The Adventures
of the Jade
Dragon
Episode
7
Chapter 2
Trapped
“You’re sure it was one of the Pussies?”
said Sun Lin, also known as the Jade
Dragon.
Melissa Gallant, also known as Scorpion
nodded. “I’m
sure. It was the one called
Wildcat. She was dressed in a
pretty little frock, but it was her alright.”
The Jade Dragon arched one beautifully contoured
eyebrow. Resting her hand on
her knee she peered into the darkness.
Far below her a taxi drove slowly down the street and past the
Scorpion stirred.
“I thought I saw something move in the shadows near the edge
of the roof,” she said. She
arched her rather scantily clad body accentuating the smooth contours of
the muscles beneath her costume.
“It’s a good thing it’s summer,” thought Sun Lin, watching
Scorpion’s streamlined body, “otherwise she’d
freeze.” Scorpion was wearing
a tight black dress that fit her almost like a second
skin. Most of her well muscled
but shapely shoulders were
bare. Only a strip of
cloth covered her left shoulder and kept the dress from slipping off her
large well-formed breasts. In
the cool night air, the outline of the girl’s nipples could be clearly
seen. Below the tight-fitting
waist, the dress was slit up almost to the top of each thigh to allow freedom
of movement. The rest of her
legs were bare except for knee-high black leather
boots. A tiny pair of black panties
provided minimum modesty.
Sun Lin shook her head slightly. It
was beyond her why the girl would dress so
provocatively. It was almost
as if she was auditioning for a spot in some exotic night
club. Scorpion leaned out a little
farther, straining to make out the figure she had spotted on the gallery
roof. As she did so her dress
hiked up a little, exposing her smoothly muscled
buttocks. “Damn good thing
I’m not a man,” Sun Lin murmured, “or I’d be tempted
to kidnap her.”
“What’s that?” asked
Scorpion. “I wasn’t
listening.”
Sun Lin blushed. Fortunately,
she was wearing her dark green cowl.
“I…I was just wondering
if you saw a man,” she stammered.
Melissa looked at her. The Jade
Dragon sounded nervous, which was most unusual for the usually impassive
oriental heroine. “I’m
not sure what I saw. But I’ll
keep looking. It might move
again.”
The Jade Dragon reached into her utility
belt. “Might as well use
some technology,” she said, taking out a tiny set of
binoculars. She scanned the gallery
roof while Melissa moved back into
position. The girl was supposed
to be watching their backs while the Jade Dragon kept watch, but it was a
far from interesting job. However,
Melissa had tremendous patience, learned while training as a member of the
Assassins’ Guild in
The girl moved farther back on the
roof. From here she could get
a better view of any approaching enemies.
Generally being twenty stories up was very safe, but she had learned
the hard way that it was not wise to take anything for
granted.
In front of her the Jade Dragon leaned a little farther over the dizzying
drop. The woman had absolutely
no regard for heights and often strode along the narrowest rooftop ledges
as if she was walking down a city
sidewalk. For a few seconds her
sleek body in its dark green and black costume was outlined against the city
lights. She was an impressive
figure. Tall for an oriental,
she stood about five foot nine, just two inches shorter than
Melissa. Large breasted for one
of her race, her perfect features were hidden behind a black mask that hid
the upper half of her face. The
mask melded into a jade green cowl that covered the rest of her
head. From her shoulders flowed
a long cloak; black on the inner side and the same shade of jade green on
the other. It could be reversed
quickly to make her seem to disappear when she stood in the dark night
shadows. The rest of her skin
tight costume followed the same colour pattern of green etched with black
diamonds that ran down her arms and legs.
The configuration served to break up the outline of her body, making
her difficult to see in the gloom of the
night. Knee high black boots
and a black utility belt completed the
picture. Various curious weapons
dangled from the belt, each small enough to be carried without hampering
her movement.
Sun Lin turned to look briefly at
Melissa. “I think we should
take a look,” she said.
“I see no sign of a trap and for all we know the Black Leopard
could already be in the gallery.
There is such a thing as being too
cautious.”
Melissa nodded and moved to the edge of the
roof. Fifteen stories below her
was the roof of the gallery. She
took a deep breath. The Jade
Dragon was right; there was no point in hanging
back. In the last few months
the heroines who patrolled
“Are you ready for this?” the Jade Dragon
asked.
Melissa nodded again. For the
last few months Sun Lin had been helping the newest member of her crime fighting
company hone her considerable abilities.
Of all the Jade Dragon’s companions, she was the only one who
approximated her in the arcane skills that made her
unique. Sun Lin had been helping
her to develop her unique mental powers to extend her natural physical
gifts.
“I’ll go first,” said Sun
Lin. Then without a further word,
she flexed her legs, the muscles of her thighs rippling beneath the skin-tight
silk, and leaped into space.
The force of her jump hurled her away from the side of the building, carrying
her right across the street below and over the roof of the
gallery. But she did not drop
like a stone, as any onlooker might have
expected. Instead, she seemed
to glide, her fall mysteriously slowed by an invisible
force. Her cloak billowed out,
making her resemble some dark creature of the night, and then seconds later,
she dropped gently to the roof.
Once there she immediately moved to the shadows of the gallery
roof.
Melissa crouched on the edge of the roof, watching her mentor disappear below
her. Then she bent her bent her
knees and vaulted into the abyss.
She had done this before, but not from such a great
height. For a few seconds, she
fell uncontrolled, and then she concentrated her mind as she had been taught,
willing her descent to slow. Her
body seemed to lighten and her precipitous plunge changed into a gentle
glide. A wild exhilaration swept
through her. What she was felt
was as close to flight as a human could
experience. It was over all too
soon. Flushed with a feeling
of accomplishment, Melissa landed lightly near the shadows where the Jade
Dragon had disappeared.
Immediately, she moved to join her friend and
teacher.
For a second she could not find her.
Then Sun Lin moved her cloak a little, allowing Melissa to see
her. She was crouched behind
a large air duct, the black side of her cloak turned outward, rendering her
almost invisible. Melissa moved
beside her. “Anything?”
she whispered.
“Not yet,” Sun Lin replied.
“But there is someone moving around over
there.” She pointed to the
far side of the gallery roof. She
made a motion with her hand.
“Circle,” she said.
“I’ll go the other way.”
Melissa nodded as Sun Lin moved off into the
shadows. Crouching low and keeping
to the less well illuminated portions of the roof she moved by a circuitous
route to where Sun Lin had pointed.
The roof of the art gallery was topped by a huge pyramid-like glass
skylight. It was this object
that she and the Jade Dragon were
circling. She kept to the shadows
cast from the lights of the buildings around her, her assassin’s skills
helping her to blend completely into the rooftop
landscape. Rounding the corner
of the skylight, she spotted four dark figures crouched near the edge of
the glass. She immediately crouched,
waiting for the Jade Dragon to get into
position.
She studied the four figures standing near the base of the
skylight. They were dressed
identically, in skintight black outfits.
“The Pussies,” thought Melissa, but where is the Black
Leopard?”
Although Melissa was new to the crimefighting game, she was well aware of
the Black Leopard and her disciples.
The four women in front of her were extraordinarily beautiful, their
streamlined bodies barely disguised by the form-hugging costumes they
wore. She could not see their
faces, but she was familiar with them
all. First there was Wildcat,
the most dangerous of the group.
She was a brownette of average height, a gorgeous body, and large
blue eyes. Her martial arts skills
were formidable. She was the
natural leader of the group. Next
to her was Tiger, a tall, beautiful, and large-breasted blonde with the
intelligence of a donkey. Then
there was Ocelot, another attractive blonde, with a strong, shapely athletic
body. Next to Wildcat, she was
the best martial artists. And
finally, there was Cheetah, a gorgeous
brownette.
Not as spectacularly endowed as Tiger, she was considerably more
intelligent. However, none of
this mattered to Melissa. Her
attention was focused on the member of the gang who was not there, the Black
Leopard. The petite oriental
was by far the most dangerous member of her band and her absence was
troubling.
A few seconds later, Melissa spotted the Jade
Dragon. She had come around the
other side of the skylight. She
gave her a hand signal indicating that she was ready, and then stepped toward
the four Pussies.
“Evening ladies,” said Sun Lin, “where is your
mistress?’
Seemingly surprised, the four women turned as one toward
her. “Jade Dragon!”
exclaimed Wildcat. “Get
the bitch!” She immediately
launched an attack.
Sun Lin hardly seemed to move, but suddenly Wildcat was flying through the
air, describing a graceful arc before crashing into the unyielding surface
of the roof with a heavy thud. The
other Pussies followed her almost as one, but before they could take more
than two strides, Scorpion hit them from
behind. She took out Tiger and
Ocelot without them even knowing she was there, while Sun Lin finished off
Cheetah with ease. In a few seconds
all of the Pussies were lined up on the rooftop, their hands securely handcuffed
behind them and their ankles similarly
shackled.
“Well,” said Melissa swiping her hands back and forth as if dusting
them off. “That was certainly
easy.”
“A little too easy,” replied Sun
Lin. “I can’t help
feeling we are being set up. But
I don’t see how.” She
glanced warily about her. “Do
you sense any traps?”
“Nothing,” responded Melissa, shaking her
head. “We seem to be
safe.”
“That’s what you think, sweetie,” came a voice from
above. “You’re not
the only one who can climb buildings.”
Startled, both women looked up. The
voice had come from the building across from the one they had been perched
on before they jumped to the museum roof.
High above them they could make out a tiny figure clad in
black. Then, as they watched
a small round object left her hand and drifted toward
them. “Scatter!” ordered
Sun Lin, as she ran for the far side of the
skylight.
Scorpion was right behind the Jade Dragon as she dashed away from the falling
object. “The Black Leopard
must be desperate,” she shouted.
“A bomb will kill her own
gang!”
“Maybe it’s not a bomb,” Sun Lin yelled back, vaulting over
a conduit. Then from above them
came a muffled ‘boom,’ as of a small explosive going off inside
an enclosed space.
Both women looked up. The small
ball the Black Leopard had thrown was
gone. In its place was a small
cloud out of which was expanding a number of spidery
filaments. Within less than a
second the filaments had expanded to a size that covered half the
roof. It looked like an enormous
web, dropping toward them.
“Run,” Sun Lin shouted.
But she was too late. The
gossamer filaments, spread by tiny weights expanded the web beyond their
ability to escape. It settled
over them like a gauzy cloud, enfolding them in its thin
folds. It was then that the two
heroines discovered that the thin netting resembled a spider web in more
ways than one. As they fought
to escape, the thin filaments stuck to their bodies like
glue. “Stop struggling,”
said Sun Lin, “we’re making it
worse.”
Both women lay perfectly still.
They were completely sheathed in the sticky folds of the
web. “Got something in your
utility belt that’ll get us out of this?” asked
Melissa. She had already tested
the strength of the web. Despite
its thinness, it seemed as strong as
steel. Even straining her svelte
muscles to the utmost she could not move the stands more than an
inch. “What is this
stuff?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” gasped the Jade Dragon, “but it’s
got me so tight I can’t move.
There’s some solvent in my belt, but I can’t reach
it.”
“Maybe I can,” said Scorpion.
Moving her arm as slowly and carefully as she could she edged her
hand toward the Jade Dragon’s utility
belt. The sticky strands of the
web clung to her arm as she moved it, but the net was still loose enough
that she could reach the Jade Dragon’s
belt. “Which pouch?”
she asked.
“The third one. It’s
a small vial. Let’s hope
it works.”
Melissa flicked open the pouch. She
tried not to rush, aware that the Black Leopard was probably closing in on
them, but also cognizant of the fact that any sudden movements would tangle
her so badly in the web that she would not be able to use the solvent even
if she could get it out. Her
finger closed around the vial.
Using her thumb she flicked the top off the bottle, and then there
was a sudden pain in her arm.
“Naughty, naughty,” purred a silken
voice. “This net is a work
of art. I don’t want you
wrecking it.”
The pressure on Melissa’s arm increased as the Black Leopard stepped
down harder, forcing her hand to open
involuntarily. “That’s
better,” purred the black clad villainous, as the liquid drained out
onto the roof without damaging the net.
“Now you two stay here.
I have to revive my girls. I
hope you two bullies weren’t too hard on them, because if you were I
will be very angry.” The
pressure on Melissa’s arm disappeared as the Black Leopard moved off
toward her Pussies.
She was gone only a couple of minutes.
In that time both heroines exerted every muscle in their lithe bodies
in an attempt to escape, but the webbing held them in a grip of
steel. By the time the Black
Leopard returned with her posse of angry Pussies both women were damp with
sweat, and no farther toward getting loose than when they had first
started.
”Wildcat and Tiger tell me that you used excessive force against
them. As a matter of fact
Wildcat’s backside is quite bruised.
I have promised her that she can have access to both of yours by way
of compensation.” The Black
Leopard’s use of English was
perfect. Only a slight accent
betrayed her Asian origins. But
it was the tone of her voice that sent a shiver through Scorpion and the
Jade Dragon. Despite the calm
manner in which she spoke, her words dripped menace, sending a shudder through
both captive women. It was clear
that their time with the Black Leopard was not going to be a pleasant
one.
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