Please note: a little bit over a year ago, I wrote a story called Thrill Ride, in which the dastardly villain Victor Villanova hatches a scheme to place a lust potion in the water supply of a ride at the local amusement park in the city of Metroburgh. Although you could consider this story a follow-up to that story, there is no requirement that you go back and read that story first. All you need to know is that (1) Victor was able to rebuff Admiral Anticrime at the end of Thrill Ride, and (2) this story takes place a short while after the ending of that story.
This story would not be possible were it not for two separate contests from February, 2010 at the MC Forum and the Garden of MC. First, in both places, Virtual Visitor invited us to write stories that used all five senses (plus balance) to be a part of the narrative before the subject surrenders, and second, in the Garden only, Adamant Phoenix asked that we somehow work a heart and the color red into our narratives. I combined both of them to create this story.
This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people, places, events, superheroes and supervillains, are completely coincidental. It is also a story intended for adults only, so if you are underage or otherwise prohibited from reading this story, please find somewhere else to amuse yourself. I welcome commentary and criticism. My e-mail address is mudak326@gmail.com.
The Way We Whirr
Chapter 1 — Initial Deployment
“You seem ... disquieted, sir.”
Maniacal Meriwether stopped pacing around his laboratory and looked at his manservant. “Astute observation, Winston. Not quite the word I would have used, but accurate nonetheless.” The supervillain resumed his nervous habit.
“May I ask the source of your disquietude, sir?”
Without stopping, Winston’s boss started to think out loud. “It looks like Admiral Anticrime was rebuffed by Victor Villanova. And I want to know what Vicky’s up to. I can’t let him get the upper hand on me.”
Maniacal Meriwether stopped moving around the floor. Wringing his hands, he looked up at Winston, smiled, and asked, “Did you see the news report tonight?”
“I trust that you refer to the incident at the amusement park, sir?”
“Yes.”
“What else do you know, sir?”
“Only what they reported on the news. Trusting that the park will be closed until further notice, it seems to me that Vicky has effectively limited himself to the number of people whom he has enslaved.”
“That certainly seems reasonable, although if we are unsure as to what Mr. Villanova has actually done, we cannot be certain, sir, if he has all of the followers he will ever have.”
“But can we, Winston? Can we?”
“Sir?”
“What if we kidnapped one of Vicky’s newfound slaves? We could use her to find out whatever we can and then turn her to our side, yes?”
“I suppose, sir. But don’t you think that Admiral Anticrime might be watching for this same opportunity?”
“So we watch Admiral Anticrime and make our move when he is either not in our way, or after he gets his own test subject.”
“Very well, sir. Shall I camp outside of Mr. Villanova’s lair?”
The supervillain scowled as he looked at his impeccably dressed servant and pondered his options.
“No. The more I think about it, Winston, I believe that we should find someone not so closely connected to me, to do my reconnaissance work.”
“Are you implying, sir, that...”
“Yes, Winston. I am. It’s ready. I trust you know what to do now?”
“Yes, sir.”
Winston disappeared for a moment, returning with a yellow rose, its long stem gripped tightly in his hand. “It shouldn’t take me too long to locate an appropriate subject.”
“I should hope not,” muttered Maniacal Meriwether, as his manservant disappeared into the shadows and into the streets of Metroburgh.
Chapter 2—A sense of smell
Fifteen minutes after leaving Maniacal Meriwether’s lair, Winston found himself standing in the middle of Central Square in Metroburgh. He had picked a good time to come, he mused. A good number of people, but not so many that he would draw any unnecessary attention to himself.
Knowing his boss’s preferences, he scanned the area for the right candidate. It didn’t take long before he saw her, sitting on a bench reading a newspaper.
He calmly stepped towards her, sitting down next to her. She didn’t look up from her newspaper.
He paused to ensure that she wasn’t going to say something to him first before he said, “Pardon me, Miss.”
She folded her newspaper down onto her lap and smiled at him. “Can I help you with something?”
“I would hope so. I’m planning on giving this rose to a certain lovely young lady and would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.”
The girl giggled for a moment. “I think it’s sweet. Are you going to meet her here?”
“Oh, yes,” he answered with a degree of measured enthusiasm.
There was a short, awkward pause in the conversation. She broke it when she said, “Well, good luck!” as she picked up her newspaper and buried her nose back in it.
Winston smiled; he knew he must do, but he pushed the awkwardness of it all to the back of his mind. Shifting slightly, he turned and started staring at her, silently pondering how long it would take before his position would make her uncomfortable. He needed her to react.
Within 20 seconds, she put her newspaper down with greater force than the previous time and asked, “What?”
“Oh, nothing. If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?”
“I’ll be 23 next month, not that it’s any of your business. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to reading—”
He thrust the flower between her and the newspaper. She glared at him for a moment, gasped, and dropped her newspaper to the ground.
As the newspaper slipped down over her legs, she sat straight up and inhaled deeply. She stared blankly straight ahead for a moment.
He leaned closer to her, stuffed a folded-up index card between her breasts and whispered, “That card contains the location to which you must now report.”
She retrieved the card from her cleavage, unfolded it, glanced at it for a moment, and dropped it to the ground.
Winston quickly picked up the card, pocketed it, and said, “Very good. Now go.”
The girl shook her head and regained her composure.
She turned to face Winston, smiled, and said, “Excuse me. I just realized I have somewhere I need to be. Would you like my paper?”
“Sure.”
She bent over, picked up the newspaper, folded it neatly, and handed it to Winston. He watched her walk in a near-march, across the square and out of sight.
He rolled up his left sleeve and pressed a button on his wristwatch. “I found your first test subject, sir.”
“Excellent. How soon will—”
“She should arrive at your warehouse location within the next ten minutes. Would you like me to find another subject, or should I return?”
“Wait where you are. I’ll let you know which I would like, after this one is done her conditioning. Did you catch her name?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well. I’ll notify you when I’ve made a decision about what I need from you next.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
He tapped a button on his watch, looked around, and smiled. The sense of smell is a powerful way of getting inside someone’s head, he mused. He smoothed out some of the sheets of the newspaper and started to scan its front page. “Very powerful indeed.”
Chapter 3—Taste sensation
The girl arrived at the warehouse owned by Maniacal Meriwether shortly after Winston contacted him to prepare for her arrival.
The supervillain himself sat behind a desk, wearing a security guard’s uniform. He looked up and scowled at her as she approached. “May I help you?”
The girl strode confidently up to the desk. “Yes. I have an appointment here. My name’s Sophie Brophy.”
“Oh yes!” He looked down to a clipboard and began to run his fingers down it, pretending that her name was on some kind of a list. “Here you are.” He glanced at his watch. “And right on time, too. Would you mind please signing in right here...” He pointed to a nearly blank sign-in sheet on the edge of the security desk.
“Of course.” She bent over to sign her name. “Where do I go from here?”
“I’ll escort you to the room we have set up for you.”
He stood up and held a badge up to a magnetic scanner near a door with no windows. A clicking sound signified that the door was now unlocked. He opened the door and, with a flourish, gestured for Sophie to step through the doorway.
She followed him down a narrow hallway and into a dimly lit room. In the room was a sofa, an end table, and a small refrigerator.
“Would you mind please taking off your shoes? You can leave them by the door.”
Sophie cocked her head to one side and decided that this wasn’t an unreasonable request, so she did as requested.
“Please. Make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to any food or drink you may find. Someone will be with you shortly.”
“Thank you.”
The supervillain returned to his post at the security desk and watched her on the closed-circuit monitors that displayed the sight lines of several cameras hidden throughout her room.
Sophie, upon realizing she was alone in this room, looked back and forth to get a sense of her surroundings. She walked over to the refrigerator and saw several bottles of water. In spite of the invitation from the security guard, she mused, it still didn’t feel right just to take it, so she closed the refrigerator and began to walk around the room, squinting her eyes in the darkness to see what, if anything, there was to see or do in here while she waited.
As she paced around the room, all four walls lit up and began to fill the room with color, the pattern of colors changing rapidly. She couldn’t help but stare at the colors.
Sophie found that she couldn’t look away from the bright flashing lights emanating from the walls; if she were to divert her eyes, turn her head, or turn her entire body, it didn’t matter: she was always looking at at least one wall that was showing her this pattern. Closing her eyes was also out of the question: the brightness was visible even through her eyelids.
She slowly backed up, feeling her way towards something, anything, other than the colors, the hypnotic, dizzying, vertigo-inducing colors. She felt her legs brush up against something soft and smooth. She smiled as she realized she had found a sofa in the middle of the room.
She took a deep breath and started to rub her temples. The colors, they were so beautiful yet so confusing, so disorienting. As the light filled the room and filled her mind, she squinted her eyes and gasped for breath. This isn’t happening, she told herself, as it became harder and harder to maintain her balance. With a lurch, she struggled to remain steady.
After less than two minutes of the light show, she collapsed onto the sofa. The couch was comfortable, she thought, even though she wasn’t sure she was ready to stop moving.
The lights stopped flashing and she took the opportunity to see what was nearest her. She could see the end table by the side of the couch clearly; something on top of the table caught her eye.
She picked it up and looked at it: a red, heart-shaped box. She contemplated the box for a moment and thought it looked like one of those romantic boxes of chocolates. She debated opening the box for a moment.
The supervillain watching her actions on his guards’ television smiled broadly. The rose brought her here, and the lights got her to lose her balance and sit down.
“Just wait until you taste those chocolates,” he hissed. “Just wait.....”
He dimmed the lights in her room.
After turning the box over in her hands, occasionally moving to replace it on the table before pulling it back close to her, Sophie finally decided it was time to open the box to see what was inside. From all of the movements of the box, it certainly sounded as if it might have had chocolates or some kind of candy in it, but she wasn’t sure.
She set the box down on her knees, placed her fingers under the lip surrounding the lid, and gently lifted, using her thumbs to hold the rest of the box on her legs.
Glancing into the box, she smiled broadly. She put the cover down on the table and began to look through the small chocolate-covered morsels scattered in the heart-shaped container.
After a short amount of deliberation, she picked up a smooth looking candy. A chocolate covered cherry, she mused. She held it up in front of her face for a moment before popping it into her open mouth.
She began to chew on the morsel and let out an involuntary, “Mmmmmm” before she swallowed it.
She casually picked up the box and placed it on the couch next to her, and stood up.
“I don’t know if anyone can hear me, but thank you! That’s delicious,” she called out to the room at large.
The additive that the supervillain had placed over all of the chocolates kicked in. Her eyes bulged for a minute, after which she casually removed her blouse and dropped it to the floor.
She sat down as though nothing had happened.
Maniacal Meriwether pumped his fist into the air. It works, he thought. “Now, my dear, eat another one of the chocolates....”
She glanced back into the box of chocolates and smiled. She thought about how she really shouldn’t, but that first candy was so good... She couldn’t resist.
She pulled out a second morsel. She examined this one for a moment —shorter than the time she spent looking over the first one—and ate it enthusiastically.
She stood up, unfastened her skirt, and let it fall to the floor. She stepped out of her skirt and sat back down again.
She examined the box again and picked up a third candy, this time not pausing to contemplate what kind of filling it had. In one fluid motion, the piece went straight from the box and into her mouth.
Standing up, she unfastened her bra, lowered the straps over her shoulders, and dropped it onto the growing pile of clothing in front of her.
Without even sitting down, she reached into the box, and grabbed another piece. Without paying any attention to the type of candy she had picked up, she tossed it eagerly into her mouth.
She let out a gasp as her hands moved to her panties and rolled them down to her ankles. In a swift motion, she kicked her underwear high into the air and across the room.
Now completely naked, she turned to look at the box that rested on the couch and decided she was finished. She picked up the cover, closed the box, and put the box itself back on the end table as though she hadn’t touched it at all.
The supervillain watched the image of his subject on his monitor. The stripping chemical worked perfectly, although he still questioned whether a box of chocolates was the best way of getting a potential subject to ingest it.
Chapter 4—Do You Hear What I Hear?
Sophie was nearly ready for her transformation. The supervillain pulled out a clipboard and started to check off entries, as though he were perusing a grocery list and marking those items he had already received.
He spoke out loud as he checked each item off.
“Smell. Check. Aroma has compelled subject to report to premises.
“Sight. Check. Lights calmed subject down and caused subject to become dizzy before she sat down upon the couch.
“Taste. Check. Chocolates compelled subject to remove all clothing.
“That just leaves sound and touch.” He began to laugh. As he laughed, he looked around, expecting his manservant to comment, “It’s why I’m known as Maniacal Meriwether.”
When his laugh was not greeted with the anticipated response, he looked around for a moment before he realized that he was alone. He made a mental note that he would laugh that way again once Winston returned to his side.
He checked the contents of his pockets and decided it was time for him to interview this subject.
He walked down the hall and entered her room. She turned to face him and smiled. This confirmed that she didn’t even realize what the chemical had made her do.
“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting too long,” he said politely.
“Oh no. I’ve only really just sat down.”
“Well, I appreciate you coming here. I’d like to ask you your opinion on a new style of music. Do you like music, Miss Brophy?”
“Please. Call me Sophie. And I love music. I always wondered about the act of writing music.”
“Then perhaps we should get underway.” He reached down underneath the end table and pulled out a pair of large headphones.
He held them out for her and she quickly placed them over her head.
“When I turn on the music, you probably won’t be able to hear anything other than the music. I’m here to observe you. Do you have any questions?”
“No, that’s all right.”
“Very well.”
He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out what looked like a remote control. Smiling broadly, he said, “What kind of music would you like to start with? Classical? Jazz? Country? Or Rock?”
Sophie paused for a minute. “Surprise me.”
He chuckled to himself as he pushed a button on the device in his hands.
Almost immediately, the look on her face devolved into one of dreamy nonchalance. Her eyes seemed unfocussed, her mouth bent into a subtle grin.
After ten seconds of the music, she began to shuffle slightly in her seat, crossing and uncrossing her legs. Her breathing began to slow down.
She clenched her hands into fists and unclenched them. It became clear that she wasn’t sure what to do with her arms and hands.
Making a note on his clipboard, the supervillain mused that he wasn’t sure it was right to have the subliminal messages keep her arms by and large immobile. “I wonder what she’d do if I said she could move her hands.”
Tapping a few keys on his remote, she started to roll her shoulders. As her body came to the realization that she could once again control the movements of her arms and hands, one hand moved immediately to her breasts, running back and forth between them, teasing and playing with her nipples. The other hand plunged straight between her legs.
The music works quickly, he thought. But then again, she may have been aroused somewhat by the chocolates and she just didn’t realize she could act on it until the music freed her.
Sophie let out a squeal of pleasure and started convulsing on the sofa, her hips rising and falling, bucking wildly in hopes of bringing the degree of arousal she was feeling, back to something within her control.
The longer the music played, though, the more she seemed to give in to the needs of her nether region.
Finally, Sophie let out a squeal. Her body stopped shaking and her hands fell limply by her side. She opened her eyes, even though they appeared to be unfocussed and blank.
Sophie gasped as the villain removed her headphones, but otherwise did not acknowledge his presence, or anything else in the room for that matter.
He leaned in close to her and whispered,” You’re almost ready to join my army.” He traced his finger over her jawline, appreciating her soft, fragile, and beautiful features: the first successful test of his latest experiment.
Chapter 5—Flesh and Bot
“Can you hear me, Sophie?” asked Maniacal Meriwether.
The naked girl sitting in front of him, her eyes wide, moth agape, and arms hanging limply by her side, gave no indication that she could answer in the affirmative. The slight grunt she made shortly after he finished his question was unremarkable in itself.
“With your mind gone, I’ve got to replace it with something, so...”
He traced his fingers over her stiff nipples and down to her sex. Her body trembled under his touch, but her gaze remained unfocussed.
“You’re ready.”
He opened the drawer under the end table and pulled out the tools he would need to finish the job that started when Winston had gotten her to smell the flower.
He began by examining the dildo closely. He wondered how her body would react to it being pressed into her pussy and debated the amount of force he would need. In the end, his musings proved irrelevant, as the dampness of her nether regions made it easy both to position the stiff rubber object at the entrance into her slit, and to slide it as far inside of her as possible.
She let out another gasp, but her soon-to-be master ignored her.
He picked up the V-shaped wire and plugged the bottom corner into a small hole in the end of the dildo. He then took the small clamps on either end of the wire and clipped them directly to her nipples.
Looking over the remote control that he had used to turn the music on in her head, he pushed another button and she stood up, stiffly.
“It is now time for me to take you to the point where you become a perfect little robot,” he whispered into her ear. Grabbing her hand, he walked her out of the room where the majority of her preparation had taken place. He walked her down the hall and into a smaller room.
In the center of this new room was a jacuzzi filled with what appeared to be water, except that its silvery tint did not appear to be the result of any reflection off of the walls.
He guided her into the pool and she casually stepped downwards and into the tub.
Once her chest was below the water, and the nipple clamps were completely submerged, he stopped and paced around the tub.
“Let your skin bathe in the robot liquid; let your body absorb its new programming. The dildo and clamps are designed to make your transformation more pleasurable.”
He walked to the wall and flipped a switch. A low humming filled the room.
Sophie’s hands clenched around the rim of the tub in which she now sat. Arching her back, she let out a gasp. She squinted her eyes and shook her head, her consciousness flooding back to her.
Her voice was weak and tremulous as she asked, “Wh- wh- where am I?” What’s h-h-happening here?”
The supervillain turned to face her. She let out a gasp of horror, in recognition of his face.
Before he could say a word, she cried, “You!”
“Yes, Sophie. Me.” He laughed heartily. “Who else has such a maniacal laugh?”
“What... what’re you going to do to me?”
“Going to do? Oh, my dear sweet Sophie. Nothing. Nothing at all. Most of the job is already done. Can’t you feel it?”
She looked around, trying to get a better stock of her situation. She wasn’t uncomfortable, sitting in a warm tub filled with some kind of shimmering, silvery liquid. She felt a degree of discomfort between her legs but couldn’t tell exactly why.
Maniacal Meriwether started walking around the tub. He spoke slowly, softly, and deliberately, as experience had taught him that this was the easiest to instill fear in his captives. “So... Tell me, my dear... How are you feeling?”
Sophie wasn’t sure if she should respond. Was he even serious in his question? Would saying anything give him something to use against her? If what the media said about him was true, saying anything could eventually become a weapon in her own destruction.
“I asked you a question, my dear. How are you feeling? Are you feeling a tingling in your legs?”
Sophie paused. She didn’t want to answer him. It wasn’t entirely accurate to say that the sensation was a tingling. More like, she mused, the feeling you get when there’s something sticky on your flesh. Not painful or itchy. Not necessarily comfortable or uncomfortable, just, well, just there and you want to do something about it. Of course, as the sensation spread over her legs, the desire to find a way of peeling it off became stronger, too.
She looked up at the evil man who was pacing before her. Scowling but not saying a word, she hoped to convey the fact that she had no desire whatsoever to help him.
“I grow tired of your insolence, my dear. Although I will eventually break you of your will—in fact, I have already done so once, but I allowed you to regain some of it—you do not have to make things more difficult for yourself. So I will ask you again. How ... are ... you ... feeling?”
The sticky sensation spread higher. She felt that even if she had wanted to move her legs, she wouldn’t be able to. The sensation almost completely surpassed her pussy, and she wondered if she should be worried about this fact. Would it be better if whatever was in this tub would react exactly the same way to her nether regions as the rest of her body? Even though she couldn’t tell that she was naked, the very nature of the sensation made it seem as though her panties would be useless in terms of protection.
She sighed, more deeply than she intended to.
The villain stopped his pacing and leaned in close to her, smiling broadly and displaying his crooked teeth. “That’s it, my dear. Just tell me what you’re feeling right now.”
Inhaling deeply, she finally spoke; her voice more meek than she had hoped it would sound. “Why do you want to know?”
He scowled and gazed into her eyes, his own eyes trying to assess whether she was worth the effort. He contemplated her question. By now, surely, she wasn’t going to be able to escape. Should he reveal his plans to her and maybe instill more fear into her heart, or let her suffer silently not knowing what was happening to her?
Shrinking underneath his gaze, she let out a slight gasp as the sensation started to spread up her chest and over her breasts.
“I don’t believe you’re in pain. I would think you’d be doing something to express what you’re feeling if you were. But you are feeling something, aren’t you my dear?
“And what if I am?”
“Then you should know that you will belong to me; of that there can be no debate. I would simply appreciate knowing what you’re feeling right now, so I can make any necessary modifications that would ensure that my system works as I’ve planned. So, my dear, tell me what you can feel?”
She felt the urge to answer his question. It’s such a simple question, really. Why was she putting up so strong a fight at this? Just say the words! Just answer him! She kept saying to herself. A second voice inside her head reminded her who she was dealing with. If she were to say anything, all would be lost. She’d be his, to help carry out his evil deeds. And no, she wouldn’t let that happen. Not if she could help it.
The sensation now covered every inch of her body that was submerged in the tub, except for her nipples and her pussy. They still felt normal, although slightly aroused. She was just about to answer him, tell him what he wanted to know when he started to laugh.
“Very well, Sophie. Very well indeed. You have chosen your own fate, then...” He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and and pulled out a grotesquely-formed rag doll. “Do you know what this is, Sophie?”
He held it high above her head. She squinted her eyes to get a sense of what it was, but wasn’t sure. “Is that ... a doll?”
“Very good, Sophie. There is a wire that connects this doll’s breasts with her sex. Did you know you have a similar wire on your body right now?”
She hoped her bulging eyes didn’t give away the fact that she didn’t know that at all. Maybe he was bluffing.
“In fact, Sophie,” the mad scientist continued, “This doll here is my connection straight to you. If I do something that this doll can feel, you’ll feel it too. Of course, it won’t be long before I won’t need the doll, at least, not when you’re close enough to me to hear my commands.” His laughter echoed off of the walls and Sophie felt a chill.
He placed a finger over the doll’s lips. She felt the sensation of something touching her own mouth. “So, my sweet little girl. You will tell me what, exactly, you’re feeling from the solution you have been bathing in for these last few minutes.”
Her mouth acted of its own accord. “It’s not tingly like you said,” she began. She went on to explain how the sensation was unusual, not pleasurable not painful. But it makes you want to peel off your own skin. “Or maybe it feels like you’re already doing that and you want to get back to the normal feel of your skin. I’m not sure.”
“Do you feel it everywhere on your body? Or at least, everywhere that’s underwater here?”
“No. I’m not feeling it in my nipples or in my ...” the word felt harsh on her tongue and she blushed.
“Say the word, Sophie. Use the most coarse, vulgar word you can think of for what you want to say.”
“I’m not feeling it in my cunt.”
“Of course not, Sophie. I need to have some flesh to control outside of the changes to your skin.”
“Ch-changes?”
“Oh, yes. Don’t you realize what’s really happening to you? I’m turning your skin to metal! Your body will soon do whatever I wish for it to do, as this liquid has soaked into your skin and you’re becoming a robot. And being a robot will override whatever it is your brain might want to do or say.”
Her eyes widened. This time, her reaction was a combination of shock and excitement at what was soon to pass.
“Are you ready to complete your transformation?”
She shook her head ‘no’ but at that very moment he touched the doll’s mouth again and the word “Yes” came spilling out of her mouth as though it was forcibly extracted.
“Very good.”
His hand ran up and down the back of the doll. With the index and middle fingers of this hand, he pressed hard against the doll’s breasts.
Sophie let out a gasp of unexpected pleasure, from the sensation that some invisible hand were playing with and arousing her breasts beyond anything she had ever felt before.
Moving his thumb downward, it landed right between the doll’s legs.
She could feel the pleasure mount inside of her and she screwed up her eyes and face in an attempt to prevent the sensation from overwhelming her, especially since she couldn’t actually move her arms or legs.
The villain started to laugh. “Are you actually trying to fight me?” He looked over the doll and adjusted the arms and legs so that it was standing perfectly straight.
Almost as if on cue, Sophie stood up in the tub. The water came up about halfway between her knees and her thighs. She looked down in horror at her naked body, which had a slightly metallic hue. She screamed. “What? What’s happening? What’ve you done, you motherfucker?!?”
“I may be a lot of things, my dear, but I suspect that’s the last time you’ll call me anything that reflects ... something less than admiration.”
She glared at him but didn’t say anything else.
“If you haven’t noticed, I now have complete control over your body from your shoulders down. But I consider it unacceptable that your mind might otherwise undermine my commands of you. He stepped away into a shadowy corner of the room, returning in a few minutes with a carnation.
“This flower is slightly different from the one that my manservant presented to you earlier today. Here. Take it.”
Her arm moved rigidly out towards him and grasped the stem.
“Now. Hold the flower a few inches from your nose.”
Before her hand could bring the flower close to her face, she took a deep breath and held it, willing herself not to smell the flower, hoping she could get enough control over her hands so that perhaps she could drop the flower before she ran out of air.
He chuckled slightly at this display. He could wait until she took a breath. Or he could force her to breathe. He stared at her naked body and smiled. He turned his attention to the doll still clutched in his hand, and ground his thumb into the spot between the doll’s legs.
She let out an involuntary gasp. This quick breath was all it took: she breathed in the sweet scent of the flower still clutched firmly in her hand.
“Yes, that’s it. Breathe in the beautiful scent. Let it take over your mind. Give your mind over to me. I already control your body, as you can see. You have no need for a mind at all.”
She closed her eyes for a moment then slowly opened her eyes. She had a glassy look in her eyes, distant, unfocussed.
“Very well, my dear. Very well. Please get out of the tub now.”
She stepped out of the tub, taking a few steps across the floor before stopping. She stood at attention in front of him, clearly waiting for her next orders.
Chapter 6—The Second Slave
Maniacal Meriwether wondered whether it was advisable to reach out to Victor Villanova directly, or if he should be more covert about his own evil schemes for world domination. After all, they both had means of turning young women into their own personal harems.
It was a good idea—it almost makes sense—to at least seek to find out what kind of effect each of their schemes had on the other’s. What would happen if one of his own robots were to come in contact with whatever it was that Vicky had used? What if one of Vicky’s slaves would become one of his own robots?
Of course, Meriwether mused, Vicky doesn’t need to know that his robot-creation process should work on men as well as women. Let that be something to lend an air of plausible deniability.
It should work on men, he thought. Let’s make sure.
He tapped a few buttons on his watch and contacted Winston. When his manservant appeared on the small screen, he said that it was time to find the next test subject.
Winston nodded and said, “As you wish, sir. Is there anything else you require of me?”
“No, Winston. You may return to the home base once you have completed your mission.”
“Thank you sir.”
Less than ten minutes after the supervillain reached out to his assistant, a smartly dressed young man, about the same age as Sophie, strolled into the waiting area of the warehouse.
Maniacal Meriwether, sitting at the guard desk, looked up and smiled. “May I help you?” He chuckled underneath his breath, thinking about how this guy’s wide, distant eyes pretty much answered that question.
“I have an appointment.”
The supervillain instructed the young man to sign in. Picking up the sign-in sheet, he said, “All right, Mr. Mason—”
“Please. Call me Jason.”
“Very well, Jason. Come with me.” When the two of them arrived in the same room where Sophie had been taken over, he said, “Feel free to help yourself to any food or drink you might find in here. Someone will be with you shortly.”
Jason began walking around the room, taking stock of his surroundings. The light show from the walls quickly helped him find the couch and ensured that he would come close to losing his balance.
As Sophie did, Jason found the red heart-shaped box of candies and began to help himself to the morsels. With each candy he ate, he removed an article of clothing until he was completely naked.
The supervillain decided to send the robot formerly known as Sophie to go in and play the music for Jason. Watching this process on a closed-circuit television, he noted that the process was identical for both men and women. Within five minutes, she had produced a silicone-filled fake vagina, which she rolled down over his now-erect cock and guided him to the hot tub where his body would be transformed.
Maniacal Meriwether soon stood a few feet away from where the transformation would be finalized. He pushed the button on his remote that began the transformation process.
Jason’s eyes bulged and he gasped, but he did not seem to regain his consciousness the same way Sophie had. “Most interesting. Tell me how you feel, Jason.”
“I feel ... tingles.”
“Where?”
“In my feet. It’s ... spreading. I feel them moving up my ankles.”
“Very good. Please let me know when the tingle reaches your shoulders.”
“Yesss...”
“Enjoy it.” He didn’t even need the doll for this subject. Very interesting.
Soon, Jason’s body had been completely transformed. He now stood next to Sophie. Both of them had become robots, standing perfectly at attention, awaiting their next orders.
Maniacal Meriwether paced back and forth, staring at the two of them. “I think I need one more test. Jason, please remove Sophie’s nipple clamps and dildo.”
He pivoted on his feet and, with a mechanical motion, did as he was commanded.
“Sophie, please remove Jason’s fake pussy.”
She also obeyed the command without hesitation.
“Both of you. Your genitalia are the only body parts that are still human. But they have been improved. Sophie, when you’re having sex, you will have an orgasm every forty five seconds. Jason, your orgasm will occur simultaneously with your partner’s fifth orgasm. Both of you, when you have an orgasm, will be extremely vocal in the expression of the sensation. Do you understand?”
“Yes, master,” they both said in a monotone.
“Very good. Sophie, lay down on your back and spread your legs as wide as you can.”
She did as instructed.
“Jason, your cock is now hard. Get on top of Sophie and start fucking her.”
The supervillain backed away as Jason did as instructed.
In almost no time, Sophie’s screams of pleasure filled the room, the sound bouncing off of the walls, echoing and resonating in the villain’s ears.
Jason pumped back and forth into Sophie, his movements mechanical and calculating. Maniacal Meriwether made a note of this on his clipboard.
Exactly as instructed, upon Sophie’s fifth orgasm, Jason started to scream his own pleasure. As his sensation ebbed, his motions stopped. Once they knew that they were done, the two robots stood up, faced their master and assumed a position whereby they would await their next command. Sophie made no effort to cleanse herself of the juices that were visibly dripping down her legs.
Chapter 7—Masterful Coordination
After relocating his robots back to his evil lair, Maniacal Meriwether discussed the situation with Winston.
“What’s the name of Vicky’s servant, Winston?”
“Rufus.”
“That’s right. When’s the next meeting of the Evil Sidekicks Committee?”
“Tomorrow night, sir.”
“Hmmmmm... Why don’t you reach out to Rufus and see if his master would like to trade slaves? Find out what would happen if one of his slaves were to become a robot or one of ours would fall prey to whatever it is that Victor developed...”
“I can do that, sir...”
The following evening, Winston arrived at the hotel ballroom the committee rented each month, helped himself to a cocktail, took copies of the previous meeting’s minutes and current agenda and budget, and scanned the room to see if Rufus had already arrived.
Squinting as he scanned the room, he wondered if he was the only evil sidekick who wasn’t hunchbacked.
Finally, he saw Rufus, sitting alone at a table near the front of the hall. Rufus was having difficulty drinking a glass of water because his hands were shaking too badly.
“Do you mind if I sit here?” Winston asked quietly.
Rufus raised his head and glowered. He was silent for a long while, seemingly pondering whether or not he should invite Maniacal Meriwether’s manservant to join him. He lowered his head again and hissed, “Be my guest” into his water glass.
Winston sat down and began to sip his own drink in silence. He eyeballed the agenda. This evening, there would be three speakers, each of whom had been allotted fifteen minutes for their respective topics. The first speaker, Levi Evil, would talk on the origins of, and potential solutions to, the shortage of usable body parts in designing monsters for reanimation. The second speaker, Martha Mothbag, would use her time to talk about the need to bring more women into the evil sciences and what evil henchmen and henchwomen can do about this. The third speaker, Lamar Shadydays, had a presentation about contract negotiations and what benefits the modern supervillain’s henchmen can and should demand for themselves.
Winston scoffed and looked over at Rufus, who raised his head slightly.
“What do you think of these speakers this month?” Winston asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think any of them is going to say anything I can use.”
Winston looked at his neighbor with a degree of sadness. Even tonight, this far from his master, Rufus clearly still feared what Victor Villanova might think. He cleared his throat and spoke, aiming for a kindness that Rufus generally didn’t know himself. “You know, Rufus. Some days I think that only your master and mine, are the only supervillains worth anything in this town.”
“Yessss. It seems as though Admiral Anticrime always goes after our masters first, especially when there’s a crime that was done by ... a smart villain.”
Winston laughed. “May I give you a message to pass on to your master, from mine?”
For the first time, Rufus raised his head and looked his colleague directly in the eye. After taking several deep breaths, he said, “My master works alone.”
“As does mine.”
“So what kind of message would you have me pass on to my master?”
“A mind-controlled slave swap.”
Rufus shook his head, apparently unsure how to respond.
Winston continued. “My master doesn’t know how your master did what he did at the amusement park, although he suspects it has something to do with the water. My master has perfected a way of turning people into robots under his complete control. We don’t know what would happen if one of your master’s slaves were to fall under my master’s command, or vice versa. It might be in our respective interests to find out what would happen if someone might be subjected to both of our masters’ methods.”
“So are you saying....”
“... that your master should choose one of his slaves and send her over to my master, and that my master should choose one of his slaves to send her over to yours. I’m sure we could work something out that would be mutually beneficial to both of our masters.”
“How can my master be sure that this isn’t a trap?”
“The same way my master would be sure that your master hasn’t sabotaged the trade on his side.”
“Which is?”
“Oh, let’s just call it, honor among thieves.”
“Let me bounce this off of my master. How can I reach you with his answer?”
Winston looked around to make sure that no one was watching. He reached inside his suit jacket pocket and slid a small phone across the table to Rufus.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Can I buy you a drink now?”
“No thank you. My master doesn’t approve of me drinking anything other than water.”
Silence fell over the room as Levi Evil took the podium near the front of the ballroom. The lights dimmed and a Powerpoint demonstration filled the wall behind him. The first slide read “Building a Better Monster: Trends and Issues in Organ Harvesting.”
“If you want to help your master build the best creation for terrorizing local townsfolk,” the speaker began, “you need to know which organs are in the greatest demand, where you can get the best samples, and what they look like. I’m here to help...”
Winston rolled his eyes and pretended to listen to the rest of this lecture.
Upon arrival back at headquarters, Winston saw that his master had deployed his two robots to build his growing army to a stronger level.
Maniacal Meriwether smiled when his manservant returned. “Well?”
“Rufus will pass it on to Victor Villanova. He seemed ... dubious of our intentions.”
“Well, Vicky literally is the center of his world. Honestly, I’m surprised that Rufus is even allowed out for anything other than to capture unwilling test subjects for his latest evil schemes.”
“Yes, I know.”
“So now we just have to wait and see.”
Chapter 8—Slave Swap
Rufus returned to his master’s secret hideout and explained what Winston had told him. Kneeling low to the ground, he held out the mobile phone with trembling hands.
Victor Villanova raised his hand and Rufus cowered instinctively. With a swoop of his arms, he grabbed the phone.
Rufus’s voice quivered when he asked, “What do you think of his proposal?”
“I think,” Victor said, pausing to choose his words, “that Maniacal Meriwether wants a piece of our action.”
“Then we just need to take a piece of his action, right?”
“No, Rufus.” He laughed. “We need to take all of his action.”
“How do we do that, boss?”
“We start by agreeing to his slave swap.”
“Do you want to call, or should I?”
“You call. Tell him I’ll agree to any time or place that doesn’t draw attention to our actions.”
At midnight the following night, Rufus and Winston met again, this time in a 24-hour laundromat. Both had brought a single female slave, who had been given enough clothes to be taken out in public, albeit with a certain tramp-like quality that few people who hung out in this particular area would consider out of the ordinary.
The girls had been ordered into silence by their respective masters. Both Victor Villanova and Maniacal Meriwether had given them explicit instructions not to question the purpose of the swap, to go along with whatever was asked of them, and not to say a word about their lives as slaves no matter what else would happen. Meriwether also gave his slave the instruction to act human in speech and movement.
The two servants said little beyond cordial greetings to one another. Winston could tell just from his facial expression, that Rufus didn’t trust anything that was happening.
Winston left the laundromat first, Victor’s slave walking calmly behind him.
Rufus waited ten minutes and left with the robot Winston had taken to the meeting.
Both servants breathed a sigh of relief and notified their respective masters that no one had seen the swap.
Shortly before dawn that same night, mild mannered gardener Scott Schott was awakened by the sound of his emergency telephone ringing. Groggy and bleary-eyed, he fumbled for the phone and almost didn’t have the opportunity to answer the call before the caller either hung up or was sent to voicemail.
“Admiral Anticrime here!”
“Oh, Admiral. I’m glad we didn’t wake you. We have a situation! Metroburgh needs you!” Mayor Minor had a knack for sounding less concerned than the situation usually warranted, and this was no exception.
“What’s going on, Mr. Mayor?”
“During a routine check of the security camera at the local 24-hour laundromat, we saw something ... suspicious.”
“What’s that?”
“Victor Villanova’s and Maniacal Meriwether’s henchmen each entered the joint with a woman, and they each left with the one the other had brought.”
“Any idea who the women are?”
“No. We suspect that Victor Villanova’s henchman had brought one of the women involved in the incident at the amusement park, though.”
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’ll get right on it.”
“May I ask, which villain’s hideout are you going to?”
The superhero paused and scratched his chin. “If I go to Victor Villanova’s hideout, I will likely be held up by sex-mad slaves again. Victor seems to only have managed to capture women, and since we shut down the amusement park, we’d know if he’d gotten any new servants. Going there, and at least I’d know what I’m up against.
“On the other hand, Meriwether’s a complete unknown. Even if I assume that he’s somehow figured out a way to enslave some portion of the population, I don’t know who it would work on and how it works. I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing was his idea. I just wonder how he managed to convince Victor to give up one of his followers, even if it was a swap for one of his own.”
“So your choice is the evil you know versus the evil you don’t.”
“Exactly. I think I’ll go to Meriwether. Can you provide some backup for me? Maybe even a decoy backup to Victor’s lair just so that he knows we’re on to him?”
“I can do that. How soon can you be by the precinct?”
“Give me an hour.”
“Thank you, Admiral Anticrime!”
Chapter 9—In the Evil Lairs
Rufus escorted the swapped slave into his master’s basement dungeon. Through clenched teeth, he told her to take off all of her clothes. She didn’t respond or react to him. Instead, she merely stood at attention as though awaiting a command she could act on.
He stood up as straight as he could, almost tall enough to look her straight in the eye and said, again, “Please... Heh heh heh... Take off your clothes.”
She swayed slightly on the balls of her feet but otherwise didn’t move or react to his instructions or his presence.
He moved closer to her, running his finger and sharp fingernail down her cheek. He savored the very softness of her skin and closed his eyes in general appreciation of her form. He was used to girls cowering, flinching, or otherwise trying to get away from him when he did this. He couldn’t help but heave a sigh of exasperation when she didn’t even move her eyes either to see what was happening to her, or to look away.
He reached underneath her T-shirt and lifted it over her head. Her arms moved with his motions and removing it was not exceptionally difficult. He tossed her shirt aside, smiling at the fact that this girl wasn’t wearing a bra.
He ran his fingers over her left nipple. She opened her mouth slightly. He had hoped this minor movement would result in a gasp of either pleasure, pain, or general unexpected touching. Unfortunately, she gave no further indication that she could tell that he was touching her.
He knelt down to pull her skirt and panties to her ankles, then guided her to step forward so that she now stood, naked, in the basement dungeon. He traced a circle on one of her ass-cheeks and felt his frustration mount as nothing he did to the girl resulted in any real reaction whatsoever. He guided her to a comfortable chair beneath a bare lightbulb and helped her sit down in it.
He called to Victor Villanova who was doing research in the adjacent lab room. Rufus’s voice echoed off of the bare walls. “Master! Maniacal Meriwether’s slave is ready for us!”
“Did you bind her arms and legs?”
“I don’t think I need to. She hasn’t fought me yet. She’s just let me do whatever I wanted with her.”
“It seems as though Maniacal Meriwether has trained his slave well. I look forward to breaking her.”
The sound of an office chair creaking was followed by the supervillain’s footsteps. A few moments later, Victor was standing in front of the naked girl sitting in the chair that he loved to use, when breaking in a new test subject. He leaned close to her and held a pen light up to her face. Shining the light into her eyes, he could see her pupils dilate but she did not otherwise respond to his movements or actions.
“What’s your name, my dear?” He asked, using his most notorious, fear-inspiring tone.
She didn’t respond. She simply continued to stare blankly ahead.
Victor turned to face his servant, who immediately covered his head in cowed respect.
“I think it’s time we ... made her more responsive to us. Wouldn’t you agree, Rufus?”
“Yes, master.” His nasal laugh was silenced the moment Victor raised his hand.
“The vial...”
“Oh! Oh, yes...” Rufus ran to a storage closet and returned with a small vial that contained a clear liquid. He bowed low to his master and raised the vial as high as he could.
Victor snatched the vial out of his servant’s hand, squeezed the dropper, and prepared to drop some of the liquid onto this girl’s skin.
He ran his fingers up her leg and found the spot. With a slightly trembling hand, he squeezed the dropper and watched two small beads of what looked like water fall on the girl’s leg. The liquid quickly vanished as her leg absorbed it.
The villain and his servant stared at the spot where the drop had fallen, then at each other, and then back at her.
“Can you hear me, my beautiful?” Victor asked.
She didn’t respond or change her fixed gaze in any way.
“M- m- master! What—what happened?”
“I ... I think...” He raised his hand to his forehead. “I think Maniacal Meriwether may have bested me.”
Winston escorted his master’s test subject into the warehouse where they had successfully tested the new process a few days earlier. Maniacal Meriwether was waiting for them. He immediately stood up upon their arrival and began to look at this girl.
The supervillain smiled. “I suppose we should see what we can get her to do, huh?”
Winston nodded curtly.
“Tell me your name, my dear.”
She didn’t answer.
“Oh, well, I didn’t expect her to be willing to respond to any of my commands. Winston, please give our guest ... a flower.”
The manservant left the room, returning a few minutes later with a long-stemmed rose.
“You may need to hold it directly under her nose to get her to respond. And give her a moment. It may take her several breaths before it sinks in.”
“Yes, sir.”
Winston did as instructed. The supervillain took a small stopwatch out of his jacket pocket and pressed a button. The stopwatch immediately started ticking.
Five seconds after the stopwatch began ticking, Maniacal Meriwether advised his manservant to put an instruction card in the girl’s cleavage.
As he did as instructed, he whispered into the girl’s ear that, when she comes to, she will immediately reach in between her breasts, read the card, and follow the instructions
For the next ten seconds, the sound of the stopwatch was the only sound in the entryway of the warehouse. At 18.9 seconds, the girl shook her head, looked up and smiled. Feeling something between her breasts, she casually reached into her low-neckline, retrieved the card, and read it before dropping it to the floor.
“Um... Where am I? I, um... Is this where my appointment is?” Her voice was pleasant and polite, yet strangely distant and disaffected by her surroundings and even from the question itself.
“Yes, my dear!” Meriwether said as he quickly put the stopwatch away. “If you could just sign in here.”
The girl looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then acted somewhat sheepish. “Um... I, uh... I don’t know how to tell you this but... Um... I, you see... The thing is... I’m, uh, I’m not allowed to tell anyone my name.”
“Oh. That’s all right.” The supervillain flashed a friendly smile to her. “If you could just put an X on that line, that’d be perfect. We just need to track the people as they go in and out.” He made a mental note to congratulate Victor Villanova on giving her such a strong command, although he chuckled at the simple fact that he now had a good test of whether or not he’d truly be able to break her.
She giggled and did exactly as instructed.
Once the girl had “signed” in, the supervillain turned with a flourish and opened the door into the main part of the warehouse. He gestured for the girl to pass through the doorway. She followed him through the doorway nd down the hall.
“Would you mind please waiting in this room for a few minutes? Just leave your shoes by the door.”
“No prob!”
“Great! Someone will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please feel free to help yourself to any food or drink in this room while you wait.”
“Thank you.”
Even though he knew what would happen next, Meriwether sprinted back down the hallway to his security cameras. She wore relatively little to begin with, but with how little he knew about how Vicky controlled her in the first place, any cracks in the outer shell should be monitored most closely.
By the time he had reached the monitors, he saw that the girl hadn’t moved from the doorway. He quickly flicked the switch near the monitor to turn on the destabilizing lights in her room.
She started to walk around the room, clearly trying to steady herself against the furniture, before finally half-sitting/half-falling into the couch in the center of the room. He turned off the light show.
She shook her head and diverted her attention to the table upon which lay the red heart-shaped box filled with candies. “Take one!” he whispered to the monitor.
She looked through the box of chocolates and lifted one piece into the air. She inspected it closely and sniffed it. She looked around to her left and right, with a slightly guilty expression. Once she had come to the decision that she wasn’t being watched and that it was truly safe to eat it, she popped the chocolate into her mouth.
Almost immediately, she took off her blouse.
“Yes!” the supervillain exclaimed.
Winston, in his typical understated manner, nodded and displayed a slight grin as he said, “I trust things are working well, then?”
“Oh, yes!”
Having eaten her first piece of chocolate, she was much less apprehensive about eating the subsequent morsels and the coincident removal of the rest of her clothing.
The supervillain entered the room and spoke with a fake laugh. “Thank you for waiting.”
“Oh, it was no worry!”
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me your name now, would you”
“Oh, no. I can’t do that.”
“And I respect that. You can’t blame a guy for trying, though, can you?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Now. Do you like music? I need you to take our survey about music. So I need you to put these headphones on and I’ll pipe the music in.”
The girl nodded serenely as she placed the headset over her ears.
Meriwether removed the box from his pocket and pressed a button, wondering how long it would take for the subliminal messaging in her music to take hold of her thoughts the way it had for other subjects. It probably wouldn’t be instantaneous like with the others. Considering the distant look in her eyes already, he wondered how easily he could ascertain that the transformation had taken place.
She slowly started to spread her legs. Within five minutes, her legs were wide apart and the girl had smiled a bit more.
The supervillain mused that this girl was finally ready. He handed her the dildo, which she promptly stuffed into her cunt. He then attached the wires to the end of the dildo and clamped her nipples.
Turning off her music, he looked at her. “Did you enjoy that?”
“Very much so.”
“Will you tell me your name yet?”
“I’m ... I’m sorry but no.”
“Very well. Come with me.”
She stood up and followed him into the room with the hot tub that would transform her, finally, into another one of his robots. Knowing that women tend to regain their full consciousness before the transformation, he wondered how this change would manifest itself for this beautiful test subject.
Meriwether snapped his fingers and Winston stepped closer to him. “Winston. When she regains consciousness, I think we’d be better off if she didn’t see me.”
“Not a bad idea, sir.”
The supervillain backed away and told the girl to step into the hot tub. “Winston, here, will assist you.”
Winston took her hand to help her maintain her balance as she sunk into the silvery water. When she sat down on the ledge inside, the water came up to just below her shoulders.
The two men looked at each other before Meriwether disappeared into the shadows.
A grinding sound was followed by bubbles starting to shoot forward from the nozzles in the sides of the hot tub.
The girl smiled broadly as she heaved a deep sigh of relief. Her calm demeanor quickly broke when she shook her head and asked, “Wha- where am I?”
Winston stepped forward. “You came to my master’s mansion. I’m his manservant, Winston. Is something wrong?”
“Well, um, it’s, uh... How do I say this? What time is it?”
Winston looked at his watch. “It’s 2:45 am.”
“Huh? How... how’s that possible? I don’t remember anything! I remember getting on the log flume at the amusement park and... And now I’m here. Where’s everyone else?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was just you who came here.”
“But... But my boyfriend! My sister! Are they all right?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. My master keeps his door open to all comers at all hours. You arrived about a half hour ago.”
“And...”
“And you indicated that you were quite tense, so my master instructed me to give you some food and draw you up this bath. And here you are. That’s really all I know. It’s not safe outside on a night like tonight. You may go after dawn if you wish.” Winston decided not to give her any indication that nearly two weeks had passed since her visit to the amusement park.
“Thank you.”
“May I ask your name?”
“Denise. Denise Denephew.”
Maniacal Meriwether, watching from the shadows, gave a silent fist pump.
“I hope you enjoy your stay with us, Denise. Is the water in this tub to your liking?”
Denise looked down and shook her head. It was weird, she mused. The temperature’s fine and it’s comfortable enough on her aching back, but ... something felt ... well, it felt wrong. “Um... It’s, uh... I can’t explain it, but my feet feel... I guess they feel kind of sticky.”
“Sticky?”
“Yes, you know. Like ... like there’s some kind of glue on them or something. And... I guess the feeling is moving. I’m ... it’s on my legs now.”
She leaned forward to try and rub off whatever was affecting her feet.
Maniacal Meriwether stepped closer to her and pushed down on the breasts and crotch of a doll in his hands. The sensation from the dildo and the nipple clamps shot through her body and she convulsed in pleasure.
As the orgasm subsided, she wiped her brow and asked, “Wh—what was that?”
The supervillain stepped out of the shadows and smiled at her. “You will soon be my loyal robot.”
Her eyes widened as she recognized the man standing in front of her. She struggled slightly in the tub but the sticky sensation had by now spread up to her hips so she was unable to move any more than to turn away from his gaze.
In Victor Villanova’s lair, the computer that he used for remote communications with his slaves displayed a peculiar message: contact had been lost with slave number 34.
Rufus, slouching right next to his master as the message appeared on the screen, said, “That’s the swapped slave, isn’t it, master?”
“Yes, Doofus. Yes it is.”
Chapter 10—Unexpected Contact and Consequence
Admiral Anticrime was giving instructions to the police backup that had joined him outside Maniacal Meriwether’s lair when the phone on his belt rang. He raised his hand to the small crowd that surrounded him and glanced at his preferred communications device. It was the mayor.
“Anticrime here. What can I do for you, Mayor Minor?”
“You’ll never believe who just contacted my office.”
“Who?”
“Victor Villanova.”
“Really?” He raised an eyebrow at this news.
“He says he wants to talk to you.”
“Do you have him on the line right now?”
“Yes.”
“Tell him that I’ll be at his lair in ten minutes. Tell him to wait for me there. If he asks questions, just say that I know better than to let him communicate with me through a phone.”
“Thank you, Admiral Anticrime!”
“It’s my pleasure.”
He closed the phone and returned it to his belt. He raised his hands and the chattering of the policemen and women around him quieted down. “I’m heading off to Victor Villanova’s lair for a few minutes. I want you all to stand firm and not make any movement towards Maniacal Meriwether. If you see anyone trying to enter or leave this place, see if you can tell what they’re up to, but otherwise let them go.”
The police captain stepped forward and saluted.
The hero saluted back to the captain, grabbed his jet pack, and took off into the early morning air.
Victor Villanova was sitting on the swing on his front porch as the superhero arrived.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Scott.”
The superhero crossed his arms in front of his chest and grunted.
Victor wrung his hands together and bowed his head. “Your distrust of me is completely understandable. I wouldn’t trust me if I were in your shoes.”
“Then why did you want me so urgently? I was midway through staking out ... a location for possible clues to some recent break-ins.”
“You’re an awful liar, Scott. You were at Maniacal Meriwether’s lair and you and I both know it.”
If the villain had been hoping for the hero to be impressed by what he knew, Admiral Anticrime’s expressionless face would have surely been a disappointment.
Victor cleared his throat to break the silence. “In fact, that’s why I called you.”
Admiral Anticrime raised an eyebrow and examined his nemesis closely.
“I, uh, I guess I need to explain a little more.” Victor paused to contemplate the correct way of wording what he was thinking. “Meri’s manservant sought out my faithful assistant. He had known about the incident at the amusement park and connected me to it.”
“So you finally admit your responsibility,” hissed Admiral Anticrime, who knew that Victor Villanova and Maniacal Meriwether were the only two supervillians in all of Metroburgh with the resources, cunning, or intellect to even attempt such a scheme. It didn’t take much for the villain who didn’t do it, to figure that much out.
The supervillain ignored him. “At any rate, it seems that Meri has come up with a process that can enslave people much more efficiently than anything I was able to come up with.”
The superhero perked up at this point. “Go on...”
Victor looked down at the ground and mumbled. “He and I, um, you see, we, uh, we, ah. You see, well, we... Last night, Meri and I, we, you know...”
“You traded slaves.” Admiral Anticrime grew bored with Victor’s hemming and hawing.
“Well, yes.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, with the slave that Meri sent to me... Nothing. I couldn’t bend her to my will.”
“And the slave you sent to him...”
“Has shifted her loyalty to him.”
“Looks like he beat you.” Admiral Anticrime suppressed the urge to laugh.
“Yes, and I can’t let that slip out. My reputation... It’s going to be ruined!”
“So why am I here with you? He’s obviously the greater threat!”
Victor Villanova winced. “That really hurt, Scott. You know that?”
Admiral Anticrime toyed with apologizing but decided to remain silent.
“You don’t know what you’re up against. I’m ... I’d be willing to help you to take him out.”
Admiral Anticrime scratched his chin as he considered Victor’s offer. After a long silence, he said, “Will you confess to the amusement park incident?”
“Yes.”
“You’d need to free all of your slaves. And I make no promises of a plea bargain or anything of that nature.”
Victor Villanova considered the superhero for a moment. Going to prison would be one way to retain his reputation. Plus, the downtime would give him the chance to plan his next evil scheme.
“It’s a deal.”
“Great. Now what can you tell me?”
“Let me introduce you to the girl I received in the swap.”
“I’ll wait here. You bring her to me.”
Victor turned and opened the front door to his lair. “Rufus! Bring me the girl!”
His henchman called back, “Yes!”
With difficulty, Rufus escorted the naked girl to the front porch. Once he stopped pushing her, she stood at attention, gazing blankly forward.
Admiral Anticrime pulled a flashlight off of his belt and held it in front of her face. She didn’t react to the light being shone on her. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“Take a look at her neckline. It’s like her skin color changes slightly.” He ran his finger along the line that effectively marked where the water in the hot tub had reached, on her body.
The girl let out a slight gasp.
The superhero fumbled on his utility belt. Finding a small file, he began to remove whatever chemical it was that covered her skin. The girl flinched.
“Looks like we’ve got something here...” Victor said.
Admiral Anticrime ran his light over more of her body. “It looks like it covers her entire body. This’ll take a while to get off. Do you have a plate or something I can use to catch whatever this is as it comes off of her body? I wonder if there’s something we can do to speed this up...”
Victor snapped his fingers and Rufus disappeared into the lair, returning in less than five minutes with a shiny silver bowl.
The supervillain ordered his servant to hold the bowl under Admiral Anticrime’s hands. He scraped some more of the chemical off of the girl’s skin. He had decided to scrape her between her breasts. As the flecks fell into the bowl, the girl let out a yowl of pain.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Admiral Anticrime said.
“Admiral Anticrime?!? What.. why are you here? Where am I?”
“It’s a long story, my dear, but we’re hoping you can help with something. It seems as though you’ve been under the control of Maniacal Meriwether, and...”
The girl looked around and noticed the rest of the people around her. “So you enlisted Victor Villanova to help you? Shit! I thought you were a good guy!”
“I am. Please. There’s something on your skin and I’m trying to get it off. Can you move?”
She grunted and struggled. “I can’t move my body. What...”
“What’s the last thing you can remember?”
“I was sitting in the park, talking to a friend of mine,” she began. “This guy in a tuxedo came up to me and asked us both to smell a flower. The next thing I know, I’m here.”
“A flower, huh?”
“Yes. I vaguely remember a hot tub, but, that part just feels like a dream and I couldn’t tell you anything else. Oh, and...” She paused for a moment. Blushing slightly, she whispered, “An orgasm or two.”
“I see.”
The superhero placed the bowl down on the ground and retrieved a modified microscope from the satchel on his belt. “What is this that’s gotten all over your skin?” He added a drop of water to the bowl and saw that the flecks moved towards each other and adhered together, making a larger piece of, well, whatever it was.
“We need to find something that will break this chemical down. Water clearly doesn’t do that, at least not on its own.” Admiral Anticrime looked at Victor Villanova.
“Did you try whatever you put in the water supply at the amusement park on her?”
“Yes.”
“And it ...”
“... had no effect.”
“Where did the liquid make contact with her skin?”
He pointed to the spot on her leg where he tried to convert her to his own slave.
Admiral Anticrime dumped the contents of the bowl into the grass and dried it with a rag. He then leaned forward to scrape off some of the chemical from the girl’s leg.
The flecks that fell from her leg were no different from the earlier samples.
“What was it that you put in the water that affected all of those girls?”
Victor Villanova’s eyes bulged at this question. He paused before sighing and telling the superhero that it was a relatively simple solution that combined alcohol with saline and some pheromones to incite arousal in women.
“Any proteins? There’s no DNA-based content?”
“Nope.”
“Miss... I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Sharon Sharalike.”
“Well, Sharon. Would you mind please spitting into this bowl?”
She screwed up her eyes, partially because she had taken offense to the request and partially because she didn’t understand why he was asking her to do this. But she cleared her throat and gingerly spit the contents of her mouth into the bowl as the hero had asked.
The superhero looked at the contents of the bowl again in his microscope and smiled broadly. “Looks like we’ve found our antidote.”
He licked his hand and ran his hand up and down her arm. “Can you move now, Sharon?”
With some difficulty she was able to bend her elbow.
“Success!”
The superhero called some of the police who were watching this scene to join him, Victor Villanova, and Rufus. After about a half hour, she was able to move her arms and legs well enough that she was, at long last, able to cover herself.
“So now what do we do?” asked the supervillain.
“I’ve got a plan. I’ll need your servant.”
“Whatever you need.”
The captain of the police force that had assembled outside Maniacal Meriwether’s lair received the order to stand down as Rufus escorted Sharon up to the high gothic entrance.
He pulled a chain near the front door and a low melody could be heard echoing within. After a few minutes, Winston came to the door. “Hello, Rufus. What brings you back here?”
“My master ... admits defeat.” He hated the way these words sounded, rolling off of his tongue, but he understood the need to say them. “I am bringing you back your slave.”
“Well, Rufus. My employer will be most pleased to hear this news.”
Winston placed his hand behind Sharon’s back and made a sweeping gesture to guide her into the lair.
Sharon had to suppress the urge not to shudder in fear at the recognition of the man who had shown her the flower.
Rufus stayed back as he watched her disappear into the darkness before the door closed in front of him.
He slowly turned around and walked back towards the street, where he was quickly placed in the back of a waiting squad car.
“Do you think he suspected anything?” asked Admiral Anticrime, who was sitting behind the steering wheel.
“I... I don’t think so.”
“You did a great job, Rufus. Didn’t he, Victor?”
Through clenched teeth, Victor, who was also in the backseat of the car, said, “Yesss.”
“Now we just need to pray the girl doesn’t lose her nerve.”
Winston escorted Sharon back to the library, where Maniacal Meriwether sat in a tall, high-backed chair with its back to the door. He was thumbing through a biography of Franz Mesmer.
Upon hearing his manservant enter the room, the villain said, without looking up, “Did you know that Franz Mesmer was basically considered a charlatan and a thief in his lifetime? Most people felt that his cures of people afflicted with various ailments had more to do with the subjects’ wishful thinking than any actual treatment he gave them.”
“Sir!” Winston spoke, sharply. “Victor Villanova has returned his subject. Apparently he was unable to break her.”
Maniacal Meriwether placed the book on an end table, stood up, and turned to face Winston and the girl who was quite adept at pretending to be a robot.
“Should I bring her to the hot tub for a restoration just to be on the safe side?”
“Yes, but first I want to know what Vicky tried. Would you please tell us, my dear?”
She spoke carefully, doing her best to maintain a low, monotonous tone. “He removed my clothes, sat me down, and dripped some fluid on my leg.”
“Where?”
“In his lair, master.”
The supervillain rolled his eyes. “I meant, where on your leg?”
She moved her arm mechanically. “Right here, master.”
As the villain knelt down to examine her leg, she quickly pulled a small object out of her cleavage and squeezed it tightly in her hands.
In an instant a net rose above the three of them and came down, hard, trapping herself and the two men underneath. As she realized that the gadget provided by the superhero had done its job, she whispered, “Thank you, Admiral Anticrime.”
Both Winston and Meriwether took a moment to realize what had just happened. Meriwether let out a cry of shock at this unexpected turn of events. He looked at his manservant and spoke with the slow sarcasm his servant hated. “So you didn’t check her for anything concealed...”
Giggling slightly, she pressed on a small communications device in her ear. “I did it! Admiral Anticrime, I did it!”
“Great job, Sharon,” echoed throughout the room as the two men stopped struggling against the trap. “We’ll be in there in a minute to free you and bring Meriwether to justice. Just hang tight.”
Following the successful apprehension of Maniacal Meriwether, Victor Villanova had a single request of Admiral Anticrime, the police force, and the mayor. “All I ask is that you not let it be known that I helped.”
The hero, on hearing this, scowled, but agreed. “You don’t want anyone to know the good in you, do you?”
“I’ve got ... a bit of a reputation to maintain.”
The mayor laughed. “We can do that.” He looked down at his desk and signed an order calling for the incarceration of Victor Villanova and Rufus for the next eighteen months.
As the police captain escorted Victor off to jail, the supervillain made a point of creating a public spectacle for the benefit of the TV cameras, calling for the overthrow of Metroburgh’s city hall and the destruction of Admiral Anticrime.
It took the superhero no time whatsoever to find a chemical combination that neutralized the effects of the contamination to the water supply at Metroburgh Adventure Land. All of his slaves were released and ordered by the court to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and a series of medical examinations to ensure that they had suffered no permanent damage resulting from their enslavement or their subsequent awareness of it.
During Maniacal Meriwether’s trial, the prosecution intentionally omitted the details of the agreement between Meriwether and Victor Villanova. Maniacal Meriwether’s defense also made no mention of this agreement, as it would have had the implication that Victor had emerged the more devious supervillain.
Maniacal Meriwether and Winston were sentenced to five years in prison. The other prisoners, especially Victor Villanova and Rufus, left them alone as often as possible. The wardens reported that this form of solitude was generally what both men seemed to prefer.
A news special, which aired a few months after the incident, featured intrepid investigative journalist Nikki Gnocchi. She gave a thorough report on what both Victor Villanova and Maniacal Meriwether had done, and the lives they were now leading as prisoners in the Metroburgh Prison. She admitted to being one of the people ensnared by Victor’s deeds but could only report on what other people told her she had done.
“One can only speculate,” she concluded her report, “What might happen if these two dastardly supervillains were to try to join forces and try to take over the peace-loving city of Metroburgh.”
“Thank you, Admiral Anticrime, for all you do for this city.”