Dex barely even raised his head as he heard the floorboard creak, flicking a page of his comic with a sigh.

“Hang on, give me a minute,” He requested, raising one finger to the silhouette looming over him. “Before you abduct and/or torture the living bejeezus out of me, can I at least finish this? I’ve had to give up reading proper books because of you guys’ insane obsession with me, you can at least let me finish my comic.”

“By all means,” a pleasant voice assured him.

Dex looked up in surprise.

“I did not expect that to work.”

The woman who had entered perched on the coffee table with a surprisingly warm smile.

“Anything for a fellow admirer of Iron man.”

Dex lowered his head back to his comic, then sighed.

“Nope, can’t do it with you watching.”

“Oh if I had a penny for every time I’ve heard that…” The woman drawled. “Shall I look away? Go make a cup of tea, bring back snacks?”

“Snacks?” Dex perked up instantly.

“I brought oreos?” She said, waving the packet at him.

“Original?” He asked suspiciously.

“Double-stuff, what kind of monster do you take me for?”

“Gimme,” Dex took one, then paused, biscuit halfway to his mouth.

“I haven’t drugged them,” she said cheerily, helping herself. “That would be an insult to the oreos.”

Dex bit in, then surveyed her interestedly. She was a short, stocky young woman with hair on the borderline between blonde and brunette, her skin pale and dusted with freckles. She was dressed all in black, black boots, black jeans and a black hoodie. She also wore a black masquerade mask held around her smoky grey-blue eyes.

She was also wearing a snug black backpack that clinked as she moved.

“Uh…” Dex looked at her, frowning. “You don’t look like a supervillain.”

“Eh…” She paused, brushing oreo crumbs off her jacket. “I’m not really. Not a supervillian, anyway, no magic powers to assist, just me. Anyhoo, I wanted to ask you a favour.”

This was not how these things usually went. Dex reached for another oreo.

“What kind of favour?”

“Well… kind of one that helps you really,” She said with a small smile. “Look. There was a girl I kidnapped once who was rescued by her very meddlesome boyfriend. She is planning to kidnap and torture you as a gift to a twisted supervillian who shall remain nameless, but she is the Queen Bee of the Gore Knights – bet you’ve heard of them.”

“Uh-huh,” Dex swallowed awkwardly. “Thanks for the tip off and all, but what’s the favour?”

“Well, she’s going to be gunning for you, so I thought that you might do me a little favour and act as bait so I can yoink her instead?” She said brightly.

Dex took another oreo, wiggling it in mid-air as he laid the plan out in his head.

“Right… so you’re saying that you want to stop me getting kidnapped and maimed by kidnapping and maiming the person trying to abduct me?”

“I’m not going to maim her,” The woman looked insulted. “Maybe chastise her rather strongly and educate her in the errors of her ways, but no permanent harm will be done.”

“But otherwise that’s about right?”

She mulled that over.

“Pretty much,” She said brightly. “You in?”

Dex finished his oreo, folded his comic and sat up, brushing the chocolate dust off his t-shirt before responding.

“I don’t think, as a hero, I can,” he said regretfully. “Thanks for the thought though.”

She sighed, then slid her backpack off her back and onto the floor and tucked her hands into her pockets.

“This is why I will always be the villain of the piece…”

“You could be the hero this time and walk away?” Dex suggested hopefully.

The woman gave a low laugh.

“Oh my sweet summer child,” She straightened up. “You really are a beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure.” She looked up at him through her lashes, those smoky eyes full of demonic amusement. “But I’m not about to break the habit of a lifetime.”

Before Dex could move, she’d leapt ontop of him, pinning him to the sofa, pulling a long skein of rope from her bag and smirking down at him.

“How do I get myself in the middle of these things?” Dex grumbled, giving a token struggle in the woman’s grip.

“Just one of those faces sweetheart,” She assured him, pinning him firmly to the sofa with her knees and pulling a roll of duct-tape from her pocket and a clean monogrammed handkerchief.

As he opened his mouth to return a sharp quip, she balled up the hankie and tucked it into his mouth, sticking it firmly shut with some electric blue duct-tape. She smeared it carefully across his scowling face, then followed it up with a few more strips, just for safety, and kissed him full on the lips, stroking his cheek gently. She pulled away smoothly and gazed imperiously down at him

“Oh, please excuse my manners,” She said brightly. “Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Takemydreams, and I have a score to settle with one Sapphira Volkov.”



Dex really didn’t bother looking up from his comic this time, flicking the page with his nose. He was lying on his stomach in the middle of a courtyard, his wrists secured firmly behind him, roped to his likewise tied ankles, putting him in a strict, but, compared to the other positions he’d been in, fairly comfortable hog-tie. A loose loop of rope was tied around one ankle and the obelisk in the centre of the courtyard, stopping him from shuffling off, and at least Dreams had had the decency to lie a blanket out underneath him to stop the cold radiating from the bricks beneath him.

As kidnappings went, this had to be one of the most civilised ones he’d been involved with.

He totally ignored the black-clad figure as she ninja-ed her way over the high wall to the courtyard and stealthily picked her way across the cobbles, her head flicking this way and that cautiously as she drew closer.

There was a soft coughing sound and Sapphira spun around, looking to where the noise had come from, only to see Dreams in one of the higher windows, merrily waving to her over her sniper-rifle. Sapph’s eyes widened and she turned on her heel, hurrying back the way she had come… only for her leg to give out underneath her, sending her sliding to the bricks. Dex looked up dispassionately as Sapph pulled the blue-fletched tranquiliser dart out of her derriere.

“You suck Dreams!” Sapph snapped.

“Seriously?” Dreams called down. “I just thrapped your arse, and that’s the best you can do?”

“You have not thrapped anything!” Sapph tried to stagger back to her feet, swayed, and collapsed again. “That was intentional!”

“Take your time sugar, I’m enjoying the show,” Dreams purred.

“Bitch.”

“You know it.”

Sapph collapsed to the floor, trying vainly to commando-crawl across the pavement, before finally surrendering to the inevitable and passing out. Dex looked up as Dreams rappelled out of the window with a lazy grace. She unclipped herself from the harness and yanked on the rope, bringing it to land on the floor infront of her. Coiling it up easily and tucking it away, she stepped out of her harness and tucked that away into her backpack too. Slinging the golf-bag with her air-rifle over one shoulder she sashayed over the courtyard to Sapph’s prone form.

“I’ve sent Val a text to come get you,” She informed Dex. “Thanks so much for being my bait, this is going to make a certain some-one a very happy woman.”

At Dex’s confused face, Dreams laughed.

“Oh, you thought that I was going to keep her? Oh no. I know how hard it is to keep a lid on this girl.”

Dreams leant down and lifted Sapph in a fireman’s lift over one shoulder.

“Thanks again darling, you’ve been a real sport,” She blew him a kiss, and sauntered out of the courtyard.

In the distance Dex heard a car engine start up, and shrugged, returning calmly to his comic.



Sapph growled around her gag as Dreams patted her partially dyed-blue hair, rearranging the ribbon carefully tied on the top of her head.

“Oh don’t give me that look hun, you know you love it,” Dreams purred.

At a very garbled stream of profanity, Dreams tapped Sapph’s nose.

“She’ll be up soon, so you behave yourself,” She said cheerily. “Because you aren’t the only present I got her.”

Dreams pointed to the sofa where a suspiciously long and thin package was wrapped in dark blue paper with a silver bow.

Sapph only wished she’d been decorated in such classy colours. When she’d awoken, it was to find Dreams had dressed her in a bright pink latex suit, her feet forced into 10-inch heeled boots that laced all the way up to her knee and were locked together at the heels. Her legs were strapped together at the thigh with thick white straps, matching the white straightjacket that enforced her strict self-hug. Completing the ensemble was a white leather muzzle, holding in a whole lot of packing to muffle down those indignant shouts. Dreams adjusted the bright pink bow again, then grinned, stepping back to admire the whole image.

Sapph glowered at her from where she was perched on a pouffe in the centre of the room.

“Perfect,” was Dream’s verdict. “Now, give my compliments to the birthday girl, will you?”

Giving a deliciously evil laugh, she skipped out of the room, and Sapph heard the door click shut behind her. There were a few silent moments, then, from far above, Sapph heard an alarm-clock go off, and she blew a soft sigh through her nose.

“Bitch.” Sapph thought grimly.