A grimace crossed her face as she pushed herself up one more time. She had only meant to do a hundred but something told her to keep going. Meryn was almost at five hundred now.
Her bobbed, red hair swayed with each movement and now her arms were shaking as she tried to push herself onward. Her gold coloured eyes went hard as she put it into her mind that she would keep going.
It’ll be worth it... you have to be strong. They won’t go easy on you. None of them will...
Her spandex capris and tight, cropped tank top absorbed the sweat on her body. Her well toned muscles were now straining against the effort of holding up her own weight.
Keep... going...
Meryn was a tall woman, to be sure, standing just under six feet tall. She was well built, rather thin, but with an impressive, athletic build. Her face was a bit squared off around the jaw, though it still had a rather slender look to it. Her thin eyebrows, matching her shining, red hair, framed her intense golden eyes and were formed into the permanent, determined scowl of a very serious woman.
In the background, a woman’s voice emanated from the television on behind her. Finally making it to five hundred push-ups, Meryn let her muscles relax and stood up again, grabbing a towel from the table beside her. She wiped the sweat from her brow and watched the newscast with her intense gaze.
The tall, blonde woman behind the desk read out the top stories for the day. There was one Meryn was intent on hearing in particular.
“White Corp has finally dissolved all of its assets today and declared bankruptcy as its disgraced Chief Executive Officer, Trent White, finally gave himself up to authorities this morning. Weeks after his involvement in organized crime was exposed, Trent White went into hiding after making the statement that he would fight the allegations with, quote, ‘everything I have.’ However, it seems the evidence proved too much as a private investigator from Caligino City brought forward proof that she was kidnapped by White and nearly given over to the Trenton Twins organized crime syndicate.”
Meryn rolled her eyes. Foolish woman... and no mention of me. Fine by me.
“This allegation proved to be all police needed to file for an arrest warrant for White that resulted in a city-wide manhunt over the past three weeks. Giving himself up brings an end to the unfortunate tale of White Corp and its CEO.”
Good Meryn thought. One down.
“In other news, Paula Horton, captain of the Weston Vipers women’s ice hockey team, has been officially reported missing. Investigators have stated that a woman appears to be the culprit, bearing a resemblance to the woman people are calling ‘Silver,’ the allegedly ‘superhuman’ leader of the city’s largest crime syndicate. She was seen carrying Horton, bound and gagged, from her home in the Royal Downs. Anyone with any information is urged to contact police immediately.”
Her again Meryn thought. Looks like I found the next one...
Switching off the television, Meryn stepped out of the Weston Agency’s training room and headed upstairs to her room. There was no time to rest. The Maiden had work to do.
...
“What’s going on, boss? Why did you grab this girl again?” A large man stared at the woman tied to the steel chair in the alleyway before his gaze shifted to the woman standing beside him.
She wasn’t especially large, though she did have impressive muscles. Standing shorter than him, there was no telling by the look of her that she could have crushed his skull with one hand. The result of a military experiment gone wrong, the woman known as Sylvia Green had impossible strength and a mean temper to boot.
Calling herself Silver, she decided to strike back at the city where her life was ruined. It took her chance at a normal life so she would take everything she could until the city collapsed from the inside out. It had been the former mayor who spearheaded that awful project...
She gave her head a shake, tossing the long bangs of her dyed, dark green hair. The long, wavy bangs framed her face perfectly and most people would she looked pretty with her hair in those long, loose bangs combined with a neat ponytail.
Silver watched her captive with cold, pale eyes, silver in colour of course. But that was yet another result of the experiment.
Her toned body was shown off rather well with the outfit she had chosen for herself. It was made of a shining, silver fabric. Her torso was only just covered with a cropped, sleeveless shirt that bore her midriff and bare shoulders. Though they were covered by the silver cape she wore around her neck. She wore a skirt as well, silver but trimmed with black around the edges, that looked almost Roman in its design. There were longer strips of fabric over the front and on her hips that stretched down to just above her knees while the fabric between those was well above them, showing off strong, shapely thighs.
To complete the outfit, she wore silver, knee length boots with black soles and strange, white wings on the cuffs on her shins. Her identity was at least partially concealed by the wide eye mask that covered the top half of her face but still revealed her angry, pale eyes.
“Stop asking stupid questions,” Silver said. “You know why.”
“But... that’s it? No ransom or anything?”
“The team would just send that Agency after me or something. No, we’re after someone specific. I can only hope she doesn’t disappoint.”
“But... why?”
Silver glared at him. “Call it a lesson. She can take down White. But I’m not a quivering old man with a hard-on for guns. Best she sees things my way.”
“Wait you mean... The Maiden?”
Silver sighed. “You say it like she’s a big deal. Beat up some mobsters and one cranky old Boomer and people suddenly think she’s a hero... what a joke.”
“She sounds tough, though. You sure you can take her, boss?”
Silver glared at him again and walked to the brick wall in the alleyway beside her. Her captive watched as well.
Paula Horton was a rather tall woman with thick, strong legs developed from her time spent skating. Her arms and torso were pretty well toned and strong as well as she was renowned around the league for her booming slap shot. There was a reason she was named captain of the Weston Vipers.
The strong hockey player was currently wearing workout gear; a black, cropped tank top and tight short shorts along with slip-on flip flops. The brunette had kind, hazel eyes though right now she glared with determination to escape her bonds.
Her ankles were duct taped to each leg of the chair, as well as her calves. Her knees were taped together and her waist was taped to the back of the chair, also pinning her bound wrists to the back. They crossed behind the chair and further held in place with tape that wrapped around her arms and torso above and below her breasts. Paula was rendered silent by a pair of her own socks stuffed in her mouth and a heavy wrapping of the duct tape around her head and over her mouth to hold them in. Silver had bound her quickly and tightly when she kidnapped her from her own home.
It had been two days since anyone had heard from her and Silver had people keeping an eye on her, and occasionally feeding her, until this moment when she was dragged into the alley and taped to the chair.
Now she watched the silent woman who called herself Silver walk to a solid brick wall, glaring at her hired thug.
She clenched her fist and drew it back. With barely an effort at a punch, she connected with the wall and a chunk of solid brick and mortar came loose from the building, crumbling on the ground at her feet. Silver picked up an intact brick then, holding it in one bare hand. Slowly tightening her grip, both captive and thug watched as the red brick broke into pieces and fell away in a pile of chunks and dust on the ground.
“Mmmmph!” Paula said behind her gag, squealing at the frightening strength this woman possessed.
“Yes. I’m sure I can take her...” Silver said. “Question me again and that brick will be your head. Understand?”
The thug swallowed hard and felt his legs turn to jelly under Silver’s gaze. It was everything he could to remain standing.
“Uh... yeah, boss. I-I got it. You’ll take her on, no problem.”
Silver growled under her breath, turning away from the thug and her captive, scanning the rooftops for movement. “She better be here soon...”
...
From the distance, Meryn watched the scene unfold with a small pair of binoculars. The Maiden knew something was up with this kidnapping so she didn’t want to approach directly. The woman called Silver was a rather impressive sight. And she saw her punch a hole in a brick wall and then crush a brick in her bare hand. This would be a lot to deal with.
Meryn wore her outfit as The Maiden atop the high-rise apartment building. A yellow sleeveless shirt covered her torso, baring her midriff, but with a tight collar on it stretching up to her neck. A matching pair of tight shorts covered her strong, shapely thighs held up by a black belt with many pouches and other assorted gadgets created by the man she was hoping to meet on this rooftop. He did live in this apartment building, after all.
Her outfit was completed by the low cut, yellow shoes for mobility and long gloves that went halfway up her forearms. The gloves had rough, rubbery palms that gave her extra grip when climbing or using her grappling hook to jump from building to building so they were essential.
A yellow, domino mask covered her eyes and concealed her identity, for the most part, and really helped sell her as the real deal; a superhero.
She never really thought of herself as a ‘superhero’ but some people seemed to start calling her one. Especially with Silver and others like her on the loose in Weston, a corrupt police department, and dirty politicians running the show. She did at least managed to ally herself with the mayor, Vera Calloway, who knew she was also Agent Gold of the Weston Agency. The mayor trusted her and the agency ever since they had rescued her daughter. But those alliances were few and far between for someone like Meryn in a city like Weston.
That was why she hoped to talk to Jonas. She hoped he might have some way of dealing with a superhuman opponent, though she doubted it. Still, it might be good to check in with him anyway. He always did seem to just know things about her and her friends...
“You could just call me you know,” a voice said from behind her. She turned around to face the man who spoke.
He was tall, taller than most, with broad shoulders. He had a tired expression to his pale, grey eyes and his voice matched it. Jonas had short, brown hair and a matching, scruffy beard on his face. Jonas was still dressed in a suit; black pants, brown shoes, a white shirt, and a red tie. He pulled something out of his brown suit jacket and held it up. “I do have a phone.”
“How long have you been there?” she asked, ignoring what he said.
“Just got here, actually.”
Meryn raised an eyebrow.
“Okay. A couple minutes. I was wondering if you would notice I was here. But you didn’t. You feeling okay?”
“Distracted,” Meryn said. “You’ve heard of Silver?”
Jonas nodded. “Ah, this is about her then. She’s serious business, Meryn. I wouldn’t get involved.”
“Then don’t. Just tell me you’ve got something that can help me put her down.”
Jonas chuckled. “If me or my department had something like that I would have given it to you already.”
“Thought not,” Meryn said. “What can you tell me about her?”
Jonas smirked. “What makes you think I know anything?”
Meryn just stared at him. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a file folder. “Figured you’d come calling,” he said, handing it to her.
“A full dossier?” Meryn asked.
“Pretty hard to get a hold of, too. She was involved in some clandestine stuff.”
Meryn looked down at the woman’s face, noting her pale blue eyes. Her gaze shifted to the name next.
“Sylvia Green?”
“Lieutenant Sylvia Green of the 45th Eagle Battalion, actually,” Jonas said. “Part of some military experiment that apparently even we can’t know about.”
“But you do know about it, right?” Meryn asked.
“May have broken a few laws...” Jonas said. “But we gotta know about her.”
“So what was this experiment?”
“Apparently, Ms. Green was judged as one of several ‘perfect’ candidates to create what they deemed a ‘super soldier.’ Like Captain America.”
“Like fiction, you mean,” Meryn said.
“A bit. But, Meryn, you were born in a world where one of your friends is a mighty sorceress from a race of magical beings. Is this stuff really a stretch?”
“Not really. So what went wrong?”
“The other candidates died, apparently. But Sylvia survived... and went a little crazy. Killed the scientist that injected her with this ‘serum’ that was supposed to make her hyper aware, super fast, and super strong. Well, it worked but it worked too well. It didn’t help that they did all this without the knowledge of the soldiers involved. Apparently that was to help with its secrecy.”
“So they basically kidnapped her, made her super strong, and drove her crazy?”
“Yep,” Jonas said. “Her adrenaline is apparently just through the roof, too, but the serum helps her system adapt to it, I guess. I’m not a doctor so I don’t really know how it does that but she’s kept hold of her high intelligence. Now she’s just a pissed off superhuman with a grudge against former Mayor Wilson and pretty much the whole city. This is where she woke up, after all.”
“So this city ruined her life... sounds like most people in this town.”
“You’re in tough if she’s after you, Meryn.”
Meryn furrowed her brow. “How did you know she was after me?”
Jonas shrugged. “You wouldn’t be here talking to me if you weren’t being cautious for some reason. And then you ask me all about Silver, which I knew you would eventually, so it’s really just about connecting the dots on that one.”
Meryn shrugged. “Okay then, Holmes,” she said with a smirk.
Jonas chuckled. “Speaking of fiction,” he said. He wiped the smile from his face in an instant. “Meryn... this is dangerous stuff you’re getting into here.”
“She kidnapped someone, Jonas. Paula Horton is a great philanthropist, too. Helps this city so much when it needs it. Weston can’t afford to have her missing.”
“It is a trap for you, though,” Jonas said.
“Yes. I know.”
“But you’re going anyway.”
Meryn went silent for a moment, turning away from Jonas. She stepped to the edge of the rooftop. “It’s my job,” she said.
“Technically it’s the police’s job. Or the Agency.”
“They would have given us this job. And right now... it’s just you and me.”
Jonas let out a long breath and stepped up beside Meryn. “You probably shouldn’t do this alone,” he said, staring out at the city below with Meryn. “You will need help. Eventually.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Meryn said. “But I don’t see anyone else lining up to fight back. This is what I do, Jonas.”
“I know...” Jonas said.
Meryn pulled a grapple gun from her belt, firing it off toward a nearby building and soaring off the rooftop as the cable brought her with it.
“Maybe someone ought do try...” Jonas said to himself.
...
“Mmmmpph! Hlllmmmp!” Paula Horton’s gagged pleas fell on deaf ears. She was alone, taped to a steel chair, and tightly gagged. Stuck in an alleyway between buildings at night, she had been all but abandoned by her captors.
She struggled hard against the tape, twisting every which way to try and break it but the layers were just too thick for her to break. Strong as she was, the tape proved to be stronger. Paula let her head slump down, trying to catch her breath from all the hard struggling.
The dim light from the street fell upon her face from the road. A shadow obscured the light for just a moment as someone stepped toward her. The sudden change in light made her look up again and she gasped into her gag.
“Hmmmph!?”
“Easy now,” a steady voice said. “You’re safe now. Let me get you out of this tape.”
The woman known in Weston as The Maiden stood before Paula, just as Silver said she would be. Paula tried to warn her through the gag.
“Nmmm! Dmmmt! Mmmmph-”
“Take it easy,” Meryn said, leaning down into her face. “I know.”
Paula furrowed her brow. “Wmmt?”
Meryn whirled around then, grabbing something from her belt and tossing it on the ground. A brief flash and a small bang sound created a thick smokescreen to obscure both Meryn and Paula.
Before she could reach for her knife to cut Paula loose, however, a strong hand grabbed hold of Meryn’s wrist and wrenched her backward, out of the smoke, and toward the far end of the alley.
“So you sniffed me out,” a woman said. “You’re better than I thought.”
Meryn was tossed aside into the wall, dropping to the ground on her back. She sat up and saw Silver strolling toward her through the smoke. Her eyes were... different than the picture she had seen. But Sylvia Green couldn’t change her face. Finally meeting face to face, Meryn managed to climb back to her feet, though her back ached from the collision with the wall.
“Silver...” Meryn said.
“Glad to know you’ve heard of me, too, Maiden. Not much of a name, I have to say.”
“It’s worked before,” Meryn said.
“Before? Before Weston, then? You’ve been doing this awhile? Well... so have I.”
“So I’ve heard, Lieutenant.”
Silver glared hard, stepping toward Meryn and picking her up by the throat, pinning her to the wall. “Where did you hear about that!?”
“What’s.... wrong?” Meryn said between sparse breaths. “Did I... rattle you?”
Silver growled, throwing a punch and deliberately missing Meryn’s head. She left a hole in the concrete wall behind her, chunks of concrete and dust raining down onto the ground below.
She tossed Meryn aside again, this time into the wall of the brick building, and she tumbled to the ground. Meryn staggered to her feet again, catching her breath.
“You need to let this woman go,” Meryn said.
“Why? Because you said so? Who died and made you boss?”
“Because I think you’re better than this. You’ve been wronged. You’re angry. But this isn’t always who you’ve been, is it?”
Silver rushed at Meryn and threw a punch but Meryn was able to avoid it while Silver connected with the brick wall again and sent another chunk of it crumbling to the ground. “Don’t pretend to know me!”
“I can help you. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to fix the mess they’ve made of this city.”
Silver rushed her again, wrapping one strong arm around Meryn’s waist and tackling her to the ground. She kept her pinned there, raising one fist in the air.
“There’s no helping me. Not anymore. I only help myself. You’ll just send me to an institution and you and I both know how broken this fucking system is!”
“Silver... Sylvia... just listen...”
“Don’t use that name!” Silver said, grabbing Meryn by the throat again.
“You... you can...”
“Shut up!” Silver said, still choking Meryn.
Meryn chose then to hold her tongue instead of test this insanely strong woman’s temper again. Silver seemed to calm down and released her hold on Meryn’s throat, allowing her to breathe again.
“I could kill you so easily. It would be nothing,” Silver said.
“Then why don’t you?” Meryn asked.
“Because, despite whatever you’ve heard, I’m not a murderer. And... I intend to teach you a lesson. And then maybe let the city kill you for me.”
Meryn tried to break free of Silver’s grip but it was like being caught in vice. She was just immovable. She grabbed hold of Silver’s arm with both hands, trying to pry just one of them off her shoulders.
“Not even the bite of a flea... I knew this would be easy. I think you know what’s coming next...”
...
Meryn could only watch as Paula Horton was hauled up over Silver’s shoulder, still tightly bound and gagged, and carried away. Silver didn’t even bother to look back as she disappeared into the night, leaving Meryn there in her predicament.
She was suspended in the air, hanging from a small, horizontal flagpole that she could hear creaking from holding up her weight. It wasn’t designed to hold up a human. At least, not for very long.
The fall would surely kill her, or at least badly injure her, whenever the flagpole gave way from the wall. But she had no idea when that might happen. For now she could only hope the bolts in the concrete were longer than just a couple inches.
There was no way she was breaking out of these bonds, either. Not without help, anyway. It was some kind of flexible cable that behaved like rope except with an even higher tensile strength.
The black cable wound it’s way around her arms in a thick, tight coil and was mostly responsible for holding her off the ground. A thicker cable was looped into one part of the coil by a sort of climber’s hook and lashed around the very tip of the flagpole.
Her wrists were also crossed and tied behind her back, pinned to her back by another thick coil around her waist. Meryn’s belt lay discarded on the ground below, as though to taunt her. Silver had said she was teaching her a lesson.
“If you survive, at least you’ll get your stuff back. But I bet you won’t come after me again. In fact, I count on it.”
That was the last thing Silver had said before leaving Meryn tied up and hanging from that flagpole.
Making it worse was the fact that her legs were tied together at the ankles and above and below the knees with more of the cable. Using some spare duct tape, Silver had also stuffed Meryn’s mouth full with some sort of sponge and then sealed it inside with a heavy wrapping of tape.
The flagpole shifted a bit when Meryn tried to struggle and she stopped immediately.
No more of that, I guess she thought to herself.
She knew then that she was in real trouble. Perhaps Jonas had been right when he said she shouldn’t be doing this alone....
“Mmmmpphh!” she said into her gag, squirming ever so slightly in some vain attempt at loosening her bonds. There was nothing else for it. She had to get help. And that meant doing something she hated... calling out for it. Nothing hurt Meryn’s pride worse than trying to get someone’s attention in a situation like this. She had done it before but... it was never ideal.
“Hhhllmmmmp!” she said, muffled by her gag. “Mmm nmmmd hlllmmp! Hlllmmmpp mmm!”
Her gag did make her incredibly silent. It would be a wonder if anyone heard her at all. Even worse, being suspended in the air made it even less likely someone would hear her. Unless someone like her was prowling above on the rooftops, somehow. But that wasn’t going to happen. Only someone on the ground would be able to help her.
“Mmmmmph! Mmmmp mmmmmppphh!” Just shouting now she thought to herself. Damn this gag!
“MMMMPPPHHHH!! HHHLLLMMMMPPPP!!”
She wriggled her torso and shook her wrists, still unable to loosen any of the bonds, and completely helpless to stop the flagpole from giving way even further. It dropped down a few inches, one of the bolts shearing off at the head and falling to the ground below her... way below.
It turned out, however, that luck was on her side that night. The bolt falling to ground had made a loud enough sound to catch the attention of someone who shouldn’t have been there.
An older woman, maybe in her early forties, calmly strode past the alleyway and heard something clank on the ground.
She was tall, about as tall as Meryn, with pale, ivory skin and long, black hair. She wore all black; a pantsuit with a white shirt and black tie, a long black coat, flat dress shoes, and even a fedora. ‘Old-fashioned’ was how she would describe her fashion style.
Her pale blue eyes scanned the alleyway as she reached for a gun under her coat. She didn’t see any movement... but she moved in anyway.
Detective Sarah MacGinnis, called ‘Mac’ by her friends, had not been assigned to the Horton kidnapping case. But she knew the lazy bastard who was would never get the job done. Besides, there weren’t enough good cops in town who would do their jobs properly. And she knew somebody had to be paying the department to drag their feet on finding Paula Horton. So she set out on her own, against the orders of her supervisors, to find out where Horton had been taken.
Having tracked her to this point, Mac drew her gun and walked further into the dark alley.
Up above her, Meryn spotted a person walking down below her and took in a deep breath.
“MMMMMMPPPPHHHHH!!!”
Mac heard a woman’s voice, sounding muffled, echo off the walls around her. It sounded nearby but also oddly far away like it was... she looked up and spotted Meryn, tightly bound and gagged and hanging from a rickety flagpole.
“Shit...” she said to herself. “Hang on!” she called up. “I’ll come get you!”
Meryn sighed with relief but realized it would take time for the woman to reach her. Time she might not have, if the flagpole decided to let go of the wall...
She kept very still, gently swaying back and forth in her bonds, willing the flagpole to stay attached to the wall.
Mac had to flash her badge a few times to get into the building but she was finally on an elevator, headed for the roof. The flagpole did sit right on the corner edge of the roof. But how was she going to lift the woman up?
“Brute force, I guess,” Mac mumbled to herself.
The elevator sure took it’s time... she hoped the flagpole would hold out. Finally reaching the top floor, Mac burst out of the elevator, running to a staircase that led to a roof access door. She flashed her badge once to a man sweeping the staircase and she pressed himself to the wall to let her past.
Throwing the door open, Mac looked around to orient herself and spotted the flagpole, running to the corner of the roof. She leaned out over the side and met the golden eyes... of The Maiden. She hadn’t expected this...
“You all right?” she asked.
“Mmmmmpphh!” Meryn said.
“Right. Probably the wrong thing to ask... sorry. I’ll get you off of there... somehow.”
Mac pulled on the cable holding Meryn to the flagpole and found the dead weight awfully heavy. She wasn’t super strong either, though she did work out. If only she were in her twenties again...
“Mmmmpphhh!” Meryn squealed when the flagpole shifted again.
“I’ve got you! Um....” Mac took a chance. “Oh, to hell with it.”
She crawled out onto the concrete ledge of the roof, pulling herself over the edge. Ignoring the vertigo of the potential drop, Mac leaned down and grabbed hold of Meryn, tucking her hands under her shoulders.
“Hope my balance holds...” Mac said. “Here we go. One... two... three!” Mac lifted up with everything she had, relieving some of the weight on the flagpole and dragging Meryn far enough upward that she could lay her down on the concrete ledge with her legs dangling over the side. She laid Meryn down and examined the cable attached to the flagpole.
“Hmmm.... my knife won’t cut that... wish I had some wire cutters. Big ones.”
She then noticed the climbing hook on Meryn’s back. “Ah. Here we are...” she removed the hook from Meryn’s back so she could pull her fully onto the roof, still tied and gagged, but now safe from falling.
“Jeez... that was tough...” Mac said, sitting down beside the woman she just rescued.
“Mmmph!”
“Yeah, I know... just... give me a minute... not as young as I used to be...”
After taking a moment to catch her breath, she finally got to work untying Meryn. Luckily, the cable was flexible enough to tie knots in and she was able to get them undone with some work.
Meryn removed the gag herself, spitting out the sponge and tossing the duct tape aside. She stretched out her muscles and flexed her jaw a bit, clearing her throat.
“Thank you,” she said. “I... well... I owe you one.”
“Don’t mention it,” Mac said. “Maiden.”
Meryn furrowed her brow. “You’re a cop.”
“That I am. Detective Sarah MacGinnis,” she said, extending her hand. “But just call me Mac. That’s what everyone calls me.”
Meryn stared at her hand, refusing to shake it.
“Look, I know cops can’t be trusted. Not in this town. But I’m different. I promise.”
“Sure. They all say that,” Meryn said.
Mac reached into her pocket and pulled out a card with her number on it. “I think you could use a few friends in this town. If I hadn’t come along... well, that Silver had you good. I’ll say that much.”
“I’m fine, thanks.”
Mac held the card out to Meryn. “Just... humour me? Please?”
Meryn took the card and gave it a quick look. “MacGinnis, is it?” Meryn asked.
“Yes. But just call me Mac. That’s what-”
“I heard you the first time,” Meryn said. “I appreciate what you did for me. But this Silver... she’s not someone you want to mess with. Leave her to me.”
Mac shrugged. “At least keep me in mind. We could all use friends these days. I’ll earn your trust. Now... I saw your belt down below. Mind taking an elevator ride with me?”
Meryn sighed. “Yeah... I guess...”
“Great. Let’s get you back on the ground, yeah?”
...
Mac and Meryn parted ways but Meryn found herself hanging on to the detective’s card. Jonas’ warning still rang out in her head... he really had been right. Silver was way too dangerous for her to take on alone.
“Hey, you okay?”
Meryn looked up when she heard his voice from nearby.
“Wait... Jonas. What... what the hell are you wearing?”
He was still in his suit but he wore a kevlar vest over his suit jacket, knee and elbow pads, and black cloak slung over his neck. He also put on a black eye mask.
“This... well, it’s a prototype. Until I can get a proper suit.”
“Suit?”
“You know, for this whole crime fighting thing. I said you should probably get help. Well, here I am, helping.”
Meryn looked him up and down and then met his eyes. “No,” she said.
“I knew you’d say that. But you could use a partner. I’d really just be a sidekick, since you’re the real fighter and everything, but I could be useful! Especially after I build the suit and-”
“Jonas.”
“What?”
“I don’t need a partner.”
“But...”
“There is no but. That’s the end of it. This is too dangerous for you, anyway.”
Jonas sighed. “Well, I’ll still be here. I don’t think I can just sit by and watch you get yourself into trouble.”
Meryn was about to speak again when she heard Mac call out to her. She ran back to her from just down the street.
“Maiden! I’m glad I found you. One of my informants just called me. Horton’s been spotted. They’ve got her inside some old shed out by the old steel mill. Surrounded by Silver’s goons.”
“Is Silver there?”
“She’s MIA, as far as he saw.”
Meryn nodded. “Good. Thanks for the info. I’ll head there now.”
She grabbed hold of her grapple gun again, firing it into the air, and taking off again when it latched on to a building.
“Is she... okay?” Mac asked, turning to Jonas.
“Her pride’s hurt. And she’s pissed off... I’d say she’ll be fine. Silver has no idea what’s coming. There’s a lion in her. And it’s hungry.”
Mac chuckled. “So who are you? Her sidekick?”
“Hopefully,” Jonas said.
“Yeah. She could use a few more friends. That Silver is bad news...”
Jonas smirked. “So is The Maiden...”
...
Five large men surrounded the bound and gagged woman, seated once again on a steel chair. She strained against the tape, grunting and groaning with the effort, but Paula still couldn’t break free.
While she struggled, a pair of pale eyes watched from a distance. She had no interest in anything but what would happen next. Silver hoped she would be here. She just had to see what The Maiden could do. She hoped the vigilante hero was as good as they said...
Standing on the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse, Silver’s cape fluttered in the wind as she stood with her arms folded, staring at the shed where Paula Horton was being held.
“All of this... just to see... this better not be a waste of my time...” Silver said to herself.
True to form, The Maiden came into view on the street below. Silver smirked. “So she did escape...”
Not even bothering with stealth this time, Meryn strolled up to the door and kicked it off its hinges. It fell down to the floor, kicking up dust and starling the people inside. They all shrank back and drew weapons.
Meryn strolled in, cracking her knuckles and rolling her shoulders, not saying a word. Her golden eyes locked with a man near the door holding a crowbar... and he didn’t even have time to raise it.
She grabbed the crowbar, pulling him in close, and landing a solid punch square between the eyes. He stumbled back and Meryn kicked his legs out from under him, causing him to fall onto his back. All in one motion, she wrenched the crowbar from his hand. That’s when the other four attacked...
She leapt to one side as one of them pointed a pistol at him and fired. He hit nothing but thin air as another man attacked her with a baseball bat. She deflected it aside with the crowbar, kicking him in the knee. He shouted in pain, collapsing down to one knee and she cracked him in the jaw with the crowbar. The man fell to the floor beside the first man. Another attacked her from behind but she whirled around and planted him with a high kick that connected with his jaw. She spun around again, firing the crowbar from her hand with a deft throw at the man with the gun. It collided with his forehead and the weight of it brought him low to the floor. The gun fell from his grasp and skittered away across the floor.
The last man rushed her but she simply ducked low and planted her shoulder hard into the middle of his chest, raising up to flatten him like a proper body check. Paula smiled beneath her gag and nodded with approval. The impact knocked the wind out of him and now all five men lay writhing in pain on the ground. Meryn glared down once before approaching their captive and cutting her free from the tape.
“Hey, thanks...” she said. “That was awesome!”
“I’m getting you out of here. Hang on...” Meryn said, getting a tight grip on Paula’s waist. She fired the grapple gun out the door and the two of them were swept out of the shed, up in the air, and out into the night.
Silver still stood with her arms folded, smiling at the scene and the daring rescue. All in all, The Maiden hadn’t disappointed her.
“Good to know what I’m dealing with... Gonna need to get clever with this one...” she said to herself.
Watching Meryn disappear into the darkness, Silver jumped down to the ground below, planting herself where she landed, cracking the pavement beneath her feet.
“Looks like I might be in for a long fight... good. It’s been too long.”
Silver kept thinking about her new adversary long into the night as she left her wounded goons behind to tend to themselves. The Maiden may have pulled off the escape and the rescue but those were only tests. And if Silver had her way, things would only get tougher from here... and Silver always got her way...