Elaine’s week had been going surprisingly well. She’d been riding the high of her date with Allie ever since it ended, and as their second date approached, found herself practically vibrating with excitement. Which was also a problem, because, with her luck, Arcadia would get in the way a second time in a row. Which was why Elaine wasn’t surprised at all when an oddly familiar chain of events set themselves into motion.
First there was a text from Allie. For the second time in a row, she’d postponed their date an hour. It would suffice to say that Elaine was about ready to tear her hair out from that alone, her disappointment and dread at the pattern completely superceding the rational part of her brain that might point out this was a strange thing to happen twice in a row. Things only got worse when, mere minutes later Elaine’s guild-issued phone began to buzz.
Elaine sighed, the kind of world weary sigh that just about anyone would understand to mean of fucking course this would happen. Not even bothering to unpack the coincidence, Elaine snatched the phone and checked her most recent message:
“Slipspace. Arcadia is currently committing a break in at 8383 Olive St. NE. Suite 704. Suspect is believed to be collaborating with known associate, Dr. DeLEXIous. Apprehend both suspects and return to guild HQ. Due to past performance, and the presence of an accomplice, backup will be provided ASAP, but may take time. Tare will provide transport in 10. - OS” Elaine didn’t know what to think. It was definitely frustrating, definitely an infuriating coincidence that the exact same thing would happen twice, but those weren’t details she had the mental bandwidth to consider. The performance bit was annoying -- and concerning -- too, she'd kept Arcadia from escaping with her prize last time, hadn't she? The guild hardly had any reason to expect more from her. Why the sudden scrutiny? She'd never once arrested anyone and nobody seemed to deem her or her opponents important enough care about until recently. Regardless, what Elaine did know, was that she needed to buckle down and deal with this shit fast so she could get to that second date.
That was all that mattered, backup, no backup, Elaine didn’t give a shit about any of that. She wasn’t waiting around and risking either of them escaping. With a slow breath, Elaine gathered herself, and sprung into action. She performed the familiar ritual of wardrobe change in record time, and clicked her earpiece on.
“Evening, Slip. How was your date the other night?” It seemed Tic was still stuck on comm duty, though, there were worse people Slipspace could have in her ear. Tic was, at the very least, a friend.
“It was nice. Would you believe me if I told you I had another tonight?” At first, all Slipspace got in response was a wince. After a brief pause, however, Tic replied.
“Ah, shit. I’m sorry, Slip. Really. We’ll get it done this time, and fast. Easy peasy. As far as intel goes, she’s hitting another lab this time. Looks like consumer robotics instead of weapons at least.” He tried to seem at the very least somewhat cheery, which Slipspace appreciated.
“Well, at the very least we don’t have to worry about whatever she’s stealing getting out then. I’m ready on my end.”
“You got it, Tare’s should have you set momentarily.” A few moments later, a familiar sight popped into Slipsace’s apartment, she took a step through the tear in reality, and was through to the other side.
The building was quiet, whatever alarm they’d tripped to alert the guild must have been silent, which made following their voices quite easy. Especially with how loudly they were arguing.
“Remind me again why we’re out here?” That must have been DeLEXIous, it was haughty, playful with an almost regal drawl.
“Because we need these parts if we’re ever going to make that finickity piece of crap work consistently.” Arcadia replied incredulously. It sounded like whatever was going on the two villainess’ were occupied, maybe could use the argument to get the drop on them both. She’d take out DeLEXIous first, DeLEXIous was a wildcard, Slipspace knew very little about her actual abilities. She’d likely lose her element of surprise and be unable to take out Arcadia just as quickly, but Arcadia was a familiar foe. Slipspace knew how to deal with her, and wouldn’t be holding anything back. Either way, she definitely wasn’t in any sort of mood to wait around for backup. The longer she waited the longer they had to get what they needed and leave, and she was not passing up an opportunity to deal with both of them at once. Besides, she had somewhere to be. And her two assailants showed no sign of letting up on high volume discussion.
“Ah, and when you say finickity piece of crap I assume you mean-” she didn’t have time to finish before Arcadia cut her off.
“We’re here for coolants, Lexi. Of course I’m talking about the damn pod, not the fake bomb you’re making for Sentinel to diffuse with the deactivation code ‘will you go out with me?’ Why would a bomb need coolants?“ From the sound of her voice, the pair were likely about fifty feet away from Slipspace, probably around the next corner, to the left and maybe behind some kind of thin partition.
“It wouldn’t, but there’s all kinds of cutting edge hardware here we could use for both projects. And don’t sass me! It’s a good plan, Arcadia. She’ll definitely get it this time, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t use my civilian name while we’re on the job.” Slipspace had to hold back laughter. She might actually enjoy this girl if she weren’t on the wrong side of a two on one fight.
“For fucks sake Lexi is in your supervillain alias.” Closer still, Slipspace peaked around the corner, and there they were, another fifteen or so feet away, backlit and obscured by a frosted glass pane. Just a little closer, swing around the pane and she’d look for a way to even the odds a bit.
“I know, but my alias is fucking cool and I want you to use it and, oh shit. We’ve got company. Hey, you. Hero. You didn’t hear any of that stuff about Sentinel did you?” Slipspace froze, Arcadia glanced in her direction, then froze, Lexi just gave an awkward wave.
“No.” She muttered tersely, eyes frantically scanning for anything she could use to her advantage.
“Oh, good. She’s not like, coming too, is she?” That was definitely a hopeful tone. Slipspace ignored her while she searched for an edge. Perhaps the window? They were pretty close to the lab’s floor to ceiling windows, and one of them appeared to be their point of entry, given it was shattered completely. Slipspace could probably use that somehow. She just needed to find an opening, or bluff, and also be sure she wasn’t sending anyone plummeting to their death. Satisfied, she shifted her gaze back to her opponents, and adopted a casual posture. Arcadia didn’t know she knew. Perhaps with a bit of acting, she could get close.
“Sentinel? What? No. I mean maybe, I have no idea, but backup is on the way so you two should definitely surrender.” It was worth a shot, right? Arcadia stepped into view from behind the partition.
“Slip, please, I know we haven’t gotten on well in the past. But Lexi and I are trying to help people. We’re not making weapons or anything, we’re stealing coolants so we can use the same machine that -” In a moment, Slipspace had made a pair of shortrange portals to transport herself within striking distance, then a second set to connect her otherwise inaccurate kick with the back of Arcadia’s head, causing her to crumple forward onto her hands and knees.
“Should have taken the easy option. Frankly, I don’t care what you’re doing. You’re interrupting my night. I had something important to do and I will not let you monologue through my date.” She created two more sets of portals simultaneously landed another swift kick to Arcadia’s kidney, then an uppercut between her ribs. That would be enough for now, Lexi’s turn.
“You’re not the only one with shit going on you know, she had plans tonight too. Actually, she also had a date. A real hot date, too. Probably hotter than whatever loser you were able to land.” Lexi stepped into full view, clad in white power armor with deep red trim and an array of panels, buttons and gadgets that cast her in the glow of multitudinous bright neon colors. Her armor left her legs, arms and torso mostly covered, but with little gaps here and there to show off her curves and rich, flawless skin. An odd choice, but perhaps necessary when one's entire reason for becoming a villain was to seduce a certain hero.
There was additional plating around her neck up onto her face, covering the sides of her jaw and cheek, but leaving her dark painted lips revealed. What Slipspace could actually see of her suggested Lexi was quite pretty, her skin was a medium brown not entirely distinct from Allie's, though maybe with a little more sun exposure. The way the armor hugged her cheeks and jaw suggested a sharp, angular face and plump cheeks. The sides of her head were shaved, with thick strands of short, dark, voluminous hair covering the top. Her eyes were partly covered by a transparent red visor, stretching temple to temple, but appeared to be a rich brown.
Slipspace was readying a retort when Lexi began deftly tapping a series of buttons on her wrist, causing a sudden burst of light and heat. Thin beams of energy shot out in all directions, Slipspace dodged, creating a portal right below and behind herself which she handsprung backward into, depositing her mid air in a descent toward Lexi, whom Slipspace sprung off of in a thrusting kick containing all her momentum, shoving Lexi toward the open window. Slipspace titled, and dove into a backward roll, sticking the landing perfectly. She awarded herself a quick internal hell yeah and rose to her feet. Slipspace focused her gaze on her target to find that, surprisingly, Lexi had barely moved. The kick definitely did something, Lexi was closer to the open window, but still a few feet from her tumbling out. Lexi stretched with an exaggerated, leisurely groan of delight and ran her hands down the sides of her most un-doctorly, and somehow skimpy power armor, and snapped her gaze forward.
“The nice thing about tech and intelligence based powers is I don’t actually need skill in battle. I can just have my energy shield on 24/7. Lots of batteries are needed for that, but we’ll be done soon enough. Also, are you trying to knock me out the window? Bad hero. Just because I have thrusters on this suit doesn’t mean I’d enjoy the fall. Let me show you some of the fun things I can do.” With a wave of her hand two nearby desks were wrenched from the floor, levitating across the room to cover the open window. “There, you’ll have a hard time breaking that glass, so I wouldn’t try. Anyway, here’s another fun trick I picked up, let me know if you recognize it.”
A swirling mass of energy began to form and, yep, that was another portal. Slipspace rolled her eyes, her powers were going to be obsolete soon if she wasn’t careful. She scanned the room as calmly as possible to find where Lexi had placed the other end, before a faint buzzing behind her caused her to whirl around, just in time to see Lexi take a single step forward from her end, and meet Slipspace face to face. A strong hand gripped Slipspace by the throat, lifting her up into a suspended choke. Lexi exhaled a bored sigh, standing casually, not even attempting a combat stance.
“My word, I guess I’m just used to fighting sterner stuff than you. Oh well, what’s to be done about it? It’s naptime, Slipspace.” If She could actually breath, she’d be laughing. Rule number one about fighting a portal based supe: don’t stand still with your back straight and feet close together. A new pair of portals appeared in a heartbeat, one at Lexi’s feet, the other exactly five feet above her head, and Lexi fell, and fell, and she kept falling in a perfect loop until effortlessly, Slipspace changed the top portal’s direction to about forty five degrees pointing upward and away, launching Lexi in a perfect arc across the room, before she met the floor with a loud crunch. So much for thrusters. Lexi didn’t get back up, though a quick once over told Slipspace she thankfully wasn’t dead. Time to clean up.
Arcadia was barely coming to when her wrists were wrenched behind her back and pinned in place. Slipspace couldn’t help but take a moment to gloat, sliding her mouth right next to the girl’s ear. “Well well, looks like your win was just a fluke, as usual. Your colleague would be a lot scarier if she actually had any fighting experience. I dig the new body, by the way, really. It suits you, and that wardrobe change? Oh my. If I weren’t fucking pissed off at you for compromising my date tonight I’d have half a mind to take you out instead.” Was that a whimper Slipspace just heard? Holy shit, Arcadia was enjoying this. Cackling to herself, Slipspace eagerly cuffed her and produced a rope from her utility pack. “Time to get tying, cuffs alone aren’t enough, I need to make absolutely sure you won’t be getting loose.” That was her domme voice, her actual real life domme voice, though slightly garbled by her vizor’s built in voice modulator. Still it was clearly distinct from that bellowing, holier than thou hero tone she normally used under the mask. She needed to calm down, she was getting carried away. This was incredibly inappropriate and if it kept going it could be borderline sexual assault.
She took a series of deep breaths, calming her thoughts, shutting out the way Arcadia shook like a leaf under her touch. For real though, just what had gotten into her since their last bout? Slipspace shook her head in an attempt to clear it, focus. She needed to tie Arcadia up. Slipspace set to work, further binding Arcadia's arms, her legs and wow, those legs. The energy shell her powers were projecting had dissipated, leaving Arcadia’s lower half barely covered, and the way those ropes caused the fat around her hips and thighs to bulge so enticingly, the way she hung her head, shivering with anticipation, the feel of her silk smooth skin, those whimpers. Wait, Arcadia’s modulator wasn’t operational anymore, was it based on her powers too? Slipspace tried to wrack her brain for memories of past fights where that may have come up, but those cute little gasps kept getting in the way and - oh god - she knew that voice. And those thighs, and that skin and what the fuck? Elaine gasped, her visor retracted, her headpiece was discarded. “Allie?”
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Well, that happened faster than I thought it would
Yeah, ultimately this is going to be a bit of a shorter story than Searching For Normal is turning out to be, but we'll probably see more of these characters in the future.
@SapphicSounds *curb your enthusiasm theme plays*
Oop there it is!
Hnnng
