“How you doing there Crystal?” I asked as the once proud superheroine stood motionless and dazed in front of me.
Crystal Madison, aka the Jaguar, had been prowling the streets of the city for years, fight crime, and generally being a real pain in my ass.
Her enhanced senses, speed, and strength made her a formidable combatant, but those same senses made her vulnerable in other ways.
“St…sto…stop this… right now…” she managed to stutter out and a smile came to my face.
The subsonic waves bombarding her were silent to any normal human, but her enhanced hearing picked them up easily and feed them right into her brain. They were specially constructed to act in such a way as to disrupt her normal thought patterns and rewire them.
At the moment, she’d been standing there for at least three hours, and I could see the resistance fading on her face. A few more hours and it would be gone.
“Really? Is that all you can come up with? Not even a pretty please?” I replied jokingly.
Her face scrunched for a moment and then she spoke again, “St…stop this… pretty… pretty please… … … Sir.” she finally said and afterwards her eyes went wide and her whole body shivered.
I chuckled a little and then nodded, “That will do… that will do nicely.” I replied and then turned and left her to finish up.
“Good evening Sir, welcome to the club, may I take your… cloak?” Crystal asked as the man entered the foyer.
The villain looked at her for a moment with a raised eyebrow, but then took his cloak off and handed it to her, “What’s your name, you look familiar…” he asked in a gravelly voice.
“You would know me as Jaguar, but everyone calls me Jaggy now.”
The man smiled and nodded, “Is that so, good. If your owner allows it, come find me when you have a free moment.”
Crystal nodded and smiled, “He does Sir, I’ll add you to my list.” she replied and then the man wandered off into the main floor of the club.
It was going to be another busy night for her, he was the fourth on her list already and it was only just starting to get busy. She was on the door for another hour, then she’d been on stage for a while, but she was sure at least several on her list would be around when she was finished.
The club was filled with villains, super-villains, and a whole lot of wannabes. On stage, and mingling around, were fallen superheroines like herself. She was the latest addition to the club, and so she was still pretty low on the totem pole, but she was hoping to get off coat check duty at least.
She still didn’t know the man’s name that had captured and defeated her, but he’d clearly done it as a job, as he’d dropped her off at the club almost as soon as he was finished brainwashing her.
The club had living quarters for all of the staff in the tower above the club, and all of her needs were otherwise taken care of.
Sometimes she wondered how such a place existed without being discovered by the other hero’s, but she’d learned that the entrance to the club was actually a portal that moved around every night, if you didn’t have a membership, you would never know where it was going to appear.
The door opened and another man entered the club, “Good evening Sir, welcome to the club, may I take your coat?” she asked and the scene repeated itself many more times that night.
Crystal stood in front of her new owner and wondered how long he would last for.
The club was a distant memory, she’d worked there for almost three years, before she’d been sold the first time.
It had been one of her enemies that had purchased her, he’d nearly wrecked each and every one of her holes in his time as her owner, and only her enhanced healing abilities had saved her from being a stretch out mess.
He’d eventually grown tired of her, and sold her on to another villain.
The process had repeated several more times before she stood her now.
“How you doing there Crystal?” he asked and a shiver ran through her body… recognition finally come to her.
“Y…you!” she managed to get out.
“Me. It’s been, what, ten years?”
She blinked several times and tried to think back… had it been that long? Yes, it must have been.
“What do you want?” she asked hesitantly.
“Me? Nothing really. I’ve just been hired to, ah, update, your conditioning.” he replied.
“What kind of update?” she asked.
“Well, one of your previous owners had purchased you back and well, he thinks you will make a great sidekick. Sooooo…” he said with a shrug of his shoulders and then beckoned her forward with a crick of his finger.
Her feet moved without her consent, and they walked into the next room that she recognized from her first time here. The huge speakers still stood at each side, the reflective material covered the walls of the room, and she knew what was coming next.
A few hours later and Jaguar was no more, Crystal was no more, only the sidekick Kitty Comes remained.
