*present*

Siren screamed into the giant ball gag wedged in her mouth as Joey Digeorgio ripped her armor off of her.  It wasn’t made to come off easy, and she wasn’t sure what would tear first, the zirconium scales or her wrists, chained to a pipe hanging above her, holding her suspended, her booted feet dangling inches off the ground.

Joey was portrayed in all the pictures she’d seen as a short man, but as he stood before her, even suspended off the ground as she was, he seemed anything but small.  He’d shed his shirt and tie, and stood before her in just his slacks and a dirty wife beater as he pulled the armor off of Siren with a shower of green scales, leaving her in a matching crimson sports bra and panties.  Joey tossed the armor onto the floor with her already torn skirt and vest.

She tried to kick out at him with her dangling legs, but her kicks were weak and barely fazed him.  He was still annoyed enough by the gesture to sucker punch her in her soft stomach, making her gasp in pain into her gag as the wind was knocked out of her.  She hung limp, not even able to muster the strength to struggle as he grabbed her bra and ripped it off of her, followed shortly after by her panties, leaving her naked save for her boots, gloves and mask.  Donny Bianchi stood in the corner of the room, smoking a cigarette while he watched his boss strip the helpless heroine.

Things were not going quite as she had planned.



*two hours earlier*

Siren stood panting above the unconscious mobster.  Like the other two she'd already come across and similarly dispatched, he had earplugs in his ears, rendering her powers useless.  Tyrese had taught her a few self-defense moves that she was able to put to good use in conjunction with her martial arts training that was coming back to her rather quickly.

Tyrese seemed to be under the impression that self-defense was what she was getting his help for, and she was fine with that.  She managed to surprise him a few times with some of her prior training, even if his insistence that she wouldn't be able to hurt him had proven accurate.  And if suspected that she wanted to learn to fight for any other reason, he kept his word and didn't pry.

Regardless, she was still out of shape and more than a bit rusty, not too mention exhausted from training all day as well as her exploits the night before.  The last thug had given her way too much trouble before she was able to knock him out.

She heard a buzz coming from the mobster, and she rooted around in his pockets until she found his phone.  

"Check in," read the text message displayed on the screen.  She tried to turn on the phone to see the rest of the texts, but the screen was password protected.

Siren dropped the phone back on the guy's chest.  Knocking out minions one at a time all night wasn't a realistic option.  But time was not on her side.  Even if the LC wasn’t breathing down her neck, last night the guards had noise cancelling headphones.  Tonight they had earplugs.  Tomorrow, who knows?  She had to finish this, now.

By her estimate, the warehouse she'd failed to break into last night was still guarded by at least six guys on the outside.  She still knew almost nothing about what was actually going on in the warehouse; only that Joey Digeorgio deemed it important enough to be heavily guarded.  Drugs, maybe.  The Italian prick had a hand in everything.

She brushed her hair back, and set off towards the warehouse.



*present*

“You thought you could stop me, you little ginger cunt?” Joey enunciated every word with a punch to her unprotected torso.  On the last word, his punch was hard enough to drag the cinderblock he’d chained to ankles to keep her from swinging around so much as he beat on her across the dirty floor.  It took every once of concentration she had not to vomit, knowing that with the gag in, she’d very likely drown in her own puke even as he tortured her.  

“I’m Joey Digeorgio.  I own this city,” he said as he bent down, wiping his bruised and bleeding knuckles on her skirt.  He noted something in her belt, and picked it up.  Siren gave a weak whimper as he held up her telescoping baton, extending it to its full length.

“Well call me Freud,” he said, twirling the inadvertently phallic weapon experimentally.  Siren cringed, shutting her eyes as she braced herself for a blow, but it never came.  She peaked through one eye, just in time to see him press the tip of the baton against her pussy lips, and jam her own weapon home.



*earlier*

Siren cracked her baton against the third guard’s skull, sending him crashing to the floor, unconscious.  It was almost too easy.

Not that it was actually easy, by any means.  She was exhausted, running on pure adrenaline from fight to fight.  And they all put up a good fight, but not one of them even attempted to shoot her, and they were all armed with guns, or knives.  They clearly wanted her alive, and weren’t willing to risk hurting her or killing her, and trusted that she was unwilling to kill them as well.

“Seems you are more than just a pretty voice.”  She snapped her head around to see Donny Bianchi coming out of the shadows, the red glow of the tip of his cigarette illuminating his gaunt features in the darkness.

“You,” she said, spinning to face him.  Before she could do anything else, he’s already drawn the Taser and fired it, its two charged prongs embedding in her chest, firing 5,000 volts of electricity into her body.

“But you still go down like a fat girl on prom night,” he said, continuing to hit the button that pumped current into her as he approached her twitching body.  Four more men, armed and decked out in bulletproof vests filed into the room after him, securing the perimeter.

“I knew you’d come back.  I left enough chumps outside with orders not to shoot your ass for you to feel like you were actually accomplishing something.”  He knelt over her, firing one last jolt through her before her he reached set down the Taser and pulled a black ball gag out of his back pocket.

“You see this?” he asked, cocking his ear towards her prone form.  “Didn’t even need goddam ear plugs.  And you thought you were a threat.”  He opened her slack jaw and jammed the rubber ball into her gaping mouth.  Pushing her red hair out of the way, he pulled the straps tight around her neck, yanking the gag cruelly tight before fastening it in place.  He finished it off with a tiny padlock.

As the lock clicked shut, Siren’s eyes snapped open.  She reached up, grabbing the gun that was tucked into Donny’s waistband.  Donny felt the movement, but it was too late.  She brought her knee up, catching him under the ribs.  He swore and dove to the side.  His henchmen turned, weapons drawn, but Siren was already firing Donny’s pistol.  Her aim was wild, the first few shots ricocheting off the ceiling, but the third one hit one of the henchmen in the chest, sending him flying backwards.  A few more shots and she hit another one in the leg, and he fell, clutching his bleeding knee.

Donny screamed for them to stop as the remaining two opened fire at Siren, but they were wearing earplugs, and didn’t hear his commands.  Both Siren and Donny dove for cover.  Siren crouched behind a pallet jack, panting through her nose, the gag still locked in her mouth.  Her muscles were still tensed up from the Taser.  Her armor diffused the shock enough to keep her from being knocked out, allowing her to feign helplessness long enough to grab Donny’s gun, but it still hurt like hell, and now she was gagged and being shot at.

She looked up at the ceiling, marking the hanging fluorescent light fixture roughly above where the two shooters were.  She fired at the light, and it exploded in a shower of sparks.  The two henchmen were illuminated and vulnerable, and Siren jumped up, taking aim and firing, hitting them both in the chest.

“You bitch!” Donny roared, leaping at her.  She turned, squeezing the trigger, only to be met with a dull click as the gun attempted to fire from an empty chamber.  “Out of bullets,” Donny announced triumphantly, knocking the gun out of her hands and sending her flying backwards with a roundhouse kick.

He tackled her before she could get back to her feet, rolling across the floor with her as she attempted to throw him off.  She managed to get her feet between them and kick him away from her, but as she was getting up, he reached out and grabbed for her, catching the strap of her gag.  He hurled her headfirst into a stack of barrels.

She lay dazed as the metal barrels fell around and on top of her.  Donny approached her, laughing as he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.  “I’ll give you credit, you do put up one hell of a fight.”

Siren grunted, kicking a barrel at his legs.  He stumbled over it, barely managing to catch himself.  Siren hauled herself to her feet, pulling her concealed knife out of her boot while she backed away from the mobster.

“What are you going to do with that little thing, butter some bread?” he asked, pulling out a much larger switchblade from his back pocket, brandishing the more menacing weapon.

Siren glared at him, before smiling around her ball gag.  She switched her grip on the knife, bringing it up to the strap of her gag.

“Oh shit,” Donny said.  He spotted his dropped Taser out of the corner of his eye, still lying on the floor where he had dropped it.  The two locked eyes.

Donny blinked first, hurling his knife at her as he dove for the Taser.  Siren ducked, narrowly dodging the blade as she desperately sawed at the thick strap holding the stifling ball in her mouth.

Donny grabbed the Taser, loading a fresh cartridge and rolling over, taking aim, just as the strap snapped on Siren’s gag.  Donny squeezed the trigger.  Siren pulled the ball from her mouth.



*present*

“Do you think anyone is ever going to remember Siren?” Joey asked, punctuating his question with a crack across her bare tits with her baton, the black device wet and glistening with a combination of her own blood and juices.  A fresh welt appeared across her breasts, this one crossing both of her pink nipples, joining the myriad of others that covered her tits, stomach, ass and thighs.  She screamed in fresh agony into her ball gag, yanking at the chains suspending her from the ceiling, praying that this time they would break and let her at least shield her battered body from the next blow.

“When I’m done with you, there won’t even be enough of you left to identify.  No one will know who you were; you’ll just be another Jane Doe, found floating in the river.  No one will ever know or care that you crossed me, Joey fucking Digeorgio.”  He grabbed one of her tender nipples, pinching it hard between his finger and thumbnail, twisting so hard she was sure he’d rip it clean off.  “This is my town.  My father built this city with his bare hands, and I keep it from falling to the weak and stupid, like you.”  

He grabbed her nose, pinching it shut.  She bucked and flopped in her restraints like a fish on a line as she fought to suck enough air in around her gigantic ball gag.  He slapped his other hand over her mouth, cutting off what little air she was still able to get through her gagged mouth.  She wriggled and fought, slowly turning purple as he body was starved of oxygen.  Stars appeared across her vision, and just before she blacked out, he released her.  She sucked in air through he nose, tears streaming down her face and her bruised breasts rising and quaking with each shaking breath.

“I control every aspect of this town.  I own everything from the pot dealers on the street to the cops.  Even Mayor Herrod won’t touch me, because he knows that without my control on the drug traffic or the protection details I offer, this city will fall apart.”

Joey dropped her baton.  He reached for his belt, unbuckling it and unbuttoning his pants.  Siren whimpered.

“You thought you could what, come here and tell me to change my ways?  That if I turned myself in for my crimes against humanities, that this city would be a better place?  Let me tell you something, my little wannabe heroine.”  He pulled out his shockingly large dick, stroking it to get it fully erect.  Siren’s eyes bulged as she saw it.  He had to be at least ten inches long.  She didn’t think anything could be worse than being raped by her own baton, but she was having second thoughts about that.

“I am the devil you know.  And no one wants the devil you don’t know.  I’m the head of the Bristol Mob, and there’s nothing you or your magic mouth can do to change that.”  He grabbed her by her bruised ass cheeks, pulling her forward, preparing to impale her on his monster cock, when he suddenly stiffened.  Both of them felt the surge of electric as the Taser was fired directly into his back.  He fell, spasming, leaving Siren twitching in her bonds as she watched Donny standing behind his fallen boss, pressing the trigger on the Taser a few more times to make sure Joey was out.



*earlier*

“Don’t shoot!” Siren shouted, the ball gag flying from her mouth, throwing a shower of spittle.  Donny stood frozen, his finger on the trigger of the Taser.

“Put it down,” she commanded.

“You stupid bitch.  I am going to kill you,” he threatened, but it was a hollow threat, and even he knew it.  

“Not today, you aren’t.  You, or your boss at least, wants me alive.  Tell me, what did Joey have planned for me.”  She checked on the downed henchmen.  The three she’d shot in the chest were alive thanks to their bulletproof vests, but unconscious.  The one she’d hit in the leg was crawling towards his gun.  “Stop,” she commanded.  He obeyed, and she hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

“He wanted me to bring you to him,” Donny answered.

“Why?”

“So he could torture you.”

“Joey, is he the type to gloat?” she asked, checking the wound on the henchmen’s leg.  “Would he admit to his crimes?”

Donny was silent.

“Tell me,” she said, her voice stern.

“Most likely.  But it won’t matter.  He’ll kill you when he’s done with you.”

“I just have to get him saying it without me making him say it.”  She yanked off the henchmen’s belt, wrapping it around his leg to slow the bleeding.

“He’s not going to let you get anywhere near him wearing a wire,” Donny said.

Siren looked up, smiling.  “I’m not going to be the one wearing it."



*present*

Donny tossed the Taser to the ground, approaching Siren.  She watched him with heavy lidded eyes, breathing heavily around her gag.  He lifted her naked body, not caring how the act tortured her bruised and likely broken ribs, lifting her off of the hook that suspended her from the ceiling before setting her down.  She stood, balanced on her shaky, bound legs for a second, before she collapsed to the floor.  She lay there, recovering while Donny released the chains from her wrists, and then set to work on her ankles.  Lastly, he unlocked the gag, pulling it from her mouth with a wet plop.

“You cut that a little close,” she said, working her jaw.

“You said you wanted to make sure I got enough to put him away,” he replied, unbuttoning his shirt, revealing the wire he had been wearing.  

“And I think you had plenty before he tried to rape me,” she said sourly as she began to sort through her clothes and costume.  She found her torn underwear was unsalvageable, but her armored leggings and skirt were fine.  She winced as she pulled her pants up her legs, feeling every bruise and welt as the tight material brushed against her sensitive skin.

“I did what you said, here’s your damn recording,” Donny said, throwing the wire at her.  She tucked into her belt as she adjusted her skirt.

Her shirt was another story.  The scale mail style armor was ripped from the neck down in the front.  She winced as she slipped her arms through the sleeves.  The frayed edges rubbed against her bruised and battered body, reminding her of every blow she took.  She gasped in pain as she pulled the vest on, tightening it and confirming her suspicions that at least some of her ribs were broken.

“Stay with him, make sure he doesn’t leave until the cops show up."

“He’ll kill me for this, you know.  My death, that’s on you.  Even if you let me run, there’s no where I can go that he won’t find me, even if you do get lucky and he gets thrown in jail.  You basically have made me commit suicide,” Donny said.

Siren glared at him.  “Don’t even,” she said, he voice cracking as she discovered another broken rib.  “If I didn’t make you wear a wire and save me, you would have just watched as he tortured and raped and eventually killed me.  You don’t get to judge me.  You chose to follow him, you sided with ‘the devil you know,’ now you get to reap the benefits.”

“That’s it then?”

“Yeah, that’s it.  Don’t resist the cops either when they show up,” she called over her shoulder as she shuffled out of the warehouse.



*24 hours later*

“The car accident was a nice touch.”

Annabelle looked up from the hospital bed to see Barrage, sitting in her window, his wide brimmed hat tipped low over her eyes.  She’d been watching the breaking coverage on Joey Digeorgio’s arrest on the news.

She muted the TV.  “Yeah, well, it seemed easier than trying to make the whole hospital staff treat me without asking any questions.  My insurance rates will go through the roof though.”  

She’d ran her car off the road into a tree after dropping off the recording for the police, and was now in the hospital, recovering from four broken ribs and several other various, minor injuries.

“I’m sure you’d be justified in having a little conversation with you insurance agent and convincing them to let this little accident slide.”

She snorted.  “Are you here to tell me I did a good job, or to tell me the LC isn’t happy with my vigilante style justice?”

“I wouldn’t call it vigilante justice.  The police apparently have audio evidence of him admitting to running the Bristol Mob while torturing some poor, defenseless damsel in distress.  No vigilante justice there.”

“There’s no description for me in there that’s somewhere between vigilante and damsel in distress?”

“I’m ‘fraid not, kid.”

Anna rolled her eyes.  “So the LC is off my back?”

Barrage laughed, tossing her something.  It landed on her bed with a glint.  She picked up the shiny token, turning it over in her hands.

“Is this?” she started, staring up at him with wide eyes.

“Yup.  You are officially a licensed and registered super heroine again.  Under a probationary period of course, and while under the purview of the LC, you are not affiliated with the LC.  It was important that I make that distinction.”

She stared at the little token; the super hero’s badge.  On one side, it depicted the scales of justice.  On the back, Legendary Consortium’s LC logo.

“Thank you, Izzy,” she looked up to see him already sliding back out the window.

“Oh, don’t thank me.  I voted against you getting your license back.”

“What?!” she called out, but he’d already dropped out of sight.

“Is something the matter?” a nurse asked, poking her head into Anna’s room.

Anna sighed, palming the token before the nurse could see it.  “Nope, nothing at all."