Jessica Ross still remembered the first time she’d taken flight over Spire City. For two weeks, she’d been trying to determine what the energies from that crashed alien ship had done to her, thrilled by her newfound powers and constantly testing their limits. That night, she leapt off the roof of her apartment building and just… ascended. She’d never forgotten the elation she felt as she soared high above the city with a speed that put a jet to shame, nor how beautiful it looked so far below her, a gleaming jewel in the darkness, brimming with life that her powers gave her an obligation to protect. Like a climber grasping onto the cliff’s edge for dear life, she held onto that prized moment and every other one that had ever brought her joy as a superheroine: the moment she’d made her debut as Exemplar, the first time she’d saved the city, her first team-up, the moment she was elected leader of the Spire Guardians. Anything to bring her hope.
Anything to distract her from the nightmare she’d fallen into. Anything to keep her mind off the feel of the heavy chains and shackles securing her limbs, off the way her jaw ached from the ball gag, off the invasive hands that ran along her hips and thighs and fondled her perfect breasts through her form-fitting white leotard, off the way the chain tugged her by the throat like a dog on a leash. Anything to bolster her resolve in the face of the horror to come.
Anything to help her forget she’d failed.
“Yes, you and your pretty friends will all make remarkable additions to my harem, dear Exemplar,” Aphrodite proclaimed, dragging the helpless superheroine behind her by the chain connected to her power suppression collar, her pouty lips twisting into a cruel smirk at the brunette’s struggles. To hear the villain speak, she truly was the goddess of love from Greek myth, having returned to Earth after millennia away in order to ‘reclaim the worship rightfully owed to me.’ She certainly looked the part if nothing else; a towering, seven-foot tall amazon whose superhuman strength matched Exemplar’s own, golden hair burnished and skin bronzed by the sun to give her distinctly Mediterranean features, her generous feminine dimensions barely contained within the diaphanous gown of pink silk that went to mid-thigh and left one shoulder bare. Yet Exemplar had always doubted that tale, for one would think a goddess would have better things to do than to play crime boss. She sat at the centre of a vast smuggling empire that fuelled much of the crime in Spire City, peddling guns, drugs and flesh in equal measure, a cancer infecting their beloved city that the Spire Guardians had sought to remove by storming her mansion and bringing her to justice. They were paying for that decision now, and Exemplar gave a grunt as her captor yanked her forward through the gilded marble hallways of the mansion, a statue of Aphrodite in one of her many guises positioned every few metres so that she could look upon herself no matter where she was in the building. “To have such rare and valuable prizes to show off… why, I’ll be the talk of the town!”
“Mmmpggghhhh!” Exemplar shouted in protest, blue eyes staring daggers at the other woman, her anger made all the powerful by its impotence, for there’d be no getting out of this without help. Heavy steel shackles secured her elbows and wrists tightly behind her back, while another pair was locked tight about her ankles, the short length of chain running between them reducing her gait to a mere shuffle. With her superhuman strength, she’d be able to break free of these restraints with all the ease of shredding tissue paper, were it not for the power suppression collar bolted around her neck, sapping her powers and leaving her helpless. Aphrodite halted for a moment, and the superheroine shuddered at the feel of her dark eyes drinking in her supple frame, still clad in the white leotard, blue thigh-high boots, blue elbow-length gloves and long blue cape that served as her costume. Strong hands began to fondle her breasts, and Exemplar twisted away as far as her bonds would permit, a helpless cry escaping past the ball gag filling her mouth. “MMMPPPGGGHHHH!”
Like lightning, Aphrodite pounced on her, left hand yanking hard on the superheroine’s ponytail, right gripping her jaw like a vice and forcing her head upwards to meet her gaze. “You think you can defy me, worm?” the self-proclaimed goddess snarled, beautiful and terrible in her petulant fury. “Let me put this in terms even a drab, pathetic creature such as yourself can understand; I am your goddess, and you exist to please me in any way I deem fit. You will love and worship and adore me your every waking moment, because that is what I deserve!” The anger was gone, quick as it had come, and red lips turned upwards in amusement. “Shall we see how your comrades are coming along? Maybe you’d feel more at home beside them?” Without waiting for an answer, Aphrodite was dragging her along once more, and Exemplar felt her fears multiply, the thought of her friends and teammates in the hands of this madwoman more than she could bear…
At the end of the hallway, the doors opened into an elaborate throne room, boasting even more statues of Aphrodite wedged in-between every marble column, and beside the throne, the other Spire Guardians knelt in their costumes, bound and gagged identically as their leader, chains running from back of their own power suppression collars to secure them to the nearest columns. Four pairs of helpless eyes looked up to see their leader dragged before them to become yet another prize of Aphrodite’s victory, four gagged voices screaming in dismay, and once more, Exemplar cursed her powerlessness, unable to do anything save look helplessly at each in turn.
To the right of the throne knelt her second-in-command Nightshadow: a martial artist and expert swordswoman aptly named for her ability to manipulate the shadows around her, her beautiful Asian features contorted by frustration as she flexed against her shackles. By accident or design, she’d been chained up beside the pyrokinetic Fireborn, and Exemplar could see the helpless anger in the latter’s azure blue eyes, her inability to ease her lover’s distress more torturous for the redhead than any instrument of pain Aphrodite could employ.
On the left side, meanwhile, there was no mistaking Hypersonic, the speedster readily identifiable by her spiky blue hair, wide green eyes and the athletic figure on display beneath her streamlined and tight-fitting blue bodysuit. Neither her bondage nor the threat of becoming part of Aphrodite’s harem had managed to stifle her defiant spirit, of course, and a torrent of muffled threats forced their way past her ball-gag in answer to the supervillain’s presence.
Beside her, Aether was far more cowed, and Exemplar’s heart sank at the despair reflected in those striking grey eyes. At thirty-five, she was both the oldest and most experienced of the Spire Guardians, having taken to superheroics almost immediately after her impressive telepathic and telekinetic abilities manifested twenty years ago. None of them commanded more respect, for she and her husband Bastion had been the city’s defenders for many years, and it was she who’d assembled the Spire Guardians to carry on after his death. No doubt the beautiful blonde had found herself in a similar peril more than once in her long career, and to see her looking so forlorn now did little to inspire hope in Exemplar that they’d ever get out of this situation…
“See? All safe and sound and pretty as can be,” Aphrodite said mockingly, and with a final tug, dragged Exemplar over onto the throne, strong arms wrapping around the superheroine’s waist and forcing her onto her lap. “But you, my dear, are the greatest prize of all, and with you in my clutches, there’ll be nothing to stop me from taking the whole city next.”
“MMMMPPPPGGGHHHH!” Exemplar howled, helpless against the roving hands tracing her curves, her teammates echoing her distress. “MMMMPPPPGGGGGHHHHH!”
“Oh, don’t be such a brat,” cooed the supervillainess, undoing her captive’s ponytail so that her long brunette locks tumbled free. “Good harem slaves should know their place, after all. Don’t worry, my dear, for once I take Spire City as my prize, I’ll have plenty of time to play with you…”