, taking her by the shoulders, “Look, Zoe, we've gotta push forward. The only way we're going to rescue our friends is if we beat whoever's behind all of this. And we can do it! Sure, we're two women down, but we've still got super-human strength, the smartest woman in the world, and your stretchiness on our side!” At this she pulled on Zoe's right arm, stretching it out like taffy, then wiggled it a little, making it shake in a waveform. The teenaged heroine giggled.

“I guess you're right. Plus we have all your skills on our side!” Zoe said.

“Yep! Now lets get back in there and win this battle!” Jacky pulled Zoe in for a quick hug, thankful that she had received some acknowledgment of her own skills. Then she turned around, only to discover that both Flower Power and Mind Mistress had disappeared into the darkness ahead. She and Zoe rushed forward, trying to move as quickly as they could while still remaining cautious of their surroundings.

A light illuminated a room ahead of them. As they approached it, they heard Mind Mistress call out.

“Do not enter the room! It is laden with traps!”

Jacky and Zoe stopped in their tracks at the cusp of the doorway. Jacky turned to Zoe.

“Could you scout it out for us?” Jacky asked.

“Oh! Ummm... Sure! Errrr, do you mind if I... do my eye thing?”

“Not at all!” Jacky smiled.

“Cool! Because sometimes Velvet Glove yells at me for being disgusting when I do it...”

“Well, she's not here, is she?”

“I guess not!”

The rubber heroine turned to the door and, with a little strain, stretched her eyeballs out of her head into long, snaking tubes that twisted around the edge of the doorway and then swept back and forth, scanning the room like twin periscopes. Jacky did have to suppress a slight queasy feeling in her stomach at the sight. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but she wanted to show that she was more tolerant than Velvet when it came to their young teammate.

“The room looks empty,”reported Zoe, snapping her eyeballs back into shape with a slightly sickening slurp, “Mind Mistress and Flower Girl are in a cage against the wall. There's a computer on the far wall, but there's some sort of long hole in the middle of the room.”

“Hmmmm,” Jacky pondered the situation, “I need more information.” She turned toward the doorway into the room and raised her voice, “Hey! What happened to you guys!”

“We were proceeding ahead, on the theory that you would catch up with us after your wholly unnecessary pep-talk. I advised caution, but our oblivious teammate here wandered aimlessly into the room. I was attempting to stop her, when a loud alarm sounded and a hole opened up beneath us, dropping us into a pneumatic tunnel that somehow deposited us into this cage,” shouted Mind Mistress.

“This room is very poorly arranged under the principles of feng shui,” added Flower Power, “All the positive energy is being blocked off and the bad luck is just pooling and overflowing.”

“Yes,” replied Mind Mistress, “I'm sure too much bad luck and not enough 'good vibrations' are the reason an alarm went off and we got captured.”

“Well, it couldn't have helped...”

“Okay, enough!” said Jacky, “I wonder....”

Jacky reached into her utility belt and pulled out a small aerosol spray can. She gave it a little shake, then sprayed it into the air around her.

Instantly, the room was filled with a web of laser tripwires, made visible by the aerosolized liquid. Jacky smiled to herself. This shouldn't be too difficult...

Jacky walked forward, gingerly stepping over a low-lying laser. She then hopped over a second trip wire before dropping to her belly to crawl under a third. As she pulled herself forward, the rounded edge of her bottom briefly grazed the laser she was trying to avoid.

An alarm sounded. Jacky startled slightly, but maintained her cool. A trap door swung open underneath her and Jacky could feel air sucking into the vent, pulling her down. She grabbed the edge of the trap door and strained as hard as she could, trying to keep from falling through. Her cape whipped downward between her legs, drawn in by the suction.

At last, the trap door swung closed again. Jacky relaxed for a moment. She took a deep breath and restored her calm.

“It would seem,” offered Mind Mistress, “that your posterior is slightly larger than you were aware of. Circumstances suggest that you have, perhaps, been overeating and not exercising enough, leading to an accumulation of fatty tissue in your buttocks. I would suggest adopting a calorie-restrictive diet after we complete this mission.”

“Thank you!” said Jacky through gritted teeth, “That is extremely helpful!”

Mind Mistress smiled, “I calculate a sixty percent probability that your most recent statement is intended to be taken sarcastically. Nonetheless, my suggestion was serious; I have only your best interest and that of the team at heart.”

“Duly noted,” growled Jacky.

She crawled forward again, carefully avoiding re-triggering the wire she had just crossed. After a foot or two, though, she found her movement stopped by a tug at her neck. Twisting to look behind her, she saw that her cape had caught in the closed trap door.

Grumbling to herself, Jacky unfastened the cape from around her neck, then climbed back to her feet. The remaining lasers gave her no trouble and she soon reached the opposite side. She turned around to see Zoe, watching her with wide-eyes from the doorway.

“That was so cool!” Zoe shouted, “You're like a super-spy!”

Jacky smiled and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, I try... Now, I'm going to walk you through this. Just be very careful and listen to everything I say, and I'll get you across with no problems!”

“Oh, I guess I could do that...” Zoe put her right index finger on the side of her cheek, contemplating, “I could also just do this.”

Zoe metamorphosed into a giant spring, compressed as far as she could, then sprang forward.  A series of alarms went off, triggering trap doors throughout the room, but Zoe simply rocketed over them. She landed next to Jacky, returning instantly to her original shape.

Jacky grimaced. Once again she wished she had a slightly more flashy superpower. Still, problem solved, time to get to the next obstacle.

The pair turned around to look at the trench. It stretched from one wall to the other and was about ten feet wide.

“Do you think you can stretch into a bridge?” asked Jacky.

“I can try!” Zoe beamed.

The pair walked up to the edge of the trench. As they neared the ledge a loud hissing sound started, followed by a series of clicks, like a gas stove lighting. Then-

*FWOOSH!*

The trench was ablaze as a series of large gas-powered flames ignited, enough to cover the entire length of the trench. The flames licked about six feet into the air above the edge of the trench. Zoe began to sweat and back away.

“I c-c-can't go through there. I don't do so well with fire...” Zoe stammered.

“Can you bounce over it?”

“I'd reeeeally rather not...”

“Okay, well.... Hmmmm.....” Jacky stepped back and contemplated the situation. How could she get over to the other side? After a few moments an idea struck her. “Could you turn into a long, skinny pole? Say, ten feet? Or twelve? It should be stiff but rubbery.”

Zoe smiled, “I think I can manage that. Why?”

“I'm going to pole vault over the trench.”

“Do you even know how to pole vault?”

“Of course!” said Jacky, “I'm pretty good at it, actually!”

“Great!” said Zoe, instantly transforming into a twelve foot pole. Jacky picked her up, tested her heft, then walked back to the edge of the lasers. She turned and took a few deep breaths, psyching herself up.

“Wait!” said Zoe, “What I meant to ask was, have you ever actually pole vaulted before!”

“Nope!” smiled Jacky, then took off at a run. About six feet in front of the trench she angled the Zoe pole down, pressing it into the ground and jumping. Zoe bent as she pushed against the ground, then snapped straight up, sending Jacky arcing gracefully through the air.

Well, almost gracefully. Jacky was careful to push Zoe backwards so that her teen companion didn't fall into the trench, but in doing so she failed to get the amount of height that an expert, actually trained pole vaulter would have gotten. The tips of the flames licked her butt as she flew over.

“YEEP!” She shrieked.

Jacky landed on her butt on the other side of the trench and proceeded to scoot around a bit in a rather undignified fashion, attempting to put out the fire on her rear. After a few moments the fire was extinguished and she let out a long sigh of relief.

“Oh my God! That is too perfect!” shouted the voice, which had heretofore remained silent, “Jacky be nimble, Jacky be quick, Jacky jumped over the candlestick! I mean, almost.” Jacky replied by glaring in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from. “Sorry! Don't want to interfere on this, just want to watch you in action. I'll be quiet now.”

Jacky stood up and twisted her torso to get a look at her butt. The yellow briefs were singed and burnt through in parts, revealing the red tights beneath, but she seemed otherwise not to be too much worse for wear.

A computer terminal sat in the middle of the far wall. Jacky walked over cautiously. The monitor displayed orange words against a black background: “DISABLE SECURITY SYSTEM? Y/N”

“Well, that's suspiciously convenient!” Jacky remarked to nobody in particular.

“I calculate a 78% probability that the terminal is some form of trap,” asserted Mind Mistress.

“Thank you!” Jacky said. It was helpful having a hyper-genius on the team, but it always felt like her green teammate was a little condescending whenever she interacted with those less intelligent than her. Which was everyone.

Seeing no better option, Jacky hit the Y key on the terminal.

“PASSWORD:”

Jacky bit her lower lip. She had some general knowledge of password hacking, but that usually took time and a large number of guesses. Still, she wondered... She tried “PASSWORD,” just in case.

“INCORRECT PASSWORD. DO YOU NEED A PASSWORD HINT? Y/N”

Well, thought Jacky, that should be helpful. Jacky knew that a lot of times it was easier to get into an account through back-door means, like providing demographic information or an email address to reset a password, than just trying to brute-force guess your way in. A hint could prove useful, if she could manage to think like whoever set the password... She hit the letter Y again.

“YOUR NAME.”

Nuts! Jacky thought, who could be behind all of this? She thought a moment. Female villains, technological orientation...

“CEREBELLA”

“INCORRECT PASSWORD”

“TRANSISTER”

“INCORRECT PASSWORD”

“DOCTOR ATOMICA”

“INCORRECT PASSWORD. YOU HAVE ONE FAILED ATTEMPT REMAINING. WOULD YOU LIKE AN ADDITIONAL HINT? Y/N”

Jacky swallowed nervously. This could end very poorly if she guessed wrong... She pressed Y.

“NOT MY NAME. YOUR NAME.”

That took Jacky aback. Was the machine talking to her? How did it know who she was? Did it know who she was, or was this message intended to be read by someone else? With a pit welling in her stomach, she typed in “JACKY”.

“PASSWORD CORRECT. I WOULD ALSO HAVE ACCEPTED JACKY-OF-ALL-TRADES, JACQUELINE, OR JACQUELINE BAXTER. DISABLING SECURITY SYSTEM.”

The flame jets in the trench died out, while the last visible lasers in the diminishing aerosol spray flickered off. With a loud *CLICK!* a door built into the bars of Flower Power and Mind Mistress's prison unlocked and swung open. The triumph of victory was almost enough to quell the unsettled feeling Jacky had in the back of her mind that this challenge seemed to have been specially tailored to be surmounted by her and only her.

“That took you long enough,” said Mind Mistress, “For what it's worth, I was using my sub-dermal neural implant to infiltrate that computer system while I waited the eternity it took you to free us. A surprisingly deep encryption and firewall structure for a dumb terminal. Nonetheless, I was microseconds from freeing us myself when you completed the task.”

“I'm certain you were,” Jacky rolled her eyes, “And you're welcome, by the way.”

Mind Mistress stared quizzically at Jacky, “This may be a curious quirk of Twenty-First Century custom that I have not yet familiarized myself with. My understanding is that the phrase 'you're welcome' is offered in response to the giving of thanks. I don't believe that I thanked you.”

“Well, I want to thank you!” gushed Flower Power, “Birds are free, love is free, and I want to be free, too! Thank you for uncaging me, from the bottom of my earth-body to the top of my spirit self!”

“Yaay! We're all together again!” enthused Zoe, “Well, I mean, most of us, but we did it! We got through this room without losing anyone!”

“Are we through this room, though?” asked Jacky, “There doesn't seem to be any more danger, but there also isn't a way out.”

“My neural implant indicates that there is electricity flow between the terminal you used and...” Mind Mistress squinted, clearly thinking hard, and pointed at the terminal, then slowly moved her finger, tracing the visible-only-to-her lines of radiant electricity flow. She moved slowly, following the path around the outer wall of the room, until she stopped with her finger pointed at the wall opposite the prison cage, “That wall there.”

“Well, let me take a look...” Jacky turned back to the computer terminal. The words had changed. She felt a sinking feeling in her chest as she read:

“HELLO JACKY-OF-ALL-TRADES. BY NOW YOU HAVE HOPEFULLY FIGURED OUT THAT THIS ROOM WAS DESIGNED TO SHOW OFF YOUR NOT-INCONSIDERABLE SKILLS. I KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE WRITE YOU OFF AS KIND OF A LAME HERO, ESPECIALLY YOUR SO-CALLED COLLEAGUES IN THE SUPERHERO COMMUNITY, BUT I APPRECIATE ALL THE SKILLS YOU BRING TO THE TABLE!! EVEN IF THEY AREN'T THE FLASHIEST, THEY'RE SUPER-USEFUL!!

ANYHOW, I'M GUSHING. THE OTHER THING I ADMIRE ABOUT YOU IS HOW MUCH YOU'RE WILLING TO PUT THE NEEDS OF OTHERS AHEAD OF YOUR OWN, ESPECIALLY YOUR TEAMMATES. SO, IF YOU WANT THE TEAM TO MOVE ON AHEAD, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE YOURSELF UP TO ME. SEE THOSE TWO HOLES ON THE FLOOR RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TERMINAL? I OPENED THEM UP WHEN THE SECURITY SYSTEM TURNED OFF, BUT YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T NOTICE. ANYHOW, THERE'S A CATCH IN THEM. PULL BOTH CATCHES AT ONCE TO OPEN THE DOOR. THAT'LL ACTIVATE A TRAP THAT KEEPS YOU BOUND AND READY FOR ME TO COLLECT FOR MY OWN NEFARIOUS PURPOSES (MWA-HA-HA!). YOUR TEAMMATES WILL BE FREE TO MOVE ON, AND YOU'LL BE MINE TO DO WITH WHAT I WILL. (TEE-HEE!)

SO, RIGHT ABOUT NOW I KNOW YOU'RE THINKING OF WAYS TO THWART THIS WHOLE SETUP. BUT I ALSO KNOW THAT BY THIS POINT, IF ALL HAS GONE ACCORDING TO PLAN I SHOULD HAVE VELVET GLOVE AND BRONCO BUSTER IN MY CLUTCHES. I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO BRONCO BUSTER SO DON'T WORRY, BUT IF PUSH CAME TO SHOVE I WOULD TOTALLY KILL VELVET GLOVE IF YOU FORCED ME TO BY DOING SOMETHING STUPID LIKE NOT FALLING INTO MY DASTARDLY TRAP. ANYHOW, I'M TAKING WAAAAAY TOO LONG. SEE YOU SOON! <3”

Jacky's mind raced. There had to be some way to avoid this trap! She gazed down at the twin holes in the floor. She could just make out some electronic-looking hand-holds at the bottom. Maybe she could tie a line around them and trigger them simultaneously? She did keep a 200-foot ultra-strong microfiber filament in her belt for just this sort of thing...

“Any luck?” Zoe called across the room.

The leader of the Femme Defenders looked back at her companions and grimaced. Even if she could find a way out of this, she wasn't willing to call the mastermind's bluff on Velvet Glove. V.G. might get on her nerves... a LOT... but she couldn't risk her teammate's life, not when the others stood a good chance of making it through on their own. Still... Jacky's mind raced. Maybe she could improve their odds a bit...

“I can get us through,” Jacky shouted across the room, “but I'm going to have to stay behind. I need to remain here and keep the door switch activated.”

“That is nonsensical. In the microseconds since you relayed the problem to me, I have devised five solutions to the situation that do not involve your staying behind, ranging from the mundanely mechanical to the highly sophisticated. Tell me the parameters of the problem and I will give you an optimal solution,” said Mind Mistress.

“The main parameter is that if I don't stay here, whoever's behind all this will kill Velvet Glove,” said Jacky.

“Oh no! That's terrible! But... what'll we do without you?” asked Zoe.

“Mind Mistress should be able to get you through the rest of this. She seems to have a handle on things,” Jacky smiled.

A hint of nervousness played across Mind Mistress's face, just briefly. The ultra-intelligent heroine took a moment to collect her thoughts and access a part of her brain that she generally had little use for. At last she cleared her throat and spoke.

“I am, perhaps, a little... withholding when it comes to emotional expression and appreciation... As such, this seems an opportune moment to state that I find your decisions to be notably wiser than those of most of your peers. Myself excepted, of course,” a hint of a smile curled the corners of Mind Mistress's lips, “I am honored to be chosen as your successor on this mission. If it's any comfort, I calculate a 58% probability that all members of the team will survive this ordeal intact.”

Flower Power looked stricken. “This is all just a huge bummer,” she pouted, “Whoever's behind all this is a major buzz-kill.”

“Before you go, I think I've figured something out. I'm pretty certain this whole facility is a giant trap just for us, designed to pick us off one-by-one. Velvet Glove in the first room, then Bronco Buster, now me. Whoever did this knows us very well.”

“I figured that out two rooms ago,” sniffed Mind Mistress, “I assumed that it was so obvious that it didn't bear stating out loud. I will now dial down my expectations of all of you accordingly.”

“I'm so glad I put you in charge...” mumbled Jacky.

Jacky turned to look at the pair of holes, which somehow managed the trick of being simultaneously mundane and ominous. She knelt down, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and put her hands in.

*Click!* *Whiiiiiiirr!*

When she pulled the triggers, twin panels on the side wall slid open, revealing a hidden exit. Simultaneously, the holes in which Jacky had placed her hands spiraled closed, trapping her wrists. Mind Mistress strode quickly through the door with barely a glance back. Flower Power looked sad as she slowly wandered after her. Zoe stayed behind.

“I can't leave you here. Heroes don't leave teammates behind!” the teenage heroine shouted.

Jacky, awkwardly stuck with her hands in the ground, turned her head to look at Zoe. The rubber teen was clenching her teeth as her eyes watered, frightened, yet determined.

“You have to go on! You're not leaving me behind, you're... sending me ahead. I'll be waiting for you at the end. The other two will never make it through without your help. Heck, I might not have made it through this room without you! You can do it!”

Zoe stood still, struggling with the conflict that roiled within her. At last she clenched her fists, closed her eyes, turned, and ran out of the room. The door slammed closed behind her.

Alone. Jacky sighed. “Well, at least I have some time to myself to think,” she said to no-one in particular.

“Oh. My. God! That was amazing!” enthused the mysterious voice that had stayed strangely silent throughout most of the ordeal, “That was classic Jacky! I am literally tearing up! This is just the best day ever!”

“I'm glad you're enjoying all this. Really, that's why I'm here, to provide you with entertainment. Now, could you let me go? My knees are starting to hurt.”

“Yeeeaaaah, no. I can get you off your knees, though!”

Jacky suddenly found herself propelled upward at the waist. In half a second she was on tip-toes, her legs dangling behind her as a vertical metal slab, with top molded to match her waist, hoisted her midsection in the air. Her wrists remained bound in the floor, making the highest point on her body her nicely-rounded butt. Jacky kicked and twisted, but found that her arm position made rolling off of the slab both painful and anatomically impossible. She tried to slip her hands out of her gloves, but the binding was just too tight. What she wouldn't give to be stretchy like Zoe now...

“I see you burnt a hole in your briefs. So, that's less than ideal, not really mint condition anymore. Still, I guess that's partially my fault...” said the voice.

“Partially?”

“Well, time to collect my trophy...”

Two more holes opened in the floor, and from them emerged a pair of robotic arms, each with a white Mickey Mouse glove on the end. They reached over and grabbed on to Jacky's yellow right boot, slowly working it off her foot, then depositing it in yet another hole that had opened up in the floor. They repeated the process with the other boot.

“Ugh!” groaned Jacky, “Is this some kind of foot-thing?”

“No! God! I'm just starting with the boots. Here, I'm taking the belt off next.”

True to her word, the hands moved up and unfastened the belt from around Jacky's waist, then dropped it into the same hole as the boots. Jacky grimaced. She relied on that belt for a lot of the tools she used to get herself out of this sort of situation. Escape just became a lot harder...

“There! I suppose now you're going to call me some kind of belt-fetishist!”

“You know what? It's a reasonable inference. We're a group of, let's be honest, conventionally attractive women. Do you know how many times I've been strapped up by some villain and had my feet tickled?”

“Nine times.”

“Ni-” Jacky paused, a bit surprised, “Oh. That's right.”

While this riposte was going on, the robot hands had moved on to daintily removing Jacky's singed briefs, leaving her in just her red tights and stretchy latex top. She wore her outfit in two pieces, top and bottom, with the seam between usually hidden by the belt and briefs.

“Soooo.... I notice you're taking my clothes off. I'm a little concerned about that,” said Jacky.

“Oh, don't worry, this isn't going anywhere rapey. I hate when villains just throw rape at heroines as a way of motivating them or raising the stakes, as though rape weren't a super-serious, life-changing thing. It's just lazy.”

“Lazy?”

“Anyhow, you can trust me. All the sex that's about to happen is going to be totally consensual!”

“... Hooray.”

The gloves grasped on to the hem of her skin-tight shirt and pulled it up, freeing her small-but-firm breasts to flop down toward Jacky's neck. The built-in support in the chest area meant she didn't really need a bra. That didn't mean she didn't wish she had one at the moment, but still...

The hands hit a stumbling block when they reached the ground; with Jacky's hands still bound in the floor, there was no way to free either the shirt or Jacky's gloves.

“Hmmm, I hadn't thought about that,” said the voice, “I guess I'll just have to pull those off later...”

“Or. Or! You could just put the shirt back on! It's kinda chilly in here.”

“I can see that.”

Jacky blushed. She would have covered her hardening nipples if her hands weren't otherwise occupied at the moment.

The hands, meanwhile, had moved down to the waistband of her red tights. Jacky winced. She tried to remember what underwear she'd put on this morning... It wasn't anything embarrassing, was it? She consoled herself that at least she wasn't on her period, so it wouldn't be any of those underpants. Still, what had she worn today?

“Oh my God, they're perfect!”

The hands had dragged her tights to half-mast, the waistband encircling her knees, and were now changing position to pull them the rest of the way off. Jacky tried twisting her neck and wriggling her waist to get a glimpse of her undies, which were hidden by the vertical slab. Now she was really curious.

The job was finished. Jacky had been stripped to her undies, with just her gloves and a bunched-up shirt at her wrists to protect her modesty.

“Okay, so, I feel like I should punish you now, because while I didn't say you couldn't tell everyone else about the secret message I wrote just for you on that terminal, I think it was implied that it was just between us.”

“The stripping isn't a punishment?”

“Oh, of course not, silly! That's just preparation!”

Another wide hole appeared in the ground and out of it, like Excalibur rising from the lake, came a stainless steel cricket bat with holes strategically drilled to make it more aerodynamic. One of the hands grabbed it and held it aloft triumphantly.

“Oh, for Pete's sake...”

“I think ten whacks should be sufficient!”

The hand twisted around, holding the bat gently against Jacky's protruding posterior. Jacky winced as she felt the bat softly press against her cheeks. The feeling disappeared as the bat reared back. Jacky clenched her buttocks, anticipating the impact to come.

*WHACK!* “OOWWWWW!”

The bat slammed into Jacky's butt, sending a shock of pain through the heroine's system and causing her butt cheeks to ripple out from the epicenter of the impact.

*WHACK!* “OOOO!!!”

Another whack, this one all the more painful from the latent soreness of the first blow.

*WHACK!* “AAAAHH!” *WHACK!* “EEEEE!!” *WHACK!* “OUCH!”

Half-way done and Jacky's poor hindquarters were beginning to swell from all the punishment they were taking. Jacky felt a latent painful tingle in her rear as she anticipated the second half of her punishment.

*WHACK!* “EEEP!!” *WHACK!* “AAAAH!” *WHACK!* “SON OF A-!” *WHACK!* “OWOWOWOWOW!!”

Nine down, just one more to go. Jacky winced as sweat beaded on her forehead. She could barely stand the thought of even a single blow more on her pained, tender behind. What's more, she had willingly submitted herself to all of this. Here she was, leader of the Femme Defenders, stripped to her undies and spanked into submission, and she didn't even know who was doing it! The anticipation grew, worse than any blow could ever be. Had she miscounted? What was going on? Where was the tenth and final blow?

The hand reared back, tensing metallic muscles as it prepared to deliver a full-force blow to the heroine's swollen butt. It carefully calibrated, ensuring it struck the tender target at just the right point with maximum power. At last, all preparations and calculations complete, it swung forward faster than the eye could see.

*WWWWHHHHAAAACCCK!!* *CRASH!* “YEEEEOOOOOWWWWCCH!”

The final blow hit the heroine so hard that her entire body swung forward into the air, her bound wrists the fulcrum point of the wide arc that sent her slamming into the terminal. Her feet crashed into the screen, her butt smacked the keyboard. The harried heroine was dazed and, apparently, confused.

“I'm sorry, mommy, I'll never steal from the liquor cabinet again...” she mumbled in a haze.

“Excellent! I think you've learned your lesson! Now, time to join your friends Bronco Buster and Velvet Glove...”

The vertical slab withdrew into the floor and a large hole opened behind it. One of the gloved hands grabbed onto the shirt that lay between Jacky's wrists, while the other held her ankles together, then pulled them forward. She swung back around, her bottom half landing in the hole. Air began to rush around her, sucking her down. The force was too great for her to resist in her dazed state. The bindings on her wrist slackened and she found herself falling into the darkness. Her hands were yanked out of her shirt as she fell, and the shirt pulled the gloves with it. Jacky was falling through the darkness, tumbling down and down and down...