“We should never have let you go, Farrah!” Lanala said, trying to fight back against the cuffs that restrained her arms and wrists. She pushed back against the larger woman pushing her forward, who smirked at her two prisoners.

“Well this is what you get for that damn interrogation. I’m going after Artema next for the hell she put me through.”

“So she yelled at you a bit,” Meryn said. “What are you, a baby?”

“It... it was scary, okay? I don’t do scary. Besides, you two knew this could happen when you started snooping around here.”

Meryn fought her chains but Farrah pulled her closer and wrapped a thick arm around her throat.

“Just like old times, eh?” Farrah said.

“Get off me!”

“Settle down, ‘Ms. Goldie’ or whatever they call you.”

Farrah shoved Meryn forward again, marching the two of them down a sterile looking white corridor. Lanala whirled on their captor once more.

“What does Aurora need with a lab like this, anyway? What is she planning? And how is she helping Jhana?”

Farrah chuckled. “Lanala, if she was helping Jhana in any real way I wouldn’t be working for her. And I thought it was your job to figure out what she might need this place for. It’s not my job to tell you.”

“Yes it is, you moron,” Meryn said. “You’re our damn informant!”

“Not this time, I’m afraid. You want me to blow my cover?”

“Oh sure, that old excuse,” Meryn said. “God, I wish I could have had some time in that interrogation room with you.”

“Careful. Don’t give me any ideas, Meryn,” Farrah said.

Lanala went silent and tried to think of some way out of their current situation. Everything about this mission seemed doomed from the start. Jonas nearly got himself killed when he broke into a safe house owned by Jhana and found notes on some secret lab of Aurora’s.

He arrived at HQ badly hurt but Artema and Mirelle tended to his wounds. Jonas was then able to reveal the presence of the lab to the Agency but he hadn’t found enough to know why Aurora needed it. Before he was able to dig up any more files, a group of Jhana’s goons found him and beat him up until Celia arrived. She managed to fight them off just enough and probably save his life when they got out of the safe house.

In light of this, Artema assigned Lanala and Meryn to go undercover and get inside the lab to find out what it was all about and what connection it had to Jhana.

Meryn and Lanala crept their way to the guarded entrance of what appeared to be a run down, old warehouse. They managed to knock out and tie up two female guards and don their uniforms. The pair of them wore identical suits of a white, short-sleeved blouse and dark blue tie, a short, dark blue pencil skirt and dark blue dress flats. A laminated id card was pinned to each of their shirts and allowed them access to the inside.

But from there things didn’t go so well. They got quite a few suspicious looks as the two of them made their way further below to the administration office on the bottom floor. One of those came from behind a monitor where Farrah, acting as security chief, noticed the two agents in disguise strolling through the halls together. After Artema released her from her temporary captivity and Farrah was given new instructions as an informant of the Agency, Farrah opted instead to capture the two agents herself.

“Consider this payback,” Farrah had said, while locking the two in handcuffs and thicker cuffs for their upper arms.

Now she was dragging the two of them off to separate cells they reserved just for prisoners and potential subjects. Of course, she would never reveal that to the two captive agents. It seemed that Farrah had learned nothing from being captured by Artema yet again.

They reached a room with a sliding door at the end of a long hallway. Farrah pressed a button on the wall and the door opened. She smiled and shoved Meryn toward a chair in the corner of the room. “End of the line,” she said.

The door slid shut and locked behind them, keeping the two restrained agents trapped. Before they could do anything, Farrah locked each woman’s ankles in a heavy pair of leg irons.

“No fighting back this time.”

She pushed Meryn down to the chair and secured the leg irons to her handcuffs with a heavy length of chain. Another chain wrapped around Meryn’s waist and her upper arms to secure her tightly to the chair. Lanala tried to fight her restraints but she was helpless to stop Farrah from keeping Meryn securely bound.

“Just you wait until I get out of here,” Meryn said.

“Bad news, honey,” Farrah said. “Looks like you’re not. Now, let’s do something about that big mouth of yours.”

“Don't you dare gag mmmph!”

Farrah already had a thick cloth, rolled and knotted, to stuff between Meryn’s teeth and tie off behind her head. After that, Farrah wrapped a thick layering of duct tape over that, pressing it tightly against Meryn’s lips. When she was finished, she smoothed out the creases in the tape and grabbed hold of Lanala’s arm.

“No! Let her go!”

“Say bye to Meryn, dear. You won’t be seeing each other for a while.”

“Hmm! Mmmph mmm mmm! MMMPH!” Meryn said, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Farrah dragged Lanala from the room, opening the cell door. It slammed shut again and Meryn was left alone, bound and gagged, in a concrete cell. She struggled and screamed into her gag but she could hardly make a sound and the chains rattled but they held her firm.

Outside the cell, Farrah was leading Lanala to another, similar room across the hall. Another chair lay in wait for her as well. Lanala resisted her captor’s grasp but Farrah proved her strength and forced her into the chair, quickly chaining her ankles and hands together underneath the chair. While Farrah set about chaining up Lanala’s arms and locking her waist to the chair, Lanala protested.

“Damn it, Farrah! You damn traitor! What is wrong with you? I even tried to help you. You awful b-mmmph!”

“Enough of that now,” Farrah said, pulling the knotted cleave gag tight between Lanala’s teeth. She duct taped it in place and knelt down into Lanala’s face. “Besides, you gagged me again. Now it’s tit for tat, wouldn’t you say?”

“MMMMPH!”

“Mmmph yourself, Lanala. Have fun in your chains, my dear. I’ll be back to check on you later. Right now I’m going to have a nice friendly discussion with your golden eyed friend. Don’t go anywhere!”

As Farrah closed the door, Lanala bucked and writhed against the tight steel that held her tight but it was no use. She screamed as loud as she could into her gag but hardly a sound came out. Now locked in a cell, helplessly bound and gagged, Lanala could do nothing but struggle in her chains and hope for rescue. Again.

...

His head still swam with pain and the room felt like it was spinning. He laid down on a soft bed and had his eyes closed but it did nothing to help. Jonas could still see the group of oversized goons pounding him into the pavement in his mind’s eye. Luck was on his side, however, as Jhana herself didn’t get there in time and Celia was there to save him. All of her training finally seemed to be paying off.

A bright light hit Jonas’ closed eyes and he grunted, raising a hand to cover his face.

“Sorry,” a voice whispered and the light went out again.

“It’s okay, Celia,” Jonas said, his voice still hoarse. “I didn’t know the light still hurt my eyes.”

“I think you have a concussion. Again,” Celia said.

“I think you might be right. You here to check up on me?”

“Just making sure my best buddy is okay,” she said. “And that Luna doesn’t kill you.”

Jonas chuckled. “She wouldn’t. She just doesn’t like how much Mirelle likes me.”

“But Mirelle is in love with Luna. We all know that now. Why does she hate you so much?”

“She doesn’t,” Jonas said. “I think Luna is just protective. A bit like you, if I’m honest.”

“What?” I’m not...” Celia stopped herself when she looked down at Jonas. She saw the bruises under his eyes, the scrapes on his forehead and a few of the cuts around his jaw and clenched her fists. She wanted to hurt those damn goons so much more for what they did to him. She realized then that Jonas was right.

“Okay fine. I’m protective. Is that a bad thing?”

“As long you don’t hurt anyone, no. And as long as you’re not, you know, controlling,” Jonas said.

“I’m not controlling.”

“Of course you’re not,” Jonas said, opening his eyes. His vision was still blurry but he caught sight of Celia’s brilliant blue eyes in the fog of his mind. “I’m just saying how it could be seen as a bad thing.”

Celia smiled when she saw Jonas open his eyes. “There you are,” she said.

“Did I go somewhere?”

“Well, almost.”

Jonas chuckled and winced, clutching at his ribs. “Did they have to kick me so many damn times?”

“Jonas, I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier.”

“Don’t be sorry for saving my life, Cel. You’re the damn best, you know that?”

“And you’re an idiot, going in there alone,” Celia said. “What were you thinking?”

“Jeez, make up your mind. First you’re sorry, now you’re scolding me.”

“Jonas.”

Jonas sighed. “Fine. You’re right. I should have told you I was going.”

“And Artema?”

“Artema too, yes.”

“And will you do that next time?”

Jonas nodded. “Fine. Whatever you say. I hate field work, anyway. I might just take a desk job after this.”

“You and I both know you’d never do that.”

Jonas closed his eyes again and laid his head back. “Hey, can you do me a favour?”

“Sure. What do you need?”

Jonas took in a deep breath. “Maybe it’s the concussion talking but this whole mission has been a train wreck from the start. I get the feeling Lanala and Meryn might run into trouble of their own. I’d do it myself but I am in no shape to move. Could you look after them for me?”

“Look after them how?”

Jonas hesitated. “Follow them. But do it discreetly. I don’t even want them to know that you’re on their tail. It’s better to stay in cover this time around. You’ve had enough excitement on the job, don’t you think?”

“Well, maybe...”

Jonas groaned. “Oh right. I forgot. You like that sort of thing now. What is it with you and Elyn, anyway? I mean, I can understand in a safe environment that it could be fun and interesting for you two but there is real danger out there.”

Celia shrugged. “I’m sort of with Elyn on this one. Danger makes it more fun.”

“I’ll never understand that part of it,” Jonas said. “But fine. I won’t begrudge the things you like. Even still, be careful. I don’t want you getting in trouble, too. I wouldn’t ask this of you if I could go, but-”

“Now who’s the protective one?” Celia asked with a grin.

Jonas sighed again. “All right. Just look after them. Please. Be as awesome as you were in that safe house and you’ll be fine, okay?”

“I can’t promise that. But I’ll be careful. Get some sleep, Jonas. You’ll need it. Artema will be in to wake you up in a couple hours to mind that concussion of yours.”

Jonas grunted. “Fine. Take care of yourself out there. Don’t... you know. Don’t be a moron like me.”

“You’re not a moron, you idiot,” Celia said with a smile. “You’re just stubborn is all. Now, go to sleep. You’ll need it. I’ll see you when I get back.”

...

Farrah could only laugh as she watched her helpless captive squirm and struggle in her tight chains. Meryn glared daggers at the larger woman, who leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette.

“You really are cute. Has anyone ever told you that?” Farrah asked.

“MMM NMMMT CMMMPH!” Meryn growled, rattling the chains that bound her.

“It’s no wonder some people obsess over you. Look at those gorgeous eyes. What a spectacle.”

“Mmmmph!”

Farrah smiled and crossed the room. “I am sorry, you know. For the whole tying you up thing. It’s fun to see you squrim, I admit, but it’s nothing personal. Just a job to do, know what I mean?”

“MMPH!”

“I’m also sorry for this.”

“Hmmph?”

Farrah took a long drag of her cigarette and leaned down close to Meryn’s face. Meryn furrowed her brow at first but shut her eyes tight when she felt Farrah’s breath on her face and cigarette smoke stung her eyes. The smell was forced down her nostrils and Meryn choked a bit behind her gag. Farrah laughed again.

“On second thought, I’m not sorry. Scrunch up your nose again. That’s especially cute.”

“FMMMK YMMM!” Meryn screamed.

“Oh my. Lucky you’re gagged, else I might have heard a foul word there.”

“MMMMRRRGGGH!”

“There. Like that. Go on. Scrunch up your nose and growl at me again. I do love the fight in you. Somehow makes you even cuter.”

Meryn slumped into her chains and lowered her head. Farrah blew smoke in her face again, causing Meryn to cough once more.

“Aww, have we given up already?”

Farrah didn’t realize, however, that Meryn had come prepared for this eventuality. Tired of being captured, bound, and gagged, Meryn carried a few small things in her back pocket. She vowed she would no longer be someone’s prisoner as long as she could use these tools. One was a small knife for cutting rope or leather. Because she was trussed in metal, Meryn clutched her second tool in her cuffed hands; a thin lock pick. It would take a bit of time but she would find a way to open the ratchet of her handcuffs and when her hands were free...

“Come on, Meryn dear. Where’s that fighting spirit?”

“Mmmph,” Meryn grunted.

“Am I going to have to beat it out of you?” Farrah asked.

Meryn, still working the lock of her handcuffs, raised her head and glared daggers into Farrah’s eyes once more. Farrah allowed herself to smile.

“There she is,” Farrah said. “Still ever the lovely maiden. Oh, I do love to reminisce, don’t you? Remember that time I had you hogtied in that tent? Those were the days, am I right? Or that other time when you lot left me in that prison to Jhana. Those were fun days, weren’t they?”

Farrah stood to her full height and flicked the cigarette at Meryn’s face, causing her to flinch. She stamped it out on the floor and leaned in close again.

“So, yeah. I lied before. This time it is personal. You and your damn team have kept me tied up and gagged too many times to count. You’ve left me as Jhana’s prisoner too many times to count. And now you expect to have my loyalty? You’re all thick headed if you think that. This is nothing but payback. And payback’s a b-”

Farrah was cut off when Meryn suddenly jumped up from her chair, hands free and ankles loose. She had wrenched one arm free of the chains and planted a heavy uppercut to Farrah’s jaw. The blow knocked her unconscious and Meryn reached to her belt for the key to her chains. Now free and with the gag removed, Meryn set to work chaining up Farrah exactly as she had been and tightly gagging her with the cleave gag that once filled her mouth and some more duct tape. She even blindfolded Farrah with more of the tape and then took a moment to stretch her tired limbs.

In moments, Farrah awoke and noticed her vision was now dark.

“Hmmph!? MMMPH!”

Meryn turned around and leaned down into Farrah’s face, a wry grin curling her lips. “What was that about payback?”

“NMMM! LMMMT MMMM GMMMMMM!”

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to find what we came here for. You wait here. I’m sure your boss will come along and free you. Again.”

“MMMMMMPPPPHHHH!”

...

“HLLLMP! SMMBBDMM HLMMP MMMMM!”

Nobody could hear Celia, stuffed into the cell as she was. Tight ropes clung to her upper body above and below her breasts and pinning her arms to her sides. Her wrists were crossed and bound behind her back, pulled upward by another rope attaching them to the ropes that bound her arms. Even more rope kept her shapely legs fused together above and below her knees. Her ankles were crossed over each other, like she was lounging, and bound together with more of the coarse rope. To top it off, an uncomfortable wad of cloth stuffed her mouth full and a heavy layer of mircrofoam tape was wrapped around her entire head. Celia squirmed on the floor of her cell, unable to move. There was no way she was going to escape on her own. And, of course, she was also rather enjoying herself.

When those security guards found her in the vent, she surrendered a little too quickly and didn’t really put up much of a fight when they began binding her with the thick, coarse rope. It was a bit uncomfortable but the sensation still was quite pleasant.

It seemed her mastery of stealth had failed her this time. But, in spite of Jonas’ warnings, Celia felt the nagging feeling in her mind of wanting to be caught and tightly bound and gagged. Well, she got her wish and now the realization dawned on her that no one but Jonas knew where she had gone. So now she was in real trouble and a bit of fear crept into her mind, as well as a little excitement. Elyn was totally right. Danger really was exciting.

Despite the gag that silenced her, Celia continued calling for help. No one could hear her but she didn’t really care. Screaming into the gag was part of the fun of bondage. And, while she was here, Celia figured that at least she could have fun with her current predicament.

Even if no one knew where she was, however, Lanala and Meryn were both smart. They would figure out she was here. So she would rescued and out of this bondage in no time. Until then, however, Celia decided to enjoy it.

“Mmmm mmmph! Hlmmmp mmm! Mmm tmmd mmp mmm hmmr! Plmmph hlmmp mm! HLLMMMPH!”

Still silenced by the gag, Celia could only struggle away with the fun of her bondage and await someone to save her.

...

In the hallway, Meryn was nothing but a shadow. All of her days of crime fighting came back to her and her ability to blend with the shadows made her nigh on invisible through the endless, sterile corridors. Finally, she came to an administration office at the end of the very last hallway of the bottom floor. She entered silently as one of the maintenance crew left the room and the door closed behind her.

She could only thank Jonas for her USB key disguised as a hair clip. Farrah hadn’t suspected it was anything and so had left it there. She plugged it into the thin computer at the back of the room and began searching through the various documents. It didn’t take her long to find something.

Jhana had funded the building of Aurora’s lab, proving Farrah wrong. It also appeared to be a chemical lab of sorts for drug testing. The drug in question they were looking to synthesize was a small pill designed to heighten a subject’s aggression. The reason for this was vague but it seemed to indicate that the pill would only be made for select subjects and slipped into drinks of food to turn them hostile to the people around them. Then the plan became clear when Meryn read the mayor’s name among the people to be subjected to this drug. Perhaps with such aggressive behaviour, in a council meeting or something like that, the mayor would be removed from her post to leave it free for the taking.

Despite G.A.G.’s reputation, Jhana was not widely known to be connected with them even though she was their leader. Only the Agency had any interest in her and she had proven to be very elusive thus far. She had multiple aliases and could easily use one of them and, with her power still intact, could remove any resistance she had to the mayor’s office.

But this documentation had to potential to sink Jhana for good so Meryn quickly copied it and set off in search of Lanala. Still without anyone on her tail, Meryn stuck to the shadows and started peering in the small slots on each cell door, hoping to spot her companion.

...

It was still useless but Lanala struggled on against her chains anyway. Farrah had pulled them pretty tight so there really was no way she could escape. And without a key for her handcuffs or the locks that kept the chains on her upper body she was really stuck there. With a sigh into her gag, Lanala finally gave up struggling.

She lamented having been captured, again, and having to await someone to rescue her yet again. Lanala had felt so proud of herself, too, when she had fought her way into Aurora’s penthouse and rescued Elyn. She was certain that was her turning point to becoming the rescuer, like Artema always was, instead of the helpless captive. But even the best of agents could get captured, as people like Artema demonstrated, so perhaps it was best to not feel sorry for herself and just try to escape for a change. She was still bad at escaping from any restraints at all. Ever since she had managed the bed restraint escape in training, Lanala hadn’t escaped even once. It was all a bit depressing, really.

Lanala suddenly remembered her newly discovered ability. Maybe she could somehow bend the metal with her magnetism and work it enough to break. She concentrated hard and started focussing all of her energy on the handcuffs that locked her hands behind the chair. She felt the steel vibrate a bit but it would take more energy than that to make them bend.

Feeling tired, Lanala rested her mind for the time being and slumped into her chains once more. Before she could begin again, however, someone opened the slot on the door and she struggled against the chains again.

“Mmmph,” she grunted, hoping not to see Farrah again. But it was probably one of the security guards. To her surprise, Meryn and Celia entered the room when the door opened and set to work freeing her from her chains. With the gag off, Lanala finally managed to ask what was on her mind the entire time the two women were setting her free.

“Celia, what are you doing here?”

“Getting captured,” Celia said plainly. “And looking after you. Jonas says hi, by the way.”

“Oh, you two are always getting into trouble. We don’t need looking after.”

“Obviously,” Celia said with a chuckle while she tossed Lanala’s leg irons aside.

“Okay, well... this time maybe. But Jonas even said so himself!”

“I know. I’m just teasing you,” Celia said. “You’re too easy to wind up, Lanala.”

Lanala gave her head a shake and then looked to Meryn. “So, did you manage to find anything?”

“Some pretty big stuff, actually,” Meryn said. “Come on. Let’s get back to HQ. I’ll explain when we get there. Artema is going to want to see what I found.”

The three of them left the room and were soon catching an elevator on their way out of the building. Lanala, however, couldn’t shake the feeling that they had forgotten something. But Meryn didn’t. She just smirked when Lanala asked her about...

“MMMMMPPPHHHHH!!!!”

Farrah struggled hard against the chains that bound her to the chair, working up quite a sweat. She screamed and screamed into the tight gag but her voice couldn’t even echo off the walls around her. The damn Agency had beaten her again. Once more left helplessly bound and gagged, Farrah wondered if she was as good as she thought. She sure did seem to get captured a lot. Maybe it was best that she started co-operating with the Agency instead of working against them. Or maybe she could do both and stop getting captured all the time. With this thought in mind, Farrah continued her hard struggles but she could only wait until somebody released her.