The Global Protectors – The Revenge of Blackchrome

By Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com

The Global Protectors are copyright Doctor Droid (www.superstories.net/droidzone). Other characters and text are copyright Marcus Lycus.

Do not repost this story without permission. Please don’t read it if you are younger than 18. 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!

Marcus Lycus

August 2004

Chapter 3 - Villainy Victorious

"And so, in the last six months we have seen 12 partial activations, partial successes I guess we could call them. Doctor Boyd refuses to call them failures. If anything the Boyd Treatment is more successful than ever, critically injured women are revived nearly 80% of the time. But none of the recipients of this 'improved' treatment have shown any signs of the superpowers seen in the earlier subjects, the ones who make up the Global Protectors. The women are emerging healed but normal, not as superheroines. This creates an ethical quandary for us. In order for us to add new members we would have to go back to using an older version of the treatment, with a much lower success rate. Can we trade women's lives just to create more heroines? Obviously not. So Doctor Boyd and I are doing computer models, trying to improve the process without sacrificing effectiveness. Such models are of limited use however since we still do not truly understand how or why the process works."

Valkyrie saved the latest entry to her logs and got up to fix some coffee. Her smooth forehead was wrinkled with worry. She honestly did not know what to do. The Global Protector's increasing popularity and importance had left their eight members stretched to their limits. Right now for instance the Gaea Building was empty except for herself. They needed more members. But the Boyd Treatment only worked on women who near death and until recently it failed much more often than it succeeded. How could she ethically use the older version when it might mean death for a woman she could have saved? It was regrettable but she knew that for now there was no way to add any new members to the team.

She called up the monitor program and checked on the team. Tigress' team was still in Romania; Maple Leaf at the Megapolis Palace and Star was across town. Shamrock and Rising Sun were still in the old warehouse district she noticed. She was a bit surprised, even if they'd found the white slavers it should not take this long to round them up. She was about to call them when she heard something from the other room.

Cautiously she headed towards the treatment room. It was supposed to be empty and secure. It was the room where she often treated her comrades for 'shock and trauma'. Treatments that usually involved modifying or erasing memories with the mind control helmet she had captured from Villainy eXtreme. She had been doing it for two years, deleting the details of her friend's defeats and humiliations, making sure they remained pure and heroic, preventing them from becoming bitter and jaded. She had gotten their permission, after a fashion, two years ago after a particularly bad experience in the Wraith Lord's Dungeons of Despair. At the time Tigress had warned that her treatments might prevent the team from ever learning from their mistakes, a warning Valkyrie thought of every time she had to treat a teammate. But what could she do? She loved her teammates much too much to let them keep painful memories. Thanks to her bright spirits like Shamrock's or Rising Sun's remained pure and innocent, the way Valkyrie liked them. The way she loved them.

Naturally Val never considered using the process on herself. She knew her mind, unlike her teammates', was strong enough to endure.

She heard something again from the treatment room, the soundproof door was ajar and she thought she heard something inside. She smelled something; it smelled a little like… sushi?

***

Maple Leaf drank the last of her Champaign and headed for the balcony. She waved to Loveless and Greenwood and the other reliable donors and took off into the twilight sky.

Another day, another dollar. Or twelve thousand dollars in her case. Enough money to pay the Global Protectors electric bill for three days according to her latest budget projections.

The others muttered behind her back that Maple Leaf was only interested in money but they just did not understand. Real life isn't like a comic book. A superhero headquarters costs money to build, which means a mortgage, and interest on the mortgage and insurance on the headquarters and a staff to clean and maintain it and health insurance for them and accountants to make sure they're paid and all that money has to come from somewhere!

Maybe a made-up group like the Avengers could do the job with nothing but an English butler but a real superheroine team needed more money than people like Shamrock or Tigress could imagine. T-shirts and movie royalties covered a lot (even if that Kevin Smith/Paris Hilton flick bombed) but sometimes you just had to get out there and pass the hat.

Fund-raising and deal making didn't leave much time for fighting the Necro-Ninjas or Mister Twister or whoever so she had to leave that stuff to the rest of the team. If that meant they bad-mouthed her behind her back, so be it. What do they know anyway?

She headed for the Mega Bistro where Donald was waiting at their usual table. With a bit of luck he'd kick in enough to cover their jet fuel bills for the rest of the year. She just hoped he wasn't expecting more than dinner. He was a lousy fuck.

***

Val walked proudly into the treatment room. It seemed just as she'd left it. There was the examination table with its restraints still intact, here was the comfortable chair she used for the long treatment sessions, and the one-way mirror on the wall.

Had she just imagined it?

Must have.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was in a tight bun, her high cheekbones and cold blue eyes were concealed by superfluous glasses. She had perfect vision of course, better than perfect in fact, but the glasses were a reminder of her old life and (she felt) made her look more like a scientist and less like a sexual fantasy. For the same reason she wore a shapeless white lab coat over her blue and gold costume concealing her firm round breasts and strong shoulders. When she had to she could be the statuesque amazon the world expected from her as but here in the privacy of her lab Valkyrie preferred to be a humble scientist.

La Sola was forever offering her advice about hair or makeup, trying to convince the team's 'ice queen' to loosen up, trying to tempt her with promises of men falling at her feet. Val had never had the heart to tell her curvy teammate that handsome men did not tempt her at all.

Beautiful Latin heroines however…

But Val put that thought out of her head. She knew her teammates better than they knew themselves and none of them shared her interests.

How many times had she sat in this room tempted to 'adjust' their preferences? Even for a little while. But she never had. She loved the Global Protectors and would never think of violating them like that. No matter how much she had suffer.

Valkyrie blinked and shook her head. How unlike her to get lost in thought like that? Especially since she knew all of this already. It was like she was just reviewing basic information for the benefit of some unknown observer or like she was a poorly written fictional character providing readers with exposition. She felt a passing wave of dizziness. She felt strange, dizzy, detached, uncertain…

She decided to head for the cot in the lab and take a nap, this dizziness was just a symptom of overwork she figured.

She had just turned to leave then they attacked.

***

Aussie Girl felt flushed, her heart raced and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She looked left and right ready for a battle but instead Tigress just chatted with the Dark Count like an old friend. She called Aussie over and introduced her to the Dark Count who insisted on being called Vlad. He surprisingly modest and kind, not at all like she had expected. Vlad then introduced her to his other dinner guests. There was a skinny English guy with dyed blond hair and a piercing gaze that seemed to bore into her like a spike, a brawny dark haired man with an angelic face, some trashy woman in a skimpy red swimsuit that barely covered her boobs and a waifish girl in skintight leather who described herself as a 'death dealer'. They were all quite friendly, shaking hands and kissing Aussie on the cheek but they seemed to avoid La Sola, none of them would touch her. Weird, considering how charming they all were.

The three heroines followed the count into an ornate dining room and sat down for dinner.

By the time they sat down none of this seemed remotely strange to Aussie or La Sola.

***

They came at her screaming through the doorway (they must have been hiding outside to lure her in there), at least two of them, moving too fast for Valkyrie to see clearly who they were, she caught only a glimpse of pale skin. The first attacker jumped on her wrapping legs around Val's thin waist. The other went in low tackling her around the knees bringing her down to the floor.

Finally reacting (but feeling strangely sluggish) Val reached grabbed the attacker on her chest and started to push it off. But as her vision cleared she saw…

A woman? A nude women? A nude woman with freckles and red hair? Shamrock? Shamrock smiled at her, a hungry scary smile and lowered her lips over Val's.

When Shamrock came up for air Valkyrie was panting. That felt… good. Below, she heard a tearing sound as the women grabbing her legs tore out the crotch to her costume. She looked down and saw Rising Sun grin at her before lowering her mouth to the blond Swede's pussy. Valkyrie found herself spreading her legs for her teammate.

She realized she was completely helpless. Completely at the mercy of her teammates and their perverted lusts. Helpless as they kissed her and licked her and fucked her and made her howl like a banshee! Oh it was wonderful. Even better than she'd imagined.

There were some clicks as metal heels hit the tile floor; someone else was coming in. Val tried to struggle up muttering "Maple Leaf this isn't what it looks like…"

It wasn't Maple Leaf.

A woman with silver eyes leered down at her and extended needle like claws.

"Valkyrie. The strongest, smartest, toughest Protector. You weren't so hard now were you?"

Valkyrie started to answer but Shamrock's lips covered hers again. She returned the greedy kiss.

The black and silver clad woman dropped to a crouch next to the pinned blonde. She pulled out Val's hair clip freeing the long blond hair from its constraining bun and sank her needles into Val's neck. The Swede moaned that felt so good.

"Not much at all. Some drugs in your coffee maker, two cooperative teammates…" She rose but and kissed Shamrock on the neck, the redhead pulled her tongue out of Val's mouth and returned the kiss. "…and of course your own psychological profiles. So obliging of you to write down this fantasy in your journal."

Fantasy? Yes of course Val realized, this was just a sexual fantasy, a wet dream, that's why she felt so funny. Perfectly healthy really, an outlet for her stress. No reason to fight it. Strange though, she never fantasized about a latex wearing cyborg before.

The woman in black moved her hand down to Rising Sun, giving the Japanese girl another taste of her drugs. The oriental redoubled her efforts and Valkyrie came for the first time.

"I'll just leave you lovebirds to it then. Be seeing you!"

Blackchrome locked the soundproof door behind her.

***

(That was it huh Blackchrome?)

(Yep. I told you boss Val's not that tough a nut to crack. She's like a diamond, harder than anything but if you hit just the right spot, she crumbles into dust. You should have seen how far gone she was when I knew her. She almost killed her little buddies you know.)

(I know, I know, I read the file. Sick stuff.)

(What can I say, some villains are real sickos.)

She chuckled and licked some of Val's juices off her glove.

(Two to go still. You sure you really want a fight? Ambushing the next one would be so easy.)

(That's why I want to take her down fair and square. Tricking a bimbo like her isn't even a challenge.)

***

Star climbed out of her star-shaped Jacuzzi, wrapped a towel around herself and picked up the communicator bracelet. A glance at the display showed it was the Irish girl.

"What. I told you not to bug me. I have plans tonight."

"I-I'm sorry Star, it's just…"

Shamrock's voice trailed off. Star scowled at the communicator. Stupid mic, can't even talk English good. "What."

"Well there's some reporters here from Capes & Masks Illustrated, they say they have a cover shoot with you in the gym, and um, when are you coming?"

Star paused. Cover shoot? C&M? That was pretty big-time, not exactly something she would forget. If it was the Australian calling she'd figure it was a trick (that anorexic bitch was still pissed off about Star sleeping with Ethan) but she knew Irish was too dumb to come up with anything like that. So if it wasn't a trick, and she didn't forget…

"Shamrock you idiot! Why didn't you tell me about this!"

"I, uh"

"Goddamn stupid ass drunk retard cunt! Tell them I'm on my way."

In the back of her mind Star knew it just might be a teensy bit her fault, considering she hadn't checked her email or gone to a meeting in a week but it never hurt to put the others in their place. Besides she really liked the sound of 'stupid ass drunk retard cunt' it pretty much had something to piss off everyone.

She turned to the race car driver in the hot tub. "I'm sorry Pail…"

"Dale"

"Right. But I have an urgent appointment. You can let yourself out right?"

She headed inside to put her costume on.

***

Dinner was strange. The table was filled with pheasant and wild boar and other exotic foods but their host and his guests didn't touch a bite just contenting themselves with goblets of red wine. They spent most of the dinner obsessing about a cheerleader in California with a funny name (Barbie? Brandy? Something like that) who apparently had caused all sorts of trouble for them and their relatives.

Tigress was pretty quiet; she sat next to the count and kept turning to stare at him. La Sola was also pretty withdrawn, she'd been put at the foot of the table with no one sitting near her. Aussie Girl felt bad for her and kept trying to talk to her friend but the guy with the peroxide hair kept interrupting with tales of his conquests. He seemed to think that since she was Australian she would appreciate all the English gutter slang he used.

The waiters were pretty weird too, really pale guys and skinny too. They never said anything just cleared the plates and served the next course. Finally the last of the plates were cleared and the count stood up.

"Thank you all for joining us for dinner."

He looked at the three.

"I hope you have eaten your fill because now it is time for… dessert."

The pointy teeth came out again.

***

Star stopped in the power room to reapply her makeup before entering the gym. Capes & Masks Illustrated was the top superhero/heroine magazine in America. Getting on the cover of it had launched Bikini Force's career back in the 90's. Of course she'd been in it with the Global Protectors more times than she could count but Star had never had her own cover. The best she'd gotten was that thing with her and Rising Sun in Hawaii for Pearl Harbor Day.

In her mind she rehearsed (and made up) some things to say about her workout. "I train…two… no make that three hours a day, running, aerobics, free weights, the usual. I'm a healthy all-American girl. Unlike the other Protectors I haven't let superpowers make me lazy." Yeah, that sounded good. Especially the shot at the others, remind all the readers they were a bunch of lazy foreigners.

It took her a few minutes to find the gym, she hadn't actually set foot in it in almost a year but when she did she threw open the doors and boldly walked in.

"Hello boys, so sorry to keep you waiting but there were these like, Arab terrorists on the bridge and I had to…"

Her voice trailed off, the gym was empty.

Crap.

She took another look around; the gym was pretty big after all. There was the track and the volleyball court on the first level and on the balcony around it they had the bikes, free weights and treadmills. The girl's powers almost made these things irrelevant but Doctor Boyd had found that regular exercise would actually develop their stamina and strength making each Protector stronger than before. The psychokinetic field did not add to their strength, it multiplied it. That was one reason Val and Tigress were so much stronger than the others. Unfortunately they were the only ones who seemed to think it was worth the trouble.

Star checked around the magnetic weight rig (she hated that thing, that's where Tigress tested her super strength and insulted Star's results) but there was no one there.

Crap again.

Did that idiot let them leave?

She was about to chew out Shamrock on her communicator when she heard the steps behind her.

"Oh there you are! I was on my way here when I saw this Mexican street gang attacking an old age home and of course I couldn't let those wetbacks…"

It wasn't a reporter behind her. It was some chick in a black fetish suit with wires and stuff on it. She looked like some kind of Matrix wannabe.

"Like, who are you? Some kind of Matrix wannabe?" She asked.

"Name's Blackchrome bitch. Remember it when you're begging for mercy."

Star took a step back and hit the panic button on her communicator. A villain? Crap. She liked to leave the whole villain fighting thing to Maple Leaf and Tigress who seemed to get off on it. Star was more of an after-action media spin person. She hit the panic button again, harder this time.

"Calling for help? Is Miss America afraid of little old me? I'm not surprised, I heard you can't fight your way out of a paper bag. You're like all Americans nothing but talk."

Star sneered at the chick. She didn't look too tough. Star had taken on villains almost as scary looking as her and done OK. She could take this Blackphone or whatever her name was.

"Oh yeah?" Star stopped herself, did she really just say 'oh yeah'? She had a dozen writers come up with a list of cool things to say in a fight and the best she could come up with was 'oh yeah'?

"I mean, uh, you mess with me and you'll get stars and stripes forever! You'll see stripes and I'll star you ass! I mean, y'know, the other way around. Crap. Can we start over?"

Blackchrome shook her head and leapt. Star screamed and jumped back, her super strong legs carrying her thirty feet up to the balcony, Blackchrome's claws slashed empty air.

(Not bad for a bimbo.)

(Never underestimate the power of fear.)

Blackchrome leapt after her. Star grabbed a rack of weights and knocked it over the side. The evil cyborg tried to dodge but there were too many, a 10-kilo barbell caught her on the head and knocked her to the gym floor. Several more hit her spine and legs. He onboard computer screamed.

>System Damage - Scroll down for details.

Star smiled. This villain fighting thing wasn't so hard after all. She threw a couple more weights at old Blackdome and then some exercise machines for good measure.

(Blackchrome? Blackchrome? Blackchrome, get up now and finish this!)

Electric shocks fired through Blackchrome's pain centers and stimulants pumped into her damaged body. Blackchrome's cold silver eyes opened.

(Blackchrome report!)

(S-still with you boss. The reflex accelerator is down, so's the combat computer but I can still take her.)

(You'd better. We didn't come this far for your overconfidence to ruin everything.)

(I can take her! It's only Star for fuck's sake.)

(You have five minutes, then I call in the relief team.)

(I said I'd do it!)

Blackchrome staggered to her feet just in time to catch a rowing machine right in the chest. The impact knocked her back a few feet tore some cables but she was still standing.

Barely.

***

"Dessert?" the Australian girl asked dreamily. "But I'm full…"

The count smiled at her. He called beckoned Tigress closer to him and reached for her firm breasts. He pulled down the unresisting heroine's costume exposing her chest and cupped her breasts in his hands. Tigress licked her lips and looked up at him lovingly. He seemed taller, stronger, more majestic than he had minutes before. Tigress' booted feet were lifted off the floor. His cape billowed upwards like batwings and his eyes turned red as blood.

Horrified but fascinated Aussie Girl rose to her feet and started to back away…

Vampires.

Out of nowhere the word entered her mind.

Vampires.

The realization hit her like a bucket of cold water. They were here to fight vampires! How could they be so dumb? How could she have forgotten?

La Sola was already on her feet, also looking like someone who had just woken up from a pleasant dream. The two heroines moved back to back.

Tigress! Tigress was the strongest of them all, she was the one who was always rescuing them, surely she had a plan right. Right?

Tigress reached up and moved her braided hair from her neck. "Please my count, please drink…" she whispered.

Crap.

***

The chick was staggering, barely on her feet. Star smiled and jumped back down to finish her. Fatality! Just like a video game.

Blackchrome tried to focus the connection between her organic brain and cybernetic eyes seemed damaged, static kept interrupting her vision like a bad TV connection.

She saw Star jump.

She lost the picture.

She saw Star's fist coming towards her.

She lost the picture.

She flew backwards through the air and hit the far wall.

Four more damage reports appeared on her internal computer, followed by the Blue Screen of Death.

She saw Star walk towards her. She heard something about 'flawless victory'. She felt Star's hand grab some of the loose cables on her chest.

Blackchrome shook her head. "Oh you shouldn't have grabbed me bitch."

"Hmm, why's that Blackmoan, you gonna bleed all over my costume?"

Blackchrome extended her razor claws.

"Because my dear, now I know where you are."

Her titanium kneepad slammed into Star's crotch with enough force to shatter granite.

Her razor-sharp claws raked the blonde's pretty face.

Star screamed.

***

La Sola pulled out the crucifix and Aussie Girl grabbed a knife and fork from the table to make a cross of her own.

"OK leeches, back off."

The degenerate creatures stepped away from the two.

"Now, let Tigress go or there'll be trouble."

The count smiled wide. Then wider. Then wider still. Wider than a human mouth should be able to open. He sank his teeth into Tigress' shoulder, blood ran freely down her chest but there seemed to be no pain. Just the opposite. The African champion panted and moaned. Her muscles tensed and veins stood up. She cried out ecstatically and a wet spot appeared between her legs.

The count dropped her and she fell limply to the ground.

The room was silent for several long minutes until…

"You killed Tigress! YOU BASTARDS!" Blinded by tears of rage Aussie Girl dropped her makeshift cross and charged the count, hitting him again and again, driving him to his knees.

La Sola moved forward spinning to keep the other vampires back with her cross.

"Aussie Girl, get back here!"

Aussie Girl was still screaming incoherently when Tigress stood up behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Aussie Girl, stop. I am fine."

Aussie Girl stopped and looked over her shoulder. It couldn't be! But the wound was gone, only a bit of dried blood remained. Tigress smiled at her, warm and friendly and happy. The count climbed to his feet and put a hand on the young girl's bare shoulder. "Tell her my dear."

"The movies lie. Vampires aren't evil, they don't hurt anyone. They make us feel good, so good, they give as much as they take."

"But…" Aussie Girl started to feel confused again.

"You like to feel good don't you? Like when you're with a man? You like that right?"

Aussie Girl nodded, her ponytail bobbing up and down.

Tigress' voice dropped to a whisper. "Well this is better."

"Better?"

"Let the count show you…"

His cold breath was on her neck, his warm cape surrounded her, his long teeth sank in deeply. Aussie Girl cried out "Yes OH YES!"

And La Sola found herself alone.