Valuable Merchandize

Chapter 1

"Acquisition"

by Skytower

The events were deadly, simultaneous and related. In a decayed and dying section of the City of New York a team of men and women combed over what had once been a building. Floodlights battled darkness and rain but as much as they could illuminate the ruins, the lights could not penetrate the deeper patches of shadow. From a rooftop across the street a man and a young woman watched.

Across the city, in a newer section that had yet to be touched, outwardly at least, by the urban decay, in an office building that reached toward the sky, a woman was driven to consciousness. This was not the first time in her life for the experience. A raging fury bellowed in her mind. Fighting the effects of the sleeping gas she opened her eyes, but they refused to focus. From the few moments of awareness granted to her Wonder Woman realized only a few things. She was nude, bound with her ankles tied in front of her, thence tied to a rope that ran down to her knees, which were also tied, and her arms were tied to her side. Only her tiara was left in place. Wonder Woman realized why she was mad, her bracelets had been taken from her, and when an amazon's bracelets were removed she went insane with rage. She saw a form come toward her. It could have been a man, but Wonder Woman really couldn't tell. As if from a large echoing chasm she heard his words.

"These other broads will bring a nice price, but you Wonder Woman should fetch more than a million dollars all by your self."

Under the weight of those words Wonder Woman collapsed back into the abyss.

The rain did not let up and the man and the young woman grew impatient. Not that any sign of it showed in either of their bearings. He was a tall well built man, dressed in a grey costume with a dark cape and cowl that were shaped like a bat. The woman was dressed in the same way, but her cape was shorter, her figure more lithe.

"They aren't moving." Batgirl said at last. Her voice was calm but pleasant.

"I don't expect them too." Batman said. His voice was calm but not pleasant. There was a tone to it that was often heard by people waking from nightmares, a graveyard quality that could never be forgotten. "Wait here until the information arrives. Then join me."

"This isn't Gotham City." Batgirl pointed out.

"I know." Batman said as he stepped off of the ledge and into the air. As he started to fall Batman threw a small bat shaped projectile with a rope attached to it. Just when he looked like the rope would miss and he would plunge 3 stories to the street the bata-wrang wrapped itself around a fire escape and Batman sailed into the night.

The Rage would not let Diana sleep. It pushed her past the drug, pushing her heart to beat faster and faster until the pounding in her ears woke her up once more. Again her eyes wouldn't really focus, but she started to writhe in her bounds, pressing hard against the rope, ignoring the pain as the thin cords dug into her skin.

"She's awake." a cold, but soft voice noted. "Why is that? With her wrist bound she should not be able to resist the drug."

"Because these fools removed her bracelets as well." Another voice said. This one was lower in tone, but still as cold. There was a muffled gurgle that Diana could tell was a death choke, then someone bent down to her. Hard as it was to focus Diana blinked until at last she saw a dark woman with white hair and red eyes. The woman smiled as she slipped the amazon's bracelets over her forearms, above the ropes.

The Rage left her and so did consciousness.

Detective Elliot Stabler was a man who often felt far older than his years. As a member of the Special Victims Unit the crimes he had seen had driven other men off of the force. It had taken its toll on him as well. A receding hairline marked his years and the intense way his blue eyes gazed at the world reflected his character. Beside him stood another man who had seen far too much of the darkest of human natures. But he was taller; slimmer than Stabler, with a face that seemed full of angles. His hair was jet-black and combed toward the back. Thin rimmed glasses aided his vision, though he often cursed them for it. He was dressed in a dark suit while Stabler was dressed in a cream colored one. Both men ignored the driving rain as they watched the crime/disaster unit comb through the rubble.

"Why both of them together?" Stabler asked, his voice betraying concern, annoyance and frustration.

"The guy wanted immunity and Alex was the only one who could give that." Detective John Munch replied. His voice was calmer, almost sardonic. "At least that's what the note on her desk said."

"You don't go alone." Stabler said.

"They weren't alone." Batman said from behind the two men. They whirled hands going toward their guns before they recognized him. "Wonder Woman was with them."

"What the hell was Wonder Woman doing in New York?" Stabler demanded. "And why didn't she clear it with us? For that matter why didn't you?"

"For the past two years there has been a steady stream of strange disappearances along the Easter Seaboard." Batman said, ignoring the questions. "New York, Metropolis, Gotham City, Boston and Washington. In January the Black Canary vanished. In March SuperGirl." Batman looked at him and Elliot Stabler felt a chill grip him, something Elliot had not thought possible. He was a policeman with more than a decade of experience, he had sat across from men without souls, but the deep white eyes of Batman ignored his experience. Elliot realized that this man had seen far more than even he had, and he wasn't just a man in a costume. The moment of realization passed and Batman continued.

"I was busy, Superman asked Wonder Woman to check out a lead while he's busy with a meteor that's heading toward Earth."

"What was the lead?" Munch asked. If he was affected by the presence of a man in a bat suit he didn't show it.

"A man called the Justice League hotline." Batman said. "He used SuperGirl's access code and said he knew where she was, but he wanted immunity and protection. This was the address he gave."

"That explains Alex but not Olivia." Elliot said.

"It doesn't explain either one." Batman said. "Wonder Woman was supposed to go in alone."

"So now they are under all that?" Elliot demanded.

"If they were Wonder Woman would have dug them out by now." Batman said. He walked past the detectives and over to a section of the rubble. The CSI/Disaster team gave him room. It might have been a trick of the light but Elliot couldn't tell where Batman's shadow ended and his cape began. The masked man took something out of the belt around his waist and put a bit of the rubble into it. After a moment he stood up and came back to them.

"This building was not exploded or imploded." He said. Elliot saw that he was holding some hi-tech gadget. "There's no blast residue. There is also no temporal radiation."

"So what does that thing tell you?" Munch asked.

"The mortar holding the bricks together was turned to dust by extreme age." Batman said.

"So we've got a supervillain to deal with?"

"No." Batman said. "At least not a known one. This was done by magic, but the syndicate I've been tracking has left a paper trail of buildings and car rentals. Supervillains don't do that."

"I want to see what you have." Detective Stabler said.

Batman made a slight move with his hand and a cd-rom disk appeared there. Silently he handed it to Elliot.

"HTML encoding."

"Beats a paper file." Munch said.

"I've got it!" Batgirl said from behind them causing both detectives to turn around quickly. "One fifteen East 8th street, the whole building. It's owned by the same group that owns this one and it's the only other one in this city that they own."

"That's a brand new building." Munch said. "But no ones in it yet, I past it the other day and saw a big rental sign."

Elliot turned to say something and but realized that Batman had vanished.

"He'll meet us there." Batgirl said.

Alex Cabbot was a person used to an orderly world. Alex liked order; she strove for it in her private life, and worked hard as a District Attorney to bring order to society. Still her work brought her into contact with the most un-orderly people and events in the world. Alex adapted. Usually.

This was different. She was not facing some monstrous specimen of mankind in a courtroom or an interrogation room with police to aid her. She was lying naked and bound on an office rug. Smooth cords cut into her wrist and arms, legs and ankles, despite the fact that she hadn't moved. Alex was too terrified to move. There was shame in that terror, a shame that dug at the foundations of her ego. It was a shame that Alex did her best to ignore. But struggle as she could to control her terror it held her. Alex had looked at too many crime scene photos, tried too many sexual assault cases not to know what could happen to her. That she was nude, that a stranger had removed her clothes while she was unconscious, that she was now completely helpless; those facts gave her fear all the fuel it needed to paralyze her. Nor could she stop picturing her attacker removing her clothing; wondering if he had taken her blouse first or her skirt, had he removed them carefully or torn them off? Had it been a man or a woman? What else would they do to her, had they done anything else to her? Where was she?

Alex opened her eyes just wide enough to look around. She was in an office building as she had guessed. The rough carpet on her bare skin told her that much. The place was new, Alex could tell that from the smell of adhesive on the carpet. The room was unfurnished and gave her a magnificent view of the rest of Manhattan, giving Alex a clue to where she was. Unconscious on the floor beside her was a nude woman. Tall, with muscles that showed incredible tone, a flat stomach and very large breasts the woman was stunning to look at. Alex was smaller, slimmer and not in half as good a shape as the other woman. Her shoulder length hair was blonde while the other woman's was long and dark. There was a silver tiara on her forehead. The tiara held a red star in its center and Alex realized she was looking at Wonder Woman. The memories of the battle came back to her. She had been in the building with Olivia, looking for a new apartment. The building had seemed wrong and the neighborhood even worse, and Alex suddenly realized she hadn't thought of moving until... until Olivia had walked into her office at the end of the day. But Detective Olivia Benson was a friend, someone Alex trusted. At least until Olivia had slammed Alex into a wall and handcuffed her. Then the image of Olivia had faded away like broken glass, revealing a slim dark woman with pointed ears, red eyes and white hair.

Then Wonder Woman had crashed through the window. The fight was over quickly, the dark skinned woman falling easily before the amazon. Wonder Woman had freed Alex and then the two of them had discovered a bound and gagged Olivia in a closet. But just as they were freeing her Alex had heard a sound and looked behind them.

Though she lived in a world of Super Men and Super Women, witches and warlocks and all manner of superbeings Alex had never met any of them. Members of the JSA seldom moved in the same circles as the D.A. assigned to the Special Victims Unit. She had also never encountered a supervillain of either sex. As far as Alex knew when a heroine of Wonder Woman's caliber knocked someone out they stayed out. So Alex was completely shocked when the dark skinned woman threw something on the ground and the room filled with foul smoke. The smoke tore the air from her lungs and burned her eyes before granting her sleep.

I should have said something. Alex thought as the shame tried to gnaw at her ego. Wonder Woman might have moved fast enough to stop her.

The amazon was nude and bound as well. As helpless as Alex. Hearing no other person in the room Alex risked looking around. The walls of the room were painted with arcane designs and patterns, some of which were glowing different colors. On the other side of her lay Olivia. Olivia was nude and bound in the same manner as Alex. Somehow that shocked the D.A. more than anything else had. Alex had worked with Olivia on hundreds of cases, seldom had she ever met a stronger woman, never had she expected to see Olivia like this. Olivia was the mid-point between Alex's body type and Wonder Woman's. Her brown hair was cut short but not severely so, her breasts were fuller than Alex's, but not as large as Wonder Woman's. Alex was surprised to see a small police badge tattoo under Olivia's right breast.

"These drugs are just not going to serve." remarked a voice from the other side of the room. Alex twisted her head around so violently it hurt. A short, slim man with dark skin, long white hair and red eyes stepped from the shadows. As he walked toward her Alex realized he wasn't a man. Not a human. His fingers were too long and delicate looking, his ears were pointed and there were other features that just were not human, though at that moment Alex would have had a hard time naming them. He was dressed in a dark business suit that seemed completely wrong for him. "You should have stayed asleep for days."

"Who are you?"

He smiled, bent down and placed his hand over her mouth and nose. His grip held incredible strength and he pressed Alex's head into the floor. She struggled and squirmed helplessly in his grasp. He smiled and with his other hand fondled her breast. Panic started to fill Alex as her lungs screamed for air.

"You will call me; "Master" on those few occasions when I allow you to speak to me at all. I pity this world, a collection of the lesser species completely ignorant of Drow superiority, at least the humans of my world fear us. But I do not think it will take me long to teach you to fear me."

Alex was starting to grey out, her legs and arms falling numbly limp and her moans growing weaker. She managed to nod her head, which seemed to satisfy him. The drow released her and Alex desperately sucked in air.

"Char'al!" a voice called. It was a soft voice full of hard hate and rage. A second later the door to the room was thrust open and a small drow woman entered. In contrast to Char'al she was wearing a glittering gold and black shift, one that did nothing to hide her sensuous body. Her white hair was done up on top of her head with pins of gold and silver that were full of glittering gems. At her waist a black whip with four snake heads that quivered as if alive.

Char'al bowed to her and she stalked over to him, ignoring the captives.

"Cease playing and begin you casting, we have been discovered."

"At once Mistress Alaun'jss." Char'al walked over to the wall and began muttering and making passes at the symbols.

"Why is she awake?" Alaun demanded looking at Alex. This close Alex could feel dark power animating the drow, and she could see that the whip's snake heads were not only real, but alive. They moved on their own and examined her.

"No magic." One of the hissed.

"Bad drugs." Another concluded.

"Jim!" Alaun'jss shouted.

A tall man in a business suit charged into the room at the tone of her voice. Before he could take two steps past the doorway Alaun's whip flashed out the snakes bit into his flesh. He went down with a choked scream, his flesh turning purple even as blood dripped from his mouth. Alex could not take her eyes off of the man as he died. It was slow and very painful. Beside her the drow woman laughed softly.

Suddenly the air in the room changed. A draft of cold damp air filled with a harsh mineral taste filled the room.

"The way is open Mistress." Char'al said bowing.

Alex looked past him and again was shocked, even though she could not believe she could be shocked anymore. The wall had faded away to reveal another room, but it was not a room in the building, or even on the planet. Torches lit that room, and statues of strange creatures encircled a depression filled with a soft grey substance. The place was a dark subway station at night; a dark alley full of danger; it screamed death and worse than death. Alex felt her spirit wither at the look of it.

Without warning she felt herself lifted off of the floor. No one had picked her up physically. Olivia and Wonder Woman floated in the air as well. Alex struggled, some instinct for self-preservation allowing her that even as another one kept her from screaming. In the end neither helped. As her body moved through the portal Alex felt it bend and twist in unnatural ways. Then she felt nothing at all.

The entire building was empty. There were no signs, no guards, there were not even any locks. But somehow Batgirl led Detectives Stabler and Munch to the 8th floor. There they found Batman standing in front of a wall that had an enormous circular burn mark on it. A corpse, bloated and reeking of death lay by the doorway.

"We're too late." Batman said. He continued to examine the wall carefully.

"I'll check out the rest of the building." Batgirl said. She left and Munch walked over to Batman. Stabler bent down to examine the corpse and pulled out his cell phone to call it in.

"What are we looking at here?" Munch demanded. "One of the super-nuts going into the white sex slave business."

"Nothing that simple." Batman said. He took a small flashlight out of his belt, adjusted a control on it and shined it at the wall. Patterns and symbols appeared on the wall in violet and green hues.

"That man there is Jim Trigger, real name Johnana Dechiovisky, one time Russian mob. Recently he was working the acquisition circuit in China. He was the front man for this operation, but his money came from converting gold to hard cash, cleanly, through banks, not under the table so he felt safe about it."

"Other dimension?" Munch suggested.

"Probably. The gold had no radioactivity so it didn't come from space, but it had trace elements that were un-identifiable."

"How come we haven't heard of this before?" Stabler demanded walking over to them.

"I shared what I know with Homeland security." Batman said.

"It's probably sitting in on a desk somewhere waiting for clearance." Munch said. "Unless they think its something we don't need to know."

"We got a detective and a DA missing." Stabler said coldly. "We needed to know."

"I found something." Batgirl called appearing in the doorway.

The room was full of clothes. Neatly folded and placed in separate shelves. On top of each set of clothes were watches, earrings and wallets or purses. There were three types of clothing. Expensive and stylish, sensible and business like and torn and filthy.

"This is Olivia's." Elliot said holding her wallet. Without thinking both he and Munch had put on surgical gloves. It was a crime scene for both of them and despite the knowledge of whom the victims were both men were professional.

"We caught them off guard." Batman said looking at the clothing. He picked up a dark sequined dress. "This is new."

"There's more." Batgirl said.

She led them into the next room. Three stone slabs had been set up. The slabs were solid black stone with red glowing runes carved into them. Thin lines of glowing red and black spider-web-like threads linked them. Grey chains were attached to the center and the right slab, but not to the left one. On the center slab, chained securely, was the nude corpse of a woman. The corpse was nearly mummified and covered with webbing.

"Homeless." Batgirl said inspecting the body. "And an addict."

"What the hell were they doing?" Stabler asked.

"Sacrifice?" Batgirl suggested.

"To who? Why?" Batman asked.

"Who was missing in those other cities?" Stabler asked.

"Dave Knutchinson, a minor league pitcher." Batman said. He put a sample of the webbing into a container and placed it into his belt. "Kathy Silverman, a freelance artist. Lesley Markhams, a reporter."

"No obvious connection." Stabler said.

"If it's magic who do we go to?" Munch asked. "Dr. Fate?"

"Dr. Fate is in a coma." Batgirl said. "He might never come out of it."

"We'll find out on our own." Batman said. Silently and smoothly he walked toward the door. "Our best lead is the dead man."

Inside a room in an expensive high rise that was directly across from the office tower a woman snarled. The image that was relayed to her through the high powered telescope showed police teams swarming over the building, searching, cataloguing... They were dangerously thorough. The woman stood tall and well built dressed in a sheer black and gold dress that did not hide her beautiful body. Her red hair seemed to crackle with the anger of her voice and she turned cold grey eyes on the man who knelt infront of her. Coiled at the woman's waist was a snake head whip. The snake heads were alive and hissing.

"Who betrayed us?" she demanded. Her voice was slightly off, not wholly human, but not harshly so. It was as if a normally soft voice was speaking through a hollow tube.

"No one mistress Bur'aere." the man groveled. He was thin, wearing a simple grey tunic. His baldhead bore many scars and his body trembled, knowing that more were to come sooner or later. Most likely sooner. "It was the Batman, somehow he divined our location."

"How?" the woman screamed. "He has no magic?"

"We do not know." the man said. "He is a creature of the shadow, his..."

The snake whip flashed out and one of the heads bit into the man's ear. He screamed and fell, but made no move to touch the snake.

"He's a man, a human, one of the lesser creatures... he knows NOTHING about shadows!"

"Yes mistress." the man stuttered through his fear.

Bur'aere let the snake gnaw a bit on the man's ear for a few minutes, enjoying the pain it caused him, then she released him.

"Have you succeeded in getting the rest of the merchandize from the tower undetected?"

"Yes mistress." the man said making no move to get off of the floor. "They are secured and await your viewing in the holding area."

"Lead me to them then."

Cringing he climbed to his feet and led her out of the room.

Four women and two men stood in the center of the room. The men wore the clothing of police patrolmen, as did two of the women. Of the remaining two women one wore a nurses uniform while the other wore a business suit. They stood still, eyes closed, asleep. The cringing man bowed and stepped aside as Bur'aere entered. Immediately she noticed something was wrong.

"What happened to this one?" She demanded pointing to one of the policewomen. She was a tall heavyset woman with blonde hair. Her uniform blouse was undone revealing a black bra.

"One of the men started to undress and molest her." The cringing man said.

"He's dead." Bur'aere said.

"Instantly mistress."

Bur'aere nodded and gazed at each of the humans that stood before her. Sighing she turned back to him.

"Give the police to our human friends, they can be of no use to us since it will be another of your months before the portal can be opened once more. Bur'aere looked at the businesswoman. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"I am Gweneth Starman." The woman said opening her eyes. They were hazel and dull, seeing nothing. "I run the eastern division of Tingsdale Insurance, a division of Wayne Enterprises."

"What is insurance?"

"A fund set aside and added to on a regular basis in case of disaster." Gwen replied.

"Is this is a vital part of your society?"

"Yes."

"How long can you be away before people will become suspicious?"

"I run the office, I can take whatever time I need provided I call in and leave instructions with my secretary."

Bur'aere nodded and moved on to the other woman. As if shut off Gwen's eyes closed and she fell silent.

"Who are you?"

"Rachel Greer, Registered Nurse." the woman replied.

"A healer?"

"An assistant to one."

"How long before you are missed?"

"I am due back on duty tomorrow night."

Growling Bur'aere moved away from her and Rachel's eyes closed as well.

"Only the insurance woman can be of use to me." she said. "Give the nurse to Izz'ayne."

The cringing man paled at the name and nodded.

"Come with me." Bur'aere ordered Gwen.

After they had gone the cringing man looked at the ones who were left. Reaching over to Rachel he took her arm and led her away. He stumbled slightly as they walked, tears blurring his sight.

Underdark. The word somehow slipped into Alex's mind. She had no idea how, but couldn't deny it fit. The chamber was not dark, but not lit as well. In her first year of law school Alex had dated a 60's nostalgia freak. It had been a brief affair, only long enough for her to realize that she was one in a long line of 1L girls. But the experience of making love in a room illuminated only by a small candle and blacklights had almost been worth it. The chamber reminded her of that room. It was larger, made of stone and as cold as a winter's day, but the smell of incense was there. There was also the burnt air scent of energy released. At first Alex couldn't make sense of her surroundings or of her own thoughts. It was like waking from a drugged slumber. She remembered the journey, remembered her body being torn apart and put back together again, the first time in a vast universe of rot and demons and endless webs. That had vanished and she had woken up here.

"This one is still awake." Char'al said bending over her. His voice betrayed surprise and awakening interest. Fear nearly stilled Alex's heart as he looked over her nude body.

"You disgust me." Alaun'jss snarled.

Char'al bowed and moved away.

"Forgive me mistress."

"We smell of their world and so do they." Alaun'jss said coldly. "Clean them, instruct them, bring the two peasants to my study. Put that noble with the other, make sure she is well contained. Do not under any circumstances remove the binding from her wrist or remove her bracelets."

Alex wasn't sure who she was talking too until a figure lumbered out of the darkness and into the semi-light. The woman was taller than anyone else in the room, in fact taller than anyone Alex had ever seen before. She stood ten feet tall, with dark stone-like skin pockmarked with pits and scars, looking very much like old weathered concrete. Her hair was a bright green and worn long, and her eyes a clear blue, her ears were pointed and her teeth, sharp fangs really, were brilliantly white. The woman-thing wore a heavy black corset and pants that seemed to have been grafted onto her skin, and barely kept a massive cleavage in check. She had four arms, the lower ones ending in claw like hands, the upper ones ending in hands that could have belonged to any other woman.

The woman thing bowed low and Alex saw small ivory horns on her head poke through the green hair.

"As you command mistress."

She walked over and picked up Wonder Woman, Olivia and Alex, tucking each one under an arm and walked out. Her skin feet like oiled sandpaper and smelled like the floor of a cave. It was all Alex could do not to faint.

The basement crime scene was almost a routine operation. The man lay dead on the floor of the garage, a bullet in his chest. Batgirl and Batman had surveyed the area before the CSI team had reached the building. Batman had left but Batgirl lingered with Stabler and Munch as the crime scene was examined.

Munch showed no problem at all with her presence, Stabler was clearly uncomfortable. If Batgirl noticed his discomfort she gave no sign of it.

"How could someone capture Supergirl and Wonder Woman?" Munch asked. "I saw Supergirl lift a building once."

"There are organizations that have spent years researching how superheroes can be captured or killed." Batgirl said. "For the right price they'll sell you instructions, materials, men... anything you need. But this wasn't any of those groups."

"How can you know?" Stabler asked.

"We keep a close watch on them." Batgirl said. "Any large amount of money changes hands and we know something is up."

"So why not just give us the evidence?" Stabler demanded. "Let us take them in."

"Because it's not legally obtained." Munch said. He looked at Batgirl and his tone accused her. "None of the Bat family follows the law as closely as Superman."

"We don't break the law." Batgirl said.

"Then how did you find out about this place?"

"Record research." Batgirl said. "From one dummy corporation to the next..."

"How'd you find about the guy upstairs." Munch pressed.

"You use wiretaps, we sit outside windows. If the person talking on the phone leaves his window open that's his fault."

"Even if he's on the tenth floor?" Stabler demanded.

"Bronsky versus the State of New York." Batgirl said. "A reasonable expectation of privacy presumes common sense. I don't think we bend the law any more than you do detectives."

"We got the badges." Stabler said.

"Are criminals as scared of you as they are Batman?" Batgirl countered.

"I don't see anyone being scared of you Batgirl." Munch said.

"You've never fought me." Batgirl said calmly. It wasn't a challenge, just a statement of fact.

"I've put out a request in the department." Stabler said, vocally stepping in between the two of them. "If any other cops or DA's go missing we'll know about it."

"Batman do the same for the JLA and assorted hangers on?" Munch asked.

"Word will get around." Batgirl said. "What worries me is how late we've come to this party. Black Canary vanished in January. Now we can't find Mary Marvel. Superheroes tend to be gone for long periods of time, off planet like Superman is now, in other times, in other worlds..."

"Held captive by nutjobs." Munch finished for her. The look she gave him almost made the detective take a step backward. Jon Munch had seen that look too many times before on too many young women. Suddenly he realized that Batgirl had been held prisoner, probably more than once, probably by the worst of the worst. He felt an instant respect for the young woman.

"That too." Batgirl said. "That too."

Alex was carried along as easily and casually as a sack of groceries. She was grateful that the light was so dim even though she realized that nudity was the least of her problems. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness and ethereal lighting of the underdark the prosecutor couldn't help but be impressed by its beauty. She was essentially in a giant cave, but like the hill dwellings of the Pueblo indians it was a cave made into a city. The architecture was vaguely mediaeval, but with a touch of the absurd and gothic as well. The impression Alex felt, aside from great age, was that human hands did not build the place. She didn't think that the dark elves had built it either. Another, older race had built this place. The corridors were too wide and high, the doors shaped like inverted pyramids and the floors sloped in a curve from the center to gutters on the sides.

They passed many more dark elves as well as small lizard like creatures, huge furry animals that resembled a cross between bears and dogs, small gargoyle like creatures and huge one-eyed ogres. A few curious stares were tossed their way, but no one bothered the captives.

At last they came to a ramp that led downward. It proceeded down in a long tight spiral and they passed many barred doors. It was a prison. There was no way the prosecutor in Alex could ignore that. But it wasn't really a prison. She, Olivia and Wonder Woman were being taken to a dungeon.

At the end of the spiral was a solid metal door. The door was crawling with small lizards that hissed and clawed the air at their approach. The woman-thing growled and the lizards fell silent. The door opened and she took them into a large circular chamber.

Alex could not figure out why she wasn't screaming. The sight of the room should have made her scream, even if nothing else had yet too. Alex had seen bondage rooms before, both playful and non-playful; she had walked through the playgrounds of serial rapist. None matched what she was seeing by torchlight. There were wracks and cages of all types and sizes, burning braziers with irons stuck into them, stocks and other devices whose function she could barely guess at. The woman-thing dropped Alex, Olivia and Wonder Woman in a heap on the floor and then went to a large vat over in the corner. Alex rolled off of the other two women and noticed that Olivia and Wonder Woman were waking up.

"Olivia!" Alex hissed.

Olivia's soft brown eyes opened and she tried to move. There was an instant of fear and confusion on her face before grim determination banished those feelings.

"Where are we?"

"I wish I knew." Alex said. "This is like an S&M version of Lord of the Rings."

Olivia struggled silently for a few minutes, her movements causing the ropes that bound her to dig more deeply into her body. She gave up and looked around.

"All I can tell for sure is that we aren't on Earth anymore."

"Not on Earth?" Olivia's tone showed what she thought of that notion.

"No, we aren't." Alex insisted. She gestured with her head. "Look over there."

"Hell!" Olivia swore as she saw their jailer. She suddenly noticed Wonder Woman.

"Wonder Woman?" Oliva asked.

Wonder Woman's eyes fluttered open and sparkled with rage as she realized her condition. Like Olivia she struggled, and like Olivia she soon gave up.

"Why can't you break free?" Alex demanded.

"My wrist are bound." Wonder Woman said tugging at them. "When an amazon's wrist are bound she becomes as helpless as other women in man's world."

"We're not in man's world!" Olivia grunted going to work on her own ropes again. "What sort of idiot makes a law like that?"

"The Goddess Aphrodite." Wonder Woman said, offense clear in her voice. "It is a reminder of how fragile an amazon's strength can be."

"No goddess here but Lloth." the woman-thing said coming over to them. She bent down and with one clawed hand freed Olivia's ankles.

"Who are you and where are we?" Wonder Woman asked.

"I'm Drog." The woman-thing said. "And this is The Pit. I run things here."

She reached up with her clawed hand and freed Olivia's wrist. Angrily Olivia struck out with her full force, aiming a blow for Drog's jaw. The blow hit with no result. Two of Drog's hands took hold of Olivia's wrist and held them above her head while her claws took the last of the rope off of her body.

"Mistress told me to teach, so this is lesson one." Drog said completely ignoring Olivia's struggling as she held the officer. "Your nothing, none of you. Up in the light you may have been something, queens, guards, mages... doesn't matter here. Here you keep the mistress and the other drow happy and you'll live, not in comfort, but you'll live. If you not you'll be lucky to die."

She stood up and carried a still struggling Olivia over to the large vat. Drog had started a fire underneath it and now steam rose from the surface of green hued water. Without ceremony or warning Drog tossed Olivia into the water. Olivia vanished for a moment and then came up sputtering and shaking her head. Drog reached into the water and took hold of one of Olivia's ankles. She pulled it up nearly out of the water and held it there. Olivia grasped the side of the vat to keep from falling backward. While she was doing this Drog's other three hands took hold of brushes, soap and a washcloth. It was less of a bath than it was a battle, and it was one Olivia had no chance of winning. She tried anyway, kicking, splashing and even trying to bite Drog at one point. But each attempt caused her to slip and fall into the water and she was quickly exhausted.

"Try to untie me." Wonder Woman whispered as Olivia's watery battle continued.

Alex tried but the knots seemed to draw themselves tighter and before she had even gotten them loose Drog had finished. Olivia had been chained to a wall, her arms above her and a metal cage around her head that held her jaw shut and her head to the wall. Another band of metal ran across her chest, and both her knees and ankles were secured to the wall with more bands. Olivia's breasts heaved as she tugged at her bonds. Her skin was bright pink and except for her face and head every bit of hair had been scrubbed off of her body.

Ignoring the fact that Alex had just tried to help Wonder Woman escape Drog shoved her onto her back, cut her ropes and carried her to the vat. Alex had a few seconds to take a deep breath before she went under the water.

The liquid burned coldly and seemed to tear the skin off of her body. Unlike Olivia Alex didn't try to fight, but she did struggle, driven by instinct even though she knew it was useless. The washcloth and brushes roamed over her body at will. Alex screamed as Drog used the brush between her legs, scraping at her pussy. She screamed again as the brush ran over her breasts.

When it was over Alex was lifted out of the vat like a baby. Drog carried her over to the wall and chained her next to Olivia. The same metal cage was fixed around her head, but close up Alex could tell that it wasn't simply a cage. Runes were etched into the metal. The glowed as the construction came into contact with her skin. To metal prods rested in her ears and a metal tab was forced into her mouth. Alex found that her vision blurred if she looked beyond the cage. A horrid smell of death and decay filled her nose and ate into her mouth. The bands around her stomach, knees and ankles were clammy and very tight.

Despite her discomfort Alex heard Wonder Woman's futile struggles as she was washed and hung out to dry. When all three women were secured Drog took a seat somewhere close to them and started to talk.

"The cages on your head will teach you how to talk and write in our language. Right now the only reason you understand me is because you went through the portal, that won't last long. But you need to know the right way to address the nobles, the right way to act around them. So listen carefully. These are the rules, we're going to go over them very carefully, because if you make a mistake with any of them death isn't going to be your problem, you'll be wanting to die long before their through with you."

The truth of the words settled over Alex like a heavy blanket as Drog talked on.

...To be continued