Fucking With Freedom Girl 2:

Freedom Girl Saves the World?

 

By Marcus Lycus

(Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com)

A while back I did a story called ‘Fucking With Freedom Girl’ where a sweet and innocent high school heroine is captured by a mercenary and they are forced to relive that night again and again until they finally fall in love and are freed from the time trap.

It was surprisingly popular so I’m doing a sequel. 

Enjoy!

 

Marcus Lycus

(Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com)

July 2008

 

Legal Horrors – Freedom Girl and other characters are copyright and trademark Marcus Lycus.  All rights reserved.

What does that mean?  It means that if you want to use any characters in another story you need my permission.  It also means that you can’t repost this story without my permission.

And since this story is meant for people over the age of 18, please don’t read it if you are younger than that. 

Any resemblance between characters in this story and any actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental of course.  

And finally, please e-mail me with any comments, complaints or suggestions. Remember feedback leads to more stories!

 

Take 16 – Wednesday, noon

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen began to shake in fear.  How long did she have this time?  Minutes?  She could hear Raphael in the shower, would she warn him this time?  Or just run?  Or just wait?  She couldn’t stop shaking; she was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Not again…” she muttered.

Her Freedom Girl costume was in the closet, along with her magic belt.  She knew she could just grab the belt and run.  Just jump out the window and start moving, before her enemy arrived.  This time he might not find her.  This time she might even be able to stop him.  If only her knees would stop shaking.

What was the point?

So she plopped down on the bed and watched the window.  She saw the winged shapes in the sky and knew she would not have to wait long.  She pulled off her t-shirt and unzipped her jeans.  Dressed only in her bra and panties she knelt on the floor facing the window. 

She felt calmer.  It would hurt less this way.

The wall exploded. 

Tiffany resisted the urge to flinch or cry out as broken glass and shards of concrete hit her.  But she managed to remain on her knees with her head lowered obediently.  She heard Raphael screaming from the bathroom she heard the door open and felt the flames shoot over her head.  She heard her lover scream in pain and fall silent.  He was dead.  Again.

“Sorry…”  She muttered under her breath.  At least it had been quick for him.

She heard leather sandals coming closer, she could see Warbringer’s feet.  She knelt lower and kissed them gently.  She felt his fingers running through her blond hair.  She heard his high-pitched boyish giggle. 

“Good job Tiffany.  Real good.  You learn pretty fast.  Now get up.  Got a lot to do and I’m looking forward to doing it with you.”  He giggled again.  “And to you.”

The nineteen year old college freshman shivered but did not let her fear show.  She didn’t want to be punished. 

Her master led her to the shattered wall.  A leather-winged Chimera was hovering outside the apartment.  The mythological beast had the body of a lion, the wings of a bat and a scorpion tail.  Sparks of flame flew out of its nostrils.  It took all of Tiffany’s courage to approach the thing.  Next to him the Furies were hovering on their vulture wings.  The flicked their whips and girl flinched, she didn’t want to feel those again!

Her master gestured and she dropped her knees again, trying to ignore how the shards cut her knees and legs.  She let Warbringer use her back as a stepstool to mount the monstrous creature.  Then she climbed onto the Chimera’s back, lying sideways on her belly in front of Warbringer.  The young boy rubbed his hands along her body and slipped his fingers between her legs, inserting it into her vagina through the panties.  Tiffany winced but managed to feign a moan of pleasure, as if she enjoyed his touch.  She knew it would be a very long day.

 

Take 0 – Thursday, noon

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Raphael winced when he heard the watch beep for noon.  He couldn’t believe Tiffany still had that thing, how many times had he told her to get rid of it or at least turn off that damn beeping! 

The blond girl behind him caught the look and blushed.  She turned off the hourly chime.  She knew her boyfriend hated it.  But it was her lucky watch after all.  Last year it had saved her life!  She’d been out on patrol and found some leather-clad villain robbing a warehouse.  She almost beat him but he got in a lucky punch and knocked her out.  When she woke up she was tied up and helpless.  It had almost been Freedom Girl’s last case. 

***

Freedom Girl – This new heroine claims to be the daughter of Colonel Liberty and a Polish freedom fighter he met while battling the Soviet Union. Colonel Liberty refuses to comment on her story but did praise her as a “bright, hard-working and patriotic heroine”.  She wears a magic belt buckle created by Paul Revere that gives her enhanced strength and agility.  Her costume consists of a blue long-sleeved bare-midriff top decorated with white stars and white cargo pants decorated with red stripes. After a busy rookie year she has kept a lower profile in recent months. – The Kirby Guide to Superheroes and Heroines 2007 Edition

***

But she’d escaped by cleverly breaking the watch’s face and using the broken glass to cut her ropes.  She defeated the Reaver and saved the day.

***

The Reaver – This mercenary has not demonstrated any superhuman abilities but is an excellent athlete and martial artist.  He always executes his client’s orders efficiently and professionally.  He wears black leather armor and a black face mask and carries a variety of knives, shurikens and other weapons but has never used a gun. The Reaver disappeared in 2006 after being defeated by the rookie heroine Freedom Girl.  His status and true identity are unknown.  – The Kirby Guide to Villains 2007 edition

***

But the whole adventure had scared her.  She knew how easily things could have gone wrong.  She could have been stripped.  She could have been raped.  She could even have been sold off as a sex slave in some supervillain auction.  No one liked to talk about it, but every heroine knew these things happened. 

She’d been this close to quitting when she met Raphael.  Or Night Ranger as he was better known. 

***

Night Ranger – This new vigilante hero has not demonstrated any superhuman abilities but is an excellent athlete and martial artist.  He always deals justice efficiently and professionally.  He wears brown leather armor and a face mask and carries a variety of knives, shurikens and other weapons but has never used a gun. He first appeared in late 2006 and is usually seen in the company of Freedom Girl.  – The Kirby Guide to Heroes and Heroines 2007 edition

***

The mysterious man had come up to her one day in the mall and taken over her life.  He made it clear from the start that he knew who she was, he knew all about her abilities, her mistakes and how much she needed training.  And he offered all of that. 

She’d been scared at first.  How did he know this?  How could she trust him?  But she soon put aside her doubts.  In just a few days he taught her so much about martial arts, using weapons, escaping from traps and finding criminals. 

He said someone had sent him, and implied it was her father, but never offered any details.  He would only say it was classified.  When Tiffany finally got the courage to ask Colonel Liberty about her new mentor her father had played dumb.  But if it really was classified he would have to play dumb wouldn’t he?

After a month it really didn’t matter any more.  They were lovers.  And they were in love.  Tiffany worried about it sometimes.  She knew so little about Raphael, so little about his career, but he seemed to know everything about her.  Not just her career as a heroine, but even what bands she likes, what foods she likes, even which spots were ticklish! 

But he was good to her.  Really good.  After a year together she felt like she could be a heroine even without her magic belt.  And in bed he was go gentle, so caring.  So much better than her high school boyfriend. 

It had been hard keeping both her costumed identity and her relationship a secret from her mom.  But this summer her mom had taken a trip back to Poland, leaving Tiffany alone for a month.  Raphael had spent every night with her.

But now summer was coming to an end.  She’d be starting classes again at Mega University next week.  Last year trying to balance home and school with Freedom Girl and Night Ranger has been a nightmare.  She’d almost flunked out.  This semester was going to be different.  Her education had to come first.  If that meant that Freedom Girl had to take a hiatus, then so be it.  And if that meant breaking up with Raphael…  Well… she hoped he would understand.  After all if he really loved her he’d let her have her space.

Right?

So this was their last week together.  They were camping in the hills outside of Megapolis for a few days of hiking, fishing, skinny-dipping and making love under the stars.  It was the best vacation she could imagine.

***

Ahead of her on the trail Raphael Hernandez scowled.  What the fuck was he doing here?

A year ago his life had been so clear.  He was a mercenary villain called the Reaver.  He stole and he killed for money.  He did his job and he did it well.  Until Friday the 13^th.  He’d been robbing a warehouse when this bimbo heroine with the dumbass name of ‘Freedom Girl’ busted in on them.  He took her down easily enough and tied her up.  His henchmen wanted to gangbang her but he didn’t allow that shit.  He was a professional.  But something went wrong.  She got free and tossed him into this high-tech device. 

When he woke up it was Friday again, and he lived the day over.  And over.  And over.  Some days he killed Freedom Girl out of spite.  Other days he ignored her.  But finally, in the end, he fell in love with her.  And after a lot of tries, he found a way to make her love him back.

So here he was a year later.  Fucking Freedom Girl every night, posing as some vigilante hero called Night Ranger (he still couldn’t believe he’d chosen such a lame name, it sounded like some 80’s hair metal band).  He’d been lucky so far that none of his old criminal buddies had figured it out yet. 

It had been for a while; he’d busted some of his rivals, some old employers who’d cheated him and other people who deserved it.  But now it was getting dangerous.  Night Ranger was getting a bit of a reputation.  The problem with that was if you’re a villain the heroes want to lock you up.  But if you’ve got a good lawyer, or know something about escaping, that was just a nuance.  But when you’re a hero with a rep, then villains are looking to kill you.  That was a bit harder to get out of.

Just last week Villainy eXtreme sent four of their cyborgs to kill him and Freedom Girl.  If the Global Protectors hadn’t stepped in they’d be dead.  Well Raphael had had enough of this shit. 

Yeah Tiffany was hot.  Yeah Tiffany was sweet.  Yeah he cared about her.  But it was time to move on.  Sometimes he thought about telling her the truth, asking her to follow him into the underworld.  She could be Reaver Girl or something.  But he knew that Colonel Liberty’s daughter would never go for it.  They were from two different worlds.  It was amazing this had gone on as long as it had. 

So he figured this camping trip was their last weekend together.  Once school started he’d tell her he had a secret mission or something and hop a plane to Moscow.  There was always work there for someone good with knives.

***

Lost in their thoughts the two lovers reached the top of the hill.  Below them they could see all of Megapolis, from the heights of Shooter Tower to the Sterenko Bridge, to the shores of Lake Morrison.  It was breathtaking. 

Then it exploded.

The entire city was consumed in an atomic fireball.  The Reaver saw if for a second before his eyes were burnt from his skull.  He staggered blindly for almost a minute before the shockwave hit knocking him off a cliff to the rocks below.

Freedom Girl would have died too.

If she had been there.

***

“Where am I?”  The blond girl asked.

She was in some sort of marble hall, like a courthouse or library.  Doves flew through the air, and fountains and statues decorated the room.  She caught a glimpse of herself in one of the fountain pools.  She was no longer wearing her hiking shorts and tank top; she was now in a blue midriff top decorated with white stars and pair of white cargo pants decorated with red stripes.  Her blue mask was on her face and she was wearing the magic belt buckle her father gave her.  She was dressed as Freedom Girl!

“OK.  This is weird.”  She said.  Her voice echoed through the hall.  “I know I left my costume back home.  Raphael, are you here?”  Her voice echoed.  “Is anyone here?  Hello?  Where am I?  What am I doing here?”  Fear began to creep into her voice.

‘Fear not, maiden of liberty, I shall answer your queries.”

A woman began to float down from the ceiling.  She was dressed in some sort of old armor, like Brad Pitt had in Troy, had a spear in her hand and had an owl sitting on her shoulder.  Freedom Girl realized she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

“Um…”  She said.  She really couldn’t think of anything else to say.

‘The answer to your first query is obvious by now for I am here.  You are in the Halls of Olympus, and I am Athena, Goddess of Wisdom.”

“Um…”  Tiffany continued.

‘I have brought you here because your experiences mean you are the only one who can avert the cataclysm that destroyed your great city of Megapolis.  you must foil the plans of my evil nephew, the one you call, Warbringer.”

“Um…”

‘If you have no further questions we shall begin!”

“Um… WAIT!  Wait… wait.  OK, OK, so that evil nephew guy Warmonger-“

‘Warbringer.”

“Right, did he just like, blow up Megapolis?  I mean I thought I saw something but it happened so fast.”

‘Yes, he is the one responsible for the cataclysm you saw.  as I already told you.”  Athena’s tone became a bit impatient.

“Right, but like, if he already did it, what can I do?  I mean I’ll help but… well… why me?”

‘As I said, you are the only one who can.”

“But… but I’m just a girl!  Even with my magic belt what can I do?  Isn’t this a job for the Global Protectors or Apollo or someone?”

‘The Global Protectors cannot help you.  As for my half-brother Apollo… the coward remains in hiding.  As I said you alone can save the city.”

“But how?”

Athena’s tone became contemptuous, like an exacerbated schoolteacher with a slow student.  ‘Last year you were part of a rare and powerful temporal paradox, the lingering energies of that event will allow you to return one day in the past and relive that day until you stop the warbringer.”

“Huh?  Temporal what?  Are you sure you’re not thinking of Princess Patriot?  A lot of people get us confused…”

Athena sighed.  She waved her spear and said ‘Remember”.

The world went white.

 

Take 1 – Wednesday, noon

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen shook her head. 

“Huh?”  She said.  Just a minute ago she’d been in this big library thing talking to a strange woman, it felt so real.  And before that she was hiking.  And now she was back in her bedroom packing for the camping trip.  Everything was exactly the way it had been twenty-four hours ago.  Her backpack was open, her clothes were scattered on the bed, her costume hanging in the closet, her magic belt hanging from a bedpost… everything was the same.

At least on the outside.

She could hear Raphael in the shower humming some Spanish song.  Her watch said it was Wednesday again.  She shook her head and sat there thinking. 

The shower stopped.  Raphael stepped out dressed only in a towel.  She looked up at him.

And she remembered.

***

Tiffany was lying on the table spread-eagled, her wrists and ankles tied under it.  The leather-clad villain was standing over her heating a sharp hook-shaped blade with a mini-torch.  He put it under her chin near the blue and white-starred halter top.  “Geeze girl, did you buy this costume off the rack or what?  Cargo pants and a cropped top?  You look more like you’re going to Old Navy than going to fight crime.”

“I- screw you!”  She answered.  He voice broke that time too.  A quick slash down the exact center split the top open.  Her ripe breasts spilled out.  The Reaver had seen them plenty of times of course but they never failed to impress. 

“Nice tits Freedom Girl.  What is it with you heroines and nice tits?  How come you never see a super-babe with A cups?”  He pinched a nipple and pulled, the girl winced.  “You know what would look great?  A piercing right here.  Something like Janet Jackson had with that metal sun.  I bet you’d like that a lot.”  He reached for a needle.  The girl screamed.

Hours passed in a red haze until…

The Reaver hosed her down and untied the naked girl from the table. He adjusted her belt, the only stitch of clothing she still had.  He helped her to her feet and walked her to a mirror.

Her left eye was gone.  The eyelid had been stitched shut over the empty socket.  Her left breast looked like a pincushion dotted with needles, thumb tacks and even nails.  He had run needles down the length of her left arm, each one entering, passing through an inch of skin and then leaving.  A red arrow had been carved into the skin of her abdomen pointing down to her pussy, which he had painfully shaved with a hunting knife.  It would leave a vivid red scar.  Similar the words ‘Fucktoy Girl’ were carved down her right leg and a series of stars down her left.  Smaller cuts and scares crisscrossed her tender skin.  Freedom Girl looked at herself in the mirror and began to giggle, then laugh hysterically until her cuts reopened.  She doubled over gasping for breath.

“I’m so beautiful…” she gasped.  “Thank you daddy, thank you.”

***

Tiffany Truman curled into a ball and screamed as more and more memories came back.  The Reaver raping her.  The Reaver slitting her throat.  The Reaver killing hostages in front of her.  And finally of the Reaver breaking into her room (this room!) reading her journals and using them to seduce her, to make her love him. 

Raphael just stood there dumbfounded.  “Hey babe, what’s wrong?”

“I HATE YOU!”  She screamed and jumped to her feet.  She sobbed and pounded on his chest, making no effort to use the martial arts he’d spent a year teaching her.  Finally she turned away and collapsed on the bed hugging her pillow and sobbing.

“I hate you!  How could you do that to me?!”

“Sweetie what do you me-“ Then he figured it out.  His shoulders slumped and he sat down on the bed.  “Oh.  You know then.”

“You bastard.  You fucking bastard.  I fucking slept with you for a year, I fucking loved you.  How many times?!  How many times did you rape me?  How many times did you kill me?  Were you ever going to tell me?  It was all just one sick game!”

He put a hand on her shoulder “Tiffany, you have to look at it from my side-“

She tore away and jumped to her feet.  She grabbed her magic belt from the bedpost it was hanging off of and jumped out the window. 

Raphael just watched her go.

“I’m sorry.”

***

Powered by her magic belt Tiffany crossed half the city before she stopped.  Huddling under an AC unit on the roof of some apartment building Tiffany collapsed into sobs.  She desperately tried to wish it all away but the memories didn’t stop.  The feeling of the Reaver’s steel blade cutting her throat, the Reaver penetrating her while she was tied to a pole, the Reaver drugging her and giving her to a supervillain to torture to death…  How many times?  And this was the man she loved!

Crying she wished she could call someone, some other heroine who would understand but she had no one.  She’d teamed up with a few heroines like that Korean girl White Crane and Night Huntress but never really formed a close friendship.  As she thought about it was Raphael, he was always telling her she had to stand on her own and avoiding ties with other heroes.  She thought he was just being tough but now she realized he was trying to keep her away from the hero community, he was probably afraid of being found out.  And she couldn’t even imagine talking to her dad about this.  

So now what?

She’d been crying for a few hours, she’d heard her watch beep a few times.  She climbed back to her feet.  Well if there was no one to talk to, she had to distract herself, find something else to focus on. 

Like…

“SHIT!”  She yelled, she’d totally forgotten about the bomb!  She took off like a shot towards Mega University.  She had to find this ‘Warbringer’ guy and the library seemed like the place to start.

***

It was after six when she finally gave up.  Google searches for a supervillain called ‘Warbringer’, ‘War Bringer’ or ‘War-Bringer’ found nothing.  The Kirby Guide had ‘War Ace’, ‘War Axe’, ‘War Boy’, ‘War Creature’, ‘War Master' and ‘Warmonger’, but no ‘Warbringer’ or even ‘Bringer of War’. 

The only thing she found that was close was something called Project: Warbringer, an attempt by hard-line Russian generals to start a nuclear war with the U.S.  But that was sixteen years ago and Ultra Woman busted it up.  There was something in the old Daily Comet article about the Greek god Ares being involved but it seemed like a long shot.  Besides, there was no way for Freedom Girl to even get to Russia.

The Avenging League of Justice was still reforming after that whole Terminus thing last year so there was no way to call them.  She called the Global Protectors’ 1-800 number but just got a recording trying to sell her posters and t-shirts. 

In despair she walked out of the library.  She’d head back home, put on her costume and hit the streets.  Maybe she could find a lead somewhere out there.  She just hoped Raphael was long gone.

***

That’s when the demons attacked.

At least they looked like demons to her.  It was two naked women with feathered wings and legs and claws like some vulture.  They carried whips and nets.  And they were heading right for her!

Students scattered screaming but Tiffany reached into her pocked and pulled out her magic belt.  Finally!  Something she could hit!

“You want some?  Come on!”

The vulture demons lashed out with their whips but Freedom Girl wasn’t there!  She jumped twenty feet into the air and grabbed the library’s façade.  With an agile flip she was on the roof.  The vulture women swooped upwards but now Freedom Girl was ready for them.  She tossed a tarp over the side, catching one of them, pinning her wings.  The vulture woman fell to the ground with a sickening thud. 

The other shrieked.  The high-pitched sound was deafening.  Freedom Girl staggered back desperately covering her ears, her leg hit a duct and she fell over.  The whip lashed out again and this time she couldn’t avoid it.  It wrapped around her ankles and calves.  The vulture woman swooped upwards dragging Tiffany behind her.  Surprised she opened her hand, her belt buckle, her magic belt buckle the source of her powers fell from her fingers! 

“No!”  She screamed as she rose higher and higher into the air. 

The vulture woman accelerated and zigzagged, Tiffany was whipped left and right, barely able to breath.  As she passed out her last thought was “God, today just sucks.”

***

The vulture woman circled the city a few times to throw off any pursuit.  She flew high enough that anyone looking from the ground would mistake her for a bird in the early evening twilight.  Satisfied no one could see her she dove towards the abandoned warehouse district, heading for the old Atlas building.  Slipping through an open skylight with the unconscious blonde in tow she landed in the center of the warehouse.  She dropped to her knees and lowered her head submissively.  At the end of the hall a shadowy figure sat on a throne, next to him another vulture woman crouched, ready for action.

“Well?”  A high pitched voice asked.  “Who was it, Night Bat?  Ultra Woman?  It wasn’t Apollo was it?  Please don’t let it be Apollo!”

“No my massster.”  The harpy-like woman hissed.  “Twasss but a girl.”  She indicated Tiffany with one talon. 

“A girl?  Just a girl?  But…”  He walked around the captive and looked at Tiffany’s unconscious body and smiled.  Tiffany was wearing a tight red t-shirt and a pair of tight khaki capris.  He let out a low whistle.  “Hey, she’s hot!  Who is she?”

“I cannot sssay massster.  But ssshe is quite ssskilled.  Ssshe killed my sssissster.”

“This hottie killed Alecto?!”

“Ssshe killed Megaera massster.  I am Alecto.”

“Oh yeah, right.  Well that changes things.”  He kicked Tiffany with his sandaled foot rolling the unconscious girl onto her back.  He let out a low whistle.  “Maybe she is one of those superheroines after all.  She’s got the tits for it.”  He turned on his heel and walked back to throne.  “OK Tisiphone, get over there and help Alecto out.  Wake her up in your uh, unique style.”

The two vulture women let out a high-pitched chuckle and snapped their barbed whips. 

After the stresses of the day Tiffany was deeply asleep dreaming of riding a unicorn through a forest of chocolate.  She was free from care.  But her aching muscles twitched a few times and her brow furrowed.  Something was wrong.  Did a bee sting her?  There it was again-

“AHHH!”  She screamed as the barbed whips lashed her again and again.  She rolled to her side, hunching into a ball and covering her face with her arms.  The whips lashed her again, cutting through the thin shirt, baring her back.  One of the harpies charged her and kicked the girl several times with her clawed foot.  Her arms were cut several times, she raised them to ward off the blows the second harpy’s whip wrapped itself around her throat.  The harpy yanked it tight!  Tiffany couldn’t breathe, she reached for the whip pulling at it with her bleeding arms, the first harpy lashed her front, drawing blood on Tiffany’s stomach and cutting red lines across her breasts.  Tiffany cried hot tears and screamed incoherently.  The harpies laughed.

Finally…

“That’s enough.”

The harpies stopped and bowed.  Tiffany lay on the floor weeping and flinching for another minute before she realized it was over.  Panting she looked up seeing her surroundings for the first time.  It was like the evil opposite of Athena’s hall.  It was long and rectangular but the sides were lined with roughly hewn black stone columns.  A grated pit sat in the middle of the floor.  Chains hung from the ceiling, ending in cruel hooks.  Some of the hooks held skulls.

The blond girl was chilled to the bone. 

From the shadows at far end of the hall a voice rang out.  It was surprisingly high-pitched.  “So welcome to my temple.”  She heard a giggle.  “Don’t be shy, introduce yourself.”

A harpy cracked her whip, Tiffany flinched again.  But as she opened her mouth some small part of her that remembered her training took over.  “I’m Lisa… Lisa… um, Smith.”

Of course she didn’t remember her training that well.

“Lisa Smith is it?  Well welcome Lisa Smith.  Now why were you so interested in Project: Warbringer?”

“Huh?  I mean, um, I’m doing a paper on Russia and stuff.  It’s a summer class.”

“A paper on Russia.  And stuff.”  He parroted.  “Well then, I suppose this all a crazy mix-up huh?  Mind telling me how you killed Alecto then?”

“Megaera massster.  Ssshe killed Magaera.  I am Alecto.”  A harpy corrected.

“Whatever!  Mind telling me that ‘Lisa Smith’?”

“Um, I’m like, on the gymnastics team I was just trying to get away and it was like an accident.” 

“Just another crazy mix-up huh?”  His voice got higher still mocking hers.  “Opps!  I killed a Fury, one of the hunters of the gods, silly me!”

Tiffany squinted into the shadows, trying to see who this guy was.  He didn’t talk like a supervillain.

“Ladies?  See if you can get the truth out of her.”

The harpy women flicked their whips again. 

Tiffany was grateful for the brief rest.  She still ached, she still bled but at least she had her bearings, at least she had her wind back.  Whatever this guy was it was obvious he was the Warbringer, and he’d brought her right to him!  Even without her magic belt she remembered her training with Raphael (even though she wanted to forget everything else about him).  Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the harpies take a step back to use their whips.  She saw them raise them and-

SHE CHARGED!

On her knees she had managed to move herself into a sprinter’s crouch.  As soon as the whips began to fall she ran forward screaming.  The shadowy throne was 100 meters away but in high school she could do the 100 meter dash in 11 seconds, and that was before she spent a year training with Raphael!

She heard the whips snap at her heels and kept going.  She heard the harpies shriek but their cries seemed far away, she could only hear the roaring in her ears.  The throne was an ugly black thing set on a dais of black stone with a stone block on each side and a third bridging the two like an evil Stone Hedge.  She jumped and went into a kick aimed right at where she figured this Warbringer guy’s head was. 

“AH!”  She screamed as her heel hit solid stone with all her force.  She fell for the ground in a heap clutching her leg. 

Warbringer rose to his feet, all four foot, eleven inches of him.  Tiffany looked up at him; he couldn’t be older than fifteen.  He looked shocked, scared, then he laughed.  The harpies were next to her too.  Laughing.  He kicked her, Tiffany painfully rolled down the steps.  The harpies raised their whips cackling.  Tiffany squeezed her eyes shut.

And then…

The first harpy fell to the ground gurgling, a shuriken lodged in her throat.  The second turned, just in time for a throwing axe to take her head off. 

Tiffany opened her eyes to see Raphael, armed to the teeth and dressed in black leather standing in the doorway. 

Her boyfriend walked towards her.  She heard the Warbringer’s sandaled feet running towards the grate and saw him jump in she ignored the pipsqueak. Raphael reached down towards her.

“Sorry I’m late.  Traffic was murder.”

Tiffany stared at him relief turning back into anger.  How could he!  How dare he save her after everything he did!   She slapped him!

“You asshole!  You fucking asshole… you… you…”  She started to sob.  He knelt down and held her, she hugged him back.  Even after everything it felt so good to feel his strong body in her arms, protecting her.  She kissed his cheek.

“H-how did you even find me?”

“I… well the thing is… I sort of put a homing device in your watch a while back.  Just in case you understand!  Just in case of something like this.”

“You… you bugged me?”

“Listen, Tiffany, I… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that but hey, it worked out right?”

“You fucking bugged me?  It wasn’t enough that you raped me and tortured me and even made me love you but you bugged me too?!”

“Tiffany, I just saved your life!  And um, you might want this too.”  He reached into a pouch and took out her magic belt buckle.  “I saw the fight at the school but by the time I got my weapons out of the car it was over.  I managed to find this though.”

Tiffany yanked the buckle out of his hand.  Just holding it made her feel stronger, smarter and braver.  She climbed her feet, holding the stone so he could keep the weight off her injured leg.  Then she remembered.

“Ohmygod!  Warbringer!”

“Who?  That little asshole?  Don’t worry, we can find him later.  First we need to talk about us.  You have remember I was living the same day again and again-”

“No!  You don’t understand!  That’s why I remember what you did, I was sent back in time to stop him!  He’s going to set of a nuclear bomb!”

“What?  Come on then, lean on me, we’ll find him and I’ll stick a ka-bar up his ass.”

Reluctantly Tiffany took his hand and leaned on the leather-clad villain. 

Then the grate on the floor opened up.

Tiffany saw something like a lion before the flames shot out and killed both of them.

 

Take 2

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen screamed!

She was back on her bed, in her bedroom packing for the camping trip.  Everything was exactly the way it had been.  She had no cuts, no bruises; her leg felt fine and most importantly no burns.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God…”

She heard the shower stop.  “Tiffany?  Are you OK?”  Raphael yelled.

She jumped to her feet.  She couldn’t face him, not now, not after this.  The window was open.

Raphael stepped out of the shower wrapped in a towel.  Tiffany’s room was empty.  Her costume was gone.

But her watch was on the bed.

***

Tiffany was halfway across town before she paused on the roof of an old tenement.  At least this time I didn’t go to pieces she comforted herself.

She had her phone this time, and her costume in her backpack.  Plus some of the gear Raphael prepared for her.  At least this time if Warbringer and his vulture women showed up she’d be ready to fight.

She decided to focus on him.  Obviously she had another chance at him.  She had to take full advantage of it.  It might be her last.  As far as she could tell last time she and Reaver had been through the same day more than forty times but there was no way of knowing how many cycles she would have this time. 

She reviewed what she knew counting it off on her fingers.

• Warbringer is just a kid.
• He had three vulture women working for him.  No scratch that, he’d called them the Furies.  She’d have to look them up.
• Somehow the Furies were able to find her, and they knew she’d been looking up Project: Warbringer. 
• His base was some kind of evil temple.  It can’t be too far away since Raphael found it, but other than that she didn’t know where it is.  And of course Raphael’s memories were reset.
• Warbringer has some kind of lion monster working for him.

And that was it.

Not much but it was more than she’d known last time.

And the good part was that Warmaker’s memories should have also reset.  He had no idea she was coming!

***

Across town… in the old warehouse district.

“Again?  What the fuck… I mean I killed her!”

“Killed who massster?”

“Killed that girl.  Oh fuck, you don’t remember do you?”

“Massster?”

“And I don’t suppose telling you to hunt down Lisa Smith would help?  Fuck.”

“Lisssa Sssmith massster?”

“Yeah.  What the fuck.  You and Alecto go hunt down every fucking Lisa Smith you can find and bring them back here.”

“Massster I am Alecto, ssshe isss Tisssphone.”

“Yeah, whatever, get going.”

***

The library of Mega University was still pretty empty that afternoon.  Summer was almost over and only a few students floated in and out. 

This time Tiffany was careful.  No internet searches, she only used the paper version of the Kirby Guide.  She found entries for the Furious Four, Fury Femme and Captain Fury but nothing for just plain ‘the Furies.”  Then she remembered Warbringer saying something about ‘hunters of the gods’.  So she tried a mythology book.

She gasped when she found the page.  There she was, one of the vulture women, with a whip and everything.  “Tisphone, one of the three Furies of Greek myth sent by the gods to punish mortals.”  It said the Furies could find someone anywhere on Earth no matter how well they hid.  That might explain how they found her.  Warbringer must have told them to keep a lookout for anyone looking for Project: Warbringer.

Flipping through the pages she also found the Chimera, a monster with the body of a lion, the wings of a bat, the tail of a dragon who also breaths fire.  The picture sent chills up her spine.

Then she remembered something about the original Project: Warbringer being connected to Ares.  Ares, the Greek god of war!

She leaned back in her chair.  If Ares was part of this then, this was big.  Really big.  Like Avenging League of Justice big. 

Much too big for a junior heroine barely out of high school.

This was Apollo big.

Except Tiffany had no idea how to get in touch with him. 

But she knew someone who would.  However much she hated to do it.

She stepped outside and climbed up to a roof for some privacy.  She took out her cell phone and made the call. 

***

Deep in the mountains of Afghanistan Colonel Liberty, America’s greatest hero, picked up his satellite phone.

Tiffany hesitated; there was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to tell him but when she tried all she could say was…

“Hello daddy?”

“Sweetie!  It’s so good to hear from you!  How are you?  How is my little Freedom Girl?”

“Daddy, I need your help.  I… there’s something big going on, really big.  Someone is going to set off a nuclear bomb.”

“An A-bomb huh?  Gosh sweetie I sure hate those things, did I ever tell you about the time I stopped Veronica Crowe from selling Uncle Sam’s A-bomb secrets to the Nazis?  It was the summer of 1944 and I was in North Africa with Admiral America-“

“Yes daddy, I remember.”

“Of course you do.  You’re so smart sweetie.  Anyway I find the main thing is find the bomb and pull out the wires before the counter hits zero.  Usually I can time it just right to get the counter at 00:00:01 but you’re still new at this game so feel free to shut it down any time you like.”

“Yes daddy, I’ll remember that.  But daddy, I think Ares is involved.  You know.  Ares.  The god.  I really, really need help on this one.”

“Ares huh, is that windbag causing trouble again?  I thought Ultra Woman locked him up tight in Tartarus.  Anyway sweetie I really can’t do much, I’m in Afghanistan hunting terrorists.”

“The Taliban?  Al Qaeda?”

“Who?  Never heard of those guys.  I’m after VIPER; they’re planning to use a super-laser to carve VIPER Prime’s face into the moon.”

“Um, that’s nice daddy.  But um, what about Apollo?  Isn’t this his usual thing?”

“Apollo, yeah… but the thing is well, he kind of ran out on us during the Terminus thing.  He hasn’t been back since, and let me tell you when he does show his face I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.  Back in the big one no matter how bad things looked we always stood by our buddies!”

“Y-yes daddy.”  Tiffany choked back a sob. 

“Sorry sweetie I have to go, VIPER is sending some of their Android Negation Troopers after me.  Good luck with your A-bomb.”

She could hear laser fire in the background.

“Love you sweetie.” 

“I love you too daddy!”

And that was that.

***

“Figures.”  Warbringer muttered looking at the screaming women in front of him.  Out of the eighteen ‘Lisa Smiths’ the Furies has brought him like maybe three were hot.  The rest were like old or fat or something.  And none of them were the chick from yester- from the last time he corrected himself.  So he had the Furies kill them and fed them to the Chimera. 

“Oh well, may as well continue with the plan.”

***

More research filled the rest of Tiffany’s day.  She was no detective though.  Raphael always found the villains for her.  No amount of reading mythology books or rereading the last week of newspapers gave her any clue where Warbringer was or what he was up to. 

She sighed and tossed away today’s copy of the Megapolis Marvel.  It was so easy in the comic books, you just had to look at a random newspaper and there would be a headline like: Teenaged Boy Buys Warehouse, or Nuclear Bomb Shipment Passing Through Town Today.  But in real life there was nothing.  No clue where the villain was.

“I almost wish he’d capture me again…  Maybe I could call Raphael and fill him in, then I could be bait…”  But Tiffany didn’t want to talk to Raphael again.  And certainly didn’t want to be bait.

Then she saw her.

Sharon. 

They’d been classmates in high school and romantic rivals.  Since they both ended up at Mega University they’d been avoiding each other.  But if she needed bait…

“Hey Sharon, could you do me a favor, I forgot my logon and I need to do a computer search on something called Project: Warbringer…”

Thirty minutes later the library closed and everyone left. 

***

Heads turned when Sharon walked out of the library her long dark hair trailing behind her.  She was wearing a dark green loose blouse that showed off her cleavage and a short white ‘peasant skirt’ that no real peasant could ever afford to buy.  Her feet were bare in their fancy flip-flops so boys could see her $100 pedicure and toe rings. 

But Sharon barely noticed.  She was busy wondering what the heck all that was about.  First Tiffany (who hadn’t talked to her in like a year) asks her to look something up, then she barely pretends to look at the results and then takes off.  Ever since they graduated and Tiffany started hanging around with that creepy Spanish guy she’d been like a total flake.  Sharon figured it was drugs.  Probably cocaine.  She couldn’t wait to tell Debbie and Anne.  Oh!  She could even call Brad, Tiffany’s old boyfriend.  He was still pissed about being dumped probably be glad to have an old friend comfort him. 

Lost in her plots, the college freshman didn’t notice the two winged women until they dove from a nearby building with a shriek.  College students covered their ears and fell to the ground.  Sharon was easy prey, the Furies barbed whips wrapped around her wrists and she was carried helplessly into the air.

From the library roof Tiffany watched.  She felt sick doing this but it was the only way to find Warbringer.  Besides if it worked out Sharon would be restored to normal when the loop restarted.  She wouldn’t even remember it.  So it was OK. 

Right?

***

The darn harpies flew around the city for an hour and Freedom Girl totally lost them!  Luckily she’d slipped a tracking bug into Sharon’s pocket at the library.  But even then it took her another half hour to cross town and get to the old Atlas Warehouse.

She wished she’d gotten a motorbike like Raphael told her to.  But she’d always been able to ride behind him on his.

But she found it.  And a quick leap put her on top of the building.

She was starting to feel a bit guilty about using Sharon as bait.  She’d kind of figured she’d stay close to the harpies and rescue the girl before there was any trouble, but it had been an hour.  Who knew what they were doing?  Tiffany tired not to think about it.

She crept up to the skylight and peeked down. 

It was bad.

Really bad.

Poor Sharon was hanging from one of the chains on the ceiling while the harpies whipped her body.  Her fashionable clothes were just rags now and her tan skin was streaked with red.  Freedom Girl could see Warbringer walking around her, probably asking questions.  The heroine’s training told her to wait.  Check out the whole building, carefully choose her entrance point and time it right.  But her stomach told her to go in now.

So Freedom Girl jumped through the skylight.

She tossed three smoke bombs on her way down to distract the villains.  She landed in a crouch and sprinted to Sharon.  The dark-haired girl’s hands were cuffed together and the cuffs hung from a hook.  Freedom Girl hugged her and lifted until Sharon’s hands came off the hook.  She tried not to notice Sharon’s blood staining her shirt.  Sharon collapsed to the floor in a heap, Tiffany pulled her arms “Come on, we have to go!”

Sharon looked up at her in confusion.  “T-Tiffany?  Is that you?”

Crap!  Tiffany thought.  She and Sharon had been on the track and field team together, they’d seen each other naked in the locker room every day.  Naturally Sharon would recognize her even with a mask on.  But there was no time to worry about her secret ID, they had to move.

“Come on!”  She pulled again.

Around the two girls the smoke began to clear. 

The three harpies and Warbringer were standing around them.  Smiling.

“Uh-oh” was about all Freedom Girl could say.

One barbed whip wrapped itself around her left wrist.  Another hit her right wrist.  The two harpies pulled the whips tight and Freedom Girl was helplessly pulled off her feet.  She tried kicking loose, tried wiggling free from the barbed whips but the magical weapons held her fast.   

“RUN!” she yelled desperately but Sharon just lay on the floor, hunched in a fetal position.  The third harpy walked up and grabbed Sharon’s dark hair in one cruel talon.  The girl shrieked as she was painfully wrenched to her feet. 

“L-let her go!”  Tiffany yelled desperately but the cruel vulture women just let out high-pitched laughs.  Sharon was pulled by her hair towards the pit in the center of the room; Tiffany was carried suspended behind her.  They paused at the rim of the pit, below them the chimera growled and paced, chained to a wall.

“No!  NO!”  Tiffany yelled.

Sharon was pulled to the edge, and turned around so she could look at Freedom Girl. 

“Tiffany?  Do something!  Tiffany!  Tiff-“

Then she was tossed over the side.

Tiffany screamed incoherently as her friend landed with a thud and was torn apart by the chimera below. 

“No… no… oh God no…”  She wept openly.  Warbringer walked in front of her and gestured.  Tiffany was lowered to her knees; the shocked girl did not even try to fight any more.  Warbringer held her face in his hands.

“God?  I’m the only god here Tiffany.  It is Tiffany isn’t it?”  He gently peeled off her domino mask; she felt the bit of spirit gum holding it to her face come loose.  Tiffany felt oddly naked, helpless as her name was revealed and her mask peeled off.  The scrap of blue fluttered down into the pit.

Tiffany felt her heart racing, her teeth began to chatter, memories of that other time, that other time loop came back to her.  She was so helpless, in so much danger, what could she do?  What could she do?

Another memory came…

***

It was a couple of months ago, Raphael was out of town and Freedom Girl was having a rare team up with one of Megapolis’ other heroines.

“So Night Huntress, is that the place?  Is that where Sampson Grande is hiding?”

The black haired beauty nodded slightly.  She was dressed in a purple and blue leotard that left her legs bare and was slit down the front almost to her navel.  Night Huntress’ body was tall and sleek, muscled like a gymnast but with a chest even a Hooters’ Girl would envy.  She radiated power, beauty, femininity and confidence.  Pouches and straps held her lethal arsenal of crossbows, knives and shurikens.  She was like some idealized version of a female vigilante.

There were all sorts of rumors about her.  Some said she was the daughter of a mob boss who vowed to eliminate crime.  Others said she was the daughter of Night Bat and one of his female foes.  No one knew what the truth was.  But it didn’t matter to Freedom Girl.  Night Huntress was everything she wanted to be.  She took out a rope and got ready to swing into the abandoned warehouse.  There was a blur of motion and Night Huntress’ staff blocked her way.

“One thing kid.  Just one thing.  You’ve been around a while, ever been captured?”

“Um yeah.  Once.”

“Once.  Heh.  I remember the first time.  Tell me, did they ‘do’ anything?”

Freedom Girl didn’t like how she stressed that word.  “They um, they held me prisoner for a day.  Tied me up.”

“Heh, tied up?  Just tied up?  You poor princess.”  Night Huntress said with scorn.  The vigilante reached into a pouch and took out a small flask.  She took a drink.  “I remember when that was the worst that had happened to me.  Long time ago now.  Before I needed this.”  She took another drink.  “Helps me relax, y’know just in case.”  She offered the flask to Freedom Girl; the blonde could smell the booze.  She politely refused.

“Let me tell you about being caught.  If you get caught, don’t fight it.  Let them do… do what they’re going to do.”

“But…”

“Listen kid, I’ve been there.  More times than I can remember.  Once you’re caught you’ve got two choices, fight back and get hurt bad, or lie back and accept the inevitable.  Do what has to be done.  It’s part of being a heroine, like the skimpy costumes and the crossovers.  No one likes to talk about it but there you go.”

“You don’t mean-“

“You know what I mean kid.  Now let’s go!”

As it happened they beat off the goons without a problem.  The leader got away but that didn’t bug them, there was always next time. 

But the older heroine’s words stuck with Tiffany, she sat up nights wondering if they meant what they sounded like.

***

Warbringer’s hands were on her bare waist, feeling her like a piece of meat.  His fingers strayed up higher, to the hem of her blue cropped top.  He peeled it up over her breasts, exposing the utilitarian white sports bra underneath.  He was muttering something about heroines always having a nice rack.

Tiffany reached down deep and found her courage.  She knew what she had to say.

“Please… d-do me.”  The words sounded forced and insincere to her own ears.  But to the young boy in front of her…

“Mmm?  Really?”

“Um, yes, please, do me.  I-I can’t stop you right?  I… I don’t want to end up like Sharon right?”

“Hmm…”  His hands reached lower, he undid her belt and unsnapped her cargo pants.  She felt another stab of fear but even though the belt was open, the magical buckle was still on her, she could feel its power, its reassuring presence.  She wondered if the American heroes who had used the belt before her would approve of what was about to happen.

He pulled her cargo pants down below her hips to her knees.  Then her panties.  He yanked the sports bra up and let out a low whistle when her young firm breasts swung free.  With her arms still bound and pulled out there was no way to remove the shirt and bra. 

Tiffany swallowed hard and pressed her body against his armor.  The armor was hot, like it was just out of an oven.  She kissed his cheek and put her head on his shoulder.  She whispered in his ear.

“You’ll have to let my legs go.”

She saw him make a gesture to one of the Furies and felt her ankles go free. 

He kissed her on the lips.  She opened her mouth and accepted his invading tongue.  She didn’t return the kiss but he didn’t care.  His sweaty hands mauled her breasts painfully.  She wondered briefly if he’d ever even been with a woman before.  She hoped not. 

She liked the idea of him dying a virgin.

Tiffany raised her legs and kicked Warbringer in the crotch with both feet. 

The villain squealed and stumbled back one step, two… he was at the rim of the pit, the harpies were shrieking, the chimera was growling, his arms were flailing helplessly and…

Warbringer caught his balance.

Warbringer laughed.

Tears filling her eyes, Tiffany tried to kick him again but he was too far away now.  She heard the whip crack and her ankles were bound again. 

Warbringer slapped her.  Hard.  “You bitch!  You fucking bitch!  You fucking heroines are all fucking cock-teases!” 

He punched her in the stomach.

And then… he pointed at the pit.

Tiffany’s eyes went wide.  “No!  NO! NO!”

The last thing she saw was the chimera’s teeth.

***

 

Take 3

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen screamed!

She was back in her bedroom.  Everything was exactly the way it had been. 

“Oh God, oh God, oh God…not again…”

She heard the shower stop.  “Tiffany?  Are you OK?”  Raphael yelled.  “Tiffany?”

He ran outside wearing only a towel.  He found his teenaged girlfriend huddled on the bed crying and shaking.  He hugged her close and she hugged him back.

“It’s OK Tiffany, it’s OK, just tell me what’s wrong…”

The teen girl started kissing him, taking off her clothes.  He returned the kisses and they made love on her bed.

Hours passed.

They were still intertwined in bed when she finally spoke.

In a dull monotone she explained what had happened.  Everything. 

Raphael listened, gently stroking her hair, grunting as she explained everything.

Finally he said “I’m sorry… I know it doesn’t help, I know it can never make up for what I did but I’m sorry.  Believe me Tiffany I love you and I wish I had never done those things.”

They lay silently for a while longer.  The sun started to go down.  Finally she said “I think I understand now.  A bit.  Yesterday, I mean last time, I… used Sharon as bait.  I knew she was at risk and I still did it.  I thought I could save her of course but also… also I knew that I’d have another chance so what happened, it didn’t matter.”

“But it does.”

“Yeah.  It does.  Even if it never happened.  Even if everything goes back to normal.  I remember those things I did every damn day.”

“So now what?”

“Now what?  We try again.  We go after him.  Cause one of these loops will drive you crazy.  You remember where that warehouse was?”

Tiffany nodded and kissed him.  She put her arms around him.  “Let’s go a little later.”

The two never left the apartment.

***

They didn’t notice the boy in Greek armor across the street watching them.  He left around dawn.

When noon on Thursday came there was a flash of light and the world went white.

***

 

Take 4

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen blinked. 

She calmly rose from her bed.  Took off her clothes and put on her costume.  She slipped out the window before Raphael finished his shower.

She left the watch behind.

This time she spent an hour surveying the old Atlas warehouse.  What was it with supervillains and abandoned warehouses?  Couldn’t anyone come up with anywhere else to hide?

After an hour she felt ready.  She checked her smoke bombs and other gear.

Her phone had been buzzing the whole time.  She turned it off. 

She didn’t know why, but she felt she had to do it alone.  She knew Raphael would help but even after the previous day she couldn’t forgive him.  Or admit she needed him. 

She waited for darkness.  It was a long lonely, boring day.  Finally she jumped onto the roof and climbed down to a second-story window.  She carefully jimmied it open and slipped in.  No one had left all day, Warbringer had no idea she even existed, this time she would take him down fast.

Freedom Girl found herself in a kid’s room.  A teen boy’s room.  WWE posters lined the walls, dirty laundry coated the floor, and random toys, magazines and comic books covered every flat surface.  Not what she was expecting in a villain’s lair. 

She gingerly stepped across the floor, trying to avoid touching any of his dirty underwear, and opened the door.

He was waiting on the other side.

Warbringer stood there in his faux-Greek armor with an insufferable smirk on his face.

“Hello Tiffany.”  He said.

Freedom Girl froze.  “How-“ She started to ask.  But he hit her in the gut before she could even finish wondering how he knew her name. 

She fell back a few steps and slipped on some socks.  She found herself on her back looking up at him.

“I let you relax yesterday, let that Raphael guy fuck you.  But today it’s my turn.”

He kicked her in the head and Freedom Girl knew no more.

***

“Ohhh…”  Freedom moaned.  Her stomach still hurt from the punch, she could feel the bruises forming.  Her cheek was also burning; she could feel it starting to swell.  Whoever Warbringer was, he was lot stronger than he looked.

She opened her eyes; she saw a concrete ceiling with pipes and ducts and peeling paint.  She was on her back, on a table or desk or something.  She tried to move her arms, but they were cuffed to a pipe against the wall.  She moved her legs, they were free at least. 

HE KNOWS!  Was the next thought to shoot through her head.  He knows my name!  Tiffany’s mind raced, how could he know that?  How could he possibly know that unless…

Her heart sank. 

“Good morning Tiffany?  Have you figured it out yet?”

“Yes.  You’re part of the time loop too.  You remember everything that’s happened.”

“Good girl!”  She could hear him clap a few times.  “Yeah, I was kind of weirded out at first then I figured out what happened.  I guess being the son of Ares gives me a bit of an edge on these things.”

Tiffany remembered one of her lessons; if a villain wants to talk keep him talking!  Not only was it a good source of information, time spent talking was time spent not hurting her! 

“Son of Ares?”  She asked as innocently as she could.  “You’re the son of Ares?”

“Oh Athena didn’t tell you that did she?  Yeah, I’m Ares Junior, that’s why I call myself Warbringer.  It all started when he tried to start World War III a while back…”

***

It was 1991, in a bunker in Siberia…

“General Borba, our forces have imprisoned Chairman Gorbachov in his dacha and we have taken control of the Kremlin!  Our tanks surround Red Square.  No out can get in or out.  The counter-revolutionaries have been crushed!  The Soviet Union is ours!”

“And the codes Col. Timoshenko?  The nuclear codes?” 

“Our men have them.  They are transmitting them now sir.  But if I may ask why do you need them?  Surely you do not expect the Americans to attack us now?”

The general ignored his underling.  “As soon as the codes have been received arm and fuel the missiles.  Your targets are Paris, London, Athens and Washington.”

“Sir?  Sir, are the Americans planning to attack us?”

The general ignored him.  The troops in the bunker suddenly found excuses to look away.

“Sir, even if an attack is immanent shouldn’t we hit military targets?  Destroy their missiles before they can launch?  We only control a few missiles; the American retaliation will destroy everything!  It will be World War III!  It will be Armageddon!”

The general sneered at him as though the colonel had just said water was wet.

“General I cannot follow these orders!  I am relieving you of comm-“

SMACK!  The general’s blow launched the colonel halfway across the control room.  The troops all froze in place and waited.

“FUEL AND ARM THE MISSILES!”  The general roared.  “TARGET PARIS, LONDON, ATHENS AND WASHINGTON!” For a moment it seemed his eyes burned red and he grew ten feet tall.

Soldiers ran to follow his orders.  Two of them carried the barely conscious colonel to the infirmary. 

By then the general was back to his normal self.  He smiled.  “Major, the colonel has a daughter here does he not?”

“Y-yes sir, Lieutenant Nadia Timoshenko, she is upstairs in the communications bunker.”

“Fueling and arming the missiles will take six hours I believe?”

“Yes sir.”

“Have her sent to my quarters.  And make sure she is wearing something appropriate.  I feel like celebrating.” 

What the young Russian woman wore hardly mattered.  The general tore it from her and ravished her for hours as the missiles were fueled and readied. 

Preoccupied, he had no idea that thousands of ordinary Russians had peacefully assembled in Red Square and swarmed over the tanks.  He had no way of knowing that Colonel Timoshenko had slipped out of the infirmary and sent a signal to the American superheroine Ultra Woman. Or that his technicians deliberately sabotaged the missiles.  Lost in his lusts he had no idea his plans were being unraveled until…

Alarms rang, people shouted, a voice over the intercom cried “General!  Ultra Woman has penetrated the bunker!”

“WHAT!”  He bellowed, looking up from the struggling young lieutenant.  His naked body began to swell, assuming the true form of Ares, god of war.

But by then it was far too late.  A golden lasso surrounded him.  The Amazon princess smiled and pulled.  Ares called on his powers, tried to force the missiles to fire, to bring him his ultimate triumph but nothing happened.  Doomsday was over.

The mutinying troops were rounded up and locked away, the Soviet Union became the Russian Republic and the world continued to live.

Ares was imprisoned in the inescapable pits of Tartarus, suffering torments that would make even Prometheus happy with his lot.

***

‘Well of course after all that went down my mom was in serious trouble.  Single mother, daughter of traitor, all that.  So she got some forged documents and came to America.  And had me.  It wasn’t easy here, she had some money grandpa hid in Swiss accounts but that didn’t last long.  She barely spoke any English; she had to wait tables and clean toilets to get by.  At least till I turned ten and started to figure out what I am.  Once I figured out how strong I was, how tough I was, well mom didn’t have to work at all after that.  I’d just put on a ski mask and tear apart an ATM; we’d be set for months.  Then I started having dreams, dreams about my dad.  He taught me stuff, a lot of stuff.  About what it means to be a demigod, what I can really do.  I can do a helluva lot more than rob ATMs or beat up bimbo heroines.  A lot more.  He introduced me to my little pal Alecto over there.”

“Massster I am Tisssiphone ssshe is-“

“ANYWAY, he also helped my get the stuff I need.”

He stopped talking and gestured.  Freedom Girl strained her neck to see the rest of the room she was in. 

It was a basement boiler room but with one addition.  An olive-green cone marked with a red star and a radiation symbol.  A laptop computer was wired to it.  Tiffany instantly knew what it was.

“The bomb!”

“Yup.  One Soviet era nuclear warhead.  My dad is the god of war y’know.  With his info and a little help from the furies I snatched it from Russia and brought it back here.  When it goes off at noon, I’ll be right here at ground zero in the middle of a magical circle.  All the people who die will be a sacrifice, their energy will go right into me.  And I’ll use their power.  I’ll storm the gates of Tartarus and free my father.  And then we’ll rule the world together as father and son!”

“You’re crazy!”  Tiffany yelled without thinking.  Too late she remembered it was never a good idea to insult a villain while you’re tied up in his lair.

“Crazy huh?  Maybe, yeah maybe some bimbo knows more about this than the fucking god of war.  Yeah maybe you learned all about magical theory while you were at cheerleading practice or something.  Or maybe you’re just some loudmouthed bitch you doesn’t know shit!”

Tiffany shut up.

“Now somehow you’ve got me stuck in this time loop but I know it can’t last forever.  And when I do break free, then the real fun starts.  I dunno what Athena was thinking sending you to stop me.  I mean you’re too useless to even slow me down.  And…”  He stopped and looked her up and down again.  Tiffany felt her skin crawl.  “… hell, if I have to waste my time, I can think a lot of fun things to do with you.”

“Look… let’s just talk, I mean-“

“There’s just one thing I want from your mouth and talking ain’t it Tiffany.”

He reached for her white cargo pants and tore them open.  Her magical belt buckle, source of Freedom Girl’s powers went flying.  He put his hands on her hips and yanked, the pants, panties and sneakers came off in one go.  Tiffany gasped; she was tied up, powerless and naked from the waist down!

“No!  Please!”

He pulled her legs apart and stood between them looking at the pink of her slit and the tuft of blond hair the guarded it.  He dropped his armored skirt and exposed his small but erect member.

“I’ve been looking forward to this Tiffany…”

“No, wait, you can’t- AH!”

Despite the dick’s small size, Tiffany cried out as it penetrated her unwilling body.  She writhed helplessly as Warbringer ravished her for almost five minutes until he finally shot his meager load into her.

“Well that fucking sucked” the teen demigod spat.  “I thought like, all you heroines are closet nymphos waiting for a villain to take you.  That’s what always happens on the internet.  But you were all like you hated it.”

Tiffany curled up her legs and cried.

“This sucks!”  He smacked her ass hard.  The girl cried out.  “You’re supposed to like it!”  He hit her again.  “Well I’m gonna teach you to like it little Tiffany Freedom Girl, I’m gonna teach you to like it a lot…”  He covered her nose and mouth with his hand and waited for her to pass out.

***

When she woke up she was on her knees.  She was still naked from the waist down, her hands cuffed behind her back, still in the boiler room but there were a few additions.  First off there was now a TV and a DVD player, along with a pile of disks.  There was also a comfy couch facing it.  But the changes Tiffany could see were not as important as the ones she could feel.  There was something hard and cold between her legs, jammed in deep and held in place by a leather strap.  She swallowed; she had an idea what was going on.  Warbringer noticed she was awake and picked up a bottle.  He held her nose and waited for Tiffany to open her mouth to breath, then he poured it down her throat.  The girl struggled and coughed and gagged, most of the liquid ended up on her shirt or on the floor but she felt some go down.  Then he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her in front of the TV, kneeling in front of him while he sat on the couch. 

“Just something to get you in the mood Tiffany Freedom Girl.”  He giggled, his voice cracked again.

He hit a remote.

The TV came on in the middle of a porn flick.  Not just any porn either, it was heroine porn.  Some big-titted porn star in a Princess Patriot costume was being fucked by three guys dressed as villains.  She unconvincingly tried to resist while two of them double-penetrated her and the other forced his dick down her throat.

It was disgusting.

Then Tiffany felt something move.  Warbringer used a remote to turn on the vibrator between her legs. 

“Oh!”  Was all she could say.

“Like that huh?  I figure between the drugs, the dildo and the porn you should be in the right mood pretty soon.”

Tiffany bit her tongue, trying to ignore the sensations between her legs.  But despite her best efforts a low moan escaped her lips.  She felt Warbringer’s warm hand on her shoulder and gasped.  He ran his fingers through her hair.

Tiffany tried to look away from the TV but kept stealing glances.  Now a woman dressed as Night Bat Girl was tied down with rough hemp ropes while henchmen cut strategic holes in her costume.  She writhed with pleasure as a woman dressed as Night Cat molested her with different vibrators.

Kneeling between the Warbringer’s legs, Tiffany began to sweat.

Warbringer massaged her tense shoulders, she squirmed.  She rubbed her legs together, seeking relief.  She leaned against his leg, squirming a bit.  Warbringer slipped a foot between her legs and raised it a bit; it pushed against the vibrator, forcing the tool deeper insider the teen.

“Ah!”  She gasped, doubling over.  Warbringer gently raised her back, she felt so weak, so limp.  Here was sweat on her brow.

He made her look at the TV, now there was a blond teen on it.  Wearing a familiar blue crop top.

“Nooo…”  She moaned quietly.

“Like it?  It’s called ‘Fucking with Freedom Girl’, I downloaded it while you were sleeping.  I guess you heroines know you’ve made the big-time when you have your own internet porn.”

He turned her around again and pulled her to her feet.  He peeled up her sweat-drenched top, exposing her breasts.  He kissed them gently.  The teen moaned and squirmed.  He undid the strap and pulled out the vibrator with a soft, wet, pop. 

But her moist loins were not empty for long, Warbringer’s fat fingers slipped inside.  The girl gasped again, pushed her body against him and kissed his face.  He pulled his armored skirt open again, and grabbed her thighs.  He pulled and impaled the blonde on his meager lance. 

“Admit it” he whispered “you love this.  You heroines never win; we villains always beat you, always humiliate you, and in the end make you love it.  It’s true.  You know it’s true.”

Through her tears Freedom Girl said nothing.

The clock hit noon and the bomb went off.

The world went white.

***

 

Take 5

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen yelled!

“WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!”

Raphael ran out of the shower, not even bothering with a towel.  He saw Tiffany was already pulling on her costume.  He reached for his brown leather.

They were on a rooftop ten blocks away before he was able to ask.

“Can’t really explain… villain, Warbringer, he knows where we are!”

“Who?  How?  Tiffany what’s going-“

Dark shadows fell over the couple.  Night Ranger looked up.  There were three vulture winged women holding cruel whips and a winged lion spitting flame.  On his back was some sort of Greek warrior.

He figured it was best to skip the introductions.

He threw a handful of shurikens at the lion.  The mythical beast was a clumsy flier and took them in the ribs.  He saw Freedom Girl dodge the women’s whips and even hit one with a flying kick.  He felt a bit of pride at her skill.

The wounded chimera flew lower, Night Ranger jumped on top of a water tower and then onto the creature’s back.  He stabbed the thing right in the spine and hit the rider in the back with his axe.  The rider tumbled off and fell with a thud onto the roof.

Freedom Girl wrapped a rope around one of the harpies pinning her wings.  Helplessly the vulture woman fell from the sky. 

Night Ranger tried to jump off the dying chimera when he felt something stab through his leather armor.  It was the stinger on the dragon tail.  With a gasp he fell to the roof top.

Two whips lashed Freedom Girl at once; she was knocked off her feet.  Before she could recover the magical whips lashed out again binding her ankles and pinning her arms to her sides. 

Warbringer got up off the ground, apparently unharmed by the axe or the fall.  He dusted off his armor and giggled.

“You guys are good you know that?  Pretty darn good.”  He looked at the twitching chimera and peeked over the edge at the splattered harpy.  “Poor Alecto…”

“Massster I am Alecto, she is-“

“Anyway poor one of you all right.  But we got them huh?”  He looked at Night Ranger on the ground twitching and gasping for air as the poison ravaged his body.  He walked over and kicked the man’s head as hard as he could.  Freedom Girl heard the neck snap and saw him fall still.

“That’s for fucking my Tiffany!” he laughed.

They all heard sirens.  The police were coming.  One Fury lifted Warbringer in her talons; the other dragged Freedom Girl by her whip. 

And then they were gone.

***

“Well, well, well Freedom Girl, here we are again.”

They were back in his throne room in the warehouse.

“What game should we play today?”

“Fuck you.”  The defiant blonde hissed.  The Furies raised their whips.

“Now wait a minute ladies.  I think Tiffany Freedom Girl has an excellent idea.  I’m glad to see you’re still in the mood after yesterday.”

“Go to hell.”

“Another great idea!  That’s what I’m doing tomorrow, or whenever we get free from this loop.”

“I’ll stop you.”

“Hmm?  Really?  You’re oh- for-five right now Tiffany Freedom Girl, what makes you think this time will be any different?  Or next time?  Or the time after that?  Face it, you’re outclassed girl.  Maybe if Athena had send Ultra Woman or Stella or Princess Patriot I’d be worried but you?  You can’t even get out of your apartment without being caught.”

“Screw you.”

“Yup.  That’s what going to happen.  Ladies?”

A Harpy advanced on Tiffany, one razor sharp talon extended.  She cut down the center of Tiffany’s blue mid-riff top, right through the white star.  Her breasts popped right out.  Tiffany continued to look at him defiantly.

“Oh by the way Tiffany, no drugs today.  Today you’re going to learn to enjoy this the natural way.”

Tiffany swallowed hard.

***

“Come on bitch!  You’ve gotta be feeling something!”

Tiffany bit her tongue, she promised herself she wouldn’t scream, not matter what Warbringer did to her.

The enraged boy finally pulled out and stood up.

“You suck Tiffany Freedom Girl, you suck.”

He stormed off leaving her lying naked on the concrete floor.

Tiffany had hours to celebrate her moral victory before the clock struck noon and the world went white.

 

Take 6

 

BEEP-BEEP!

This time Freedom Girl and Night Ranger only made it seven blocks before the harpies and chimera were on them.  Night Ranger’s throwing knives finished off one harpy, but the other two tore him to shreds with their claws.  Tiffany was pinned helplessly under the chimera’s lion paw until she passed out.

***

“Ohhh…”  Tiffany was getting tired of waking up after being unconscious.  Each time it got harder and harder and harder.  Each time she knew things were going to be worse when she woke up. 

This time was no different.

“Good morning Tiffany!”

She was back in the damn throne room.  But this time she wasn’t wearing her costume, nor was she naked. 

She looked down.  She was wearing a spaghetti-strap see-through mid-riff top.  It was pale blue but she could clearly see her nipples and breasts through it.  Bracelets with ribbons of silk attached were locked on her wrists.  She was wearing some sort of baggie pants as well, made of the same material but they were more like chaps.  They left her ass and loins bare.  Those parts of her body were covered by two see-through pink loin cloths.  The effect was that she was more or less fully dressed but felt completely naked.  Bangled bracelets, rings, and oversized earrings were the only other things on her.  Unless you counted the thick coat of make-up on her face.  She was basically some kind of harem girl from a low-budget Arabian Nights movie.

She looked at the throne, Warbringer was there waiting for her.  Next to him were the harpies of course but there was a new addition to his entourage, a short hairy man dressed in some kind of black fuzzy pants.  She looked at him again.  Those weren’t pants; the newcomer had a pair of literal goat legs! 

“You weren’t getting into it yesterday so I asked one of my dad’s buddies over.  I know you girls all get wet for those musician types.”

“Um…”  she said and gave herself a second to digest that while she looked around.  A few feet away from her, still sprawled unconscious was another girl.  This one was dark-haired and dressed in a red and black version of the harem girl outfit.  Tiffany caught a glimpse of her face, it was Sharon!

She got to her feet.  She could feel the cold air blow between her legs and the cold floor under her bare feet.  “Let her go.”  She said trying to sound confident.  “She has nothing to do with this.”

“She had everything to do with this Tiffany Freedom Girl.  You brought her into this remember?”

“I… I didn’t mean to.  I didn’t know!”

“Well now you do.  So is this hottie a friend of yours or what?  You were real upset when I was playing with her last time.  And she did know your name.”

“Yeah, we were in high school.  Please, she didn’t do anything, I just asked her to help me out!”

“Well now you can return the favor.”  He clapped his hands.  The harpies snapped their whips, waking up Sharon.  “Why don’t you tell her the deal?”

Tiffany walked over to her old friend and rival and knelt down next to her.   “Sharon, Sharon it’s me, Tiffany.  Listen, we’re in trouble OK?  Big trouble.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve been captured by a supervillain; we have to do what he says.”

“Supervillain?  What?  Why would he go after us?”

“Because, well, I’m sort of a heroine…”

Sharon just snorted.  “Is that like your costume?  I can totally see your tits!”

Tiffany wanted to slap her but stopped herself.  “Be serious Sharon.  If we don’t do what he says he…” 

(He’ll make me watch you get eaten by his pet monster.  Again.)

“…he might hurt us.”

“Well what does he want?  Besides being in a remake of I Dream of Jennie.”

Warbringer laughed.  “I want you two to dance!”

Sharon just laughed.  “Dude, you haven’t see her dance, put her on the floor and it’s all like ‘shake it like a white girl’.

Tiffany looked at her aghast, here they were in mortal danger and Sharon was being catty?! 

But the fifteen year old villain just blinked at the dated 90’s reference. 

“Oh trust me, you’ll dance.  You can dance; you can jive, having the time of your life.”

But the two nineteen year old girls just blinked at the even more dated 70s reference.

He clapped his hands and the goat-legged man began to play his pipes. 

The girls jerked to attention.  They started to turn, to shake their hips, to wave their arms.  The melody consumed them; somehow the one set of pipes carried the sound of drums, tambourines, flutes, horns and other instruments undreamt of. 

They two girls snapped their arms in perfect time with the music, their loose bracelets making a metallic ring.  In harmony they faced each other, extended their legs between each other crotches, they moved closer, their eyes met, their lips almost touched.  Tiffany swallowed hard.  She’d never been the slightest bit interested in women but looking into Sharon’s dark eyes… the music was so loud…

But then the tempo changed and the two girls whirled away from each other.  By then both girls were panting, covered in a thin sheen of sweat.  The beat got stronger and now they were stomping their bare feet on the concrete floor.  The sound of their belled anklets rang in the room. 

Warbringer nodded to the Satyr and got up from his throne.  Tiffany could see some tenting in his armored skirt.

The tempo got faster, and faster.

Tiffany’s legs were burning.  She was in good shape but the unnatural music was pushing her beyond her endurance.  From the quick glances she could see Sharon had it even worse.  She continued to shake and spin and gyrate but her face was clearly pained and her breath came in gasps. 

The music reached a crescendo; both girls were now moving so fast they were just blue and red blurs.  Tiffany spun again and landed in Warbringer’s arms.  Across the room Sharon landed in the hair arms of the satyr. 

The music stopped, but it was too late, the music was in her heart.  He kissed her and she responded, she felt him move aside the bit of silk covering her loins, but she didn’t care, she felt him enter her, effortlessly and she cried out.  Her body shook, she heard the bells, ringing, they were so pretty, they felt so good, she felt so good…

Soon she was in the arms of the satyr, smelling his manly musk.  Across the room Sharon writhed on her knees, sucking Warbringer’s small cock, shaking her ass in the air.  Tiffany kissed the satyr’s hairy chest and lay down on her back, his long, thick cock resting between her breasts.  She cupped her breasts and pushed them together, the satyr started to thrust between them.  It felt so good!

The music was playing again, more slowly.  Now Sharon was lying on her back writhing, while Tiffany licked hot sticky cum of her friend’s sweaty body.  Her fingers found Sharon’s pussy and she slipped them in.  Sharon’s tongue intertwined with Tiffany’s.  It felt so right.

Tiffany’s body stiffened as she came. 

The world went white.

 

Take 7

 

BEEP-BEEP!  Went the watch.  And Freedom Girl and Night Ranger were on the run again. 

This time both were taken alive. 

They awoke in the throne room.  Night Ranger chained to a column, Freedom Girl sprawled on the floor in the harem girl outfit. 

Skipping the preliminaries, the Satyr began to play.  Alone Tiffany danced helplessly for Warbringer and his minions.  She was forced to dance around the bewildered Night Ranger.  Despite the circumstances he could not conceal his arousal as she writhed and whirled.  This time she tried to fight it, she tried to think of something, anything else, tried humming old Backstreet Boys songs but nothing could block out the Satyr’s music.

Things went the same way.  Freedom Girl could hear her boyfriend’s screams while she fucked Warbringer and the Satyr together but didn’t care.  The music moved her.  She even found herself on her hands and knees in front of Raphael, sucking his cock while the Satyr took her from behind.  It felt so good. 

So, so good…

***

Tiffany blinked; she was back in the basement, in front of the warhead.  Warbringer was there.  Based on the countdown she could see on the laptop there wasn’t much time left.

“No!”  She yelled and tried to run towards him but she tripped on her own silks and fell on all fours.  “No…” she sobbed miserably.

“Sorry Tiffany, you’ll have to try harder than that” Warbringer laughed.  “You look so tired; you should get some more rest.”

“Why… why did you make me do that?  Why…”

“Well I got to thinking.  The problem with drugs is after we reset every day your body goes back to normal.  Dad told me a lot about his allies back on Olympus, the Cyclops, the Minotaur and all that.  That’s how I got the Furies and the Chimera.  But I never saw a use for the Satyr, I mean a goat guy who plays the flute?  He’s as useless as Bacchus!  But them I thought about how the Satyr’s song, that works in your in your head.  I bet you can still hear it now” he hummed a bit of it, Tiffany’s legs moved involuntarily.  “It stays with you.  I figure after a couple more times you’ll just be a programmed fuck toy.  No threat.  Maybe then Athena will give on these dumb games and end this stupid loop.  And in the mean time… I get to fuck a stuck-up heroine.  So it’s win-win for me.”

“Go to hell!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do baby-cakes.”  He turned back to the bomb.

Freedom Girl took a deep breath, climbed silently to her feet and kicked him right in the nuts!

Warbringer doubled over and threw a punch at her.

Then the timer on the bomb hit zero.

The world went white.

***

 

Take 8

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany sat up straight in her bed.  Her body felt fine but her mind was racing, confused.  She was already tapping her foot to half-remembered tunes of the Satyr.  Warbringer would be there in fifteen minutes or so, part of her was already looking forward to it. 

She reached for her belt, she felt her mind calm. 

She knew what she had to do.

***

Freedom Girl was waiting on the roof when the Furies came.  She put out her arms and winced when their barbed whips bit into her flesh.  She bit her tongue when they jerked her off her feet and carried her into the air. 

At the warehouse they dropped her on her ass.  She ignored the pain and got up.

“I hear you were just waiting for them, in costume, nice, nice.  Not as nice as the harem girl outfit but still nice.  Ready for more today?”

Freedom Girl smiled.  She nodded.  She took off her top and bared her breasts.  Warbringer sat up, practically drooling.

She walked towards him, holding her breasts, teasing her own nipples.  She even leaned down and licked one.

The fifteen year old villain was already panting. 

He raised his arm to signal the Satyr but Freedom Girl grabbed it and put it on her breast.  Warbringer couldn’t look away. 

She put her hands around his neck and kissed him.  She could feel his dick pressing against her loins.  She kissed him again, and nibbled on his ear.  Warbringer just lay back, hoping he wouldn’t cream in his pants. 

He didn’t notice how one of her arms left his, then the other.  He didn’t hear the soft sound of metal pulled from cloth. 

But he sure felt what came next!

“Aggggg!”  He bellowed and staggered back. 

Two stainless steel stilettos protruded from his ears.  Thanks to Tiffany’s enhanced strength wearing her belt, the diamond hard spike-like blades had penetrated his eardrums right into his brain.  Even Warbringer’s Olympian toughness wasn’t enough to stop that.

He gurgled a few more times and fell on his back twitching.

Freedom Girl backed up a few steps, getting a good look.  She reached for a smoke bomb but it was too late.

Barbed whips sank into her bare arms.  Sharp talons tore through her skin.  She died almost instantly but the Furies continued rending and eating her flesh for some time.

Then they got bored and headed back to Olympus.

Warbringer just lay there until noon the next day.  Twitching.  Unable to move.

Then everything went white.

***

 

Take 9

 

BEEP-BEEP

“Ahh!!!”  Tiffany screamed.  She heard the bathroom door start to open.  “Tiffany, are you OK?”

She grabbed the belt and dove out the window, she wasn’t ready for this.  She ran across the rooftops and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering Megapolis cursing.

She beat him! 

She beat him!

Why was she still trapped in the loop?

(Not that she minded too much since it meant she was alive and not torn apart)

But what else did she need to do?

What else could she do?

It wasn’t like Warbringer was going to fall for that again.

And most importantly, why hadn’t he found her yet?

Maybe he was dead?  Maybe he was dead and she was somehow still caught in the loop?

She headed back to the apartment.  It was empty.  She put on her costume and headed for the warehouse.

***

“Have another drink Raphael and tell me more about that skirt.”

“Huh?  Yeah… it was from one of those fetish stores on the west side, near Wibler Park.  I got it from a cheerleader outfit, white with these red pleats inside and so short you can see her ass cheeks.  I figured that was a lot sexier than her cargo pants, so, this was like the fourth or fifth time we went through the loop, I drugged her and put her in the skirt and took her to this villain club…”

He hesitated and wobbled on his chair.  Warbringer fed him another mouthful of wine from his golden cup.

“So like… we watch the show and she’s all hot and bothered with the aphrodisiacs and this British villain comes up… and he’s got some issues with American heroes, so I give her to him…  Afterwards I tried to get her to wear the skirt… y’know just for fun… but she wouldn’t touch it…”

“Interesting…”

That was when Freedom Girl smashed through the skylight.

She immediately saw Raphael sitting with Warbringer, obviously drunk off his ass.

“Hey Tiffany!”  He said, bobbing back and forth unsteadily. 

Freedom Girl screamed some curses and attacked.  The Furies caught her and tore her apart.  Warbringer just nodded and turned back to Raphael.

“Here, have some more wine.  It’s Bacchus’ best vintage.  And tell me what you did to her next.”

***

 

Take 10

 

BEEP-BEEP!

For the second time in a row Tiffany found herself back in bed, her last memory being torn limb from limb.

She hyperventilated a few times.

She glanced at the clock.  Only a few more minutes before the furies came for her yet again.  She looked at her magic belt.  She looked at the window.  She looked at the closed bathroom door.

She felt so tired.  She couldn’t face another day of this.  She just couldn’t.

She was lying in bed when the Furies smashed in.  She curled into a ball but their magic whips found her wrists and ankles anyway. 

Raphael emerged and a whip wrapped itself around his neck.  The Fury pulled and the barbs cut his throat open.  Blood showered the room and Raphael collapsed.

Tiffany watched numbly.  Seeing her friends and even herself killed was losing its impact.  They’d be back tomorrow after all.  Then the whips jerked and she was pulled spread-eagled.  The Furies carried her out of the apartment into the August skies.

***

Freedom Girl passed out somewhere along the way.  When she woke up she was surprised.  She wasn’t in the now-familiar warehouse; she was in a locker room somewhere.  One whiff the room told her it was a boy’s locker room.  A glance at the posters told her it was Mega University.

She rose unsteadily to her feet.  She could feel cold air along her legs, and between, them.  She looked down, she was wearing her costume top, the tight blue belly shirt decorated with white stars in the center and along the sleeves but, instead of Freedom Girl’s practical cargo pants, she was wearing a short, pleated red and white skirt.  And nothing under it.

Someone touched her leg, she squealed.

“Hey Tiffany, we’re gonna have some fun today.”

She tried to kick him, Warbringer dodged easily.  Without her magic belt Tiffany Truman was just an ordinary girl.

“Nice skirt!”

“Matches yours!” she replied.

“It’s not a skirt!  This is traditional Greek armor!”

“Hey if the dress fits!”

“We got something else that fits today, something that’s gonna fit you fine.”

Tiffany could hear faintly hear pipe music.  Pipe music and grunts.

“N-not again…”  She whispered, memories of Warbringer’s cock in her mouth.  But she felt nothing, no indecent longings, no strange desires; she wasn’t even tapping her foot.

The piping got closer.

It was the satyr again, but there were a dozen muscular guys following him, dressed in shorts and grey tank tops with the wrestling team logo on them.  The merry satyr danced out of their way and they formed a circle around Tiffany.  She could see the lust in their eyes.  Even more lust than usual when college boys saw a girl in a short skirt.  Some of them were drooling.

“Hey guys it’s a cheerleader!”

“A mother-fucking cheerleader.”

“In the boys’ locker room.”

“What’s up with that?”
“Them stuck up cheerleaders never even talk to us wrestlers.  They only want football cock.”

“Lousy stuck up cheerleaders.”

“Y’know what I want to do?”

Tiffany heard on of them step forward and whirled.  Even without her belt she still had her training.  She kicked the brave one in the head.  He staggered back.

“Hey check it out, she’s a natural blonde.”

“Natural blond.”

“And like, no panties!”

Tiffany turned again, slowly.  The entranced wrestlers were still just standing there ogling her.  Thanks to their tight shorts she could see they all had raging erections.  She felt nauseous.

One stepped forward, she delivered a vicious kick to the ‘nads and he went right down.  She felt a hand on her arm and delivered a quick elbow thrust behind her.  She heard cartilage snap and heard the wrestler go down.  The satyr giggled and increased the tempo of his magical song.  The big wrestlers rushed Tiffany together; she got in another punch and another kick before they had her.  She was pulled off her feet, strong hands on her wrists, ankles and body.  Someone wrenched her hair painfully.  She could hear them laughing.  They carried her back into the gym and tossed her on to a mat. 

Tiffany was screaming by then. 

The first wrestler dropped his shorts and pulled her legs apart.

“STOP!  STOP THIS!”  She screamed.  She could see Warbringer there smirking at her.  He gestured and the satyr played a high note.  The goat-man held the note and none of the wrestlers moved.

“You can stop this any time you want Tiffany Freedom Girl.  Just break the spell.  It’s not too hard.”

“NO!”

“Oh well.”  He motioned and the satyr finished the note.  The first wrestler plunged in.

Tiffany screamed.

She lost count of how many men had her.  After the wrestlers were spent, the satyr danced out into the campus and brought back dozens of horny men.  Worse yet, Tiffany recognized some of them from class.

Finally they were done.  It was the middle of the night.  Tiffany lay on the filthy mat, unable to even more.

“Give up Tiffany Freedom Girl?  Or do we do this tomorrow?”

“F-fuck you” she hissed.

“Nah, I don’t take sloppy seconds.  Or sloppy thirty-seconds either.  But think about Tiffany Freedom Girl, these are the guys you’re suffering to protect.  Fucking scumbags who’ll rape you for wearing a short skirt.  It’s can’t be worth it.  Let it go Tiffany Freedom Girl, let it go.  These guys don’t deserve your suffering.  Let it go.”

“N….”  She tried to argue, to deny it.  Instead she just cried.

“OK guys, I think we’re done here.  I think little Tiffany learned a valuable lesson.”

Lying there, Tiffany faded in and out of consciousness.  She saw the first traces of dawn.  She watched the sun creep higher and higher in the sky.

She wondered what time it was.  Her watch was long gone of course.

She blacked out again.

The world went white.

 

Take 11

 

k “If you wanna be my lover, you’ve gotta get with my friends…”k

Tiffany sat up bolt straight.  Her phone was ringing!  This had never happened before.  With a trembling hand she answered it.

“Hey babe.  Guess what?”

“W-what…”

“I’m sick of this shit.  Sick of fighting you, sick of killing you, just fucking sick and tired.”

Was this it?  Was he going to give up?

“But I’m not giving up.”

Damn.

“Just taking a day off.  You do the same OK.  See you tomorrow.  Or today.  Whatever.”

Warbringer hung up.

Tiffany sat there staring at the phone, listening to Raphael in the shower.  It was so tempting to just lie back down and enjoy a day of freedom.  Hadn’t she earned it?

But a day.  A whole day to prepare.  Not just fifteen minutes before Warbringer smashed through her wall.  She couldn’t waste it.  Not with the whole world depending on her.

“Morality sucks” she muttered and made a call.

***

Deep in the mountains of Afghanistan Colonel Liberty, America’s greatest hero picked up his satellite phone.

“Hello daddy?”

“Sweetie!  It’s so good to hear from you!  How are you?  How is my little Freedom Girl?”

“Daddy, I need your help.  I… there’s a nuclear bomb and I need help.  Fast.”

“Looking for a team-up huh?  That’s my little angel, chip off the old block, did I ever tell you about the time I teamed up with Sea King and the Human Inferno to form the All-Star Invaders?”

“Yes daddy, I remember.”

“Of course you do.  You’re so smart pumpkin.  Anyway when I need a team-up I usually just jump around the rooftops until someone attacks me, we fight, we talk, then become friends and team-up against the real foe.”

“But daddy, I kind of need help now.  I know Apollo is missing but can you get in touch with the rest of the Avenging League of Justice?”

“Sorry sweety, ever since that Terminus thing and the Countdown Initiative we’ve kind of disbanded.  But don’t worry, I figure we’ll reform in a few months, call ourselves the All New, All Different Avenging League or something.”

“Daddy, I can’t wait a few months, I need something now!”

“Hmm, y’know that skinny spider-kid was talking about one of them newfangled Nationwide Interweb things.  Said it was called Parker’s List.  That’s how he does it.  And he has like a dozen team-ups a year.”

“Parker’s List? Thanks daddy!”

“Anytime pumpkin.  Anyway I have to go; VIPER is sending some of their Android Negation Troopers after me.  Good luck with your team-up.”

She could hear laser fire in the background.

“Love you sweetie.” 

“I love you too daddy!”

***

Tiffany left a note for Raphael and took off across the rooftops with her costume and laptop in a bag.  At a Starbucks across town she started searching.  Parker’s List was one of those underground sites, the sort of place Google would never take you, but Raphael had shown her those hidden places online and with a bit of work she was able to find it and log in.

Subject: Nuclear bomb in Megapolis!  Need help now!

But after a few hours and a few lattes she had no replies.  She browsed some of the other entries, getting more of a feel for the place.

Then she tried something new.

Subject: Young, nubile blond heroine (19yo, 36-26-34) seeks partner(s) for intimate team-up, send number and photo, men, women, robots, all good 4 me J!!!!

She got 21 replies in the first hour.

***

“Not bad Sharon, not bad at all.  Where’d you learn to do that thing with your tongue?”

“I… please… can I go now?”

Warbringer cradled the weeping freshman’s chin in his hand.  Cum dribbled from her lips.  It hadn’t taken much from the Furies to get her cooperate.  Not like that stubborn bitch Tiffany.  Fucking Tiffany.  He hated her so much.

“Yeah bitch, whatever.”

He tossed her across the hall and heard her hit the ground with a thud.  She started to crawl to her feet.  She looked around, and ran for the door.

Warbringer nodded to Silenus.  The horny satyr and after her laughing.  He could hear Sharon shrieking before too long.

But it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t Tiffany.

***

Tiffany wrote the numbers again.

And then again.

Six mistakes. 

She cursed and did it again.

All correct.

Again.

All correct.

Again.

All correct and done in under three minutes.

She sighed.

She checked the clock.

It was almost noon.

She waited for the world to go white.

***

 

Take 12

 

BEEP-BEEP!

Tiffany’s watch beeped for noon and the blond teen screamed.  “Raphael!  Get out now!”  She frantically grabbed a pad and pen.

***

Then minutes later she was waiting, in costume, on the roof.  Warbringer arrived on his Chimera.

“So Tiff, enjoy your day off?  Have fun?  Remember what it’s like to be a free girl instead of fighting me?  Ready to give up?”

Tiffany smiled and jumped off the side of the building.

“Fuck!”  Warbringer ran to the roof edge, he hoped she wasn’t dead or anything, he didn’t want to have to wait for the reset so he could fuck with Freedom Girl.  He looked down.  There was Tiffany standing on a fire escape.

Two hands grabbed his helmet and pulled, he tumbled head over heels over the edge.  His helmet fell into the alleyway but Warbringer managed to grab the fire escape with a flailing hand.  Freedom Girl desperately kicked his hand and tired to pry it loose but her strength was nothing compared to his.  He started to pull himself up. 

“That wasn’t smart Tiffany, not smart at all.”

He locked a hand around her throat.

***

“Enjoying yourself Tiffany?  Is this what you wanted?  I hope it was!”

“Uh!  Uh!  Uh!”

Was the only answer.  Warbringer took that as a yes.

She was hanging upside down, suspended four feet off the ground and hanging from her ankles.  She was naked of course.  Silenus danced around playing a provocative tune on his pipes.  The teen girl was covered in a sheen of sweat, her body gyrating helplessly as the tune worked its magic.  Warbringer looked deep into her eyes and saw the longing.  Magically induced longing but longing all the same.  He put a hand behind her neck, tilted his head and kissed her passionately.  She wiggled faster.  He watched her boobs shaking back and forth.  He figured a bit more of this and she’d be ready for the reaming of her life.

One of the Furies cocked her head, listening.  The other two hissed.

“What now?”  Warbringer demanded.

“Massster, sssomeone comesss.  Many, many.  Ssstrong.  Too ssstrong!”

Warbringer looked at the gyrating teen with new respect.

“You set me up!  I gave you a whole day to screw around, fuck your boyfriend whatever and you set me up!  Called in the cavalry.”  He smiled.  “Nice.  No more bullshit then, this time I’ll show you what I can really do.”

“Uh!  Uh!  Uh!”  Was the only answer.

***

“That’s the place.”

“I dunno, looks like your average everyday abandoned warehouse to me.  You sure about this?  How did you get my number anyway?”  The Amazing Arachnid was hanging upside down from the ceiling looking at the Atlas Warehouse.  From the outside the place was dark and quiet. 

Night Ranger hesitated.  Was he sure about this?  Really sure?  Tiffany’s quick explanations barely made any sense.  If he hadn’t been through a time loop himself he would never believe it.

“Course I’m sure.  There’s a nuclear bomb in there.  And my girlfriend.”

“You still didn’t answer the question about the phone number.”

“Freedom Girl had it.”

“Did she?  Funny I don’t remember teaming up with a Freedom Girl, course I do so many team-ups these days, hard to keep track of them…  Is she hot?”

“Her dad’s Colonel Liberty, probably got it from him.  Same for the rest of those guys.”

“Yeah, eleven heroes, ain’t this overkill?”

“Not if the villain’s really the son of Ares.  Then we’ll be wishing for more.”

“S-son of Ares?”

Night Ranger thought he heard the spidery hero’s voice crack.

“How old are you kid?”

“Me?  Um sevente- I mean” his voice got deeper “twenty-five.”

“Twenty-five huh?”  He reached over and yanked off the Amazing Arachnid’s face mask before the hero could react.

“Late case of acne huh?”

“Um…”

“Seems to me the Arachnid’s been around since the 60’s, what’s the story, you like his grandson or something?”

“It’s kind of complicated, you see first there was a clone, then there was a deal with the devil and then-“

“Forget I asked.”

Night Ranger checked the time.  Six o’clock.  Six hours since Tiffany called him out of the shower in a panic.  He hoped he was doing the right thing.

“Let’s go!”

***

“Time to make the doughnuts!”  The gun-toting cyborg screamed as he jumped through the skylight.  He fired his 35mm Liefeld Industries fully automatic grenade launcher all around him.  Stone columns and the throne exploded.  Gun Guy landed with a thud and the Amazing Arachnid, Night Ranger and Hero Girl One descended after him.

A wall exploded as the strongman Gridiron smashed through, backed up by Blue Archer, Nightbat Girl and White Crane.  The door of the warehouse exploded in yellow light as Golden Girl, Mysta the Mystic and Armor Man burst in from that side.

Nothing happened.

The three groups of heroes looked around at the stone columns and throne.  They looked at each other stupidly.  Then they all looked at Night Ranger.

He hesitated.  What if she was wrong?  No.  The numbers were all right, even if most of the heroes turned him down.  The only way that could be was if Tiffany was right.

“Look guys, obviously this is some kind of evil temple.  Spread out, let’s search it.  If they’re here we’ll find them.  If not… well Mysta or Nightbat Girl can track them!”

Grumbling the mismatched heroes spread out to search.  Armor Man took Night Ranger aside. 

“Look punk this had better be major, I’m not some D-lister like the rest of these guys.  I got a rep to maintain.  I got a movie coming out.”

“Trust me, this is major.  This is Greek gods and nuclear bombs and time travel.”

“Trust you?  You said the Wicca Wymen would be here!”

“Yeah well, they said they were coming.  But who cares, they’re all lesbos anyway.”

“No, they’re bi.”

“Seriously.  All three?”

“Yeah, I can show you the video.  They’re double jointed too.”

“I hear Nightbat Girl’s double jointed.”

“Nightbat Girl’s the town bicycle.  Everyone’s had a ride.”  Armor Man squinted at Night Ranger.  “Course any hero would know that.  And I don’t remember seeing you at any crossovers.”

“I’m uh… I’m from Argentina.  Just got here.” 

“You registered?  You got a green card?”

“Um…”

“Found something!”  Nightbat Girl interrupted.  She pulled up a trapdoor. 

“I’m picking up radiation.”  Armor Man added.  The heroes tensed up.  Night Ranger gave a sigh of relief.  It was nice to be right.

They headed downstairs.

***

Three blocks away Warbringer smiled and raised his arm.  “On my signal, unleash HELL!”  He yelled.

“Massster?”

“When I put my hand down let them go.”

“Yesss massster.”

***

“Looks like an old Soviet warhead.  With my liquid nitrogen spray I can freeze the timer!”

“Yeah toots.  Like I’m gonna let you save the day.”  Armor Man elbowed her out of the way and moved to pick up the warhead.  “I’ll just fly this puppy into space and detonate it.”

Blue Archer put his hand on Armor Man’s shoulder.  “Come on man, you always do that.  Why don’t we build like an enormous bow and shoot it into space?”

“No wait, I think I know a spell that will neutralize it.”  Mysta the Mystic pulled out a spellbook and started paging through it.

“My power gem can encase it in a force field!”  The Californian heroine Golden Girl piped in.

“My wireless cyber-link can deactivate the countdown!”  The Japanese heroine Hero Girl One suggested.

Night Ranger looked at bickering heroes and shook his head.  He’d been a villain for years, gotten beaten up and captured a few times.  It was hard to believe he’d ever been beaten by people as childish as these heroes.

While most were arguing about the warhead the Amazing Arachnid, the football-themed strongman Gridiron and the hulking cyborg Gun Guy were all flirting with the redheaded, busty Nightbat Girl.  And she was giving Night Ranger the eye.

Out of all of them only the skinny Korean girl, White Crane seemed to have her mind on the job.  She kept looking back up the stairs nervously.  It occurred to Night Ranger that was the only way out of this room.

Then White Crane turned pale and looked up.  “Guys… we’re in trouble!”

The ground shook.  The ceiling of the basement started to crack.  The heroes had enough time to scream before it fell in on them.

***

Hovering over the warehouse on his Chimera, Warbringer laughed. 

***

Armor Man tossed off the rubble and flew into the air.

“All right!  Now it’s time for the iron avenger to kick some a-“

CRACK!

It sounded like a baseball bat when the monstrously large club hit the metal armored hero.  Armor Man went flying head over heels into the St. Giffen River miles away.

Gridiron and Hero Girl One tossed off the rest of the rubble.  The heroes crawled out.

And almost pissed their pants.

The warehouse was in ruins.  A dozen enormous cyclopses stood around them.  Furies and harpies circled in the air.  Fire-breathing hellhounds and other monsters roamed the ground. 

From the neck of one cyclops hung Freedom Girl, like a grotesque necklace.  Her wrists were chained together and the chain wrapped around the giant’s neck.  She was back in costume; she even had her belt on but was just as helpless, dangling like a pendent

“It’s a trap!”  She screamed futily.  She’d been screaming for ten minutes but none of the heroes had heard.  The cyclops raised its club, Freedom Girl grunted as she bounced around, slamming into its muscular chest. 

The cyclops brought down its club smashing the cybernetic Gun Guy to a pulp.  Another one stomped on Blue Archer turning the bowman into a blue stain. 

The battle began.

***

The Amazing Arachnid dodged the stomps and clubs, guided by his uncanny arachnid-awareness.  He jumped into the air and blinded a cyclops with his webs.  He swung down and covered a minotaur with webbing.

“Hey cowboy, you just got rustled!”  He quipped.

***

Nightbat Girl jumped over a ruined wall and sprinted for the street.  She got into the hero game because it offered a chance to wear skintight leather, meet Nightbat and indulge in some unorthodox fantasies.  Getting cooked by demons wasn’t her thing.  She heard wings flapping over head.  She threw some smoke bombs and ran faster.  A barbed whip wrapped itself around her ankles.  She screamed as she hit the ground face-first.  She was dragged face down for fifty feet before the harpy rose into the air dangling her like a prize.

***

Gridiron yelled “22-33 hut!” and charged.  He hit a cyclops’ ankle and the giant howled in pain.  Golden Girl blasted its chest and the cyclops fell.  Gridiron stopped to pose dramatically.  And a hellhound belched fire all over him.

Night Ranger jumped onto the hound’s back and drove a long-bladed knife into its eye.  The creature howled and reared up throwing the leather-wearing hero to the ground.  The hellhound turned to face Night Ranger, tongues of flame sprouting from its nostrils. 

“Nice doggie?” 

“Not so nice!”  A golden energy beam blew its head off. 

“Thanks Golden Girl!”

There was a growl to his left and Night Ranger jumped.  A snarling brass-skinned lion pounced.  Night Ranger looked at his arsenal of knives and shurikens and tried not cry.  Then he noticed the grenade launcher nearby.  Part of the late and unlamented Gun Guy’s arsenal.  He jumped for it.

***

“LOVE BEAM!”  Hero Girl One yelled and the heart-shaped pendent on her chest fired another red beam at the cyclops.  The giant paused and then stood there in a stupor.  Hero Girl One flew forward, punched him and he went down.  Half of the giants were already incapacitated one way or the other.  It had only been a few weeks since the Japanese company that created her put her on-line.  This was the first major battle for the vat-grown, cybernetically modified heroine and she was having the time of her life, it was just like an anime!  She spun in midair and targeted the next one. 

***

Mysta threw back her indigo hood.  It looked mysterious but right now she needed her peripheral vision more than she needed to maintain her image.  “I know there’s a banishing spell in here somewhere, you have to keep them off of me until I find it!”  White Crane hit a satyr with her fighting stick and it went down.  “I’ll do my best!”  Her foresight warned her and she ducked just as a harpy swooped by.  She heard hoof-beats; she turned and saw two centaurs charging.  Mysta was sitting on the ground flipping through her spellbook and pulling out crystals and herbs.  She grabbed the mystic by her hood and pulled.  “We have to move!  I can’t fight those!”

“But I almost-“

Then it was too late, strong muscular arms seized the two women and strong horse legs carried them away.

***

Webs shot out of nowhere binding the brass lion and buying Night Ranger a few precious seconds.  He dove for the gun and fired.  The kick-back almost broke his arm but the explosive shells did their job.  The lion exploded.

“Thanks kid!” 

There was another growl.  The minotaur was free. 

“You again?”  The Arachnid asked and pointed his wrist at it.

Nothing happened.

“I thought I refilled these last nig-“ were his last words before the minotaur’s axe took his head off.

BUDDHA-BUDDHA-BUDDHA the grenade launcher fired again and turned the minotaur into ground steak.

“I could get into this gun stuff!”  Night Ranger cried.

A barbed whip wrapped around his neck.  He was pulled into the air.

***

Golden Girl fried another harpy and put up a force field to protect herself from the chimera’s fire.  She took some shots at it but the lion-like beast dodged. 

CRACK!

A cyclops hit her golden field and almost knocked the tan blond out of the air.  She pointed a hand to blast it.

“No!  Don’t!”  Hero Girl One pushed her out of the way.  “LOVE BEAM!”

“What the-“

“He has a prisoner!”  The Japanese girl pointed.  Sure enough a blond girl was dangling from the stunned monster’s neck.  Hero Girl One swooped in and grabbed the chain.  Freedom Girl grunted as her abused arms were yanked again. 

A second later a golden blast finished off the cyclops. 

***

“That.  Hurt.”  Armor Man rose out of the river on two pillars of flame.  His ears were still ringing from the hit.  He glanced at the readouts.  Most of his systems were back online.  He grinned; it was going to be just like Nam.  He arced for the warehouse with vengeance on his mind. 

“KA-ZAP!” 

His palm-mounted particle beams roasted a cyclops.

"FWOOSH! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!"

Leg-mounted napalm and frag launchers hit targets on the ground. 

He saw the Japanese chick and Golden Girl were still fighting.  They took down the last of the cyclopses.  He looked around.  There were a couple of harpies in the air, a few monsters on the ground but it looked like the fight was almost over.  The only major threat left was the chimera and the punk kid on its back.

The three flying heroes hovered around him.  Armor Man noticed a few of the heroes were captured, two of them were even dangling from the harpies’ whips.  But they were all D-listers, no one would miss them.

“Give it up kid or I’ll burn you like a Cambodian village.”

“No you don’t understand!”  Freedom Girl yelled.

“Sssh, don’t worry, you’re safe now, we’ve got him.” Hero Girl One whispered, wrapping her arms around the patriotic blonde. 

“Yeah, I don’t think pimple face here is going to be much of a threat!”  Golden Girl said flouncing her hair contemptuously. 

“Ha-ha-ha!”  Warbringer laughed.  “What you think you won?  Cause you killed some of my cannon fodder?  Those guys were just some leftover followers of my dad.  I just used them for fun.”

“Yeah kid, whatever.”  Armor Man raised a gauntleted hand and vaporized the chimera’s head.  The misshapen monster fell to the ground dead.

But Warbringer remained, hovering in midair.  Silver-winged sandals on his feet.

“Like them?  Uncle Hermes let me borrow them.”

“Still not impressed kid.”  Armor Man fired again.  And the beam bounced back.

“That’s not the only thing he let me borrow.  He got me some of grandpa’s stuff too!”  He was holding up a golden shield, on his back was a quiver crackling with energy.  “Wanna see?”

Faster than any of the heroes could react Warbringer pulled out a lightning bolt and threw it.  Armor Man screamed as his systems overloaded.  He fell from the sky into the blasted ruins underneath. 

Warbringer seemed to grow taller, power crackled around him.  Wind began to howl.

“You fucking shit!  I’m the son of a god!  You really think some crappy armor is going to impress me?”

Golden Girl raised a hand to blast him, but wearing Hermes’ sandals he was far too quick.  He was in front of her in less than a second; he wrapped a hand around her power gem and pulled.  The golden gem came off, taking most of her top with it.  He crushed it in his hand.  The powerless girl tumbled down, falling into the talons of a harpy. 

Hero Girl One was just starting to register the threat when Warbringer reached her.  He pulled Freedom Girl out of her hands and seized the Japanese girl’s long black hair.  With a flick of his wrist he tossed her a few blocks away into the side of an apartment house.  He looked Tiffany in the eyes and laughed.

“Not so clever now huh?”

Tiffany passed out.

***

When she came to, Freedom Girl was hanging from her wrists again, but this time in a palatial marble hall somewhere.

She heard screams.

Armor Man was strapped to a table in front of her, naked.  The harpies were slowly cutting off bits of his skin and dropping them into a stew they had cooking in his helmet.  But he wasn’t the one screaming.  They’d removed his tongue early on.

Mysta and White Crane were there too.  Their arms and legs were tied around a centaur’s torso so they hung down below the horse body.  Both were being impaled on the massive horse cocks.  But they weren’t screaming either.  They’d been fed powerful centaur wine.  If anything they looked like they were having fun.

Silenus the satyr danced around Golden Girl and Nightbat Girl.  The blonde and redhead were being forced to dance.  Golden Girl’s costume was intact except for her bared breasts but Nightbat Girl’s skintight leather was shredded down the front.  Tiffany could see their nipples were hard.

Hero Girl One’s schoolgirl/superheroine uniform was in disarray, the Japanese girl was on her knees frantically pleasuring herself with her fingers, her shattered ‘Love Beam’ amulet malfunctioning, feeding back through her body. 

Night Ranger was across the hall, hanging by his wrists.  He was unconscious; the Minotaur was using him as a punching bag.  He grunted after each blow.

And in the center of it all was the warhead.  It had taken some dents in the fight but it was designed to withstand reentry.  It was definitely still working.

That’s when Freedom Girl figured out who was screaming.

It was her.

“Awake?”  Warbringer asked.  He gestured and she was lowered to the ground.  She collapsed in a heap.  Her hands were freed.  She noticed she still had her magic belt.  Her aching muscles were already starting to recover.  She was free and could use her powers.  If she dared.

“W-where?”  She finally asked.

“Like it?  It’s the old Adams mansion, some 60s hero used to use it as his base.  The redhead slut over there told us about it if I promised not to hurt her.”

He walked over to Hero Girl One, opened his armored skirt and put his erect cock in her mouth.  The senseless Japanese heroine began to suck noisily.

“Why…”

“Why did I beat them?  Why not just run?  That’s easy.  I wanted to show you.  I’m not some punk kid you can trick, not some nut job you and your buddies can beat up for kicks.  I’m the fucking son of fucking Ares and you mortals don’t stand a chance.  Don’t start getting any ideas that thing would have gone different if you’d had Astroman or whoever, I can take anyone on the planet.  So do you get it now?  It’s not just that you can’t beat me, I can’t be beaten!  I can give you a month off, let you come up with the best plan ever and you’ll still lose!  Cause to me, all you fucking mortals are just fucking little ants I can crush-UGH!”

He came with a grunt and sticky cum leaked from Hero Girl One’s virgin mouth.  He wiped with her hair, put a hand on her temple and slammed her head against the marble wall.  There was a sickening crunch and she fell to the ground dead.

“Got it now?”

Freedom Girl got to her feet and looked at the dead girl.  She looked around, noticing the Amazing Arachnid’s head on a pike, Gun Guy and Blue Archer’s pulped corpses hanging on the wall like trophies, a harpy chewing on burnt chunks of Gridiron.  All of them were here because of her.

“I… I got it.”

Warbringer gestured and Golden Girl danced towards him.  She slithered along his body rubbing her breasts against his armor.  He gestured to Freedom Girl.  “Come here, I want to make a blonde sandwich.” 

Freedom Girl swallowed hard and walked towards him. 

“Hey!  Breasts!”

She nodded and peeled up her mid-riff top.  Her breasts popped out.  She moved up to him and pressed against his armor.  She kissed his neck and nibbled on his ear.

There was a gasp.  She noticed the Satyr was now fucking Nightbat Girl up the ass. 

Warbringer guided her hand between his legs, she closed it on his member, it was already firm again.  He pushed on her shoulders; she dropped to her knees and began to suck.

“Ah-ah-yes!”  White Crane screamed as a centaur came inside her.

***

Freedom Girl sat Warbringer’s lap watching the countdown.  She could hear groans and screams from the remaining heroes and heroines, the last few hours had not been pleasant. 

She still had her belt.  She still had freewill.  There was nothing stopping her.  Nothing but the knowledge she would fail. 

“Tomorrow, if there is another reboot, here’s what I want you to do…”  He whispered.

The clock hit zero.

The world went white.

***

 

Take 13

 

Warbringer landed the chimera on Tiffany’s roof.  He’d left the Furies behind, he didn’t need them anymore.  Tiffany was beaten.

As instructed she was waiting there, wrapped in a white sheet.

He smiled.  Good.  She was close to giving up.  And once she surrendered that bitch Athena’s spell would break and time would get back to normal.

And he would become a god.

“Come Tiffany… there is so much I want to do to you today.”

The girl gave the slightest nod and took a step forward.  And dropped the sheet.  As ordered she was wearing nothing but her magic belt.  Her arms were demurely behind her back. 

“Excellent Slave Tiffany.  Come here, come here now.”

“Yes…” she said slowly.  “NOW!”  She threw the shurikens with amazing accuracy, catching Warbringer in the eyes, despite his helmet.  Night Ranger jumped from behind an AC duct and hit the chimera in the neck with an axe.  He jammed a knife through its eye, finishing the beast.

Blinded and screaming, Warbringer was thrown from the thrashing creature to the rooftop.  Tiffany charged towards him, ballistic knife in each hand.  These blades had spring-loaded handles each with a few hundred pounds of force in them.  She positioned one over Warbringer’s exposed neck and rammed downwards with all of her magically-enhanced strength.  She hit the release just as the tip hit Warbringer’s toughened skin. 

The son of Ares' howl became a hiss as the blade severed his jugular.  His arm jerked hitting Tiffany’s leg like a pile driver.  The girl cried out and fell on top of him.  He grabbed her neck and snapped it like a twig. 

Night Ranger finished off the Chimera and ran towards Warbringer.  The teen boy was flailing wildly, there was blood everywhere.  Night Ranger threw some more shuriken.  Without Freedom Girl’s strength or a vulnerable spot like an eye, most of them bounced off but one landed right in the neck wound.  Night Ranger ducked under his flailing arms and kicked the back of Warbringer’s knees.  The boy stumbled and fell face first.  He took out the battle axe.  It was a 50lb monster, much too heavy for most fights.  He’d only brought it to see if Tiffany’s strength might make it useful.  He raised it over his head and swung.

It left a bruise but didn’t cut.  He raised it again.  Maybe a chainsaw, he thought.

Then the barbed whips wrapped themselves around his wrists and he was hauled into the air.  The Furies pulled again and his arms and legs tore loose.  Bits of him were scattered over twenty miles. 

After a few minutes Warbringer pulled the shuriken out his eyes and climbed to his feet.  His vision was already coming back.  He looked down at Tiffany’s broken body.

“That was stupid!”  He yelled.

Then he kicked her corpse off the roof.

***

 

Take 14

 

“Run!  Run!  I’ll try and hold them AH!” 

The barbed whips once again lodged themselves in her flesh.

***

Leather-coated fingers desperately stabbed at cell phone buttons as Raphael ran.

“Hello, is this Peter Cohen?  I know you never met me but I need the Amazing Arach-Aieeeee!”

Raphael’s scream echoed across the rooftops.  His cell phone fell from lifeless fingers.

Tiffany shed a tear for him. 

And herself.

***

“Bitch!  You fucking bitch!  Why don’t you just give up?”

The barbed whips rose and fell.  There was blood all over the warehouse.

***

 

Take 15

 

“Damn it you bitch!  You can’t win!  Just give up!”

Tiffany was tied to a wheel on the floor.  She was spread-eagled, unable to move her arms or legs.  There were markings painted on the ground under it.  Warbringer gave it a spin; it stopped with her head at the word fire.

Warbringer smiled.

One of the furies brought out a blowtorch.

Tiffany screamed.

***

 

Take 16

“Why?  Why the fuck don’t you just give up?”

Tiffany wept.

She thought she had.

***

 

Take 17

 

“Look, see this!  This is your lover Raphael!  And over there’s your school buddy Sharon!  And over there, recognize her?  It’s your mom!  Yeah the Furies are pretty fast when they have to be and Poland’s not that far.  Wanna guess what I’m gonna do to them?  Wanna guess huh?  You’ve had a lot of experience by now.”

***

 

Take 18 

 

Tears rolled down Warbringer's cheeks.

“Come on Tiffany.  This is stupid.  This is boring.  Just give up and let me get on with it.  Come on.”

***

 

Take 19

 

“Why?  Damnit!  Why?”

“Because…”  It was the first word she’d said in 5 days.  Warbringer gestured for his harpies to lower their whips.  He leaned in closer.

“B-because you’re going to kill everyone.  You’re going to blow up the whole city, including me, including my friends.  And then you and your dad are going to start World War III and take over the world.”

“Um, so?”

“So… why should I give up?  I’ve seen you, I know the kind of person you are, the kind of world you’ll make.  Maybe I can’t beat you.  But if I can stop you, that’s good enough.  Whatever it costs.  Anything I have to do.  I can’t give up, if I give up, everyone dies.”

The room was silent except for the twitching of the furies’ wings.

“Massster?  Ssshall we whip her sssome more?”

“No Megaera, I need to think.”

“Massster, ssshe is Megaera, I am-“

“Just shut up OK.”

He let Tiffany hang there for the rest of the time as he watched her and thought.

***

 

Take 20

k “If you wanna be my lover, you’ve gotta get with my friends…”k

“Hello?”

“Look Tiffany, I’ve been thinking about what you said.  I want to make a deal.  Meet me in an hour at the Megapolis Palace, they have this rooftop café.”

***

Tiffany had never seen Warbringer in anything but his Greek armor.  Seeing him now at the hotel was almost comical.  He was wearing a polyester Walmart suit a size too big for him and looked like a little boy playing dress up. 

The waiters sneered at him but took them to a corner table.

Tiffany was wearing a comfortable blouse and a pair of knee-length shorts that gave her some maneuverability if she needed it.  She had the belt on, hidden under her shirt tails.

“OK, what’s your deal?”

Warbringer looked over the city.  They were on the 86^th floor of Shooter Tower, with a commanding view of Megapolis.  The city he planned to nuke in less than 24 hours. 

“Look I have to do this.  I have to.  You don’t know what it’s like.”

“I kind of do.  I mean my dad’s a big time superhero, he’s like saved the world a million times.  I have to do this too.  I can’t let him down.”

“But my dad’s a god!  And he’ll make me a god too!”

“Yeah well, I got this mission from a goddess.  And I don’t think she’ll let me quit.”

“That’s not true!  My dad says if you give up, if you really, really give up then she can’t keep the spell going.”

Tiffany nodded and thought about that.  Over the past twenty days she’d thought of giving up a bunch of times.  Hell, after the superhero massacre, she thought she had given up.  And maybe she did for a while.  But somewhere in the back of her brain she’d been thinking about her next move. 

Her dad would be so proud.  If he ever knew.

“So what’s your deal?”

“I’ll give you a day.  Tell anyone you want, go on TV and tell people to run for the hills.  Call up all those heroes and have them evacuate the place.  Just don’t bother me.  Even if people believe you I figure odds are you’ll get maybe half the city to leave.  So then I set off the bomb and there’s still a couple million people left.  Not as good as dad wants but it should be enough.”

“That’s it?”

“Huh?  Yeah.  You save maybe half the city.  Not bad.”

“So then you kill all of them in WWIII?  Or just make them your slaves after you win?”

“Oh… um, look I promise anyone you get out of the city, I’ll spare them OK?  So all your friends survive; I mean that’s what you were worried about right?”

“So all I have to do is let you kill everyone else in the world?”

“Um…”

Tiffany threw the water glass in his face and jumped off the side of the building.  With her magic belt on she was able to grab a flagpole and swing to the next building and disappear among the rooftops.  She was laughing.  Splashing him with that water was even more satisfying then cutting his throat.

***

The waiters were laughing at him.  The customers were laughing at him.  He was wet.

“OK bitch!  It is on!  It is on like Donkey Kong!”  Warbringer screamed incoherently.

***

Tiffany found herself back in her neighborhood.  She called Raphael and (once again) explained the time loop.  Once again his reactions went from confusion to panic to acceptance pretty fast.  She guessed that after being stuck in one of these loops you got pretty accepting pretty fast. 

She’d meet with him.  Have some lunch and try to decide on a next move.  She wished she had some master plan other than ‘never give up’. 

“Oh well, it worked for John Paul Jones” she muttered.

Then the barbed whips caught her ankle and bare midriff and she was hauled screaming into the air.

***

“Hey Tiffany?  Like what I did with the place?”

She was back at the Megapolis Palace.  Most of the customers were dead.  They were strapped to tables and had forks and knives driven into their soft bodies.  A few were still moaning.  She could hear gunshots and policemen from the stairs but the minotaur and the chimera were keeping them away.  A police helicopter was burning on the patio. 

The harpies dropped her from fifty feet up.  She landed on her side.  Warbringer kicked her on to her back and then grabbed her hair.  He wrenched her head and dragged her to the edge over looking the city.

“See?  See what you made me do?  Cause every time you fucking fuck with me this is what happens!  Innocent people pay the price!  Now fucking take the offer!”

“Fuck you!  You think this is going to make me give up?  Fuck that!  After what I’ve seen?  I will never EVER let you win!  Never!”

“But… I… you have to or…”

“Or you’ll start World War III?”

“I…”

The gunshots were getting closer.  The minotaur howled in pain and fell silent.

“Look, I can talk to my dad, you can, you can be my queen?  How’s that?  You don’t have to fight me, you can-“

She spat in his eye.

“DAMNIT!”  He gestured and the Furies dropped her off the side of the building.  He whistled and the Chimera, shot and bleeding ran up the stairs and kneeled next to Warbringer.  He took off into the air.

Seventy stories down, hanging from a flag pole Freedom Girl watched him leave.

“Did I just win one?”

At noon the world went white.

***

 

Take 21

 

k “War huh!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothing!”k

Warbringer looked at his phone in surprise.  It was ringing.  That had never happened before.  Which could only mean-

“Tiffany?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you-“

“You called me yesterday.  I memorized the number.  We need to talk.  Same place, in two hours?”

“Is this another trick?  Cause this time I’m bringing the Furies and if you try anything-“

“How well have my tricks worked before?”

“Hmm” Warbringer felt his eyes, his neck, his ears.  But then again he was still here wasn’t he?  “Fine.  Two hours.”

***

This time Tiffany went all out.  The sun dress was tight in all the right places, flowing in the right places and absent in the right places.  It was cut lower than she liked in the chest, and higher than she liked on the legs but Raphael liked it on her and if she ever needed that kind of edge she needed it today.  The two hours also gave her time to do her makeup and hair right.  It was the first time Warbringer had seen her at her best.

“Hey there!”

“Um… hey.”

“I’ve been thinking.”  She slipped a foot out of her sandal and ran her toes along Warbringer’s inner thigh.  “A lot.”

“Um… yeah.”

“Y’know, we don’t always have to do what our parents say.”

“Huh?  So you’re gonna give up?”

“Why are you helping your dad?”

“Huh?  Cause he’s gonna make me a god!”

She tossed him a stainless steel salt shaker and gestured for him to crush it.  He did it easily.

“You’re already stronger than any man, and tougher and who knows what other powers you have.”

“Yeah but…”

“You saw me and my boyfriend right?  You watched us?  Together?”

“Um… yeah.”

“He used to be a villain y’know.  Called the Reaver.  Did a lot of bad stuff.  Used knives.”

“Yeah, he told me about it.  Told me about what he did with you too.”

Tiffany swallowed hard.  That would make things tougher.

“Yeah, and you know what, he’s a good guy now.  And yeah, I remember what he did to me, and…” she couldn’t believe she was going to try this lie “…it makes me hot.”

“Hot?”

“You know what they say, the nice guy gets the girl, but the bad boy gets her wet.”  She licked her lips.

“Um…”

“So a guy like Raphael, a bad boy turned good.  There’s nothing hotter than that.”

“Bad boy…”

“Turned good.”

“I’m not gonna give up if that’s-“

Tiffany rose and headed for the ladies’ room.  She made a follow-me gesture.

Warbringer sat at the table in his too-large suit for another five minutes before he got up.

***

“I knew you’d come!”  She said breathlessly pulling him into the ladies’ room.  It was a one-seater, with a locking door.  Perfect.  She pulled his shirt open and kissed his hairless flabby chest.  He pulled down his pants. 

She took his small member between her lips and touched it with the tip of her tongue.  This was going to be toughest thing she ever did.

But she did it. 

His member got harder and hotter in her mouth.  She hated giving head; she had to be pretty drunk before she’d even think of it.  But for the fifteen year old demigod it was the greatest experience of his life.

“Oh yeah!”

Freedom Girl managed to jerk her head away and put up a tissue before he shot his meager load.  She rose to her feet and kissed the boy again, running her hands up and down his chest.  She whispered in his ear.

“Now wasn’t that better?”

He just kissed her back and felt her breasts.  She could feel his dick getting hard again.  The boy didn’t have much stamina but he recovered fast.  She reached into her purse and felt her magic belt buckle, just a quick touch made her feel stronger, more certain, she could do this!

Someone tried to open the ladies’ room door.  They ignored it.  Freedom Girl pulled down her panties and propped her butt on the sink.  Warbringer peeled down the sundress and kissed her breasts.  She wrapped her legs around him, and pulled his chubby body closer.  She gasped as he entered.  She couldn’t believe it, after all these times, after all the pain, she was actually aroused.  She wiggled her ass and pulled harder trying to get him in deeper. 

“Nnnnn” she moaned in a girlishly high voice and bit her lip to keep from saying more.  Warbringer just grunted and pushed.

“UH!”  Finally he came again and slumped against the far wall.  By then people were pounding on the bathroom door.  Freedom Girl pulled up her dress to cover her breasts and tossed the panties in the trashcan.  Warbringer zipped up.

As they slipped past the angry patrons Tiffany heard them muttering ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘bitch’.  She wanted to turn and scream at them, tell them what she had been through, what she was saving them from.  Instead she painted on a smile and just walked on by.

“Don’t listen to them Tiff, they’re just jealous.”  Warbringer took her hand and led her out.

They hit Shuster Park next and took the paddleboats out on the reservoir.  Then they made out behind some trees and Freedom Girl sucked his dick.  When they got up the grass stains on Freedom Girl’s sundress and hickies on her neck attracted stares but they ignored them.  Warbringer only had eyes for his date, and Freedom Girl was a good enough actress to pretend she felt the same way.

They hit the Mignola Gallery to see the modern art exhibit.  Warbringer got bored quickly and broke off the lock to a storage closet.  They screwed against the wall, Freedom Girl’s gasps attracted a crowd but the art-lovers were polite enough to avert their eyes when the couple emerged.

Next they caught the new Incredible Behemoth film.  The scenes of Behemoth smashing tanks actually held the 15 year-old boy’s attention.  Tiffany had to go down on him to get it back.

They were both too young to get into a club or a bar so Warbringer stole a car and they headed out of town to the hills overlooking the city.  They made love in the woods, two superpowered teens with almost limitless stamina. 

Finally the sun came up.

Warbringer was sitting on a rock just wearing his jeans.  Freedom Girl was behind him, naked.  Her warm breasts pressed against his back, she ran her hands along his chest and had her chin on his shoulder.  Together they saw the first light of day strike Shooter Tower.

“It’s beautiful.”  Warbringer finally muttered.

“Yeah.  Amazing isn’t it.  Millions of people starting their day, living their lives.”

“Cut that out.”

“Going to museums, movies, restaurants.  Laughing, working, loving.  All those people out there.  Happy.”

“Come on…”

“You don’t have to do it.”

“But…”

“You don’t even have to be a bad guy you know.  With Apollo gone there’s really no one around to be the world’s number one hero.  With your powers…”

Warbringer looked at her thoughtfully.  She kissed his lips.

“There’s a lot of heroines out there.  Ultra Woman, Golden Girl, the Global Protectors…  A handsome bad boy turned good…”  She unbuttoned his jeans again.  She lowered her mouth to his member. 

Warbringer started to cry.

Tiffany looked up.

“I… I won’t do it!  I won’t OK!  I don’t want to anymore!”

“You serious?”

“Yeah.”

“No, really, no bull?”

“Fuck… dad will kill me but yeah.  Fuck it.  Fuck him.  I’m saying I’ll be superhero or something but yeah.  No World War III.  Screw it.  Let’s go back to the warehouse.”

They drove back in silence, hearing only Warbringer’s occasional sobs.

***

“Massster, all isss ready, the time isss near.”

“Um yeah, thanks Megaera.”

“Massster I am Alecto, ssshe is-“

“Whatever, leave me alone.”

They went to the basement.  He yanked out some wires from the laptop and they went upstairs.

Warbringer started to take off his pants.

“Um, no, not here OK?”  Freedom girl looked around the dark temple she had gotten to know so well.  “Too many, um…”

“Oh… yeah.”  Warbringer finally had the decency to look ashamed for everything he had done.

“Come on, I know a place.”

***

Noon came and went while they were both in the car.  The both winced.  Nothing happened.

The clock hit 12:01.  Then 12:02.  Then 12:03.

Warbringer and Freedom Girl looked at each other awkwardly and giggled.

She took his hand in hers and breathed a sigh of relief.

***

They pulled into a small vacation house in the woods and parked in the enclosed garage.  The room was filled with tools and weapons. 

“It’s one of Raphael’s safe houses and workshops.” Freedom Girl explained.  “It’s isolated and soundproof.  No one can hear us, we can do…”  She turned around and peeled the sundress off her shoulders letting it fall to the floor.  She was naked under it.  “…anything!”

Warbringer laughed and dropped his pants, he shuffled forward, one step, two, three, and…

“AHH!”

Night Ranger jumped from behind and drove two stilettos into the boy’s ears.  Tiffany pulled her belt from her purse and threw it around her neck.  Warbringer swung wildly and knocked Night Ranger into the wall.  Tiffany pulled two more stiletto knives off the wall and jumped on Warbringer’s back, she drove them deep into the boy’s eyes and jumped off.  Still thrashing but blind and deaf Warbringer dented the car, smashed a steel box and knocked a hole in the concrete wall.  Then Freedom Girl got behind him with a titanium axe and buried it in the boy’s spine.  Warbringer fell to the ground twitching and howling incoherently.

Night Ranger and Freedom Girl looked at each other for a few minutes.  Warbringer didn’t get up.

“Um, it’s 12:30 so I guess it worked.”

“Guess so.”

“Armor Man called, he hit the warehouse you told me about.  Killed some monsters and disarmed the nuke.  The FBI and the press are there now.  He promised he’d mention you.”

“Thanks.”

“Your uh, costume’s in that box.”

Tiffany nodded and started pulling it on.  It was nice to wear something clean after a day in that cum-stained sundress.

Night Ranger took a heavy-duty chainsaw off the wall.

“You uh, you don’t have to watch.”

“No.  I do.”

The chainsaw roared.  He took the head off first.

***

They were lying on the roof now, watching the stars.

Hacking Warbringer apart had taken all afternoon.  They’d broken three or four chains.  Then they had to burn the parts and scatter the ashes.  They were both exhausted.  Night Ranger held Freedom Girl against him and softly kissed her neck.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“That first time, in the time loop, I never meant-“

“You already said this.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know, like the fifth or sixth loop.  It’s OK.  I’ve had lots of time to come to terms.”

“Oh.”

“Actually it got really boring explaining it to you and listening to you stammer apologies.  I usually had to cut you off to get to business.  I guess I’d be more angry at you if I hadn’t done some bad stuff.  Using Sharon for bait, getting those heroes killed, using myself as a… as a… y’know, to trick him.  Things make a lot more sense once you’ve been through that.”

They lay in silence for a while.

“I’m leaving.”  He finally said.

“I know.”

“I’m getting a new costume, a new name, maybe a new face and fingerprints too.  You won’t see me again.”

“What will you be?  Hero?  Villain?”

“I don’t know yet.  I just… I have to go.”  He got up.  Freedom Girl put her hand on his hip.

“Please… before you go… one last time?”

He nodded and smiled.

They kissed.

***

Freedom Girl dreamed of a marble temple on top of an impossibly high mountain.  Mist covered the floor.  A robed woman with an owl on her shoulder was waiting.

“You have done well young tiffany Truman.”

Freedom Girl was silent.

“Warbringer is slain and Ares is thwarted.  You should be proud.”

Freedom Girl frowned.

“You are not pleased.”

“You’re supposed to be wise and all-knowing, you tell me.”

“You want to know why.  Why were you chosen to stop Warbringer.”

“There’s lots of heroes, Apollo, Armor Man, Princess Patriot, even my dad.  Why me?  I never wanted to save the world!  I just wanted to stop some muggers!  I’m not even 20!”

“you succeeded.  As I knew you would.”

“Someone else could have done it too!  Why did I have to?  Why?  Why?”

But the mist rose up and Freedom Girl could not find the woman again.

***

When Freedom Girl woke up alone it was almost noon.  She watched the clock with growing dread until the fateful hour finally passed.  She wondered if she would ever look at a clock the same way again. 

There were some papers on the night table.  Raphael had left her the deed to this house and two apartments in the city.  He’d also left a Swiss bank account with a six-figure sum.  Not a bad farewell gift.

She got up.  It was Saturday.  Two days after her ordeal began.  Or twenty-two days, depending on how you counted.

She fixed some breakfast.  She’d have to return the stolen car today, then contact this reporter she knew and tell him her side of the Warbringer story.  At least the parts she was willing to share.  She should also call Armor Man and thank him for his help.  But first there was one thing she had to do…

“Hello daddy?”

“Sweetie!  How’s my little Freedom Girl?”

“Fine daddy, fine.  I uh, I saved the world yesterday.”

“Did you now?”

“Yeah, this uh, this guy was going to set of a nuke and start World War III.  But I stopped him.”

“Good for you!  Your very first world-saving.  Tell you what, I’m in Afghanistan right now but I should be back in Megapolis sometime next month, we’ll have dinner and you can tell me all about it.”

“Thanks daddy, that would be great.”

“And sweetie, I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks daddy.  Thanks.  See you then.”

Freedom Girl hung up the phone and smiled.

 

Afterword

 

This was a fun story to write, but a tough one.  The fun part is that since each chapter resets to the beginning I could do almost anything with no consequences!  But at the same time I don’t want it to be as boring or frustrating for the reader as it is for the characters.  That was especially hard since I already did one story with the same device and I don’t want to repeat that one either.  Let me know how I did!

 

Another thing I wanted to do was to have a genuinely heroic heroine.  Stella and the Minx and the Global Protectors feature characters who are as petty or weak as the rest of us.  So I tried to make Freedom Girl brave and strong and true, but still human.  So let me know how that went.

 

Finally the superhero massacre in Take 12 is where I blew the special effects budget for the whole story.  DC did a Wonder Woman story where a captured heroine was hung from a giant woman’s neck like a pendent, and I’ve been looking for a good excuse to use that.  Of course for a superhero massacre I needed heroes.  But it’s hard to introduce a ton of characters in a story like this.  In a comic book I would just have a splash page of everyone posing and then get to the action.  In a text story I have to stop the action and describe everyone’s appearance, costume, powers and background.  Which would take pages and put people to sleep.  So I tried to just throw that stuff in as I went along.  Did it work?  Let me know!

 

I have the germ of an idea for Freedom Girl 3; it will be a Crisis on Infinite Earths style time travel, cosmic, dinosaur fighting, team-up thing.  Any interest in that?

 

Marcus Lycus

(Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com)

July 2008

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