"Hello folks and welcome back to 'On The Air With Danny Blair' I'm your host, Danny Blair. Joining me today is none other than one of Hazeldale's biggest up and coming celebrities. Well, not quite, but has been making quite the name for herself. She's a reporter at the Hazeldale Tribune, and the one who went after Peirce Enterprises and exposed Peirce for doing some shady stuff. She's here to talk about that and more, so without further adieu...Kayla Grace."

"Thanks for having me, Danny."

Kayla shifted in her seat, adjusting her headphones a bit and fidgeting with her mic. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous for this. It was her first ever publicity appearance. She'd never heard of the radio show before, but then again that was probably why she was able to land this interview. She definitely wasn't any kind of celebrity or big name by any means, but this Danny Blair guy wanted to interview her anyway for his little talk show...for some reason.

Whatever that reason was, Kayla was at least somewhat excited to be interviewed. She was, after all, someone with her own aspirations and perhaps this would help her move up in the reporting world and add to her legitimacy.

She'd gotten all dressed up for it too. Well, not that dressed up, but she had definitely put some extra thought into what she was wearing. She'd paired a black long sleeve shirt, with a maroon colored skirt that hugged her rear and thighs just perfectly. Her legs were wrapped in a pair of sheer stockings, and her feet tucked into a pair of black ankle boots. What really completed the look was the stylish brown blazer she wore. She felt professional, but also chic and kinda badass.

"Alright," Danny continued, "let's keep it moving. I've got some questions here for you, of my own, and then we'll sprinkle in a couple of fan submitted ones how does that sound?"

"Fan submitted?"

Kayla was a bit shocked that she would have any fans. Who were these people submitting questions to a small radio show she'd never heard of?

"Yep, that's right, fan submitted. I put it out on my website that you'd be interviewing with me today, and had a couple of folks write in some questions for you."

"Wow, well, that's pretty cool I guess."

If anything, Kayla was a bit flattered. She tried not to let that word "fans" go to her head. These were just people with questions. Kayla Grace did not have any fans yet.

"Okay, to get things rolling, I'll lob you a softball right down the middle, you ready?"

"Yep."

"This one comes from username 'schamp17' and they want to know why it was you wanted to become a reporter?"

"Oooh, great question," Kayla said as she stared off and thought about her answer. "Well, it all started when I was a kid I guess. I grew up reading books about detectives and people who solve crimes and all that. I don't know what it was about it, but I always liked the idea of getting to solve a mystery or close a case. I remember when I was really little being out on the playground and solving the mystery of the missing snack bags."

"The missing snack bags?"

Kayla laughed, "yeah, one of my best friends kept having her snacks go missing at recess. I thought maybe it was some other kids bullying her, so I asked around and tried to figure out who it was that was taking them. When no one confessed I decided to do a little stakeout and see what was going on. Turns out it wasn't any of the kids. There was this squirrel that would sneak up and steal a bunch of food out of her open lunch box."

"You're kidding."

"I assure you I'm not. So anyway, after she started closing her lunch when she went off to play the snacks didn't go missing anymore."

"Incredible."

"All that to say I just really like helping other people, and I really like solving a good mystery."

"Aside from the case of the missing snacks, did you do any other rookie detective work?"

"Oh yeah, tons. In college I used to try and solve cases in my spare time. From missing persons to petty break-ins, I was always looking for some kind of story. It wasn't all just a hobby though, I mean I was studying journalism at the time so it was like...extracurricular I guess you could say."

"Awesome, well, moving on to something a little more...light...I guess you could say, that same person who wrote in the last question also wanted to know if you have a favorite color and if you have a favorite food."

"Oooh, well my favorite color is pretty easy. Red. There's just something about it that's so...I don't know, strong? It makes me feel strong when I'm wearing something red, so yeah."

"Great answer."

"As for my favorite food...mmmmm...it really depends. If we're talking about like a full on meal, then definitely a steaming bowl of tonkotsu ramen. If we're talking like snack food, then I'll have to go with Korean corn dogs."

"I'm not sure I've ever had a Korean corn dog. How are they different from a regular corn dog?"

"Oh my god, well first off they're not even close to being the same thing. I mean well...technically, they are kinda similar. Instead of cornmeal batter, the hot dogs are dipped in a flour batter, and instead of just a hot dog most of them have mozzarella inside as well. And then they're like coated with stuff like pankos or crunchy potato bits. They're insane, and yeah one of my favorite snack foods for sure."

"Sounds like quite the snack indeed! I'll have to give it a try. Okay, moving on. These questions come from the username 'Golavus' and the first one is about your family. We all know Kayla Grace, intrepid young reporter hot on the scene and on the case, but tell us about your family. Do you have any close family, and do they approve of your...adventures."

"I'm assuming by adventures you mean..."

"The whole being tied up part, yes."

There was almost a glimmer in Danny's eye as he said that, but Kayla just brushed it off.

"Yes, well as for close family, the only two I have really are my mom and big sister Chloe. My mom and dad grew up in Korea, and they came to the States a couple years before they had me. My dad was pretty sick, even when they moved. He was super smart though, and ended up getting a really high paying job. I barely remember him. He died when I was around six, but before he left he left us a bunch of money from his job and all his investing. I swear to god he's my absolute hero in every way. My mom is incredible too, don't get me wrong.  I love her to death too, but I'd like to think of her as my role model instead. Even after he died she kept going in order to provide for Chloe and me. The two of them are just...the best people I've ever known."

"Wow, very high praise. I'm sorry for your loss though. I'm sure that must have been hard."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. And yeah it was hard at first, but I don't know...I don't think my dad would have wanted us to be all sad and stuff. He worked his ass off to made sure we had a good life, and having a good life means making the most of it in spite of tragedy. So yeah, I miss him for sure, but I'm trying to honor his legacy by being the best damn reporter I can possibly be. Even if it means...you know...getting into trouble from time to time. Speaking of which, yeah, my family doesn't mind my adventures. I mean my mom worries about me like crazy, but she's understanding at least. Chloe always just gives me a hard time about it. She thinks it's because I'm not careful enough. But hey, Chloe, if you're listening to this, I dare you to walk a mile in my shoes one of these days! It's not as easy as you think."

Danny laughed, "let's talk about that for a second. Your propensity to find yourself in peril."

"Oh god, I guess this was coming sooner or later."

"Golavus wants to know what is the most frustrating way that you've been tied up."

"Most frustrating, eh? Hm, let's see here...I mean I'd have to go with this one time, and it was the silliest thing, but this one time when I was trying to bust some college kids for running this fake ID service I got nabbed pretty good."

"Here we go..."

"And it wasn't like they even tied me up that good...it was just the way I was tied."

"Do you mind describing it for us?"

"Yeah, so I was tied up on the ground, and my hands were tied in front of me oddly enough. Anyway, they were tied down to my ankles but in front, so I was kind of folded up in a ball. I thought it was going to be easy to get out of, but stupidly enough it was actually super difficult. I was stuck like that for hours..."

"Wow. Crazy."

"Yeah, and that's not even the craziest part they also...err...well maybe I shouldn't say."

"No please, do continue."

Danny sat up in is chair a bit.

"Nah," said Kayla, "I don't really know how much of it is...radio appropriate."

"I see..."

"Yeah, a story for another day I suppose."

"I suppose so. Alright well, moving on with more questions from our friend Golavus. Are there any other sleuths you happen to admire?"

"Fictional or real?"

Danny chuckled, "it doesn't say. Well, I guess you can answer either way really."

"I'll give you both," said Kayla.

"I love it."

"Okay," she said, "so starting with some real ones that I admire. Do you know Sara Phillips?"

"The name rings a bell..."

"Yeah, well she's pretty awesome. We met up once, and it was just...so much fun."

"Did you get into any trouble?"

"Oh yeah, big time. Still, it was really nice to meet up with her and I learned a lot really. Her vibe is just...I don't know she's just so cool. Um, and then there's Becky Carter. Do you know her?"

"Again, rings a bell but I'm not sure. Have you met her too?"

"Not yet, but I've read all about her. She's great too. One of my biggest inspirations for sure. She's got this arch nemesis kinda...Marta Alfonsi, and wow have the two of them gone at it. More so Marta going after Becky and stuff, but Becky just handles it all like a champ! She's the real deal, for sure."

"Wow, sounds like you've got a lot of folks you look up to!"

"Yeah, I mean that's how you get better, right? Learn from some of the best?"

"That's definitely a great attitude to have for sure."

"I think so. Anyway, there's more, I'm sure, but I'll just go ahead and name drop the two of them for now."

"And you mentioned something about...fictional sleuths you admire?"

"Yes, and I've got loads of them."

"Let's hear it!"

"Okay," Kayla said, "where to start...I mean I gotta mention Nancy Drew."

"Solid."

"Um, April O'Neil."

"Who?"

"From the teenage mutant ninja turtles."

"Ohhh yes, her. Of course."

"Um, Paula Peril! I love her."

"Now I definitely haven't heard of her."

"She's great. I mean, she's literally always getting into trouble."

"It sounds like it's in the name."

Kayla laughed, "Yeah, that's kind of her thing. She's still a badass though, peril or not. Um, okay, just gonna rapid fire off a bunch here."

"Go for it!"

"Olivia Benson, Dana Scully, Daphne Blake, Jane Rizzoli...I mean I could keep going but those are some of my favorites."

"Fantastic list."

"Thank you!"

"Alright," Danny said shuffling through his notes, "let's see here...how about hobbies?"

"Oooh, okay well, I love watching anime and manga. I'm kinda a big K-pop nerd."

"K-pop?"

"Korean Pop. So groups like TXT, BTS, Aespa, Itzy, Aespa, Red Velvet...just to name a few."

"You've lost me."

Kayla laughed, "it's okay. Like I said, big nerd."

"Any other hobbies?"

"Yeah, I'm a huge foodie. So if you're looking for any good spots around town, I got you covered."

"Good to know."

"Is fashion a hobby?" Kayla asked.

"Hmmm," Danny said tapping his pen on the desk, "sure, I'll count it!"

"Cool, then yeah I love fashion. New clothes, new shoes...I love it all."

"Speaking of clothes, the last question we have from Golavus is whether or not you enjoy glamming up in fancy dresses for posh parties."

"From time to time, yeah. I mean dressing super fancy isn't totally my thing. That being said, when the time is right I love getting glammed up. There's a big gala coming up in a few months that I've been invited to, and so yeah I'll definitely bust out a fancy dress for that."

"Very nice," Danny said as he set his stack of notes aside, "well, that's it for fan questions. I've got a couple more from my end and then we'll call it a day. How does that sound?"

"Sounds great!" Kayla said as she reached down and took a sip from her water. It was going great so far. She was really loving this! Danny was super nice, and the questions so far were great. She was still sweating bullets though, but she hoped that at least on the outside she was coming off as calm and collected.

"Okay," Danny said as he grabbed another handful of papers, "let's see here...tell us about this Peirce story. What's your next step?"

"Well, I don't know how much I want to divulge here, but basically I'm looking into some potential accomplices. I mean, we know he wasn't doing it all along, and were able to identify some people that might have helped aid and abet him in his crimes. So yeah, we need to figure out if we can get an angle on them, but for right now that's proving to be pretty tough."

"No news from Peirce or where he might be or what he might be up to?"

"Nothing. He's gone completely off the map. I'm sure he'll be back one of these days, and when he does...I'll be ready."

"Let's hope so. From the way you worded your story he sounds like quite the criminal mastermind!"

"Oh, he is," said Kayla, "but he's got people doing his dirty work for him. So we just need to go after them, and then hopefully the rest of the cards topple. Again, like I said I have a couple leads...or at the very least one really good lead. I just need to get them to crack, or find some kind of way to expose them and then we'll be back on the right track."

"Good to know. Well, I think that's going to be it from me. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for tuning in, and Kayla Grace...thanks for coming on!"

Kayla smiled, "thanks for having me, Danny. This was fun."

Danny leaned over and pressed a button on his computer, and then took off his headphones. Kayla followed by removing her own headphones and standing up, smoothing out her skirt as she did.

"Good job," he said giving her a big smile, "you did awesome!"

"Did I really? God, I was so nervous."

"You didn't seem it at all."

Kayla breathed a sigh of relief, "well that's good to know."

"Okay, before you go, we just need to get a couple of photos for the website."

"Oh, nice! I'm glad I dressed up then."

"This way," Danny said as he motioned with his hand toward the door.

Leading Kayla down the hall, Danny took Kayla to another room with a big white backdrop setup and a bunch of photography equipment. There were two other guys already there still setting things up.

"Here we are," Danny said as he introduced Kayla to the photographers, "they'll take care of you here. When you're finished up, just come meet me back in the recording room and I'll help see you out. Again, you killed it, so nice talking with you."

"You too!" Kayla said as she waved by to Danny.

"Alright," one of the photographers said, "let's get started. Go ahead and step over there on the 'x'"

Walking over toward the backdrop, Kayla stood on the mark on the floor. She felt kind of awkward, and had no idea what to do with her hands or her feet. She wished Madelyn were here to give her some tips. Thankfully, the photographers were nice and helped her pose. They walked her through all these different poses that felt kind of strange to hold, but when Kayla looked at the shots she was surprised at how good they made her look! There was a reason these guys were professionals after all.

"Looking great!" The one holding the camera said as he continued to snap shots of Kayla. "You're a natural! The camera loves you."

Kayla blushed, "thanks."

"We just need to get a couple more...action shots if that works for you."

"Oh, sure!"

The main photographer nodded to his partner who walked out of view.

"Alright," the main guy said, "now just go ahead and stand there...don't worry about the poses for these. We'll handle those."

"Oh, uh...okay."

Kayla wasn't sure what he meant by this, but all of the sudden the other photographer re-appeared behind her and yanked her arms behind her back.

"Hey, what the hell!?"

She could feel him lashing her wrists together with rope, making numerous passes before tying off a very tight knot.

"We need to get your signature look," the main photographer said as he set down his camera and walked over, producing a coil of rope from his back pocket.

"My signature...by tying me up?!"

"You got it."

Kayla huffed as she launched a kick behind her, hitting the guy right in the chest.

"Oof!" He said as he fell backwards crashing into the backdrop.

"Hey, chill!" The other one said as he took his partner's place and grabbed Kayla's arms behind her back.

"You chill," she shouted, trying to kick him too.

But he was ready for her, standing back so that her kicks didn't land.

"You good?"

"Yeah...I'm all good."

"Great," the one holding Kayla said, "let's hurry up and get her tied before she tries anything else."

"On it!"

Getting up from the floor, Ross took another bundle of rope and starting looping it around Kayla's ankles. Or, at least he was trying to. She was hard at work launching as many kicks as she could in his direction making it damn near impossible for him to grab her.

"Shit, she's feisty!"

"You think? Here, lets get her on the ground."

Lowering Kayla to the floor, the one in front of her straddled her with his legs, practically sitting in her lap now with his back facing her. By putting all his weight on her upper thighs, he was able to wrangle her legs up and get them tied. He even took extra measure by looping rope around her nylon clad knees too.

"God, what the hell is wrong with you guys? Are you even photographers? Was that interview even legit!?"

"Oh, the interview was legit, yeah. Danny is great. He's really going places."

"Agreed," the other guy said, "he's great at asking questions. And the way he dialogues with guests? So good!"

"I listen to his show every week."

"Me too!"

Kayla rolled her eyes.

"Anyway," the mook holding her said, "no, the interview was legit. This part on the other hand...is just for us."

"Yeah, we've been wanting to snap some photos of you for a loooong time now. When we saw you were gonna be on Danny's show...well the opportunity was perfect."

"Do you know how much money people are going to shell out for these photos?"

"We'll be rich for sure."

"You're icky creeps is what you are," Kayla lashed back.

"Hmmm, someone's being a bit too mouthy, eh?"

"Should we treat her to the Kayla Grace classic?"

"It's what her fans would want."

"It's only right."

Kayla groaned. She knew exactly what they were talking about...

"Just get on with it," she said.

"Yes ma'am!"

The one sitting on her reached down and yanked off her boots, throwing them aside.

"Cute socks!"

"Thanks," Kayla said through gritted teeth, "they were a gift..."

Madelyn had bought them for her. They were light pink with all these cute little Studio Ghibli characters on them like Totoro and Calcifer. She happened to quite like them, but wasn't sure after today if she'd be as fond of them anymore...

Peeling them off her stocking clad feet, the goon stood up and waved the socks around in Kayla's face. They were having way too much fun with this.

"Hey, let's get some shots of you stuffing them in her mouth. People love that shit."

"Great idea!"

The guy behind Kayla leapt up and grabbed his camera while the other rotated Kayla's body around so that she was facing the studio lights and her back was pointed toward the backdrop. The goon holding her socks crouched down behind her.

"Ready?" He said, as the other one stooped down and readied his camera.

"Yep, go for it!"

"Alright, girlie...just give it up! We're gonna gag you whether you like it or not!"

"Are you for real right now?" Kayla said as she turned her head and shot a frown at the guy behind her.

He laughed, "just playing the part, that's all."

"Hey, hurry it up over there!"

"Sorry, here we go."

Taking the socks, he brought them up to Kayla's mouth and starting pushing them into her mouth.

"Mmmph..." She huffed as he packed the socks in.

*CLICK! CLICK! CLICK*

"That's it! Damn, you're looking great Kayla!"

"WRRMMMPH!"

*CLICK! CLICK!*

"Yes, I love the pouty look! You're really selling it! Spot on!"

Kayla rolled her eyes as the guy continued to stuff the socks in until they were pretty much all the way inside.

"Okay, now let's get some shots of you wrapping tape around her head."

This went on for quite a while as the fake photographers continued to further gag and truss Kayla up. With each new edition of rope they took more shots, really making sure to get every angle of Kayla. Of course, by now, thanks to all the tape wound between her lips and around her head cleave gagging her, she was quite incapable of saying anything about it. She just sat there, stewing on her socks, and groaning with practically every click of the camera.

"K, now let's get some shots of her in some different ties!"

"MMMMMPH?!"

Jesus, how many photos are these losers going to take?

The answer was a lot...gigabytes and gigabytes worth of photos of Kayla bound in every position imaginable. She was hogtied, frogtied, balltied, tied in a chair, tied on a stool...the list when on and so did the photo shoot for at least another couple of hours. Was Danny still waiting for her? She really hoped he would have come in and checked on her by now...

"Okay, I think that should do it."

"WRMMMPH MMMPH?!"

Kayla was rather incensed by the word of choice of "think." She knew they had gotten enough. More than enough really. They'd swapped SD cards numerous times even.

"Should we untie her?"

"And have her come after us? No way! We gotta bail! Danny should figure out something's up soon enough."

He should have figured it out by now! Where the hell was he?!

"Thanks for all that, Kayla. You're gonna be a star."

"FFMMMPH!"

Packing up their things the photographers headed out, giggling like little school kids all the way. It was a great time for them, but not for Kayla! She was furious, and as soon as they left she started wriggling in her ropes trying to get free. They'd left her hogtied on the floor, which was quite the difficult tie to escape from. Thankfully, not much time passed before Danny finally reappeared.

"MMMMMMMPH!"

Kayla howled at him as he just stood there in the doorway, a shocked look plastered over his face.

"Oh my god, what happened?"

"FFFMMMPH!"

What do you think happened?! They tied me up! Now hurry up and get me out of here!

"I better call the police, you just hang tight Kayla!"

"WRRRMMPH!? MMMMMPH! MMMMMMMMMMPH!"

"Oh, and let me just snap a quick photo real quick...you know...to show the police that something really serious has happened!"

"MMMMMPH!"

No more pictures, goddammit!

Danny took off, not before taking a few photos of course, leaving Kayla behind as she rocked back and forth in her hogtie.

"Mmmmmph..."

She sighed into her gag as she finally just settled down and relaxed her muscles. At least he was calling the cops who would rush to get her free...

Right...?