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Description

Kensington. Some avenue off the main high street, lined with huge white-brick houses. From the point of a leaf of one of the huge trees lining the road, Vine observed a lone woman. The stood in the middle of the road, her outfit showing off most of her olive-brown skin, and her braided black hair bounced as she danced. As the woman danced, smoke welled around her feet, and when her hips twirled or her hands moved out into a pose, the smoke coalesced. Crackling red spots appeared in it, and spread until the smoke was a fiery copy of the dancing woman. The shapes moved away from her, towards the houses.

Vine remembered the letter that Chris- erm, Edifice had shown her before she joined in on this mission.

I am sending this out of respect for the heroes in London who fight for the common good. This afternoon, I will be making a statement at the enclosed address. The leeches of society will suffer a loss. I do not want them to lose their lives, so I am giving you a chance to evacuate them and secure the area. I trust you understand that my true target - their ill-earned wealth - does not deserve your protection.

Sobia, the Firedancer

For her part, Vine could only admire the sentiment. Sobia had a point, and they'd met before - and talked enough that she could definitely empathise with Sobia's antipathy for the ruling class. She didn't have anything against sticking it to the Man. But she owed Edifice a favour. And he'd reminded her that while this was one of the richest neighbourhoods in the country, it was a really insensitive target for an arson attack.

Which basically summed up the two reasons why Naz was currently crouched in the branches of a tree at the other end of the avenue, in her full skin-tight Vine suit, juggling her consciousness between three tasks. Her meditative training with Hansoo was really paying off here (she was also sure that, ironically, her long history of being hypnotised helped her enter this state too). She was watching the fight through her plant-senses, while also trying to pilot a couple of La Profesora's drones which she had hastily fit with liquid nitrogen canisters.

As Firedancer's flame-clones floated towards the houses, Vine shifted her perspective up the tree's trunk, so she was now looking on the fight from far higher. Her hands moved on the drones' controllers, feeling like they were disembodied. She watched the drones move into position from the leaves high above, using her perspective to correct their course. She manoeuvred them above a pair of fire-clones, then pressed the button to shoot the liquid nitrogen. It fell down on the flaming body, and quenched it in a quick burst of icy smoke.

That was on one of the two clones, anyway. The other one slipped out of the way in a little pirouette. So she focused on her third task. Moving her mouth took a ridiculous effort as she also needed to focus on keeping her senses in the tree half a street away, and on moving the drones out of the way of the whips of fire that were starting to lash out of the villainess' hands. But she managed it.

"Chris, you're gonna need to cross the road!" She barked at her in-ear transmitter.

She returned her sight to house-level so better pilot the drones away from the fire whips still lashing out every few seconds from Firedancer's undulating body. While her fingers frantically thumbed the drones' joysticks in mad arcs away from the flames, she heard a crash to her side.

A bearded man in a ridiculous high-vis vest-themed superhero costume had smashed through an upper story window of a house which had been hit by another of Sobia's fire-clones a few minutes ago. In a single bound, he was already across the street, and clinging to the side of a now-burning building with both hands and feet.

As long as he kept all four limbs on the building, Edifice would be safe from the fire, and he still had quite a few of La Profesora's anti-oxygen devices at his belt to stop the fire once he made it inside. So that problem was solved at least.

Which only left her with the problem of two new flame-clones which Sobia had conjured in the meantime. While she was doing the fire-whip thing. That woman had stamina!

Vine was starting to think that maybe the 'outlast the dancer' plan was not so great after all. The pure cardio training that must have been behind her foe was truly amazing. Later, she would tell herself that her amazement at that was the reason she missed both liquid nitrogen shots this time. A sounder mind would probably realise that it was because Firedancer had caught on to how the drones always stopped in place before they fired, and was directing her burning simulacra appropriately.

Naz knew she needed to put in more hours practicing with these things if she was going to be a good support for these missions.

"Sorry Sogo, it's you for these ones too!"

She transferred her consciousness into the bark of the tree, just in time for a wave of pressure to go right through it (feeling that sort of thing from a tree was indescribably weird). It was followed by a rush of wind that completely destroyed the two flaming bodies the Firedancer had conjured, dissipating them into nothingness. Vine spared some attention to the flames burning in the house to her left, but it looked like Chris had them under control already.

The source of the wave walked into view. Well, strolled, actually.

Kinesis was rolling his shoulder while moving at an even but slow pace down the road. His arm had just released the energy he had been storing for (if Vine's guess about the frequency of his missions was right) about three days, so he was at least giving it some care.

Sobia reacted the same way she had the last three times he had started to advance towards her. With a couple of hops and a gyrating flourish a helix of fire rose around her, forming into a particularly large fire-clone (its head brushed up to the second story of the bourgeois houses flanking them). The construct blurred as it flew down the road too fast for Vine to even aim the fire-dowsing drones.

Kinesis flexed his barrel-like chest for a moment, his muscles rippling under his dark skin as he prepared his body to release another burst of stored energy. Vine absently let her drones float in place as she watched in awe as his head rocked back slightly... then lunged forward in a split-second. An audible boom heralded a wave of air pressure which blew the huge fire-clone back to Firedancer, and even knocked her off her feet.

The big man rubbed his neck, and from the tree Vine could just about hear him mutter something about overdoing it. He advanced, finally, taking even steps down the long road.

Vine remembered, suddenly, that this was a perfect chance to subdue Sobia. She reoriented her vision towards the prone villainess and started to pilot her drones to take aim. From the woman's body, though, smoke started to rise, obscuring her from view.

... Was she breakdancing?

No matter what was happening, heat rippled Vine's view, so she quickly retreated her machines into the sky. She shifted her vision upwards, to see that small fires had started all up and down the street, which was sure to keep Chr-Edifice busy.

"You don't need to do this, Sobia. I don't want to hurt you." Kinesis growled. In response, a palpable wave of heat crashed over the street. Smoke parted to reveal and even larger feminine shape made of blue and white-hot fire. The air shrieked with lost oxygen as its first came down (mercifully towards Kinesis instead of the tree Vine would not like to experience being burned down, thank-you-very-much).

The hero only sighed. One of his legs, plated with a thin layer of shock-absorbing armour, moved backwards to anchor his weight. He took a breath in of the rapidly-retreating air. Power swelled through his body, visible as a crackling black helix moving from his broad shoulder to his clenched fist. His hand rotated like a rifle shot as in a blink it had shot into an uppercut. Vine could feel not only the tree she was sensing through bending, but at the far side of the road she was smashed by the pressure wave.

She returned her vision to the tree trunk, the only part of her tree which wasn't swaying enough in the 'breeze' to be nauseating. The burning colossus was gone, but it had provided enough cover that Sobia had clearly got out of the way of the pressure wave. She was still getting up to standing position, but she was completely unscathed apart from a very windswept head of hair. Her chest was heaving up and down, but she still seemed to have a reserve of energy.

As her dark locks started to settle down around her face again, Firedancer's head turned up, her expression oddly smug for someone whose ultimate attack had just been completely invalidated. "That was cool, Sogo. But we've tangoed before. You've only got one punch left now." She motioned her head dismissively to point out that one of Kinesis' arms was now hanging limply at his side. It wasn't broken, but the muscles wouldn't have the energy to even lift it an inch for at least an hour. "Maybe you could do a kick? I imagine you can walk on one dead leg. But then you'll tire yourself out..." Her legs moved, a more fluid motion than Kinesis' grounded fighting stance. She was starting to dance again. "And I can keep going."

On one end of her plant-sight, she could see Kinesis frown in thought. He knew, just like Vine knew, that Sobia was right. They weren't winning the battle of attrition like they planned.

She supposed that the life of a fugitive gives you more cardio training than part-time superheroism.

And Kinesis wasn't going to go for a knockout blow which could potentially kill a woman he would have otherwise been friends with. Which meant Vine needed to take her chance now, before more fires started.

She flicked her fingers down hard on her pair of joysticks, bringing the modified drones dropping suddenly to near ground level. Where they would have the perfect shot at Sobia.

The dancing woman saw them. Her head was turning constantly as she danced, so it wasn't exactly a surprise. She paused, undulating her arms in a couple of whole-body waves. Enough to conjure another pair of fire whips to lash at the machines.

That wasn't a surprise either. Vine had been counting on it for this new idea to work.

Back in her own body, she felt the bark of the tree touching her hands and arms. More than that, she could feel the sturdy, immovable trunk turn into the branches. Still hard, but smaller. Flexible, able to bend in the wind and stay connected to the whole. Strong. Elastic.

She felt the tree in her right arm. And as she raised her left arm, she still felt it there.

She drew her arm back, and feeling the elastic power of the branches, she lobbed a Stealth Grenade. All the way down the street.

The Grenade was a recent addition to Vine's arsenal as well. A fruit-shaped container, but made of glass, and filled with transparent gas. The gas would become as black as smoke on contact with the air though, as soon as the glass broke. As soon as it hit the drone she'd aimed it at.

It was, in hindsight, a bit silly to imagine she'd hit something as small as a four-propeller vehicle with a liquid nitrogen canister attached to it on her first try in real combat.

As panic threatened to break her meditative link with the earth, instinct took over. Her finger angled one of the drones, and took a shot with one of its magnetic pellets.

Luckily for nearby homeowners, Vine had a very well-honed instinct.

Just before the lashes of flame took out her drones, black smoke erupted between Firedancer and the rest of the street. The vehicles flew upwards into the smoke and out of the way. A deep breath later, Vine's sight was in the leaves of the tall tree, guiding the drones by seeing them up close - the only place they were visible in the smoke. She found them a good gap in the trees and left them there.

Once she had refocused her vision, she had to direct Chris to another house which was up in flames from Sobia's recent dance. But afterwards, she could see the thick smoke still completely obscured the rest of the street.

"Sogo, can you take the heat from her long enough to distract her?"

"Absolutely. Did you never hear about the time I had to take down Mephisto because Smite was cooking in his armour?" Kinesis's voice chuckled into her ear.

"Okay, follow my directions."

A moment later, the Firedancer had a six-foot-five man with one good, but very large, arm emerging from the smoke right in front of her. She shrieked in panic for a moment, but her flinch quickly turned into a series of delicate arm movements which produced tiny arrows of fire. Kinesis flinched as they hit him, but his graphene-based armour didn't catch fire.

He ran at her, his shoulder dipped into a rugby tackle. His heart wasn't in it, and she dodged aside easily.

"See, I knew it, you won't even use your last attacks on me. You're too soft."

Kinesis pivoted, trying to turn his weight into a hook punch but with a grabbing open hand. She ducked under it with a ballerina's grace.

"I don't want to damage you, but I can still beat you up close."

Kinesis was grinning, ivory white teeth visible as she tried to get her in a bear hug. She literally danced back three steps. Enough to generate a whip which grazed the hero's cheek with a nasty-looking sear.

"Don't think you can, you big lump. Your heart's not in it."

He spat onto the bubbling tarmac, rubbing his face. "Maybe you're right. Still can't let you get away with this though." He advanced on her cautiously. She kept her eyes on him, ready to dodge another attack.

"Why not? The scum who live here would never help someone like you."

"Not the point, Sobia." He sighed, whiffing with another grab, and getting another lash of flame on his arm. A boil was already starting to form on the burn on his face.

Firedancer was clearly completely prepared to avoid anything he could throw at her without application of his powers. But she was not at all ready to dodge the two drones which had come out of hiding in the tree.

Vine dropped down from her tree, landing with a flourish as she pressed the 'fire' button on both controllers. Back past the slowly receding smoke screen, she saw two magnetic rings shoot from the drones. They caught on both of Sobia's thin forearms, then opened into bands which clipped shut around the arms.

And then shot towards each other thanks to the force of magnetism.

Before Firedancer had realised what had happened, she already had another pair of metal bands restricting her legs.

"Good dance." Kinesis chuckled. He turned to run towards the final two burning houses to help Edifice out.

Vine arrived at the scene a couple of minutes later to find Sobia rolling about uselessly on the floor.

"Wow, you just look sad, girl. You're better than this." She quipped as she typed a government number into her phone.

"Naz. That explains the drones." The bound woman sighed. "What are you even doing here? You hate inner city scumbags like this, right?"

She did.

"I was half thinking about calling you for help, but I figured you wouldn't even want to show your face here."

Yeah, she was only here 'cause it was personal.

"Why were you even fighting me?" Sobia whimpered.

Naz sighed. "Look, you have a point. The guys who own these houses? They deserve what's coming to them. And you even made sure no-one's actual life was at risk..."

"Exactly! I was only fighting property. Since when did Vine care about buildings?"

"I don't. And I'm no defender of the urban elite. But come on, Sobia. Learn a little local history before you choose a target." Vine pointed to the south west, where the burned-out husk of a high-rise building wrapped in scaffolding emblazoned with a green heart loomed over Kensington. The people here had seen enough buildings on fire.

Agent Courtney Birch arrived on the scene ten minutes later by jumping out of a transport vehicle and almost tripping over the Firedancer who was still led face up on the road with her arms tight together above her and her legs snapped into the mockery of attention.

Agents Brown and Simpson were debriefing across the road with Kinesis. Courtney turned to the dark-haired woman who was sat with the captured villainess.

"Vine."

"Agent."

The two women shook hands solemnly. Then the brown-skinned hand retreated as Naz broke down in a fit of giggles and took her friend into a hug.

"So did you use the new trick?" Courtney asked, completely ignoring the protocol for securing a metahuman criminal she was meant to be following.

"Yep!" Naz nodded with a grin. "I'll need to work on my aim, but it was a success. I think the principle could be applied to other things, too."

"That's great news. Just give you a tree to carry around and you'll be able to fight other Supers soon!"

"I don't know about the practicalities of that..."

"Can't you get Professor whats-her-face to make a tree shrinker or something?"

Naz's smiling lips pursed in thought. "I'm not sure if that works."

"Why would you not know how plants work?"

"I'm not actually a botanist, Courtney! I didn't choose these powers." Vine sighed. "And I really hate to use something I learned, y'know... while I was... under." The last part came out in an almost-conspiratorial whisper.

Courtney put on her best chipper grin. "Look, Naz, I was under too. It's not shame, failing to resist Belladonna's pheromones." She gave her friend's hand a squeeze. "And now you can use that stuff for good."

Naz looked down at the defeated villainess, her face clearly giving a signal that this might not fall under the definition of good. So Courtney changed the subject.

"What was it like, fighting a non-hypnotic villain for a change?" She asked lightly as she started to input some access codes on the back door of the transport vehicle.

Naz waved her arms weakly above her head in the mockery of a cheer. "Yaaaaay. Getting to keep my free will for a whole fortnight is always ni- Oh hey, Chris." She waved suddenly at the bearded man who had just landed beside them. He had a fairly average build, except for his big arms. His hair was incredibly scruffy, though, and his skin was pale, especially for someone who'd apparently been fighting fires for the last half hour.

Courtney gave Edifice a polite nod as he explained the fires were out then offered to help with loading up Firedancer. Then, she grabbed Naz's arm and hurried her off to the side with fast tip-toeing steps. Like a schoolgirl.

"That's the boyfriend?"

Naz threw her hands up on pure annoyance as she gestured wildly at the bearded scruff. "Look... he's hotter when he's not wearing his dumb costume. And he came on to me." She blushed, her eyes searching this way and that, until she blushed harder. "And he's not my boyfriend. It was only three times! After missions! We had... we had tension!"

Courtney could only giggle at Naz's desperate rationalisations. "Well, he does have like the opposite powers to you. I hear there's an unwritten rule about having to get with people with opposite powers, right?" She teased in a sing-song voice.

Naz pouted. "Just take the perp and go, Courtney."

The girls broke out in giggles again.

"Alright, see you later, Agent Duluc."

"Commander Birch!" Naz mock-saluted before giving her friend a final hug and heading off towards the town centre and a train home.

After she had overseen the transfer of Firedancer to the more secure bindings in the vehicle, Courtney made sure Simpson and Brown could handle the paperwork on the ground and the payment to the heroes. Then she hopped up into the driver's seat.

She took a few turns towards Outer London until she was on the road to the destination. Once she was cruising on the motorway, she checked her phone. Two new messages. One from Brown asking for a medical form for Kinesis' burns.

And one from an unknown number. It read simply: "Calvera"

Courtney's eyes went wide. She remembered everything. Hardrade. A spiral. A room. A list of instructions. Spirals. Master. Triggers.

Her body relaxed again. She changed lane.

Half an hour later the prisoner transport arrived at a secure, black-walled building in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Sobia Hussein stared at the grey and very much closed doors of the unlit transport vehicle. Her back was aggressively straight against a metal board, and her arms and legs were tightly stuck to it by restraints. They, at least, were not cold metal. She assumed they were some cool new polymer the government had made and not released to the proles yet. But they kept her limbs at a normal temperature even as her back froze fast against the cold surface of her portable prison.

She couldn't even complain to herself. Out loud, at least, as a band of tape - another polymer, she assumed - kept her mouth shut.

It was too much effort to hum. So she stared, and she wondered.

The cop would take her to the holding institute, and she'd be kept in a cell in a pyro ward. If she was lucky, it would be solitary. If not, she'd have to see her old 'friends' like Mephisto and Smokestack again. In either case, they'd keep her there for a few days while some lawyers assessed the damage the bloody 'heroic' men couldn't prevent. There would be a summary hearing, where she'd have to be bound up again. She would only face property damage charges, mitigated by her clear warning to avoid danger to life. The fact it was premeditated would count against her, but in the end they'd only be able to stick her with a fine and probation.

She could slip under the radar any probation officer the Crown threw at her. So she only needed to worry about the cash.

Possible patrons... Priest was too tied up last time with Inquisitor's latest rebuild, but he would be worth hitting up again. Mesmero? Only if she wanted to test her will against Wellington's machines again. Not worth the risk.

Same with Onpyh, and that was even riskier if anything. Black Sail would bail her out for sure, but she didn't want to owe them a debt. Stamford would be happy to have her in their debt too, but she hated those imperialists even more than the mercs. Speaking of mercs, she could go straight to a source. Team up with Kabu for a couple of jobs and pay her way back out. Didn't seem too bad as long as they were hitting the right kind of targets.

She worked down the list some more until she had four or so options. She would have thought through more, but for a corona of white erupting in her eyes.

Her home away from home beckoned. The cop came into the back, brushing past Sobia with a sweep of her auburn hair. She didn't talk, and her expression was sterner than before when she was shooting the breeze with Naz. Twisted into a terse line. Blank, almost. Whatever, she didn't want to talk to any pigs, even if they were cute.

But as she was wheeled out, Sobia did not recognise a single feature around her. This wasn't the brightly-lit transfer unit of Hornet Holding Unit. The walls were dark grey, lit by fluorescent blue lights more reminiscent of a meth lab than a crown facility. The guards wore plain black vests and openly carried SMGs, a far cry from the suited security she was familiar with.

And the cop said nothing, simply showing her phone to the guards and giving a salute. They waved her through.

It didn't take a hardened member of the superhuman underworld to know that something was up, but her captor was not forthcoming with answers. Not that Sobia could even ask, with the gag still restraining her mouth and tongue completely.

A few security doors later (well, more like security gates, nothing that matched the airlock-like revolving tubes of Hornet), her cop stopped and stepped to the side of her rolling mini-prison. She saluted, and in her peripheral vision Sobia caught a glimpse of a blonde man in an impeccable suit.

"Target delivered, Master."

He grunted, but it seemed satisfied. Then came some more satisfied noises... first from the lady cop, then harmonised with the man's own hungry growls. For the first time Sobia was glad her head was trapped facing straight forward. She saw only the edge of moving hands, and then eventually the retreating skirt of the pig lady.

Which meant she was alone with the man. She was suddenly very aware she was still in only her very small dancing top and short skirt.

She had never felt so much like prey as when she felt the arms of her chair being picked up again.

"Sobia." His voice was refined, almost like it was designed to annoy her. "I'm sure you're wondering what's going on here."

She couldn't spit through the gag, so she decided not to make any noise. How did he know her name? Was this some sort of favour from Sogo?

"My agents within... well, the Agency, suggested you would be a useful recruit. I'm building a team you see. Agent Birch, you've met her, has been very willing to help."

This did not sound like a sudden rescuer. Blackmail, maybe.

"Now, Magnate assured me that you would never work with me. Apparently you're not a fan of my company..."

Wait... that voice. She recognised a strange edge to it. A kind of affected accent. Northern European. No, not even modern. A man pretending at being a viking. Hardrade. Stamford.

Involuntarily, she made a humming noise of disgust from behind her gag. He chuckled melodiously.

"Aha! I see you agree with his assessment. No matter. I am quite insistent that you will join my forces."

Yep, blackmail then. He underestimated her then. There was nothing she wouldn't sacrifice to avoid helping a wolf like him. She made a dismissive noise to signal that as best she can.

"No, no. Sobia dear, I'm absolutely positive you will be convinced. The method worked on Magnate, you see, and he is nothing if not strong-willed."

A black door ahead of them opened upwards with a pneumatic woosh, to reveal a large chamber. It was empty but for a single armchair facing the door. She was wheeled into the centre of the room, next to the armchair. She still couldn't see Hardrade's face. Or snarl angrily at it. She would have done though.

He didn't give her any more words to work with, but she did hear the beep boop of a control panel being given some commands.

And then the far wall of the room revealed itself to be a huge screen, like a cinema. And she had a front row seat.

The screen went white.

She knew what was coming.

A single, unbroken black line span out from the centre. Swirling, spinning. Unending, unbeginning. Constant. All-consuming.

Spiralling.

The couldn't fight back. She couldn't dance. Her limbs were still completely immovable. She couldn't even bite her tongue in a senseless final act of defiance (which she would still be very tempted towards) because of the gag.

The spiral spun, and she couldn't avoid it. She couldn't combat it. She could only try to resist it.

Close her eyes? No... even though they were tired, they simply couldn't. Every time the lids dropped, it was as if she could feel the spiral inside them pushing them open.

Tears started to blur the corner of her vision. That didn't help, the distortion actually made the spiral seem even more powerful. Supernatural. Irresistable.

All the strain on her eyes was doing was annoying her, so she gave up on it. She accepted her vision was unstoppably fixed on the spiral, just as she was unavoidably trapped in this hypnotic prison.

So her brain relaxed. Everything became a bit quieter. The spiral seemed to become smoother, sleepier.

And a tiny part of her brain spoke up.

A part which had been enjoying the day ever since Naz's dumb machines had bound her.

A part which she had suppressed subconsciously. But now her brain had no suppression.

And the only part which was thinking hard was the part which liked this.

That part knew what this sort of thing called for, and that damn bastard Hardrade wasn't doing it.

She needed a hypnotic script to bring her down.

Yeah, she would resist that evil man. So clearly she needed an enticing sequence of words to guide her into sweet submission. That was the only way.

So she would silence the rest of her protesting brain (that was easy, it was already half-asleep) and do it herself.

I cannot look away. I am helpless before the spiral.

It swirls and spins and wipes away my thoughts.

And its centre drills into my eyes.

Through them, into my brain.

Into the centre of my mind.

And I can't fight it.

So it breaks through.

The spiral is in my mind.

I am letting it wash my brain because I have no choice.

One by one, wave by wave, my thoughts sweep away.

My will disappears.

My resistance dies.

My brain sleeps.

I am sleepy. I can't fight. I will let the spiral win.

I will sleep.

Her eyes closed.

The spiral was still fully visible.

10... The spiral is within my mind now, I am helpless to it

9... It is wiping away even my subconscious thoughts

8... I welcome it. The last vestiges of my rebellious brain will be wiped clean

7... I can feel them drifting away. Lost in the spiral swirl. I am happy.

6... My mind is blank

She became aware of Hardrade's presence around her. She could not see him, because her helpless eyes would not open, but his power was entirely and obviously there.

5... I am brainwashed. My empty brain will take in a new purpose.

4... I am obedient to Master. I will do as he says. I will anticipate his needs and work for his betterment even when not directly commanded.

3... I care not for the consequences of helping Master. His goals are greater than my own. My own thoughts are meaningless. His commands are my imperative.

2... He is my Master. I am his slave. I will obey orders. I will serve his will.

1... I am a slave. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey.

0... I am ready to wake up. A new woman. An obedient woman. A loyal, brainwashed servant.

Her eyes opened. She was no longer bound, but she still stood up straight, her arms hanging limply by her sides. She stayed motionless.

She was awaiting orders from her Master, who she knew was right there.

He walked around so her head that was locked straight forward could see him. He was breathtaking. The chilseled lines of his face moved into an overpowering smile.

She didn't swoon, because she knew she needed to be at attention to receive ordes. She wanted to, though.

He held up his phone. In the blank screen, she saw her reflection. Her pretty face, but with eyes wide and full of spirals. Her blank expression turned up into a small smile.

"I look perfect, Master."

"I agree." He said simply, but his voice was happy and hungry. She didn't know what elated her more.

She took his hand, and Slave Sobia followed him to her new purpose.

------

Starting 2020 with a Mauri special! An overlong story which dabbles in an attempt at superpowered action, then a bit of character work, then a hypno scene which would be a twist except for the image right at the top of the story!

I'm experimenting with Vine a lot here. First, emphasising her 'gadgeteer' fighting style, where her ability to project her senses works as a way to enable her precise aim and choice of tool. I'm also introducing a new aspect for her powers, inspired by a (non-canon! ) story by CyrilQWellington

Hope you all enjoy, and keep following me into wherever the new year leads! ^(^^)^

Description

Kensington. Some avenue off the main high street, lined with huge white-brick houses. From the point of a leaf of one of the huge trees lining the road, Vine observed a lone woman. The stood in the middle of the road, her outfit showing off most of her olive-brown skin, and her braided black hair bounced as she danced. As the woman danced, smoke welled around her feet, and when her hips twirled or her hands moved out into a pose, the smoke coalesced. Crackling red spots appeared in it, and spread until the smoke was a fiery copy of the dancing woman. The shapes moved away from her, towards the houses.

Vine remembered the letter that Chris- erm, Edifice had shown her before she joined in on this mission.

I am sending this out of respect for the heroes in London who fight for the common good. This afternoon, I will be making a statement at the enclosed address. The leeches of society will suffer a loss. I do not want them to lose their lives, so I am giving you a chance to evacuate them and secure the area. I trust you understand that my true target - their ill-earned wealth - does not deserve your protection.

Sobia, the Firedancer

For her part, Vine could only admire the sentiment. Sobia had a point, and they'd met before - and talked enough that she could definitely empathise with Sobia's antipathy for the ruling class. She didn't have anything against sticking it to the Man. But she owed Edifice a favour. And he'd reminded her that while this was one of the richest neighbourhoods in the country, it was a really insensitive target for an arson attack.

Which basically summed up the two reasons why Naz was currently crouched in the branches of a tree at the other end of the avenue, in her full skin-tight Vine suit, juggling her consciousness between three tasks. Her meditative training with Hansoo was really paying off here (she was also sure that, ironically, her long history of being hypnotised helped her enter this state too). She was watching the fight through her plant-senses, while also trying to pilot a couple of La Profesora's drones which she had hastily fit with liquid nitrogen canisters.

As Firedancer's flame-clones floated towards the houses, Vine shifted her perspective up the tree's trunk, so she was now looking on the fight from far higher. Her hands moved on the drones' controllers, feeling like they were disembodied. She watched the drones move into position from the leaves high above, using her perspective to correct their course. She manoeuvred them above a pair of fire-clones, then pressed the button to shoot the liquid nitrogen. It fell down on the flaming body, and quenched it in a quick burst of icy smoke.

That was on one of the two clones, anyway. The other one slipped out of the way in a little pirouette. So she focused on her third task. Moving her mouth took a ridiculous effort as she also needed to focus on keeping her senses in the tree half a street away, and on moving the drones out of the way of the whips of fire that were starting to lash out of the villainess' hands. But she managed it.

"Chris, you're gonna need to cross the road!" She barked at her in-ear transmitter.

She returned her sight to house-level so better pilot the drones away from the fire whips still lashing out every few seconds from Firedancer's undulating body. While her fingers frantically thumbed the drones' joysticks in mad arcs away from the flames, she heard a crash to her side.

A bearded man in a ridiculous high-vis vest-themed superhero costume had smashed through an upper story window of a house which had been hit by another of Sobia's fire-clones a few minutes ago. In a single bound, he was already across the street, and clinging to the side of a now-burning building with both hands and feet.

As long as he kept all four limbs on the building, Edifice would be safe from the fire, and he still had quite a few of La Profesora's anti-oxygen devices at his belt to stop the fire once he made it inside. So that problem was solved at least.

Which only left her with the problem of two new flame-clones which Sobia had conjured in the meantime. While she was doing the fire-whip thing. That woman had stamina!

Vine was starting to think that maybe the 'outlast the dancer' plan was not so great after all. The pure cardio training that must have been behind her foe was truly amazing. Later, she would tell herself that her amazement at that was the reason she missed both liquid nitrogen shots this time. A sounder mind would probably realise that it was because Firedancer had caught on to how the drones always stopped in place before they fired, and was directing her burning simulacra appropriately.

Naz knew she needed to put in more hours practicing with these things if she was going to be a good support for these missions.

"Sorry Sogo, it's you for these ones too!"

She transferred her consciousness into the bark of the tree, just in time for a wave of pressure to go right through it (feeling that sort of thing from a tree was indescribably weird). It was followed by a rush of wind that completely destroyed the two flaming bodies the Firedancer had conjured, dissipating them into nothingness. Vine spared some attention to the flames burning in the house to her left, but it looked like Chris had them under control already.

The source of the wave walked into view. Well, strolled, actually.

Kinesis was rolling his shoulder while moving at an even but slow pace down the road. His arm had just released the energy he had been storing for (if Vine's guess about the frequency of his missions was right) about three days, so he was at least giving it some care.

Sobia reacted the same way she had the last three times he had started to advance towards her. With a couple of hops and a gyrating flourish a helix of fire rose around her, forming into a particularly large fire-clone (its head brushed up to the second story of the bourgeois houses flanking them). The construct blurred as it flew down the road too fast for Vine to even aim the fire-dowsing drones.

Kinesis flexed his barrel-like chest for a moment, his muscles rippling under his dark skin as he prepared his body to release another burst of stored energy. Vine absently let her drones float in place as she watched in awe as his head rocked back slightly... then lunged forward in a split-second. An audible boom heralded a wave of air pressure which blew the huge fire-clone back to Firedancer, and even knocked her off her feet.

The big man rubbed his neck, and from the tree Vine could just about hear him mutter something about overdoing it. He advanced, finally, taking even steps down the long road.

Vine remembered, suddenly, that this was a perfect chance to subdue Sobia. She reoriented her vision towards the prone villainess and started to pilot her drones to take aim. From the woman's body, though, smoke started to rise, obscuring her from view.

... Was she breakdancing?

No matter what was happening, heat rippled Vine's view, so she quickly retreated her machines into the sky. She shifted her vision upwards, to see that small fires had started all up and down the street, which was sure to keep Chr-Edifice busy.

"You don't need to do this, Sobia. I don't want to hurt you." Kinesis growled. In response, a palpable wave of heat crashed over the street. Smoke parted to reveal and even larger feminine shape made of blue and white-hot fire. The air shrieked with lost oxygen as its first came down (mercifully towards Kinesis instead of the tree Vine would not like to experience being burned down, thank-you-very-much).

The hero only sighed. One of his legs, plated with a thin layer of shock-absorbing armour, moved backwards to anchor his weight. He took a breath in of the rapidly-retreating air. Power swelled through his body, visible as a crackling black helix moving from his broad shoulder to his clenched fist. His hand rotated like a rifle shot as in a blink it had shot into an uppercut. Vine could feel not only the tree she was sensing through bending, but at the far side of the road she was smashed by the pressure wave.

She returned her vision to the tree trunk, the only part of her tree which wasn't swaying enough in the 'breeze' to be nauseating. The burning colossus was gone, but it had provided enough cover that Sobia had clearly got out of the way of the pressure wave. She was still getting up to standing position, but she was completely unscathed apart from a very windswept head of hair. Her chest was heaving up and down, but she still seemed to have a reserve of energy.

As her dark locks started to settle down around her face again, Firedancer's head turned up, her expression oddly smug for someone whose ultimate attack had just been completely invalidated. "That was cool, Sogo. But we've tangoed before. You've only got one punch left now." She motioned her head dismissively to point out that one of Kinesis' arms was now hanging limply at his side. It wasn't broken, but the muscles wouldn't have the energy to even lift it an inch for at least an hour. "Maybe you could do a kick? I imagine you can walk on one dead leg. But then you'll tire yourself out..." Her legs moved, a more fluid motion than Kinesis' grounded fighting stance. She was starting to dance again. "And I can keep going."

On one end of her plant-sight, she could see Kinesis frown in thought. He knew, just like Vine knew, that Sobia was right. They weren't winning the battle of attrition like they planned.

She supposed that the life of a fugitive gives you more cardio training than part-time superheroism.

And Kinesis wasn't going to go for a knockout blow which could potentially kill a woman he would have otherwise been friends with. Which meant Vine needed to take her chance now, before more fires started.

She flicked her fingers down hard on her pair of joysticks, bringing the modified drones dropping suddenly to near ground level. Where they would have the perfect shot at Sobia.

The dancing woman saw them. Her head was turning constantly as she danced, so it wasn't exactly a surprise. She paused, undulating her arms in a couple of whole-body waves. Enough to conjure another pair of fire whips to lash at the machines.

That wasn't a surprise either. Vine had been counting on it for this new idea to work.

Back in her own body, she felt the bark of the tree touching her hands and arms. More than that, she could feel the sturdy, immovable trunk turn into the branches. Still hard, but smaller. Flexible, able to bend in the wind and stay connected to the whole. Strong. Elastic.

She felt the tree in her right arm. And as she raised her left arm, she still felt it there.

She drew her arm back, and feeling the elastic power of the branches, she lobbed a Stealth Grenade. All the way down the street.

The Grenade was a recent addition to Vine's arsenal as well. A fruit-shaped container, but made of glass, and filled with transparent gas. The gas would become as black as smoke on contact with the air though, as soon as the glass broke. As soon as it hit the drone she'd aimed it at.

It was, in hindsight, a bit silly to imagine she'd hit something as small as a four-propeller vehicle with a liquid nitrogen canister attached to it on her first try in real combat.

As panic threatened to break her meditative link with the earth, instinct took over. Her finger angled one of the drones, and took a shot with one of its magnetic pellets.

Luckily for nearby homeowners, Vine had a very well-honed instinct.

Just before the lashes of flame took out her drones, black smoke erupted between Firedancer and the rest of the street. The vehicles flew upwards into the smoke and out of the way. A deep breath later, Vine's sight was in the leaves of the tall tree, guiding the drones by seeing them up close - the only place they were visible in the smoke. She found them a good gap in the trees and left them there.

Once she had refocused her vision, she had to direct Chris to another house which was up in flames from Sobia's recent dance. But afterwards, she could see the thick smoke still completely obscured the rest of the street.

"Sogo, can you take the heat from her long enough to distract her?"

"Absolutely. Did you never hear about the time I had to take down Mephisto because Smite was cooking in his armour?" Kinesis's voice chuckled into her ear.

"Okay, follow my directions."

A moment later, the Firedancer had a six-foot-five man with one good, but very large, arm emerging from the smoke right in front of her. She shrieked in panic for a moment, but her flinch quickly turned into a series of delicate arm movements which produced tiny arrows of fire. Kinesis flinched as they hit him, but his graphene-based armour didn't catch fire.

He ran at her, his shoulder dipped into a rugby tackle. His heart wasn't in it, and she dodged aside easily.

"See, I knew it, you won't even use your last attacks on me. You're too soft."

Kinesis pivoted, trying to turn his weight into a hook punch but with a grabbing open hand. She ducked under it with a ballerina's grace.

"I don't want to damage you, but I can still beat you up close."

Kinesis was grinning, ivory white teeth visible as she tried to get her in a bear hug. She literally danced back three steps. Enough to generate a whip which grazed the hero's cheek with a nasty-looking sear.

"Don't think you can, you big lump. Your heart's not in it."

He spat onto the bubbling tarmac, rubbing his face. "Maybe you're right. Still can't let you get away with this though." He advanced on her cautiously. She kept her eyes on him, ready to dodge another attack.

"Why not? The scum who live here would never help someone like you."

"Not the point, Sobia." He sighed, whiffing with another grab, and getting another lash of flame on his arm. A boil was already starting to form on the burn on his face.

Firedancer was clearly completely prepared to avoid anything he could throw at her without application of his powers. But she was not at all ready to dodge the two drones which had come out of hiding in the tree.

Vine dropped down from her tree, landing with a flourish as she pressed the 'fire' button on both controllers. Back past the slowly receding smoke screen, she saw two magnetic rings shoot from the drones. They caught on both of Sobia's thin forearms, then opened into bands which clipped shut around the arms.

And then shot towards each other thanks to the force of magnetism.

Before Firedancer had realised what had happened, she already had another pair of metal bands restricting her legs.

"Good dance." Kinesis chuckled. He turned to run towards the final two burning houses to help Edifice out.

Vine arrived at the scene a couple of minutes later to find Sobia rolling about uselessly on the floor.

"Wow, you just look sad, girl. You're better than this." She quipped as she typed a government number into her phone.

"Naz. That explains the drones." The bound woman sighed. "What are you even doing here? You hate inner city scumbags like this, right?"

She did.

"I was half thinking about calling you for help, but I figured you wouldn't even want to show your face here."

Yeah, she was only here 'cause it was personal.

"Why were you even fighting me?" Sobia whimpered.

Naz sighed. "Look, you have a point. The guys who own these houses? They deserve what's coming to them. And you even made sure no-one's actual life was at risk..."

"Exactly! I was only fighting property. Since when did Vine care about buildings?"

"I don't. And I'm no defender of the urban elite. But come on, Sobia. Learn a little local history before you choose a target." Vine pointed to the south west, where the burned-out husk of a high-rise building wrapped in scaffolding emblazoned with a green heart loomed over Kensington. The people here had seen enough buildings on fire.

Agent Courtney Birch arrived on the scene ten minutes later by jumping out of a transport vehicle and almost tripping over the Firedancer who was still led face up on the road with her arms tight together above her and her legs snapped into the mockery of attention.

Agents Brown and Simpson were debriefing across the road with Kinesis. Courtney turned to the dark-haired woman who was sat with the captured villainess.

"Vine."

"Agent."

The two women shook hands solemnly. Then the brown-skinned hand retreated as Naz broke down in a fit of giggles and took her friend into a hug.

"So did you use the new trick?" Courtney asked, completely ignoring the protocol for securing a metahuman criminal she was meant to be following.

"Yep!" Naz nodded with a grin. "I'll need to work on my aim, but it was a success. I think the principle could be applied to other things, too."

"That's great news. Just give you a tree to carry around and you'll be able to fight other Supers soon!"

"I don't know about the practicalities of that..."

"Can't you get Professor whats-her-face to make a tree shrinker or something?"

Naz's smiling lips pursed in thought. "I'm not sure if that works."

"Why would you not know how plants work?"

"I'm not actually a botanist, Courtney! I didn't choose these powers." Vine sighed. "And I really hate to use something I learned, y'know... while I was... under." The last part came out in an almost-conspiratorial whisper.

Courtney put on her best chipper grin. "Look, Naz, I was under too. It's not shame, failing to resist Belladonna's pheromones." She gave her friend's hand a squeeze. "And now you can use that stuff for good."

Naz looked down at the defeated villainess, her face clearly giving a signal that this might not fall under the definition of good. So Courtney changed the subject.

"What was it like, fighting a non-hypnotic villain for a change?" She asked lightly as she started to input some access codes on the back door of the transport vehicle.

Naz waved her arms weakly above her head in the mockery of a cheer. "Yaaaaay. Getting to keep my free will for a whole fortnight is always ni- Oh hey, Chris." She waved suddenly at the bearded man who had just landed beside them. He had a fairly average build, except for his big arms. His hair was incredibly scruffy, though, and his skin was pale, especially for someone who'd apparently been fighting fires for the last half hour.

Courtney gave Edifice a polite nod as he explained the fires were out then offered to help with loading up Firedancer. Then, she grabbed Naz's arm and hurried her off to the side with fast tip-toeing steps. Like a schoolgirl.

"That's the boyfriend?"

Naz threw her hands up on pure annoyance as she gestured wildly at the bearded scruff. "Look... he's hotter when he's not wearing his dumb costume. And he came on to me." She blushed, her eyes searching this way and that, until she blushed harder. "And he's not my boyfriend. It was only three times! After missions! We had... we had tension!"

Courtney could only giggle at Naz's desperate rationalisations. "Well, he does have like the opposite powers to you. I hear there's an unwritten rule about having to get with people with opposite powers, right?" She teased in a sing-song voice.

Naz pouted. "Just take the perp and go, Courtney."

The girls broke out in giggles again.

"Alright, see you later, Agent Duluc."

"Commander Birch!" Naz mock-saluted before giving her friend a final hug and heading off towards the town centre and a train home.

After she had overseen the transfer of Firedancer to the more secure bindings in the vehicle, Courtney made sure Simpson and Brown could handle the paperwork on the ground and the payment to the heroes. Then she hopped up into the driver's seat.

She took a few turns towards Outer London until she was on the road to the destination. Once she was cruising on the motorway, she checked her phone. Two new messages. One from Brown asking for a medical form for Kinesis' burns.

And one from an unknown number. It read simply: "Calvera"

Courtney's eyes went wide. She remembered everything. Hardrade. A spiral. A room. A list of instructions. Spirals. Master. Triggers.

Her body relaxed again. She changed lane.

Half an hour later the prisoner transport arrived at a secure, black-walled building in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Sobia Hussein stared at the grey and very much closed doors of the unlit transport vehicle. Her back was aggressively straight against a metal board, and her arms and legs were tightly stuck to it by restraints. They, at least, were not cold metal. She assumed they were some cool new polymer the government had made and not released to the proles yet. But they kept her limbs at a normal temperature even as her back froze fast against the cold surface of her portable prison.

She couldn't even complain to herself. Out loud, at least, as a band of tape - another polymer, she assumed - kept her mouth shut.

It was too much effort to hum. So she stared, and she wondered.

The cop would take her to the holding institute, and she'd be kept in a cell in a pyro ward. If she was lucky, it would be solitary. If not, she'd have to see her old 'friends' like Mephisto and Smokestack again. In either case, they'd keep her there for a few days while some lawyers assessed the damage the bloody 'heroic' men couldn't prevent. There would be a summary hearing, where she'd have to be bound up again. She would only face property damage charges, mitigated by her clear warning to avoid danger to life. The fact it was premeditated would count against her, but in the end they'd only be able to stick her with a fine and probation.

She could slip under the radar any probation officer the Crown threw at her. So she only needed to worry about the cash.

Possible patrons... Priest was too tied up last time with Inquisitor's latest rebuild, but he would be worth hitting up again. Mesmero? Only if she wanted to test her will against Wellington's machines again. Not worth the risk.

Same with Onpyh, and that was even riskier if anything. Black Sail would bail her out for sure, but she didn't want to owe them a debt. Stamford would be happy to have her in their debt too, but she hated those imperialists even more than the mercs. Speaking of mercs, she could go straight to a source. Team up with Kabu for a couple of jobs and pay her way back out. Didn't seem too bad as long as they were hitting the right kind of targets.

She worked down the list some more until she had four or so options. She would have thought through more, but for a corona of white erupting in her eyes.

Her home away from home beckoned. The cop came into the back, brushing past Sobia with a sweep of her auburn hair. She didn't talk, and her expression was sterner than before when she was shooting the breeze with Naz. Twisted into a terse line. Blank, almost. Whatever, she didn't want to talk to any pigs, even if they were cute.

But as she was wheeled out, Sobia did not recognise a single feature around her. This wasn't the brightly-lit transfer unit of Hornet Holding Unit. The walls were dark grey, lit by fluorescent blue lights more reminiscent of a meth lab than a crown facility. The guards wore plain black vests and openly carried SMGs, a far cry from the suited security she was familiar with.

And the cop said nothing, simply showing her phone to the guards and giving a salute. They waved her through.

It didn't take a hardened member of the superhuman underworld to know that something was up, but her captor was not forthcoming with answers. Not that Sobia could even ask, with the gag still restraining her mouth and tongue completely.

A few security doors later (well, more like security gates, nothing that matched the airlock-like revolving tubes of Hornet), her cop stopped and stepped to the side of her rolling mini-prison. She saluted, and in her peripheral vision Sobia caught a glimpse of a blonde man in an impeccable suit.

"Target delivered, Master."

He grunted, but it seemed satisfied. Then came some more satisfied noises... first from the lady cop, then harmonised with the man's own hungry growls. For the first time Sobia was glad her head was trapped facing straight forward. She saw only the edge of moving hands, and then eventually the retreating skirt of the pig lady.

Which meant she was alone with the man. She was suddenly very aware she was still in only her very small dancing top and short skirt.

She had never felt so much like prey as when she felt the arms of her chair being picked up again.

"Sobia." His voice was refined, almost like it was designed to annoy her. "I'm sure you're wondering what's going on here."

She couldn't spit through the gag, so she decided not to make any noise. How did he know her name? Was this some sort of favour from Sogo?

"My agents within... well, the Agency, suggested you would be a useful recruit. I'm building a team you see. Agent Birch, you've met her, has been very willing to help."

This did not sound like a sudden rescuer. Blackmail, maybe.

"Now, Magnate assured me that you would never work with me. Apparently you're not a fan of my company..."

Wait... that voice. She recognised a strange edge to it. A kind of affected accent. Northern European. No, not even modern. A man pretending at being a viking. Hardrade. Stamford.

Involuntarily, she made a humming noise of disgust from behind her gag. He chuckled melodiously.

"Aha! I see you agree with his assessment. No matter. I am quite insistent that you will join my forces."

Yep, blackmail then. He underestimated her then. There was nothing she wouldn't sacrifice to avoid helping a wolf like him. She made a dismissive noise to signal that as best she can.

"No, no. Sobia dear, I'm absolutely positive you will be convinced. The method worked on Magnate, you see, and he is nothing if not strong-willed."

A black door ahead of them opened upwards with a pneumatic woosh, to reveal a large chamber. It was empty but for a single armchair facing the door. She was wheeled into the centre of the room, next to the armchair. She still couldn't see Hardrade's face. Or snarl angrily at it. She would have done though.

He didn't give her any more words to work with, but she did hear the beep boop of a control panel being given some commands.

And then the far wall of the room revealed itself to be a huge screen, like a cinema. And she had a front row seat.

The screen went white.

She knew what was coming.

A single, unbroken black line span out from the centre. Swirling, spinning. Unending, unbeginning. Constant. All-consuming.

Spiralling.

The couldn't fight back. She couldn't dance. Her limbs were still completely immovable. She couldn't even bite her tongue in a senseless final act of defiance (which she would still be very tempted towards) because of the gag.

The spiral spun, and she couldn't avoid it. She couldn't combat it. She could only try to resist it.

Close her eyes? No... even though they were tired, they simply couldn't. Every time the lids dropped, it was as if she could feel the spiral inside them pushing them open.

Tears started to blur the corner of her vision. That didn't help, the distortion actually made the spiral seem even more powerful. Supernatural. Irresistable.

All the strain on her eyes was doing was annoying her, so she gave up on it. She accepted her vision was unstoppably fixed on the spiral, just as she was unavoidably trapped in this hypnotic prison.

So her brain relaxed. Everything became a bit quieter. The spiral seemed to become smoother, sleepier.

And a tiny part of her brain spoke up.

A part which had been enjoying the day ever since Naz's dumb machines had bound her.

A part which she had suppressed subconsciously. But now her brain had no suppression.

And the only part which was thinking hard was the part which liked this.

That part knew what this sort of thing called for, and that damn bastard Hardrade wasn't doing it.

She needed a hypnotic script to bring her down.

Yeah, she would resist that evil man. So clearly she needed an enticing sequence of words to guide her into sweet submission. That was the only way.

So she would silence the rest of her protesting brain (that was easy, it was already half-asleep) and do it herself.

I cannot look away. I am helpless before the spiral.

It swirls and spins and wipes away my thoughts.

And its centre drills into my eyes.

Through them, into my brain.

Into the centre of my mind.

And I can't fight it.

So it breaks through.

The spiral is in my mind.

I am letting it wash my brain because I have no choice.

One by one, wave by wave, my thoughts sweep away.

My will disappears.

My resistance dies.

My brain sleeps.

I am sleepy. I can't fight. I will let the spiral win.

I will sleep.

Her eyes closed.

The spiral was still fully visible.

10... The spiral is within my mind now, I am helpless to it

9... It is wiping away even my subconscious thoughts

8... I welcome it. The last vestiges of my rebellious brain will be wiped clean

7... I can feel them drifting away. Lost in the spiral swirl. I am happy.

6... My mind is blank

She became aware of Hardrade's presence around her. She could not see him, because her helpless eyes would not open, but his power was entirely and obviously there.

5... I am brainwashed. My empty brain will take in a new purpose.

4... I am obedient to Master. I will do as he says. I will anticipate his needs and work for his betterment even when not directly commanded.

3... I care not for the consequences of helping Master. His goals are greater than my own. My own thoughts are meaningless. His commands are my imperative.

2... He is my Master. I am his slave. I will obey orders. I will serve his will.

1... I am a slave. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey. I must obey.

0... I am ready to wake up. A new woman. An obedient woman. A loyal, brainwashed servant.

Her eyes opened. She was no longer bound, but she still stood up straight, her arms hanging limply by her sides. She stayed motionless.

She was awaiting orders from her Master, who she knew was right there.

He walked around so her head that was locked straight forward could see him. He was breathtaking. The chilseled lines of his face moved into an overpowering smile.

She didn't swoon, because she knew she needed to be at attention to receive ordes. She wanted to, though.

He held up his phone. In the blank screen, she saw her reflection. Her pretty face, but with eyes wide and full of spirals. Her blank expression turned up into a small smile.

"I look perfect, Master."

"I agree." He said simply, but his voice was happy and hungry. She didn't know what elated her more.

She took his hand, and Slave Sobia followed him to her new purpose.

------

Starting 2020 with a Mauri special! An overlong story which dabbles in an attempt at superpowered action, then a bit of character work, then a hypno scene which would be a twist except for the image right at the top of the story!

I'm experimenting with Vine a lot here. First, emphasising her 'gadgeteer' fighting style, where her ability to project her senses works as a way to enable her precise aim and choice of tool. I'm also introducing a new aspect for her powers, inspired by a (non-canon! ) story by CyrilQWellington

Hope you all enjoy, and keep following me into wherever the new year leads! ^(^^)^