“Ah Lady Night! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
The Trapper smiled as he looked at the villainess standing in his doorway. Her costume started with tall black thigh high boots, black pants, a tight black top with multiple cutouts around her midsection and around her breasts, offering him a teasing glance. Long black gloves disappeared into the sleeves of a long black overcoat, making her body seemingly disappear within its folds, fitting for her shadow powers. “I’m here for a tour of some of your recent devices. I discussed this with Stryker last week, were you not informed?”
She put her hands on her hips, her posture showing her displeasure. “Ah, Stryker was arrested over the weekend. Well no matter, come on in. I do have some recent boobytraps to show a villainess like yourself.”
He welcomed her into the main hall and beckoned her to follow him to the elevator bank, taking it down to his underground laboratory levels and stopping at the display level. Stepping out of the elevator, Lady Night stopped to admire his laboratory setup through ceiling to floor windows that he had set up, allowing guests to see the entire factory line and his minions working on building more traps. “Impressive.” She said as she pressed her lips together.
“I can assure you that we have the highest build quality that you will find in the field of traps.” He promised. “Now please, follow me through the displays.”
He waved his hand over the sensors and typed in a keycode before leading her into the first room that was similar to a museum exhibit. “First, for those feisty fiery heroines, may I present the Water Trap Mark IV? Works on any intruder assuming they can’t fly.”
The trap was very large, the display model large enough to be a room and was essentially a cylinder with smooth walls, the bottom a deep pool of water with the top splitting apart to cause an unsuspecting heroine to tumble into the pool below and become trapped. “The Water Trap Mark IV can be remotely activated, or set to be triggered by lasers, switches, pressure plates, and more.”
A screen came to life, showing what seemed to be a security feed from a base. A heroine that Lady Night recognized as Pyrogirl, in a red catsuit with various cutouts, long white gloves and high heeled white boots, crept into the room looking around. As she walked towards the middle of the room, the trap activated and the floor dropped out from underneath the unsuspecting heroine. Lady Night watched with satisfaction as the snooping superheroine plunged into the water and the floor retracted back, trapping Pyrogirl in the darkness.
“You’re right, very effective against fire-based powers,'' she said with a nod.
The Trapper hit a button on his remote and a panel in the wall to the right of the display slid aside, revealing a glass tank filled with water. It took Lady Night a few seconds to realize the dark haired woman in a red shiny catsuit in the tank was Pyrogirl, now sporting a rubber monoglove pinning her arms behind her, rubber cuffs around her ankles chaining her to the bottom of the tank and her face covered in a breathing mask. Additional chains attached to floats at the top stretched her out, keeping her locked in place.”
“These videos were from my lairs.” The Trapped explained. “Proof of their effectiveness.”
Lady Night admired the captive heroine. “Very nice, very nice. What else do you have to show me?”
He led her through a set of sliding doors into the next display room. Floating above the pedestal were numerous small box-shaped robots that darted around with a mind of their own. “This is the TapeBot Swarm Mine 9000.”
The pedestal itself had what looked like a bulked up landmine sitting on top, with a pressure plate top and several slots around the edges, presumably for the flying robots. “Triggering the mine will deploy multiple tapebots, equipped with a special tape made in house that is element-proof to mummify the target. An essential lair defence system, and much better than the explosive kind!”
“Much more expensive too I bet.” Lady Night grumbled. “And I assume you charge for those tape refills?”
The Trapper flashed a grin. “Of course, $200 for a pack of four!”
Seeing that she wasn’t impressed, he activated another display. This showed an outdoor field at night, hence the green tinge of night vision on the camera. After a moment, three shapes appeared on the camera creeping towards the fence line. One took a step and froze, realizing she had triggered something as the tapebots shot out of the ground and began their attack. Lady Night had to admit she was impressed with the efficiency as the strands of tape were quickly wrapped around the heroine as she struggled to fight back.
Her two friends started to help before fleeing, only to trigger other traps and the air was soon alive with tapebots. The camera view was temporarily obscured by tape and flying bots, but when everything settled down there were three mummified forms lying on the ground, with thick tape gags muffling their cries. “Allow me to show you the results.”
Another button press and another display case was revealed, containing three mummified heroines. A redhead and two blondes struggled against the tape mummifying them from nose to toe, which made it extremely hard to identify them. More tape attached to the ceiling kept the captives suspended off the ground as they swayed from their struggles. “May I present Scarlett Streak, Witchy Woman and Golden Goddess? All three are now utterly helpless and contained by our tape solution.”
The lights coming on inside the display case set off another fresh bout of struggling and squirming but none of the heroines could find a weak spot in the tape. “Very nice.” Lady Night mused. “Good outer base defence, assuming my own guards do not trigger it.”
“It would indeed be in their best interest to not trigger a trap.” The Trapper admitted before they started towards the door.
Lady Night walked up to the next display, this one already showing the captive: a woman in a form fitting catsuit, mask and boots. It seemed to be an air duct with one side replaced with a transparent window, allowing the two villains to see inside. The captive inside was stuck, a section of the duct closing like elevator doors around her waist, pinning her in place. Shackles were locked around her wrists and ankles, stretching her out inside the air duct and leather panel was buckled across her mouth. Despite the seemingly energetic tirade the girl went on the moment Lady Night and the Trapper entered her view, the soundproofing proved to be solid as Lady Night didn’t hear a sound. “Who’s this? I don’t recognize her.” She inquired.
The Trapper shrugged. “I don’t know who she is either and I don’t care enough to ungag her. This is the Air Duct Ensnarer. We all know our bases were built with large air ducts that are perfect for intruders to sneak through, but no longer. With nowhere to escape to, victims are easily pinned in place and can be locked up at your leisure.”
Lady Night tapped a gloved finger against her chin. “Rather ingenious, however my air ducts were designed to not be large enough to crawl through.”
“Ah, then this would not be necessary for you, let’s move along then.”
Taking one last glance at the squirming captive, Lady Night headed towards the door to the next room. “After you.” He said with a smile.
Lady Night nodded at his gentleman courtesy and walked into the room. She stopped short once she realized it was not another display setup but a tiny room. “Wha-“
There was a click as she stepped on a plate, triggering a metal panel to slide across the door, cutting off her exit. Spotlights erupted in the room, lighting up the entire space which looked more and more like a cell, but she was far more concerned about how the spotlights removed any shadows that her powers relied on. Whirling around, through a small glass panel in the door she could see the Trapper waving with a grin as nozzles around the room activated to begin filling the room with gas. “You bastard!” She shouted, throwing herself at the glass.
He didn’t even flinch as he watched her flail inside the room with increasing desperation. “Only fitting milady.” He cackled. “Waited all day for you to fall for one of my boobytraps. Can’t wait to see what you look like in a leather armbinder and maybe a clown mask for trusting me. Hahahahahahaha.”
His laughter, fed into the room via speakers, was the last thing Lady Night heard as she sank to the floor, her eyes closing as she cursed herself for allowing a man known for his boobytraps to overcome her.