Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

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rufusluciusivan
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Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by rufusluciusivan »

And here we go… Actually, the second-to-last big project of the year. And most likely the second-to-last big project ever. Sorry if you were expecting the next Pakal installment, I wanted to make a little break with it. I can reassure you that this story shouldn’t take too much time – most of it was written in parallel of Trackman’s chapter 42. And now I’m slowly getting impatient to write the next Pakal scenes. So once this is done, the goal is to finish the latest Pakal arc – or maybe even the Pakal story itself, depending on my speed.








Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All








Prologue

**************

After the recent screw-ups of his daughter, Heartfelt City’s mayor had felt the need to restore his image. To show his support to cultural events and his open-mindedness to other cultures, he organized a gigantic anime and movies convention. The politician wanted to pretend that he was ‘hip’, and ‘radical’. His marketing staff was convinced it would be good for his approval rating.

Charlene wasn’t aware of all these political implications however. She was just happy at the prospect of having a fun good day.

The young woman was a cosplayer of Cruella DeVil. She was clad in a simple black sleeveless dress, red high heel shoes and black stockings, long red opera gloves, large turquoise earrings and a ring on her right hand, a cream fur coat with a red interior, and a matching purse with three foxtails. (Though the fur was fake.) She was also wearing a black-and-white wig, and was carrying the Disney character’s iconic cigarette holder. Charlene had a soft white skin, a curvy body, shapely legs, a round face, and golden brown eyes. Although she was wearing the outfit of the animated character, her beautiful appearance was a lot more remindful of Emma Stone’s recent portrayal.

Charlene parked her car, and exited the vehicle. She was cautious to not damage her costume. There was a contest of the better cosplay, and she intended to win it! Unfortunately, she was late, and the parking of the building hosting the convention was almost full. She had been forced to park her car on one of the most far-off isolated spots.

The cosplayer took a deep breath of fresh air, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on her face.

Today was going to be a good day! She was sure of it.

Mag’s hand hit a specific spot of Charlene’s neck.

“Uh!” the latter grunted.

The woman’s eyes rolled back, and she fell into her mugger’s arms. She was out cold before she could even comprehend what had happened.

Mag opened the car’s backdoor, and laid the cosplayer on the backseat. She quickly checked if the surroundings were empty, then climbed into the car and closed the door.

She methodically undressed Charlene. The clone removed the purse, fur coat and long red opera gloves first, then the earrings, ring, and high-heels. She slid the stockings down the young woman’s legs, and lifted her body to pull off the dress. Underneath, the cosplayer was wearing a plain white seamless bra, and comfortable white control briefs. A telling proof of the cosplayer’s attention to detail: there was a pattern of Disney’s dalmatians on both her undies.

Finally, Mag removed the wig. Under it, Charlene had chestnut brown hair tied into a tight low neck-bun.

“Hey, looks like you can remove your hair dye for once…” Tinker commented in Mag’s earpiece.

The latter looked at the black-and-white wig, and smiled lightly. “That’s true...”

When Mag was conceived, an accident during the cloning process had modified her hair colour. While the left half was jet black, the right half was brilliant white. Usually, when in mission or even when casually walking on the street, Mag was dying the white part to match her other half. Indeed, white hair were unusual, and attracted too much attention.

However, this time…

Mag was mature, she knew she had no choice and therefore never complained about it – not even to herself, not even in spirit. But she was almost always carrying on her a small bottle of a liquid that could instantly dissolve hair dye. And she wasn’t going to pass an opportunity to finally display her natural hair colour…

However, first things first.

Mag grabbed a few plastic zip-ties, and secured Charlene’s wrists, knees, and ankles. She tied a coil of rope around the upper-arms, below and above the breasts. She ball-gagged the woman with a red ball-gag.

Since this car’s trunk was too small and too airtight, Mag laid Charlene’s trussed up body on her car’s floor, in front of the backseat. She concealed her by covering her with a brown blanket.

After dissolving the black dye, Mag quickly wiped the stains clean with a handkerchief. Next, she put on the Cruella De Vil costume: first the tights, then the dress, then the fur coat. She put on the jewels, and finally the high-heels. She grabbed the purse, and exited the vehicle once she was in disguise.

She closed Charlene’s car, and went to the building hosting the convention.

Mag got in character when she came across an other group of cosplayers in front of the main gate.

“Nice costume, but you got the hair backwards.” a Jafar-cosplayer commented.

Mag pretended to smile sheepishly. “Made the silly mistake of doing it in front of a mirror. Forgot that it reverses the right and the left. And it was too late to change it.”

“Sorry sis’. Forgot about that detail…” Tinker said in the earpiece.

Mag just smiled and stroked the half of her hair that were naturally white. “Who cares? I’m not here to win the contest.” she muttered to herself. “Give Tina the coordinates of the place where I hid the real cosplayer. I’m entering the building.”

**************

In the women restrooms, two cosplayers were excitedly talking about the upcoming contest while refreshing themselves at the sink.

Kaylee, the first woman, was cosplaying as Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. She was wearing a custom-made fake armour: a grey metallic breastplate with metallic shoulders, and elbow-long metallic gauntlets with metallic elbow-protections. A dark blue knee-long skirt was fixed to the bottom of the breastplate to cover her lower limbs. Finally, she was walking in long dark grey boots.

Just like the character she was impersonating, her hair were waist-long and loose. She had spent quite some time dying them dark red, and was hoping to win the contest. She also had a tall figure, a white skin and blue eyes.

https://fairytail.fandom.com/wiki/Erza_Scarlet

Miu, the second woman, was cosplaying as Android 18, aka Lapis, from Dragon Ball Z. She was wearing small gold hoop earrings on both ears, a sleeveless blue denim vest (with the Red Ribbon logo on the back of the vest), a blue denim skirt with dark blue tights, a brown belt, brown boots, and a black shirt that had white and black striped long sleeves.

Miu was a Japanese woman with short raven black hair, and dark brown eyes. Therefore, she was using a blond wig and blue contact lenses to match her character’s appearance.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/ ... parent.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... 70813a.jpg

Miu adjusted her blond wig. “We should hurry up. The contestants are supposed to go backstage. I don’t want to miss the beginning.” she commented after checking her face one last time in the mirror.

“I don’t want to miss the end!” Kaylee playfully retorted. “’Cause I’m totally gonna win this contest!”

Miu winked and stuck out her tongue. “In your dreams!”

Kaylee flipped her hair. “Why do you think I spent an hour dyeing my hair instead of putting on a wig? This is the detail that’ll net me the prize!”

The cosplayers didn’t notice the two women who entered the restrooms. Therefore, they didn’t notice the crucial detail of one of said women stitching an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the door, while the second one was checking that no stall was occupied and that the room was empty save for Kaylee, Miu, and them.

**************

Tina shared a glance with Marie, nodded, then took a breath and got in-character.

“Wow! Nice costumes! Mind if we take a closer look?” she excitedly asked.

Kaylee and Miu jumped a little, surprised to be interrupted during their playful banter. The cosplayers shared a look, but they didn’t see anything wrong with letting women get closer.

“Of course.” Kaylee answered.

“Thanks a lot!”

Tina and Marie approached them.

“These clothes are really good…”

“Well, they took a lot of work!” a flattered Kaylee answered. “I-”

Suddenly, perfectly synchronized, Tina and Marie each grabbed a small needle concealed under their clothes. The needles were coated with a strong knock-out serum. Each sister jabbed her needle into a very specific spot of each cosplayer’s body, between the shoulder and the neck. Tina dealt with Kaylee, and Marie dealt with Miu.

“Ow!”

“Ouch!”

“Apologies, but we can’t let you two enter the contest. We need your guise.” Tina commented to the two women.

Indeed, the sisters had to go backstage in order to accomplish their current mission, and for that they had chosen to impersonate a few of the cosplayers attending the contest.

Kaylee and Miu stammered and blinked, but the serum was fast-acting. Their eyes rolled back, and they fell asleep. Tina and Marie caught them under the shoulders mid-fall, and dragged them into two different stalls.

The sisters stripped the two women of their costumes, and were very careful to not damage them.

Kaylee was wearing plain grey boyshorts with black borders, a comfortable matching t-shirt bra, and white socks. Miu was clad in dark blue knickers with black borders and a red ribbon, a matching dark blue full-cup bra, and blue socks.

The sisters left the two stripped cosplayers concealed inside one stall. They used Tinker’s homemade tape to secure Kaylee to the toilet seat, mummifying her legs from the ankles to the thighs, her forearms behind the back from the hands to the elbows, and her upper-arms above and below the breasts. Though they made sure to leave her hair alone. Tinker’s tape was designed to be sturdy and sticky, but to not leave marks on the skin once removed. It was a really strange property, but a very useful one. They stuck a few layers of tape over the lips to gag Kaylee.

Then, Tina and Marie sat Miu up on Kaylee’s lap. They wrapped tape to secure her legs to the toilet bowl. They mummified her forearms behind her back as well as her shoulders, and tape-gagged her with several strips of tape. They wrapped a few layers of tape around both her and Kaylee’s torsos to make sure Miu wouldn’t fall backwards.

Tina stitched an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the stall’s door, then closed it and locked it from the outside, giving the two cosplayers some privacy. They would sleep during a few hours, and hopefully wouldn’t wake up before the sisters were done. However, even if they did, Tina was hoping that the noises of the convention and background music played in the restrooms would drown out the girls’ muffled moans.

Next, she and Marie put on the costumes.

Tina slipped into Miu’s outfit, because it would be easier for her to put on the blond wig. Marie indeed had longer midback-long hair, and the sisters didn’t want to waste time tying them up. It was quicker for Marie to take the guise of Kaylee, whose cosplay included long loose hair.

Tina used Miu’s wig and contact lenses to conceal her own hair and eyes, but she couldn’t do much about her skin tone that was too tanned for the character she was cosplaying as.

Marie had it worst. Not only did her skin tone not match, but there also was no hair dye in Kaylee’s handbag. Therefore, Marie’s hair colour didn’t match either.

The sisters couldn’t do anything about it; but hey, the goal was to pretend to enter the cosplay contest, not to win it.

Tina and Marie left the restrooms. Tina removed the ‘Out of Order’ sign on the main door, and mentally took note of Kaylee’s and Miu’s location for later.

“Tinker. Tell Stasis and Libido we’re all in disguise. It’s their turn.”

**************

Hidden behind the corner of the building holding the convention, Stasis discreetly took a peek at the two watchwomen. Libido was with her.

The first security guard was lanky, had a hooked nose, green-brown eyes and waist-long loose hair that were dyed green. On her left and right side, she had some hair that went to her shoulders. Her bangs were cut short and met in the middle. The second guard was a plump shorter woman with light brown shoulder-long wavy hair pulled back by a black kerchief, brown eyes, and a soft round face with chubby cheeks.

Their watchwoman uniform they wore consisted of a black tie, a black long-sleeved button-up shirt, a black equipment belt, black trousers, and black shoes. (Soph was derisively calling the security guards of this specific security company the ‘Emo Squad’.) A badge with their name was tied around the neck.

Currently, the watchwomen were taking a break in the empty backyard of the building, near the big dumpsters and a door leading to a maintenance room. One of them was smoking, the other was eating a bag of Japanese crisps.

Stasis chuckled to herself, grabbed a ball, and raised her slingshot.

Then, she opened fire.

Her projectile hit the smaller watchwoman, and released a thick smoke.

**************

“What the-?!”

Amai waved her arms to blow the smoke away. She glared daggers in the direction of the shooter.

“Hey! I thought we agreed we were only PRETENDING!” she complained.

Stasis left her hiding place.

“I couldn’t resist.” she chuckled. “It was to facilitate the immersion. It’s not a green ball anyway.”

It was indeed just a harmless NON-soporific smoke. (Stasis had asked Tinker to make it bacon-flavoured, but the latter had retorted that she had better things to do, so it was plain boring non-flavoured smoke.)

Libido followed her sister.

Amai pouted. She unlocked the door of the maintenance room with her keys, and opened it.

“I suppose it’s time for our ‘mugging’ then.” the chubby woman commented.

Stasis nodded. “Yep!”

Midori threw away a small ‘improved cigarette’. “So we take off our uniforms?” she casually asked.

“Oh YES PLEASE!” Libido exclaimed.

Amai rolled her eyes. “Did you have to bring your horny sister with you?”

“We rotate, to make sure that each of us can rest between two missions. It was her turn.” Stasis explained. “I can make her turn her back if it bothers you.”

Midori shrugged. She was already high enough to not care about trivial things like modesty anymore.

Amai briefly hesitated, but shook her head. “No. It’s fine.”

She led everyone inside the maintenance room, and turned on the light.

Amai was not into Libido, or even into women in general, but Stasis’ sister was also one of the first people who helped her feel more comfortable with her body. Libido wasn’t judgmental, she would never shame someone because of her body type. On the contrary, she was finding all female bodies equally delightful. Strangely enough, in spite of the woman’s horniness, Amai wasn’t that bothered to be seen almost naked by her. The same way it wasn’t bothering her to be scantily clad in front of Stasis or Midori.

Besides, since this time Amai was expecting her ‘mugging’, she had been able to take the necessary steps to avoid a thoroughly humiliating discovery. As undergarments, she had put on candy pink boxer briefs that were offering almost as much coverage as regular shorts, a plain white tank top and a taffy pink full-coverage t-shirt bra. No silly or revealing underwear. Most uniformed women of Heartfelt City WISHED they were given the luxury of knowing in advance when they would run into an infiltrator!

Amai and her green-haired friend removed their uniforms until they were down to their undergarments.

Midori had followed Amai’s example and had put on non-revealing underwear. She was wearing red-yellow-and-green boxer briefs imitating the ‘dank flag’ with the number 420 printed in black, and a matching red-yellow-and-green camisole with a black strapless bra underneath.

“I think you should give us a bigger share of the money as compensation for your joke with the smoke.” Amai commented once she was down to her undergarments, and ready to be trussed up by her ‘dastardly-but-still-devilishly-gorgeous-and-awesome muggers’ (to quote Stasis). Next to her, Midori stepped out of her own discarded uniform.

Stasis shook her head and pulled out a coil of rope. “Nuh uh. Besides, you’ll get the insurance money as a bonus.”

“Yeah, but it’s paid by the municipality. So it bothers the mayor. So it doesn’t count.” Amai objected as her wrists were bound behind her back by Stasis and her upper-arms were restrained.

“It does.” Stasis retorted while knotting the ropes.

“It doesn’t.”

“Does!”

“Doesn’t!”

“Stasis, stay focused.” Tinker exclaimed in the earpiece.

“Sorry Amai, end of the discussion. I have to give in to the tantrum of my younger sibling.” Stasis said out loud.

“We’re of the same batch! I’m NOT younger than you!” Tinker retorted.

“Sorry, LITTLE sis'. Can’t hear you anymore. Earpiece must be having a problem. Krrrrrchhhhhhrrrrrr.”

Stasis ignored Tinker’s following rant. She asked Amai to sit on a discarded cardboard, and bound her legs with a second coil of rope.

“Fine. But mark my words, during our next all-you-can-eat-buffet challenge, Midori and I will UTTERLY defeat you.” Amai announced.

“Ha! I demand to see that!” Stasis cockily retorted.

The chubby guard smiled devilishly. “Oh, trust me, you will…” she ominously commented.

Near them, Libido had also grabbed a coil of rope, and was binding Midori’s wrists and legs the same way. Though, since the green-haired woman’s mind was currently exploring the dankest confines known to Man, she wasn’t in the mood to argue and debate. The green-haired woman sat on the same discarded cardboard as Amai, her back turned to her friend.

To finish, Libido and Stasis wrapped one coil of rope around the torsos of the two women who were seated back-to-back and knotted it. They needed to justify why these two didn’t try to untie each other!

The knots and ropework were genuine, an untrained woman wouldn’t be able to break free, therefore they would fool Amai’s and Midori’s rescuers. However, the bonds had a very specific pattern, and there was actually a trick to easily undo them. Stasis and her sisters had of course taught Amai and Midori the trick, in case there was a problem.

Libido and Stasis used black ball-gags with airholes to silence the two security guards. Once again, to fool the authorities, the gags were genuine. Their two friends couldn’t say a word anymore.

Midori and Amai were going to be left concealed in the maintenance room, as if they had been the victims of a real mugging for disguise.

The two sisters slipped into the black watchwoman trousers, shoes, button-up shirts, and ties.

Stasis winked as she was buckling her black belt. “Wish us good luck!”

Amai groaned.

“Alright, alright, no more wasting time. We’ll make it quick.”

She and Libido left the maintenance room, and closed the door.

**************

Tina and Marie regrouped with Mag near the entrance of the backstage.

“Nice costume. It suits you.” Tina said to Cruella-Mag.

“I’m not sure I should take it well.” the latter joked.

Their earpieces cracked to life.

“This is Stasis. We have ‘stolen’ our uniforms. Amai and Midori are ‘snug as a bug’, so to speak.”

“I can’t believe we never thought of that trick before. Having accomplices who are hired as part of the guards so that we can learn more about the security layout… accomplices who THEN allow themselves to be ‘mugged’ so that we can easily take their place and infiltrate the building...” Tina commented. “Sure, it’s a little weird. But it’s so much easier and safer!”

“Guess it’s because we never had any friend among security guards before.” Marie remarked.

“You can thank me and my awesome magnetic personality for that!” Stasis’ voice commented.

“Well, one thing is certain, we CAN’T thank your modesty.” Tina dryly joked.

“You can’t ask the Sun to stop shining, sis’.”

“Well, you and Libido should take position. We’ll enter the backstage.”

The sisters had been hired by an anti corruption NGO to sabotage and expose the mayor. They would take advantage of the fact that he wanted to make a big speech before the cosplay contest to do so.

This mission was allowing them to combine business and pleasure...

**************

The two employees guarding the backstage’s access were actually men, hence why the sisters couldn’t just mug them and enter, and therefore needed to impersonate cosplayers. Mag, Tina, and Marie approached them.

“We’re here for the cosplay contest.” Marie announced.

The first guard briefly looked at them. He noticed that Mag’s hair colour was backwards, Marie hadn’t dyed her hair red, and Tina’s skin was too tanned for the character she was cosplaying as (and so were Marie’s and Mag’s for that matter).

“No offense, but I think your chances are slim. Your costumes are great, but you didn’t pay enough attention to details. You sure you want to try?”

“We don’t care about winning, we just want to have fun!” Tina answered back.

The guard couldn’t help but smile, won over by her cheeky enthusiasm. “As you wish.”

He allowed them to enter the backstage.

**************

There were already a good chunk of cosplayers waiting to enter the stage. However, they were too excited by the upcoming contest to pay attention to the three newcomers.

Security guards were scattered across the backstage area to watch the cosplayers.

Stasis and Libido were among the guards. Tina, Marie, and Mag approached them.

“Greetings, civilians. We’re here to make sure that you don’t touch anything you’re not allowed to touch, and you don’t go to any place you’re not allowed to access.” Stasis announced to her disguised sisters.

“So. Can we sabotage the sound equipment and the projector to have them show compromising videos of the mayor receiving bribes?” Tina asked.

“Of course you can.”

“And can we enter the control room, and mug the staff to play our message?”

“Of course you can.”

“Thank you, you’re very helpful! I wish all security guards were as understanding.”

Stasis winked. "Follow us."

**************

Inside the control room, Delphine was sitting behind a computer. The technician and staff member was wearing white sneakers, blue trousers, and a black shirt with the word STAFF printed on the back in white letters.

The slim woman had a white skin, neck-long light loose red hair, green eyes, and there were freckles on her cheeks. She was wearing square framed glasses, and a pen over her right ear.

Two other technicians were sitting next to her, also typing on computers. To her right, there was a black woman with coarse black hair tied into numerous shoulder-long braids, and dark brown eyes. She was called Jaslene. To her left, there was a blond-haired fair-skinned blue-eyed woman called Grace. She had a shaggy bob haircut, and nails that were painted red.

Finally, her last remaining colleague was nervously pacing back and forth in the control room. Harriet had short black hair, big round-shaped glasses, a pearly white skin, and brown eyes. She was the coordinator, and she was worried that something wrong would happen during the mayor’s speech.

Jaslene, Grace, and Harriet were wearing the same clothes as Delphine.

“How are the spotlights?” Harriet asked.

“Operational.” Delphine answered.

“The sound equipment?”

“Also operational.”

“The projector?”

“ALSO operational.”

“And the spotlights?”

Delphine rolled her eyes. “Gosh Harriet, stop worrying! Nothing wrong will happen! I’ve checked everything THREE TIMES! All the systems are operational!”

“And what about the sleeping gas grenade?” a voice suddenly intervened.

“For the last time, I told you that EVERYTHING was operationa- Wait! Gas grenade?” Delphine realized that this wasn’t Harriet’s voice.

She saw a woman standing in the frame of the control room’s door. She was dressed as a watchwoman. The unknown woman winked at her. Then, with a cheeky smile on her lips, she threw a small grenade-shaped thing into the room, and closed the door.

“Oh shi-”

POOF!

The grenade released a thick green smoke in the control room. The four technicians started to cough.

Harriet, Jaslene and Grace were too taken by surprise to even react in time.

Delphine rushed to the door to try to open it, but the woman on the other side was holding the knob to prevent her from leaving the room.

Jaslene’s head fell on her desk, while Grace’s body slumped backwards into her office chair. With a small ‘thud’, Harriet crumbled on the floor, and curled up on herself like a napping cat. All three were sleeping like babies.

Delphine hit the door with her fist, but then succumbed to the effects of the gas. She fell forward, with her cheek resting against the frame, and her body slid down the door until she was on her knees. She started to snore.

**************

The sisters shared a smile when they heard everything become quiet inside the control room.

With the help of two ‘watchwomen’, it was easy to snoop around and to reach the control room, in spite of the costumes.

The green gas had been designed by Tinker to quickly clear by itself. They waited a few minutes, then Stasis carefully opened the door, moving Delphine’s motionless body in the process.

They were greeted by a concert of snoring.

The five sisters entered the control room.

They dragged the four technicians to a corner of the room. Then, Tina started to strip Delphine, while Mag was undressing Jaslene, and Marie was taking off Grace’s clothes.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but your clothes will be a lot more useful when we’ll have to make our discreet exit…” Tina explained to the snoring women.

Libido was watching them enviously. “You know. We’re a little short on zip-ties and ball-gags. We should probably use the fourth one’s clothes as makeshift ropes and gags.” she commented.

Tina sighed indulgently. “Fine. But you know the drill. No touching and no groping. Even if she has sexy underwear. ESPECIALLY if she has sexy underwear.”

“Okay.”

Libido started to strip Harriet.

The clothes of the staff members were simple and plain. Therefore, removing them was easy and quick. The sneakers were unlaced and taken off first, then the trousers were slid down the legs, and finally the t-shirts were pulled off.

Delphine was clad in orange socks, black boyshorts with a pattern of DBZ’s dragon balls, and an orange t-shirt bra with black borders and with a pattern of 悟 kanji. Jaslene was wearing ivory white cheeky panties, white socks, and a cream white push-up bra. Grace was clad in short socks, a black lacy g-string and a matching lacy balconette bra. Both had a translucent lace flower pattern. Harriet was wearing very prudish undergarments from her part: long socks, striped black-and-white long boxer shorts, a grey tank top, and a beige full-coverage t-shirt bra.

Libido grimaced. “Can we trade?” she asked Mag, who was stripping Grace.

“No.”

“So unfair…”

They still had enough zip-ties to restrain three women, so they used them to tie Delphine’s, Jaslene’s and Grace’s ankles and wrists. They cut Harriet’s trousers into makeshift ropes to bind the woman’s legs and arms. They cut Harriet’s t-shirt into makeshift cleave-gags to silence the four women.

Finally, they dragged the four technicians out of sight. Libido tried to sneakily grab Grace to be the one carrying her, but Mag was faster. Therefore, once the four women were concealed under a table, Libido went in a corner to sulk.

Tina waved her fingers and sat in front of Delphine’s computer. “I think it’s time to spice up the mayor’s little speech...”

**************

Wearing an elegant business ensemble, Heartfelt City’s mayor walked on the stage. He wanted to make a speech before the beginning of the cosplay contest. His goal was to look ‘hip’ in front of the ‘youngs’ to improve his popularity ratings.

Millie’s father perfectly looked the part of the honest politician who sincerely wanted to better the lives of his citizens. In that regards, he was a lot subtler and more competent than his daughter.

The politician waited until the crowd was silent, cleared out his throat, and put his sheet of paper on the rostrum.

However, the mayor was interrupted by the projector suddenly being activated. At first, he thought it was a small technical mistake, or perhaps even a joke. However, when the video started to be screened, the politician paled suddenly.

The video was showing the mayor, eating at a fancy restaurant with a few powerful businessmen.

“So we have a deal?” a businessman asked.

“Don’t worry. No environmental NGO will learn about your illegal dumping of chemicals. As long as I get my little envelope, of course.” the mayor answered. He chuckled at his own joke.

“What about my mall project?” another businessman intervened.

“Same thing. Have the money sent to me, and I’ll make sure the eviction notices are signed.”

“These specific evictions don’t seem very legal…” another man joked.

“Since when has that ever stopped us?” the mayor jokingly retorted.

The men all shared a good laugh. They clinked glasses.

“Now, I propose that we enjoy this fine dinner, paid for by the city’s taxpayers of course!”


The mayor was sweating now. He had heard that a waitress of this specific restaurant had been found bound and gagged in her underwear the same day as this meeting, but he had thought it was a mere robbery. He hadn’t connected the dots and realized that an infiltrator disguised as a waitress could easily record his conversation. While he was smarter than his daughter, he was still one league below his wife – or below the sisters for that matter.

The crowd remained silent for a brief moment.

Then, the first people started to shout: “BOO!”

Soon, most of the crowd was booing the mayor, and chunks of food started to be thrown at him.

The politician had to flee the stage in disgrace, and to take cover behind his bodyguards.

**************

Tina, Mag, Marie, Libido, and Stasis took advantage of the scandal to discreetly leave the convention. (Mag grabbed Libido by the collar when the latter tried to have a sneak peak at Grace's underwear.)

By the time the sisters had exited the building, a big sum of money had been transferred to their common bank account by the NGO which had hired them.

“I love it when a plan goes without a hitch…” Tina commented. She was sending an anonymous text to the police, to inform them about the predicaments of Amai, Midori, and the various unlucky bystanders they had mugged as part of their mission.

“So long for his re-election.” Stasis added with a smile.

Mag sadly shook her head. “Well, I wouldn’t be too optimistic. There’s still quite some time left. Public opinion is fickle, and doesn’t have much memory. He may still be able to fall back on his feet.”

“Unless we make sure he doesn’t…” Marie intervened.

Tina nodded. Preventing Millie’s father from being re-elected would indeed be a great victory against Heartfelt City’s corruption.

Their goal to better this town was within reach.

“And that’s what we’ll do, if we can.” she said. “For now, everything is going well for us. And I intend to make sure it stays that way! This will be the beginning of a new era!”




******* Meanwhile, at the same time *******




“You know that if Tina hears about this little escapade, we’ll get a big scolding…” Soph commented.

“I kept my promise of not overdoing things. I spent two full nights of restful sleep before this infiltration.” Angel retorted.

“Tina said we can learn everything we need thanks to Tinker’s hacking skills.”

“I want to witness things firsthand. It’s important for me.” Angel explained.

She briefly shook her head, and looked Soph in the eyes.

“Sis’! Tinker has agreed to not snitch on us; but if you want to call Tina, it’s now or never.”

Soph mock-punched her sister’s shoulder. “Hey! I came with you, didn’t I? It’ll be our little secret escapade.”

Angel smiled. “Thanks…”

**************

Angel led the way. She and Soph were using trees and bushes to conceal themselves. Their destination was a complex of white buildings surrounded by a huge park and a lot of green life.

They took quite some time to scan the area.

Until...

“Over here. Look at these ones.”

Angel pointed at the two nurses taking a break near the back entrance of one building.

Soph nodded. “You need help?”

Angel grabbed her dart gun, and put two knock-out darts in the chamber. “I can handle it. I prefer to do thing gently with nurses.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll sit back and watch.”

**************

The first nurse had a tanned skin, boyish short coffee brown hair, and dark brown eyes. She was of average size, with a pudgy waist. According to her name badge, she was called ‘Harper’.

The second nurse had a white skin, blue eyes and armpit-long blond hair, with a black headband to prevent them from falling on her forehead. She was tall and lanky, with sharp cheekbones and a tall noise. During work hours, she was tying up her hair into a ponytail with a black hair elastic. She also had a badge with her name on it pinned to her chest pocket. She was called ‘Alice’.

Both women were wearing the same uniform. White sneakers, light blue nurse trousers, and a light blue nurse blouse with short sleeves and a breast pocket filled with pens.

Angel and Soph discreetly approached them.

“Wonder what they’re talking about…”

“Bah, they’re on a break. Probably something light-hearted and pleasant. Like clothes. Or food.” Soph answered. “Or-”

“… Now, I see your point. But what I mean is that I don’t think we can trust the G20 to deal with the current crisis.” Harper was saying. “Aside from the Group being non-inclusive and unofficial, many of the countries at that table represent the champions of the financial and economic orthodoxies that led the world down the rabbit hole to its current economic malaise.”

“If your reference to the ‘rabbit hole’ is a clever pun using my name, I’ll have you know that I noticed and appreciated it.” Alice answered. “However, to return to the main topic of our discussion, you can’t deny that the fall of the Eastern Block has shown that proposing an alternative VIABLE solution to capitalism is extremely hard.”

“I think the real problem isn’t the lack of viable alternatives, but capitalism’s own force of inertia, that makes it hard to reform itself...”

“Well, I’ll be damned…” Soph muttered to herself.

Concealed behind the foliage, Angel raised her dart-gun and took aim. She shot Harper in the right butt-cheek, and Alice in the left thigh.

The two women froze when they felt something sting their body.

Harper frowned. She grabbed the small dart that had stung her, and held it in front of her and her colleague’s eyes. “What’s this?”

“Curiouser and curiouser…” Alice commented while taking a closer look.

“It’s-” Harper’s eyes widened when she realized that it was a small dart.

The two nurses exchanged a glance.

Then their eyes rolled back, they let out a long faint moan, and they fell forward. Their limp bodies collided into each other; and when they reached the ground, they were in each other’s arms. It was as if they were huddled together, with Alice on top of Harper. The slumbering nurses were breathing softly, with a peaceful expression.

Soph and Angel grabbed Alice and Harper under the arms, and dragged the two women into the nearby bushes to conceal them.

The sisters stripped the two nurses down to their undergarments.

Alice was wearing a sky blue t-shirt bra with white borders and a pattern of white fluffy sheeps. Her knickers and socks were matching the bra. Harper was clad in a red lacy thong, a scarlet red lacy bra with black lacy borders, and black socks with red hearts on them.

Soph and Angel used black soft ropes to restrain the two nurses. They didn’t use complex knots: the knock-out serum would make them sleep two hours anyway. They bound the ankles, the knees, the shoulders, and the wrists. They gagged the women with ‘Libido-approved’ black ball-gags with airholes.

Alice and Harper were left concealed under the bushes, lying next to each other on the soft warm grass.

Angel and Soph slipped into their nurse uniforms.

Then they entered Heartfelt City’s mental hospital.

**************

Angel and Soph indeed needed to check something that was going on in Heartfelt City’s mental hospital. Or more precisely, they needed to check on someone.

The two sisters were currently roaming across the building of the hospital complex reserved for the patients who needed a light treatment: the ones who didn’t need to be restrained, and who could roam (relatively) freely the parts of the building in which they were allowed.

It took them a little time, but the two sisters finally spotted their target in the atelier, a part of the mental hospital where patients could occupy themselves by building things.

“There she is.” Soph warily whispered.

She and Angel discreetly entered the room.

The light-skinned redhead at whom they were looking was wearing white clothes, but there was no mistake possible. They would never forget that woman; with her stringy hair, lanky figure, prominent ears, and crooked nose.

They were looking at Sarah Summers.

Apparently, Ulla’s intel when she had talked with the White Masks was dated. In truth, shortly after her mental breakdown, Sarah had been transferred to Heartfelt City’s mental hospital in the greatest secrecy. The prison’s administration was still very embarrassed by the fact that one of their own wardens had been swayed by the redhead, so they had made sure that no media would mention the transfer, hence why Ulla didn't hear about it.

The sisters couldn’t blame her. They too had thought Sarah was still in prison.

However, completely by chance, Tinker had recently come across a medical report, mentioning Sarah’s whereabouts. The writer of the text was explaining that, now that the redhead was properly monitored by specialists (and that she was receiving an actual medical treatment), she was making progress.

The sisters needed to be sure that the redhead wasn’t faking her mental condition. She was after all in an institution where escaping was easier.

Angel and Soph approached the woman, though they were careful to not stand directly in her line of sight.

Sarah was busy polishing a piece of wood designed to look like a bird. She had apparently carved it herself. There was a slightly faraway look in her eyes, probably due to her medication, but she was looking a lot more serene.

A white-haired doctor walked towards Sarah, and glanced at her woodwork. “This is very good.” he commented.

The redhead smiled faintly. “I thank you…” She then reported all her attention onto her work.

The doctor left her to her craft, and went to discuss with his aides. The two fake nurses discreetly eavesdropped them.

“The treatment is doing her a lot of good. She has agreed to stop cutting her hair so short that she looks like a cult leader. And she’s able to better control her bouts of anger.” the doctor explained. “I don’t understand why this woman was put into jail WITHOUT a psychological follow-up. Our mayor should release some funds...” He shook his head. “Anyway, we’re hoping to be able to organize a meeting between Sarah and her family in four-to-six months depending on her progress. She has already agreed to it.”

Soph grabbed Angel’s arm, and led her in a part of the room where they were out of earsight.

“The old Sarah would never have agreed to meet her family, even as part of a ploy to fool everyone. She doesn’t seem to be pretending.” Soph whispered to her sister. “And I don’t think she’s a good enough actress to fool trained doctors.”

Angel slowly nodded. Even when Sarah was pretending to be calmer, while the White Masks were doing her bidding, the mere mention of her family was still enough to drive her into hysteria.

“We should leave before somebody notices we’re impostors.” Angel finally said.

**************

Since they had been quicker than expected, and therefore had plenty of time to leave before Harper and Alice would wake up, Angel decided to loosen the knots binding the two nurses. Now, even untrained women such as the two nurses could break free in no time.

“Looks like you didn’t have to intervene this time.” Soph commented as her sister was loosening Alice’s ropes.

Angel shook her head. “I don’t think I would have been able to do anything. She wouldn’t have listened to me, just like she has never listened to Tina. On the contrary, seeing an infiltrator may make her relapse. I don’t care that I wasn’t the one who helped her. I’m just happy that there are OTHERS who can also help people. I’m happy to see there is hope…”

Soph took her arm. “Hope for redemption.” She wasn’t talking about Sarah anymore.

She was talking about her sister.

Angel smiled and pressed Soph's hand. “Yes...”

The sisters removed the nurse outfits and left them near their two slumbering real owners. They put back on their regular casual clothes. Then, they walked away.

“Tinker will also be satisfied.” Angel added.

“I’m still surprised she allowed us to go here.” Soph admitted. “Remember back when she put us in our place when we were at each other’s throats? She’s gotten a lot more assertive!”

Angel shook her head. “Tinker is not Mag. A part of her was feeling bad about what she had done to Sarah. Slandering a woman online and leading a hate campaign against her, even if she deserved it, even if it was to protect us… It’s not something to be done lightly. Tinker spends a lot of time on her computer. She knows how disgusting online harassment and slander are.”

Soph remained silent during a long moment. Angel’s reveal had left her thoughtful.

However, she then finally commented: “Sis’, you know what that means? With Sarah here, her followers have lost their figurehead. She’ll never try to rally people against us again. One of our main enemies has been neutralized.” She started to count on her fingers. “The Phantoms and the Company have weakened each other. Ulla has sabotaged Anna's latest project. Kheshig is reforming the Phantoms. You and Ulla made some progress with the White Masks.”

“Maybe… Maybe we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel…” Angel said with hope.

**************

Oh how the sisters were wrong...

**************

Irene Eudokia, head of House Eudokia, was sitting in her favorite armchair, a sumptuous finely crafted piece of precious woodwork. White pearls were embedded in the armrests, and the tapestry cushions were adorned with gold threads. The aristocrat calmly sipped her expensive rare breed of tea in a porcelain cup. She was watching the news on a gigantic TV screen.

First she saw images of the mayor’s public humiliation, when footage of his illegal deals were leaked right during one of his speeches. Various staff members, security guards, and cosplayers had been found mugged for disguise by the police after an anonymous text. Then she heard police officers discuss a very peculiar mugging for disguise that happened at Heartfelt City’s mental hospital. Peculiar in the sense that the muggers didn’t steal anything, and left the outfits near their victims for when they would wake up.

However, Irene had a good idea on the identities of the culprits...

She turned off the TV, and put her cup of tea on a nearby small table.

“So. Even after all that happened with the Phantoms, the nine sisters are still in Heartfelt City…” the aristocrat commented. “And even if I have to admit that their actions indirectly serve our interest, the idea of a revenge sounds way more pleasant…”

Irene was a smart competent businesswoman, but she also took great pride in her lineage and her family’s reputation. The sisters had sullied that reputation, and had made a mockery of her name. And for that, they had to pay... Plus, their elimination would also serve a purpose. In Irene's social milieu, reputation meant a lot of thing. The sisters had made her family look like utter buffoons, and now some rivals were starting to think THEY could get a shot at Irene. A good old-fashioned 'example' would quell their ambitions... And the sisters would make a fine 'example' of what happened to House Eudokia's enemies.

Irene’s children - Theophano, Constantin, Basile, and Zoë -, who were sitting around her, exchanged quick glances. They knew that when the family’s matriarch gave an order, they could only obey. Even Theophano would never dare to directly contradict her mother.

“What do you want to do, mother?” the eldest daughter asked.

“I have a plan.”

**************

Louette’s patience was coming to an end. She angrily entered Ellie’s apartment.

“Ellie! We need to talk! Ever since the battle with the Prophet, you’ve been acting strangely! You disappear during several days, and then you refuse to say where you went! Cassie is worried sick. Everyone is worried sick. You-”

The blue-haired woman looked more closely at her friend.

“What did you do with your haircut?”

Ellie had indeed cut her hair. They were now closely-cropped.

“You had such pretty hair… It’s a shame. It looks like-” Louette interrupted herself. Her eyes widened. “It looks like Sarah’s haircut.” she slowly commented. Her facial expression was now wary.

“You also have very short hair.” Ellie retorted, clearly on the defensive.

“Yes, but I’ve always had them that way. You, on the other hand…”

Ellie grimaced. “So what? You spend one day with the Siren and her infiltrator pals, and suddenly you renounce everything else? Wasn’t Sarah the woman who gave us the strength to keep on fighting? The strength to keep on LIVING?”

“I’m not gonna deny it. She had a way of making us feel proud of ourselves. She had a way of inspiring us to go forward, in spite of the pain, and to fight. But her influence was toxic, for us and also for her.”

This time, Ellie got angry. “I’m tired of hearing everyone badmouth her as if she was the worst scum out there! I thought we agreed that we would always put the victim above the torturer! And last time I checked, it wasn’t Sarah who drew first blood! SHE was the one whose life was ruined, not the other way around!”

“She was also ready to hurt Shannon to get to Blink.” Louette retorted.

The chubby woman scoffed. “Pffff! That’s what THEY say.”

This time, Louette lost patience with her friend. “Stop that Ellie.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop twisting everything to match your needs. Stop ignoring the facts that don’t suit you.”

“So what? I should see the world in shades of grey? Bah! That’s what THEY say to TRICK us. That’s what they say to JUSTIFY themselves.” Ellie scoffed. “You’ve seen how Tina’s sister, Mag, has treated us. As if we were baby-eating serial killers. I mean, HER sister comes to see Willow, and then Mag acts like WILLOW’s the one at fault. Trust me! They only see the world in shades of grey when it suits THEIR needs!”

"God, Ellie, she did it because she was scared for her sister's safety!"

The chubby woman shook her head, and adjusted her round-shaped glasses. She hadn't listened to her friend's answer.

“But their tricks don’t work on me. I have unmasked them… I have unraveled the hypocrisy behind their actions… They pretend they’re good people… But then how can they bear leaving Knipperen alive and free? Blink isn’t even trying to stop her. On the contrary, she’s WORKING WITH her… And then she tries to claim she’s better than us?! Don’t make me laugh! Thanks to her, Knipperen is still out there. You've read about that coffee shop vendor who almost died of thirst and cramps? It was Knipperen!”

Ellie paused and caught her breath.

“I’ll be fair, and give Tina and her sisters some slack. SOME OF THEM tried to help Cassie and Willow. And you. But Knipperen… Someone has to put an end to her actions! And to her sister's actions too!”

“So you are still trying to-” Louette shook her head. She was now the one becoming angry. “One time wasn’t enough?! You already put us all in danger when you had us join the Phantoms!”

Ellie ignored her retort. She was so busy ranting, she hadn’t even heard it. “You know what I’m thinking? I think Blink’s using her child to coax us… Yes, she’s playing the part of the nice mummy in front of everyone to-”

Louette couldn't hold it anymore. She raised her hand, and slapped Ellie.

“Get real! You’ve seen how worried she was! That wasn’t comedy!” she exclaimed.

There was a small moment of silence.

Ellie rubbed her red cheek. “You hit me…” she commented with an incredulous tone of voice.

Louette suddenly realized what she had done. “E- Ellie… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… I-”

She tried to approach Ellie, to inspect her friend’s cheek.

Ellie reflexively recoiled in fear.

Louette bit her lower lip. She was looking guilty.

“Don’t you see? It’s another proof!” Ellie exclaimed. “You’d never have hit me before meeting them! They are messing with your head!”

“Why are you so hell-bent on hunting Knipperen and BLINK of all people?!”

“I’ve stolen files belonging to the Phantoms while they were busy fighting the Prophet. Ulla and Izanagi weren’t watching me anymore. And escaping the Crows’ attention was easy, they only had eyes for Willow... The files had information. Lots of information. About all the heists performed by infiltrators. And in these files, I found it was either Blink or Knipperen who hurt me! Since they are twins, they don’t know which one!”

“So it’s personal…”

“Of course it is! I agreed for a truce the time to rescue Shannon, but now the truce is over! I won’t let them get away with what they did! And if YOU refuse to help me, then I’ll find SOMEONE who will!”

“I promised myself I’d keep you safe, Ellie. That includes saving you from yourself.” Louette retorted.

Ellie smiled derisively. “And what are you gonna do? Are you gonna lock me in your trunk all day?”

Another short moment of silence.

“Low blow.” Louette blankly retorted.

Ellie stopped smiling, and became regretful. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It was anger talking.”

“It’s okay. We’ve all been having a bad time these past few weeks. Especially Magda and Willow. Just promise me you’ll stay out of trouble.”

“I promise.”

But she was lying.

“Come on, let’s invite Magda, Willow, and Cassie. We’ll eat somewhere together. They need to be cheered up!” Ellie then proposed. “I want to help them feel better!”

This time, she was sincere.

But Ellie also intended to do some other things after she had seen her friends...

She had a plan.
Last edited by rufusluciusivan on Thu Sep 15, 2022 2:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
esercito sconfitto
Posts: 7096
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:06 pm

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by esercito sconfitto »

a great starting chapter!

I adore cosplay !

by the way, some inserted pic don't show. Therefore , here we have Kaylee playing Ezra Scarlet from Fairy Tail

Image


now, we have to find a short name for the TrackmanRufusLuciusIvanverse.... :|

I propose TRLIonverse281 ...
rufusluciusivan
Posts: 1225
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 5:08 pm

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by rufusluciusivan »

Esercito sconfitto: Thanks for the picture! Direct links to images from Wikis tend to bug a lot... I've fixed it by putting the link of the Wiki article itself. It'll recquire some scrolling down, but it's one of the first pictures. Glad you enjoyed the idea of the cosplays. Trackman was the first who got the idea, so I wanted to pay him homage by featuring a few cosplays myself.

The USB cinematic universe... Tremble in fear, Marvel! :lol:
Trackman281
Posts: 1600
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by Trackman281 »

Haha, love the opening of how the mayor himself "hip" and cool and yeah, he can hang with the cool kids. :lol: 8-)

Oh WOW! I was wondering and waiting to see if Mag would ever replace a Cruella DeVil cosplayer, I mean it's perfect as Mag can actually use her natural hair colour. Obviously as well, I am incredibly grateful that you remembered that specific part about Mag genetic process. Indeed, it is a mystery as to why these genetic modifications only happened to the infiltrators and not the rest of them, but it's nice to mention it every now and then. So I thank you greatly for that. :D

Honestly. I loved this entire scene and as soon as I saw it was a Cruella DeVil cosplayer, I just knew that Mag had to be the one replacing her. What a fantastic scene and I can't wait to see what's next, also you captured Mag perfectly here and the fact that she needs to hide the white half of her hair in her daily life, purely because she does stand out a bit was a nice touch too. I loved this scene and it's literally only the first scene. Okay, let's read on. :D

Well that was nice of them to not mess up Kaylee's hair. :lol:

Wow, and I mean just wow! What another fantastic scene. Having Tina and M
Marie work together is something that I enjoy doing, even though I don't seem to use it much in my work. I loved the takedowns, I loved the whole tricking them into lowering their guard for a photo ploy, it was wonderful. Seriously your attention to detail here, like even stealing the woman's contact lenses for the full disguise is nothing short of sheer brilliance. Once again, I still very much enjoyed the way that even at the end you still had Tina making her mental notes, because after all, we all Tina and we all know how her mind works, so this was indeed nice to see. :D

This has been such a wonderful idea and I'm loving every second of it. Oh god, I see Libido and Stasis are next in line to acquire their disguises...........This is going to be great! :lol: :D 8-)
It was indeed just a harmless NON-soporific smoke. (Stasis had asked Tinker to make it bacon-flavoured, but the latter had retorted that she had better things to do, so it was plain boring non-flavoured smoke.)


HAHAHAHAHA! :lol: Yeah, I'll be honest. I laughed my head off at this line, simply amazing, well done good sir, well done indeed! :D
‘dastardly-but-still-devilishly-gorgeous-and-awesome muggers’ (to quote Stasis)
HAHAHA! Once again, I love the way your still able to write Stasis, well........Being Stasis, of course she'd say something like that, brilliant work. :lol: :D

Well I absolutely loved this entire scene, it really did make me laugh, it was just so well written. I love the way you write these characters, plus this whole fake mugging scenario with Amai and Midori was incredibly well crafted, superbly written and just over all, one hell of a masterpiece. Seriously, you have written this scene tremendously well and I really hope you are proud with how it came out, because I assure you, I love it. :D

I really enjoyed the little banter then when the sisters all linked up, it really is the little moments of when the sisters just playfully mock around with each other that I love to write and I love to see, and I can tell that you really know how to write, which is why it is always such an extreme pleasure to see it with my own eyes whenever you write one of these small scenes. :D

And another small, but equally amazing scene follows afterwards, I loved the whole cheeky little, what you "can" and what you "can't" do from Stasis the security guard to Tina the cosplayer, it really is these little interactions that just bring so much life into your stories and I truly do appreciate it, I really do, I think you've done an outstanding job. :D

I loved this entire knockout scene with Jaslene, Grace, Harriet and Delphine AND I know there's a certain someone who enjoy these computer monitor staff getting knocked out as well, so I'm assure that this certain member will approve too. ;) Plus I once again really enjoyed Stasis little adding of a sentence there, then in the guards working mind then still answer before reality sets in. I think you've captured Stasis wonderfully so far, but then again, this shouldn't be anything new as you know that I have nothing but praise for you when it comes to writing the sisters and you've shown time and time again, that you really know how to nail down their personalities perfectly (especially Stasis) :D

A lot of amazing things to point out in this scene, to anyone who follows my series, knows that Libido is obsessed with stripping women in hopes of finding one who's wearing a G-string, besides, we all know how incredibly horny she is, so we should never be surprised that she loves seeing women in G-strings. :P

Then there's the small bit of a dialogue there of Tina making sure that Libido knows the rules if she's stripping a woman, because after all, because we all know how horny Libido gets, these rules are a good thing to keeps things from getting.......R rated......Shall we say. :D :lol:

Plus, keen eye readers will know that this seems to have become a somewhat trade mark of Libido's of saying "so unfair", when she discovers a woman is wearing a G-string that she hasn't stripped. It's the little things, I honestly can not thank you enough for the amount of attention and detail you've put into this, so it really does bring the sisters to life, Honestly, thank you so much! :D

Hahahaha! What a fantastic scene afterwards of having the mayor himself getting taken down, my god the corruption in Heartfelt really runs that deep that it might as well be in the Earth's core at this rate. :P It was a fantastic scene and it was good to see him getting taken down as usually those rights are reserved for Millie......Or maybe Anna. :D
(Mag grabbed Libido by the collar when the latter tried to have a sneak peak at Grace's underwear.)


So close, yet so far. 8-)

I also really liked the scene and it does pave the way for something in the future, because it is true, their WILL be re-elections at some point, then who knows, Millie, might get desperate about and fearful about Tina and her sisters interfering with the elections and hire some "help", hhhmmm......Just maybe. 8-)

So, Angel and Soph are off on their own little adventure whilst Mag, Stasis, Libido, Marie and Tina busy taking down the mayor, now this I can't wait to see, because it is very rare to see Angel and Soph pairing up for an adventure, okay here we go. :D 8-)

For starters, I loved the fact that Soph thought that these were just going to be two bog standard nurse bimbos just chatting useless rubbish, then in both our and her amazement, their actually having a very intelligent conversation about the G20 . I mean let's be honest here, eventually they were going to come across some intelligent people to mug, it's just always refreshing to see, I will say that. :D

I also really enjoyed the knock out scene itself of Harper and Alice even examining the darts that are about to send them to slumber land and even calling them "curious", seriously what a genius and refreshing USB scene, this is what I love about your writing style, your not afraid to take risks and try something knew and sometimes elaborate and please allow me to be the first to say, that it is truly brilliant and I really appreciate all the effort you put into it. :D

Well this is certainly a nice surprise and if I'm being truly honest here, I am incredibly delighted to see that Sarah is finally starting to receive the help she so desperately needs. Now I know, it's just one step at a time, but who knows, it seems like Sarah may finally have the future with her family she so rightfully deserves after all. :D

This was such a lovely scene that followed. Because for starters, I think you did such a fantastic job with having Angel and Soph sharing a scene together, their call back to previous events made it even better and I really do love the interactions with the sisters, the way Soph just gently took Angel's hand instead of a full on hug like Tina would do, is also spot on. We know that Soph is the tough one of the group, she likes to be seen as a hard woman who loves to throw a punch, but she does have a soft side when it comes to her sisters, and although she won't usually go in for a hug, something small like holding on to Soph's hand is actually the equivalent of a hug as they know that Soph finds it difficult to show her sisters that she loves them. I think you hammered this point home perfectly. Amazing work. :D

Indeed, it's always the same......Heartfelt City is basically like Gotham.......Just when people think that the major threats have been taken care of and things might start to return to normal, there's always.....And I do mean ALWAYS another villainess, another gang, another psycho just waiting to appear and cause harm and trouble.......Good old Heartfelt. :D

Aaahhh the Eudokian family. Such a a renowned name is the USB story section, anyone who knows about the USB story section, automatically is familiar with the Eudokian's, even if it's just in name, I can assure you, we all know them. ;) Now naturally I do have some idea as to what Irene has in mind, but I thankfully don't know the whole story, so I can't wait to find out.......So instead, I just want to say this.......When i first started writing Tina and her sisters, if someone had said to me at the time. "Oh hey Track, did your characters are going to crossover with the Eudokians at some point." I assure you, I would have just laughed my head off.......Yet here are.......And here they all are. I must admit, I feel like such a massive geek and freaked out when I discovered that Irene and her family would be in the same story as Tina and her sisters. I just can't believe my luck if I'm honest. I've had so many privileges of both working with you on both cross overs and even collaborations, I've even had Ashley from Tirepanted's world appear in one of my chapters and I've even had Meditions write a tremendous scene with Knipperen.......Honestly, I actually can't believe my luck, yet it's funny, because despite all of this......I STILL, consider myself than nothing more than a rookie compared to the rest of you when it comes to story writing and I just love it all. :D

Wow, what a strong scene with Louette and Ellie. I also liked the little nod you gave there with Louette, as clearly she is remembering the small talk Ulla had with her back at outpost Zeta, of where Ulla clearly felt that Ellie's mind is still very fragile and she advised Louette to keep an eye on her, which indeed, it does seem she is doing. It's a very small nod and to the untrained eye, it might just appear as Louette being friendly. But I see it, I see it. :D ;)

This scene has a set up a lot of possibilities here, there really are so many directions this could go in, I actually can't wait to see how all of this pans out, as I know you're still tweaking things here and there, but this of course has me very excited, as this means, if I'm not sure what's going to happen. I can't wait to see what you have in mind.

Sigh.......Yet here we are, at the end of the chapter......Damn.

Well, this has truly been amazing to read, I have just loved it from start to finish, and the best part is, it's only the first part. I have some many theories and ideas running through my mind about how all of this will play out, and I can't wait to see which direction you take it all in. Now here come the compliments and the boat load of appraisals you so rightfully deserve. :D

Even now, you STILL get all of the sister's personalities spot on, you STILL get all of their little individual traits and characteristics spot on and you STILL just simply get everything else in their world perfect. See, this is why I can just never refuse you permission or anything when you want to write the sisters, you just do them all justice and you make sure that every little bit of detail has been fleshed out wonderfully. I loved all the scenes here, for different reasons, I think you made such a fantastic job with all the little nods and continuity segments and I just can't believe how wonderful it all is. Honestly, I know this is only the first part, but I truly believe that once again, you have yet another stellar masterpiece on your hands and I just simply can not wait to see what happens next. Plus, I did notice all of those little easter eggs you had thrown in there with references to Ulla's mindset, the Crows fascination in Willow and Kheshig's new mantle as leader of the Phantoms. I really enjoyed the way you wrote the sisters, because I've said it before and damn it , I'll say it again. When it comes down to it, I know how hard it can be to feature all nine of the sisters in a single story and find ways to give them all of them the same amount of screen time and dialogue, and while yes BB did not appear in this first part, I think you did an outstanding job with the other eight sisters, but this really isn't a surprise, as I hope you know that I have nothing but faith in you when you write them. :D

Many thanks and amazing work again! :D :D

Plus heck yeah, who needs the MCU or DCEU, when the USB is clearly the number one choice for all your cinematic needs. :D :lol:
meditions142
Posts: 1256
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:51 pm

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by meditions142 »

Great chapter Rufusluciusivan!

First off, I have really come to enjoy the Amai character so I loved the scene of her consensual mugging. Great to add that Amai while not into girls was alright being seen half naked by the others and cool too her intentional selection of underwear.

My favorite scene however was the gassing of the control room. First off, I always love a scene with a group of women gassed while working away in a control or CCTV room. And of course the “And what about the sleeping gas grenade?” comment is wonderful.

And I loved the image of Delphine trying to escape only to pass out against the door and slide to the floor. And then too the great imagery of her unconscious body being pushed out of the way as the door was opened.

And of course love that Grace had a rather naughty pair of undies on and its effect on Libido.
tirepanted3
Posts: 1934
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:40 am

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by tirepanted3 »

Another crossover. I'm amazed by how well-coordinated this universe is. :)

And this one is even more complex than usual, adding in the Eudokia clan on top of the existing threads set in place from Trackman's stories and your previous crossovers. At a certain point, we will need diagrams and flowcharts to track all the characters and storylines in the USB universe. :lol:

But even without the complex plotting, this is still a fun tale on its own. I have mentioned before that cosplay/special costuming is not my preferred type of USB outfit; I usually gravitate to scenes that feature traditional clothes and uniforms. But there was fun to be had here, particularly with Mag substituting for a Cruella cosplayer (certainly a popular cosplay choice after the new movie) and using her natural hair as part of the disguise, reversed though it may be.

Stealing an Erza Scarlet outfit - ironic, as I recall Erza herself stealing someone's uniform in one of the manga scenes on the board.

Some nice character development with Amai and Midori, who are of course more than used to getting their clothes stolen by this point and now get to be part of the action... albeit by getting their clothes "stolen" again. Ah well, at least they're on the heroines' side by now.

Fun knockout scene with the computer staff in the control room. Good buildup and dialogue, and a nice aftermath. Plus two Dragon Ball Z references in one story - seems like a record. :lol:

The Soph/Angel escapade was entertaining as well. Though I probably would have preferred those scenes be interspersed with the main story scenes, rather than relegated to the second half of the chapter. Still a fun time, and I like the little detail of Angel taking sympathy on the two nurses.

The last two scenes are largely there to set up future chapters, but they're certainly potent. I do wonder how all these parts will come together, now that the Eudokias are in the mix along with Ellie, Louette and their teammates. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

P.S. I notice how your writing is trying to parallel Trackman's, such as in the descriptions of some of the victims, like the nurses and computer staff. Nice little detail.

P.P.S. This is my favorite typo of the year. :D
Their watchwoman uniform they wore consisted of a black tie, a black long-sleeved button-up shit,
rufusluciusivan
Posts: 1225
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 5:08 pm

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by rufusluciusivan »

Trackman: It's always painful when an old politician tried to look 'young'.

The detail of Mag's hair has always caught my attention, even though it's rarely mentioned in the stories, so I wanted to feature it at one point.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of Tina and Marie working together. There could still be a lot of potential. After all, Tina has played a huge part in Marie's character development. It's true that now that the sisters are a large group, some interactions have been more in the background.

In hindsight, your comments make me realize that Stasis was the star of this part. Her lines just come naturally. She's a ton of fun to write, probably your character I like writing the most.

There are so many versions of the classic 'mug a few guards', I thought that having one scenario during which the guards are actually accomplices / moles was a nice little twist. After all this time, it has become quite hard to find original ideas!

I really enjoyed coming up with the sisters' interactions. Since the situation is more light-hearted, it was a good occasion to feature more playful banters between them.

That G-string running-gag was too good to die, even after it has found closure in Chapter 42. :lol: Poor Libido... Life is unfair with her.
I also really liked the scene and it does pave the way for something in the future, because it is true, their WILL be re-elections at some point, then who knows, Millie, might get desperate about and fearful about Tina and her sisters interfering with the elections and hire some "help", hhhmmm......Just maybe. 8-)
Interesting... Did I set up some foreshadowing involuntarily? :lol:

The joke about the nurses and their conversation made me laugh way more than it should have. Fun fact, Harper's first dialogue is actually copy-pasted from a real article.

Sarah is making some progress indeed. The power of the ellipsis... A little abrupt, but the series hint that there was a time skip between chapter 36.5 and the Phantom arc, and there is supposed to be a time skip between this chapter and chapter 42. I wanted a way to showcase the 'everything is good' feeling of this prologue, to highlight how things have evolved for the better after the defeat of the Prophet. And what better way than to show that one of their enemies has been neutralized?

I like writing Angel and Soph interact.

Trust me, I'm also feeling privileged to be able to write stories featuring your characters. ;)

As always, incorporating easter eggs and references to earlier stories is one of the things I like the most about these crossover series.

Glad you enjoyed this prologue. This part was actually added rather late during the writing process. But I wanted to illustrate that the situation had gotten better for the sisters after the Prophet's defeat, a way to contrast with the more serious / dangerous situation the sisters will be in. (I don't think it's a spoiler to say that. The last parts are pretty clear that things WON'T stay all sunshine and rainbows. ;) ) And ultimately this prologue ended up featuring uniform stealings.

Meditions142: 'Consensual mugging.' Love the expression! :lol: I thought it would be a nice change of pace, so I'm glad it left an impression.

The 'sleeping gas' scene was fun to write. I'm glad you enjoyed its details. ;)

Tirepanted: I guess you could say that there are enough details for the shared universe to feel coherent, but it's still vague enough to allow to include more and more characters. (And to not create contradictions.)

I'm always looking for new ideas of clothes, and cosplays have the advantage of providing a wide array of potential outfits, though I tried to balance it out with more traditional uniforms. (It feels like, forever, since the last time I featured nurse outfits. :D )
Stealing an Erza Scarlet outfit - ironic, as I recall Erza herself stealing someone's uniform in one of the manga scenes on the board.
The irony was absolutely NOT a coincidence. ;)

I'm glad the scene with Amai and Midori left an impact on everyone. It was a little unusual compared to the typical formula, so there was always this little fear that it may not be liked. Also glad that the scene featuring the computer staff was well-received. Both scenes were fun to write, so I'm happy they worked.

I'm actually not even THAT MUCH of a DBZ fan. I've read all the tomes when I was young, played two of the videogames, but that's it. Still, it's one of the easier manga to reference.
The Soph/Angel escapade was entertaining as well. Though I probably would have preferred those scenes be interspersed with the main story scenes, rather than relegated to the second half of the chapter. Still a fun time, and I like the little detail of Angel taking sympathy on the two nurses.
It may feel like a detail, but sometimes it's very hard to decide if two storylines should be interspersed or left separated... I remember that there had been the opposite problem during one part of Vigilante: the storylines were on the contrary too interspersed. I guess it's a matter of dosing. Since the two stories are disjoint, I chose to leave them separated.

I like writing Angel. Not for the same reason I like writing Stasis, but I like writing her.

You could say the entire point of this epilogue was to end on these cliffhangers. Though I can assure you that the next parts will follow up soon. Most of the story is already written and simply in need of some proof-reading, save for the very last part, so it shall probably be finished by the end of the month.
P.S. I notice how your writing is trying to parallel Trackman's, such as in the descriptions of some of the victims, like the nurses and computer staff. Nice little detail.
Thanks! I sometimes use similar phrasings as a way to make these stories closer to his. Though I confess I'm too used to writing in the past tense to have the reflex of writing them in present tense...
P.P.S. This is my favorite typo of the year.
Oh my Gosh! How did that one escape my attention?! :lol: Well, at least I won an award. :D
Trackman281
Posts: 1600
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by Trackman281 »

Esercito -
I propose TRLIonverse281 ...
I love it! :D

Rufusluciusivan -
The detail of Mag's hair has always caught my attention, even though it's rarely mentioned in the stories, so I wanted to feature it at one point.
I must admit, the sister's minor, yet distinct features are something that I am guilty of not mentioning more often in my stories, but now I know that this is something that you are fond of, I must take note of this and include more of it in the future. :D
I wouldn't mind seeing more of Tina and Marie working together. There could still be a lot of potential. After all, Tina has played a huge part in Marie's character development.
Hhhhmmm.......I'm currently thinking of a story (very, VERY early in development) of where there's a serial killer going around Heartfelt (because this is Heartfelt City after all), that's leaving cryptic clues and messages of where she'll strike next, similar to that of the origami killer or the zodiac killer, so if you want, we could have the chapter only featuring Tina and Marie going after her, so those two can have some more screen time together and further discuss past events of what life was like for them in the company before they truly became loving sisters, because let us not forget, Marie is originally a clone trooper, so her upbringing was very different to that of Tina's. I mean yeah, we all know that they end up becoming loving sisters in the end, but their past is something that shouldn't be ignored. :D
Interesting... Did I set up some foreshadowing involuntarily? :lol:


Indeed, or rather you gave me an idea in the heat of the moment, for instance........Millie knows that Tina and her sisters will naturally try and sabotage the election so her family get voted out of power, now, what if she then hired another group of rogue infiltrators to take down the opposing candidates, so her family are left as the only one's running for power of the city? It could lead to a showdown of Tina and her sisters taking on this group of rogue infiltrators in a no hold bards match.......May the best infiltrators win! 8-)
Sarah is making some progress indeed. The power of the ellipsis... A little abrupt, but the series hint that there was a time skip between chapter 36.5 and the Phantom arc, and there is supposed to be a time skip between this chapter and chapter 42. I wanted a way to showcase the 'everything is good' feeling of this prologue, to highlight how things have evolved for the better after the defeat of the Prophet. And what better way than to show that one of their enemies has been neutralized?
Every story you write featuring the sisters, regardless of how small or how large, will ALWAYS be considered canon, I've said it time and time again, but you take such pride and such care when it comes to writing the sisters and their world. You leave no stone un-turned and no detail is ever left out. I truly do appreciate it, which is why I shall always welcome any story you write into canon, as they are just far too perfect, not to. :D
The last parts are pretty clear that things WON'T stay all sunshine and rainbows. ;)
Nothing new there then for the sisters. Unfortunately I'm beginning to wonder if the sisters will ever know true peace. Bridget and her friends in Tirepanted's world have all found peace and closure. Yuka and our group of heroines in Pakal are starting to find resolutions and ways to end their wars. But for the sisters......I doubt this will ever be the case.......They'll always be another maniac, another gang, another corrupt cooperation and another villainess......This is their life I'm afraid. But it's their bond as loving sisters that keep them going. :D 8-)
rufusluciusivan
Posts: 1225
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 5:08 pm

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by rufusluciusivan »

To answer Trackman's previous comment (the others have been answered earlier ;) ):
so if you want, we could have the chapter only featuring Tina and Marie going after her, so those two can have some more screen time together and further discuss past events of what life was like for them in the company before they truly became loving sisters, because let us not forget, Marie is originally a clone trooper, so her upbringing was very different to that of Tina's. I mean yeah, we all know that they end up becoming loving sisters in the end, but their past is something that shouldn't be ignored
You don't have to force these interactions in this specific story. It can work any time, whenever you feel some inspiration to address this backstory.
Indeed, or rather you gave me an idea in the heat of the moment, for instance........Millie knows that Tina and her sisters will naturally try and sabotage the election so her family get voted out of power, now, what if she then hired another group of rogue infiltrators to take down the opposing candidates, so her family are left as the only one's running for power of the city? It could lead to a showdown of Tina and her sisters taking on this group of rogue infiltrators in a no hold bards match.......May the best infiltrators win! 8-)
I smell lots of uniformed women caught in the crossfire though... :lol:
But for the sisters......I doubt this will ever be the case.......They'll always be another maniac, another gang, another corrupt cooperation and another villainess......This is their life I'm afraid. But it's their bond as loving sisters that keep them going.
I guess that's the disadventage of being comicbook characters. Though I'm pretty sure that they can still reach some sort of happy ending. Slowly, the number of their enemies is dwindling...


Now, as a little gift, the beginning of the main plot...





Part 1

**************

“And up! … And down! … And up! … And down! … And up! … And down!”

In rhythm, in their cell of Heartfelt City's prison, Gillian and Edwige were doing squats. They had of course roped Zoe in. However, the latter was taking advantage of the fact that she was positioned behind them to slack off.

“Hey, Dumb and Dumber! Keep it quiet! Some people are trying to rest here!” Ayano suddenly shouted from the next cell.

“Maybe you’d be less grumpy if you exercised to work off your pent-up aggression!” Edwige retorted. “Plus, it’s good for your butt fat!”

“You’re lucky there’s a wall in-between us!” Ayano retorted. “Or I would beat you so badly your GRANDCHILDREN would have bruises!”

Janette, Betty, and Susanne (who were sharing her cell) loudly approved her.

A voice suddenly intervened from an other cell further in the corridor. “Hey! You better NOT bother my future hoe!” Phoebe shouted. “Sweet cheeks! Don’t listen to them! I love hearing you work-out! Just imagining your body move makes me want to touch myself!”

“You better not try to make a move, bitch! Phoebe’s mine!” Raven exclaimed even louder.

“Babe! We can have a three-way!” Phoebe retorted. “Trust me, once you’ve felt her body grind against yours, you’ll change your tune!”

Edwige shuddered in disgust.

However, luckily, the sounds of footsteps spared her the need to answer something.

Gillian glanced outside the cell. “Oh shoot! It’s Zoë!” she exclaimed.

“Yes?” Zoe asked.

The blonde shook her head. “Not you Zoe. Zoë. With an ‘ë’. As in ‘Zoë Eudokia’.”

The prisoners all exchanged wary looks.

If the youngest child of Irene Eudokia was here, it could only be for something important.

The woman was accompanied by a warden. They stopped in front of the pair of cells holding Theophano’s arrested guards.

Edwige opened her mouth to say something.

Zoë Eudokia raised her hand to stop her: “I hope you realize that I hate being used as an errand girl by my family. Therefore, I suggest that you keep the annoyance to a minimum.”

Edwige kept silent.

Zoë Eudokia quickly glanced at all the imprisoned women. She then pointed at Gillian, Zoe, and Edwige. “You three, come with me. You are free.”

The warden opened the door of their cell.

The three women exchanged a look. “No joke?” Edwige asked.

“You have been found innocent. Our lawyers did their work. They proved that you weren’t aware of Glitch’s plan.”

Edwige opened her mouth. “But we were-”

Zoe lightly elbowed her in the ribs to make her shut up. “Of course we didn’t know!” she said loudly.

“Just a reminder, if someone asks you a question. The entire plan was Glitch’s idea. My sister hired that woman as a consultant to help her prepare her election campaign, and she didn’t know that this lunatic would resort to criminal means. Our lawyers proved it.” the youngest Eudokia sibling added.

Gillian opened her mouth. “But Theo-”

Zoe lightly elbowed her in the ribs to make her shut up. “Of course Lady Theophano didn’t do anything wrong! Everything was that Glitch woman’s fault!” she said loudly.

Zoë Eudokia nodded. “Glad we’re on the same page.”

The three friends hurriedly exited the cell, as if they were fearing that Zoë would change her mind.

“What about us?” Betty asked from the other cell.

“You stay here. Your police records were too long, and we needed a few scapegoats.” Zoë Eudokia bluntly retorted.

Betty and Janette shouted in anger.

Ayano exclaimed: “How dare you?! You better free us, or else we’ll…”

“We’ll tell everything to the authorities!” Susanne angrily added.

The youngest Eudokia sibling glared at them. “Just try to snitch on us. Our lawyers will destroy your arguments, and you will be found hung in your cell the next week. And I assure you that the experts will claim it was a mass-suicide.”

The four bullies kept quiet.

“I’m glad we understand each other.” Zoë Eudokia looked at the sentries she had released. “You three, come with me. My family has some work for you.”

Edwige, Zoe, and Gillian exchanged frightened glances. They didn’t know anymore if being released was a good thing for them… Still, they followed the sister of their employer. They didn’t have the choice anyway...

Edwige was the first to muster up the courage to ask a question. “What kind of work?”

“One that involves revenge.” Zoë answered.

**************

In fact, the three guards’ job began as soon as they left their cells. They were led to a changing room in which they were allowed to remove their prisoner clothes and put on the uniforms of House Eudokia’s security detail.

Something that they gladly did.

“Guard uniform! How I’ve missed you!” Edwige even exclaimed with a huge smile.

Then, they escorted Zoë Eudokia when the latter exited the prison. The young aristocrat had an appointment with someone.

“It’s important that we see this person BEFORE anyone acts on the knowledge that I released you three.” Zoë explained to her guards. “Just stand with me, and watch out for any sudden move.”

They went into an hotel room, where Zoë’s appointment was taking place.

The woman she was supposed to meet was already there.

"You're just in time." she commented.

The three guards were a little surprised that their employer requested an escort to meet this specific woman. With her small size, soft tanned skin, chubby figure, cute light blue eyes and round-shaped glasses, the woman looked harmless. They didn’t comment on it however.

Guard’s number 1 rule when working for a family like the Eudokias: Never ask the boss questions, because there’s a good chance your conscience doesn’t want to know the answers.

Zoë Eudokia sat in front of the woman, at the other side of a table. Her three guards stood around her.

“Ellie Merces. I’ve heard that you could be a good source of information.” the aristocrat commented.

The chubby woman smiled. “Oh really? How?”

“Let’s just say that we have a few common acquaintances. Our family owns a weapons factory among other businesses. We recently sold weapons to… a certain group, because we wouldn’t have shed a tear if a... certain company got weakened. Mother was saddened to hear that the Prophet lost her war.”

“I have a lot more respect for that ‘certain group’ than for your family, milady.” Ellie pronounced the last word with a clearly ironic tone of voice. “I was a low-paid wage slave, remember? I know how people like you regard people like me.”

“And yet you contacted us to share information.” Zoë remarked.

“We have common enemies. And the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?” Ellie got a little closer. “I can give you intel on the infiltrators who robbed your sister’s estate after her arrest, and made you all look like utter buffoons.”

Zoë couldn’t hide her small reaction of surprise. “You know them?”

“I heard about the heist on the news. I’ve recognized their style. They’re Blink and Knipperen.”

“My mother will be interested in information about them. How much do you want in exchange?”

Ellie shook her head. “I don’t want your money. In exchange for my intel, I want you to make Blink and Knipperen suffer.”

“Why?”

“I’ve read files belonging to the Phantoms. Thanks to their information, I’m certain one of these two is the woman who mugged me.”

“You seem hell-bent on making these women suffer for that.” the rich girl commented.

Ellie scoffed. “And I am even more surprised to see you so calm. From what I heard, you’re no stranger to being mugged for your clothes yourself.”

Zoë didn’t answer.

The chubby woman kept talking. “Do you even know what happens to you, when you spend too much time trapped inside an airtight cabinet? Slowly suffocating in your own carbon dioxin, stewing in your fear, your sweat and even more disgusting body fluids?”

Ellie’s face had become red of anger, and was twisted by a grimace of hatred. Edwige and Gillian shared a wary look. Suddenly, they understood why their employer had requested an escort...

“You regress.” the chubby woman added. “You become no better than a trapped animal, less than these old people who need diapers to not soil themselves.”

Ellie clenched her fists so hard they became white. She wasn’t looking at Zoë anymore. The spark in her eyes was clear. Her mind was once again trapped inside the closet, desperately banging and gasping for air. She muttered through gritted teeth:

“You have no idea how much I hate the fact that these women are free, while I was the one arrested and judged like a common criminal… What did my friends and I do, except finally dispense justice to these disgusting people who hurt others? Can’t people see that we were doing good around us? These disgusting women are allowed to be free?! People are allowed to admire them as if they were some sorts of anti-heroines?! It sickens me!”

Ellie shook her head.

Suddenly, she calmed herself. Her expression of utter anger and hatred disappeared, replaced by the cute polite smile of a skilled vendor.

“Knipperen thinks infiltrators are apex predators? I trust you to teach her and her sister what it feels to be powerless. I trust you to bring them lower than dirt. Just like they did to me! Wall them alive. Teach them how their victims have felt. I want you to make it slow. That will be my payment.”

Zoë kept quiet during a few seconds. Her face was unreadable.

“Mother will agree.” she finally said. “We also want all the information you have on the team of sisters.”

For some reason, Ellie seemed to hesitate slightly.

“Is there a problem?” Zoë asked.

“Cassie and Willow would-” The chubby woman interrupted herself, shook her head, and made up her mind.

Apparently, she wasn't as hell-bent on getting a revenge against the sisters as she was hell-bent on getting a revenge against Blink and Knipperen. However, she had decided that the Eudokias' help was worth sharing information on the sisters as well. Zoë could clearly see however that Ellie didn't believe that House Eudokia would be able to capture the sisters, even with her intel.

“I can give you a few information, but I don’t have much. Besides, I don’t see how you could capture them.” Ellie finally announced.

“Don’t worry about that. Mother has a plan.”

**************

Soph and Marie were having a dance off on some rhythm videogame, with most of the other sisters watching them and cheering. Soph had the advantage of being more athletic, but Marie had more experience with videogames, so they were equally matched.

However, they were interrupted when Tinker suddenly exclaimed:

“Girls! I found something that will interest you.”

Everyone gathered around her. She showed them a picture she got thanks to a hacked public surveillance camera.

A luxurious black car with a golden crest on each door parked in front of the city’s prison.

“I smell people with too much money.” a deadpan Soph commented while wiping a few droplets of sweat on her forehead.

“I recognize the crest. I’ve read about it.” BB intervened. Her grimace was enough to convince her sisters that the situation was dire. “This car belongs to the Eudokia family.”

A still-deadpan Soph was the first to react. “I smell trouble.”

Tina nodded. “If they’re back in town, I don’t think that it’s for a charity fair… I have a hunch that we won’t like what they’ll be doing.”

“You think of paying them a visit?” Marie asked her.

Tina nodded. “At least, it wouldn’t hurt to hang around and eavesdrop.”

**************

And indeed, they spent the next following days hanging around and eavesdropping.

Irene Eudokia had arrived in Heartfelt City in the greatest secrecy, and was residing in her own private estate with her children. Currently, she was conducting a lot of business.

Their little inquiry allowed the sisters to realize that they had underestimated the Eudokias’ presence in Heartfelt City. The family’s influence on the town was diffuse and indirect, but it was very real. They had shares in almost all of the local big companies. While they rarely had the final word in the decisions, not many things could happen in this city without them being informed. Apparently, Theophano didn’t choose to try to become mayor of Heartfelt City for nothing.

BB had read several articles about the politics of Irene’s home country before its civil war. She explained to her sisters that, since House Eudokia was a minor power as far as domestic politics were concerned, their various heads had chosen to invest in foreign countries to improve the family’s standing. Irene and her late husband in particular sped up this policy, which allowed the House to survive the civil war that destroyed or ruined most of the other powerful Houses of their country.

Theophano wasn’t appearing in public, but the sisters knew that she was in her mother’s estate of Heartfelt City. Irene didn’t want to provoke the mayor, after the fiasco of her daughter’s attempt to discredit him. However, her three other children were very busy. She was sending them all across the town, to reaffirm her House’s influence. Her youngest child Zoë in particular was practically her errand girl. She was going all over the town, mostly to meet up with business owners and officials in order to remind them that, in spite of their recent humiliations, her family was still powerful. Intimidation and bribes were her tools.

She was also visiting a lot of shady places, escorted by three armed women.

Zoë didn’t seem aware of the fact that she was being followed however.

Tina and Mag were watching her every moves. For once, they hadn’t stolen clothes. Their casual clothes would be enough. For now.

The sisters watched Zoë and her escort enter a shady bar called the ‘Blue Dragon’. The place was disreputable, even by the standards of Heartfelt City’s bad parts. And it was well-known for being a meeting place for the town’s criminals.

“Is it me, or is she contacting parts of the underground?” Mag commented.

“Looks like she is.” Tina concurred. “Though it seems to be harder than what she expected.”

Because of the sisters’ and Blink’s recent actions, Heartfelt City’s criminal world was in shambles. All the big gangs had collapsed: the Neon Goons, the Golden Tigers, the Holodecks, the Crimson Lancers and the Ravens were done for. The corrupt Evans had been exposed and arrested, making it harder for criminals to get away with their actions. The city was a little safer. Tina and her sisters were proud to have been able to make a difference, especially Angel.

However, crime never fully went away. The sisters knew that, for now, they had mostly fought the symptoms of the evil, not its root. The more Tina was confronted with the rich people ruling the town, the more she was understanding that the true enemy of crime fighters in Heartfelt City was, in fact, the town’s general corruption. In that regards, the arrest of Evans and the many humiliations of Millie and her father were her and her sisters’ most important victories. Way more important than any crackdown on a gang.

“If the Eudokias are trying to use Heartfelt City’s criminals, no matter if it’s to get their revenge on us or not, it will lead to another crime outbreak.” Tina commented.

“Plus, I recognize the three guards escorting her. I saw their names in the police reports Tinker hacked. Edwige Rovere, Zoe Barrows, and Gillian Godwin. They were part of Theophano’s grunts. They helped her with her little scheme.” Mag added.

“Shouldn’t they be in prison?”

“Tinker told me the family’s lawyers found a loophole to have them released.”

“So Zoë is using women who were complicit in her sister’s plan as her escort…” Tina briefly scratched her chin. “Now, I don’t know what YOU think, but personally I’d say that if I used criminals as my bodyguards, it would be to conduct illegal – or at least shady – shenanigans.”

Mag nodded. “Zoë wouldn’t have to try to hide her illegal actions if her escort is composed of women who already had a hand in the family’s previous underhanded scheme…”

“The more I observe her, the more I’m convinced that they’re up to no good.”

Tina and Mag quickly ducked down, and hid in an alleyway when they saw Zoë exit the ‘Blue Dragon’, escorted by her three guards. The aristocrat briefly glanced in the direction of their alleyway.

However, she then left with her bodyguards. Apparently, she hadn’t seen the two sisters.

“She spent quite some time in this bar.” Mag commented. “Actually more time than during her visit to legitimate business owners.”

“I propose that we pay a visit to the manager of this fine establishment.” Tina concluded. “To see who she was meeting and what she was discussing.”

**************

Later...

It was the night.

The ‘Blue Dragon’, for all its flaws, was a big establishment. One that could serve plenty of people. And, given how rowdy its customers were, its owner employed a big security detail.

Tina had chosen to come with a small team, favoring stealth over force. She was accompanied by Mag, Soph and BB. Tina smiled to herself. Well, with Soph and BB, she still had a great deal of ‘force’ as well...

The sisters quickly gave up the idea to infiltrate the bar by the front. Too many bouncers. At least half-a-dozen of them. Plus, clients were regularly entering and exiting the building. They would never be able to replace the bouncers without being noticed.

The sisters then briefly thought of ambushing a few clients, but they were afraid that it would actually make their job harder. Their goal was indeed to infiltrate the parts of the building that were reserved for the staff, and they suspected that the doors leading to them inside the building were well-guarded. In the main room, it was impossible to discreetly ambush someone. Way too many people. The bouncers never went to the same restrooms as the clients, so once they'd be in the main room, the sisters wouldn't have any opportunity.

Therefore, the sisters were left with the most classic solution in that type of scenario. To try the back entrance. An unoriginal tactic for an infiltrator, but one that had a good track record.

Three women were watching the staff backdoor.

The bouncers of the ‘Blue Dragon’ were looking more like gang members than like security guards. However, by glancing at their clothes, Tina could easily see that these women were trying WAY TOO hard to look tough.

Indeed, their outfits were a melting pot of the outfits worn by the former local top gangs of Heartfelt City (minus the Golden Tigers since they were an international gang): The bouncers were wearing the black combat shoes, trousers, and shirts that all these gangs seemed to favor. They also had the Ravens’ light green scarf tied around the neck with a black raven stitched onto it, the Holodecks’ blue jacket with blue neon sticks, the Crimson Lancers’ red corset with black lacing, and they were dyeing their hair with bright colours like the Neon Goons.

‘When the cat is away, the mice will play.’ A few months ago, these women would have been the bottom of the food chain in the underworld. Now that a good chunk of the real tough criminals were behind bars, the petty criminals were starting to think they were big shots.

However, the guns strapped onto their belts were real, and as lethal as any other firearm.

The first bouncer was a black woman with neck-long curly hair that were dyed scarlet red, and golden brown eyes. She was of average size, with a plain-looking body.

The second bouncer had a white skin, blue eyes, and electric blue hair that were braided. The thick braid was armpit long. Her body was curvy, with round shapely breast, a shapely bottom, and well-toned legs.

The third bouncer was a very tall muscular woman with a fit body, hazel eyes, and a light skin. She had a pixie cut. Her closely-cropped hair were dyed purple.

Tina knew that she and her sisters could defeat these women without breaking a sweat. Heck, Soph could do it on her own, and probably with one arm tied behind her back. However, they needed to make sure that the bouncers couldn’t raise the alarm.

“Soph, BB, Mag, gather around, I have a plan!”

**************

In front of the door, the three bouncers were talking:

“Hey, were you on duty earlier today?” the purple-haired bouncer asked her partners.

“No, but I wish I was.” the blue-haired one answered. “Heard that a fancy woman visited the manager…”

“I was here.” the scarlet-haired bouncer intervened.

“Really? What was she like?” the first bouncer asked.

“What did she want?” the second one added.

Their colleague shrugged. “Don’t really know. I was more interested in her brown-haired bodyguard, if you catch my drift. That woman had a body…” She put two fingers on her lips and blew a kiss, like a gourmet that had just tasted a good dish. “She must work out every day... But, you know, she also makes sure to not look too muscular. Fit, but feminine... I tried getting her number, but she just shuddered and complained that she ‘attracted the creepy stalkers’.”

“Well, since you were only into her body, she’s not wrong.” the blue-haired bouncer retorted.

“Shut up, and don’t you dare kink-shame me! I know about your weird BDSM sessions with that waitress of yours!”

The blue-haired bouncer was about to retort something, but the sound of a commotion interrupted her.

“Gosh! You’re the worst! I hate you!”

Soph and BB had walked into the alleyway, and were pretending to be arguing with each other.

“Need I have to remind you I’m eighteen! I can make my own decisions!” Soph shouted. She was playing the part of the bratty womanchild.

“Maybe, but I won’t let you enter such a disreputable place!” BB was playing the part of the responsible older sibling.

The bouncers exchanged knowing glances and amused smiles. Apparently, this was not the first time they had witnessed such a scene.

“Shut up! You’re not mom!” Soph shouted with a pout of which Millie Porsche would have been proud.

“I’m still your older sister, and I know what’s best for you!”

The blue-haired and scarlet-haired bouncers approached the two sisters.

“Alright, break it off you two! This place is restricted!”

The blue-haired bouncer put a hand on Soph’s shoulder while the scarlet-haired one put a hand on BB’s shoulder.

BB and Soph exchanged a glance, and a smile.

Then, suddenly, BB grabbed the scarlet-haired bouncer’s neck, and gave her a good jolt with her electric glove to stun her. At the same time, perfectly synchronized, Soph hit the blue-haired bouncer with a perfect neck-chop to knock her out.

“BZZZZZZTTTTT!” the first bouncer said.

“Guh!” the second one grunted.

The two limp women fell into the sisters’ arms.

“WHAT?!”

The tall purple-haired bouncer grabbed her walkie talkie to warn the other guards.

However, Mag fired her rope wrist-launcher. The rope wrapped itself around the bouncer’s wrist. Mag violently pulled it. She didn’t try to drag the woman into her arms. Since that specific woman was BB’s size, she knew that it would be very difficult. Instead, Mag forced the woman to drop her walkie talkie and made her fall onto a knee by pulling on the rope.

Now that the woman’s face was at her level, Tina rushed and knocked her out with a clean punch to the temple.

“Ooop!”

The purple-haired woman fell onto the ground, and went still. Out like a light.

Tina checked the discarded walkie-talkie. “She didn’t have the time to use it.” she informed her sisters. “Coast is clear.”

The sisters got down to work.

Soph and Mag swiftly undressed the two average-sized bouncers.

"Gosh... Their outfit looks even more hideous up close..." Mag complained.

It was true that the light green scarves, the blue jackets with blue neon sticks, and the red corsets with black lacing clashed with each other. The sisters removed them first. Then they lifted one leg at a time to pull off the black combat shoes, lifted both legs at the same time to remove the trousers, and let the legs fall back to grab the upper-bodies, to lift them, and to take off the black shirts.

At the same time, Tina smiled at BB and pointed at the tall purple-haired bouncer. “This time you’re in luck sis’. She’s your size.”

Her tall sister returned her smile, and also got down to work and stripped the woman.

Surprisingly enough, the bouncers weren’t wearing underwear matching their hair dyes. The scarlet-haired bouncer was wearing white socks, golden brown tanga panties, and a matching demi-bra. The blue-haired one was wearing white control briefs with red polka dots, as well as matching socks and a matching full-cup bra. The tall purple-haired one was clad in pink socks, a white string and a white tube top.

Tina opened a backpack and pulled out white sturdy plastic zip-ties, and a few rolls of black strong tape.

She and her sisters zip-tied each bouncer’s wrists behind the back, and each woman’s ankles and knees. They wrapped tape around the lower-face as a gag. With the tall bouncer that was BB’s size, they also wrapped tape around her legs and upper-arms as a safety precaution, as the woman looked strong.

The sisters stashed the two average-sized bouncers into empty trash cans, and the tall one into the cardboard dumpster. The fit was tight, and they would be a little cold, but at least there wasn't smelly garbage. When they closed the lid, they took care of placing them in a way that still allowed air to enter. They didn't feel much guilt for petty delinquents, but they still didn't want to harm them too much.

Tina asked Mag and Soph to put on the average-sized bouncer’s clothes.

“What about you?” Soph asked.

“Don’t worry, we still have quite some time. These three are supposed to stand guard during the entire night. We have several hours before someone discovers that they’ve been mugged and replaced.” Tina reassured her sisters. “We’re reaching the middle of the night, a time when some employees take a break. And where does one go when she wants a smoke break?”

Her sisters exchanged smiles.

“In the back entrance…”

“We’ll wait thirty minutes. If nothing has happened after that, then we’ll just make due with the bouncer outfits.”

BB, Soph, and Mag slipped into the black shirts, trousers, and combat shoes; then the blue jackets with blue neon sticks, and red corsets with black lacing. Finally, they tied the green scarves around their neck.

“What is these guys’ gang even called? The Colourblind Clowns?” Mag complained once more. She looked at Tina. "Sis'! Did you let us have these clothes because you didn't want to look like a buffoon?" she joked.

Tina smiled teasingly, and winked.

Of course, the sisters didn’t have bottles of hair dye to finish their disguise. However, their numerous run-ins with the Neon Goons had taught them to always bring a few wigs, just in case. BB put on a green wig, Mag a blue one, and Soph a purple one.

They then took the place of the three unfortunate previous bouncers, standing guard in front of the back entrance.

**************

Tina’s prophecy proved to be correct. Twenty minutes later, a barmaid exited the building for a smoke break.

She was a woman of average size with a soft round face, not exactly curvy, but not plain-looking either. She had black hair tied into a shoulder-long high ponytail. The tip of her ponytail was bleached white. Her eyes were chestnut brown and her skin was light.

She was wearing a white long-sleeved button-up shirt, a black bow tie, a jet black pencil skirt with a golden belt tied around the waist, dark grey tights, and black shoes.

The barmaid was looking furious, and her hands were actually trembling as she was lighting her cigarette.

“Damn fuckers… Dirty pigs...” she complained to herself. “Can’t seem to realize that this place ain’t a brothel… We’re barmaids, not whores…”

She took a deep draw on the cigarette to calm herself. She also noticed that the sisters were staring at her. However, because of the dim light, she didn’t get a good look at their faces, and was fooled by their clothes and wigs. She thought they were genuine bouncers.

“What are you looking at?!” she barked at them.

“Your clothes. You’ll have to take them off.” Tina reflexively answered, while stepping out of the shadows.

The barmaid misinterpreted her demand. “You bitch! You too think you can get in my skirt?!” she angrily exclaimed.

Tina frowned. “What?! No! Of course not.” She had just realized her poor phrasing. “Look, I’m sorry that you had a tough shift with your clients, but we need your clothes for a mission. There’s nothing sexual in our demand. I'm just going to impersonate you while you'll spend a few hours bound and gagg- This doesn’t make things any less awkward, does it?”

The barmaid stared at her in disbelief.

Then she grabbed a canister of pepper spray hidden in the pocket of her skirt.

Tina moved quickly. She was faster than the barmaid.

Before the latter could spray her, she grabbed the woman’s wrist, and twisted her arm behind her back, moving behind her to immobilize her.

The barmaid groaned, but then took a deep breath to call for help.

Mag clamped a cloth soaked with chloroform over her mouth and nose. With her other hand, she immobilized the woman’s head.It muffled the woman's scream.

The barmaid furiously flailed her legs, and glared daggers at Mag, but her rants were silenced by the thick piece of cloth. She was steaming with anger!

It took the sisters longer than expected to knock the woman out. They even needed Soph’s and BB’s help to restrain the barmaid. However, ultimately, their efforts were rewarded when the woman’s struggles weakened. Reluctantly, the barmaid succumbed to the effect of the narcotic fumes. Her angry muffled rants became soft moans, then faint sighs, and then silence only puncuated with slow light breathings. Her head rested on the side and her eyelids closed. She was now looking peaceful. And actually very cute when she was not frowning in anger.

“Phew! There was so much pent-up anger and aggression in that one…” Mag commented.

Tina dragged the limp deeply-asleep barmaid behind the trash cans and dumpsters. “Good thing Libido isn’t here.” she commented. “She would have wanted to try to ‘get rid of some of that hostility’. And I don’t think this woman is in the mood to appreciate Libido’s way of unwinding…”

While talking, she untied the bow tie, then unbuttoned and pulled off the button-up shirtby lifting and gently letting go of the woman's upper-body. Then she unlaced and removed the shoes, before grabbing the tights and pulling them off as well. Finally, she unclipped the belt of the skirt, and slid it down the woman’s legs. The barmaid was wearing a night blue mesh hollow tank top bra, and dark green knickers as undergarments.

Like with the bouncers, zip-ties were put to good use to restrain the woman’s wrists, knees and ankles, and a wrap-gag made of black tape was used to silence her.

Tina left the barmaid concealed behind the trash cans instead of inside them. She laid her on a cardboard, and covered her with another one to conceal her - and to cover her half-naked body. Then she slipped into her new shoes, tights, pencil skirt, and button-up shirt. She buckled the belt and tied the bow tie.

Now, she had an outfit allowing her to roam the parts of the building reserved for the staff.

“BB and Soph, you will stay outside and keep pretending to be bouncers guarding the backdoor, in case someone came. You’ll also secure our escape route. Mag and I will find the manager and squeeze the information out of her.”

Her sisters nodded.

**************

The second she entered the building, Tina was annoyed by the obnoxious loud music coming from the public part of the bar. She decided that they would make this mission as quick as possible.

Thankfully, there actually wasn’t any guard inside the corridors. They were all outside the building or in the public parts, where the customers were. Tina and Mag weren’t complaining.

The back area of the Blue Dragon wasn't as big as they thought from the outside. They quickly located the manager’s room, and entered without being invited. The latter was busy scolding a young barmaid.

“… don’t care if he groped you! This guy’s one of our best customers! He brings in more money than YOU! So if he gropes you, you smile and thank him! If he asks to sleep with you, you smile and say ‘Yes sir. Right away sir.’!”

“But-” the barmaid tried to protest.

Her manager threw a pen at her face. “Get back to work, or you’re fired you little tramp!” she barked.

The girl literally ran out of the office. She was in tears.

The manager finally noticed Mag’s and Tina’s presence. According to the plaque on her desk, she was called Jane Trepe. She had raven black hair tied into a tight strict bun, cold dark eyes, and a pearly white skin. She was thin, and her facial features were sharp and angular, giving her an authoritative look, and she was wearing black square-shaped glasses. She was wearing an elegant business ensemble: a grey business jacket over a crisp white button-up shirt, a grey knee-long business skirt with a black belt, light grey stockings, and black high-heels.

“What do you want?” Jane harshly asked the two women whom she thought were bouncers. “I’m busy. I’m not paying you bums to stand idly!”

Tina closed the door. “Well, as the plan was to shake up someone for information, I was fearing it would be difficult. But you’re making things a lot easier…”

The manager got up. “You think you’re funny, you little bitch? Pack up your things and leave! You’re fired!”

“Joke’s on you. I don’t work here. But maybe if you cared more for your employees, you’d actually KNOW their faces…” Tina coldly commented.

The manager’s eyes widened. Jane had finally realized that Mag and Tina were impostors wearing the clothes of some of her employees.

Mag fired a bola at her, to force her to sit again and to pin her against her chair.

The manager tried to scream for help. Tina clamped a hand over her mouth. “I don’t think people will hear you over that stupid music.”

“And even if they did, we’d simply knock out whoever would enter. We’d be gentler with them than with you, but we’d do it.” Mag added.

The manager stopped moving, and the sisters understood that she wouldn’t try to call for help. Tina removed her hand.

“What do you want?” Jane asked.

“Answers. Earlier today, you were visited by Zoë Eudokia. We want to know what she discussed.”

“You think I’ll tell you?!” Jane retorted.

“We have ways of making people talk.” Mag coldly announced.

Jane scoffed. However, the sisters could easily see in the woman’s eyes and posture that she was only faking her composure. Like most bullies, Jane was a coward at heart. She was actually terrified.

Mag noticed a stapler on the manager’s deck. “Well, well, well… Look what we have here…” She grabbed the device. “I’m wondering how many staples in the fingers it will take…” She commented.

Tina didn’t react, and made sure to keep a neutral face. She trusted Mag, she knew it was a bluff. But she didn’t want Jane to know that. Tina probably wouldn’t have been as good as her sister in bluffing such a thing, but Mag had always been less idealistic than her. She was probably even able to carry on her threat...

Jane cracked up before Tina could get an answer to her question however. The moment Mag made one step in her direction actually.

“She’s looking for information about the team of nine sisters and she’s trying to recruit more grunts! Irene’s preparing something big, something illegal, and she doesn’t want the team of sisters to ruin everything again! She’ll meet some gang leaders in the greatest secrecy in two days! She’s in her own personal estate! One that’s different from her daughter’s! It’s a lot more secured! I can give you the address! That’s all I know, I swear!”

Mag put back the stapler on the desk, and patted Jane’s head patronizingly. “There, there, you see… It wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Tina was shaking her head. “Does it mean that each family member has their own personal manor and estate? The arrogance of this family has no limits!” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Anyway. Let’s regroup with the others. We got what we wanted.”

“Well, almost.” Mag remarked.

She looked at Jane once again.

“We want something else from you before we leave.”

“What?” the manager warily asked.

“Your clothes.”

**************

Tina adjusted the collar of her white button-up shirt and her black belt, then smoothened her grey business skirt and light grey stockings. She adjusted her black high-heels, before putting on the grey business jacket.

Jane had been stripped down to her black g-string and her matching open bra, then properly chair-tied on her own office chair. Her ankles and calves were bound together with tape. A rope was connecting them to the spindle. Each of her arms was bound to an armrest with zip-ties and tape wrapped around the hands, fingers, wrists, and forearms. A rope was tied around her waist and another around her shoulders. They were pinning her against the backrest.

“I wish I was a fly on the wall when someone will find you.” Mag commented. “Kinda ironic that you call other people tramps, with your slutty undergarments… Never heard of the saying: ‘Charity begins at home’?”

Jane stammered, her cheeks red because of the anger: “You won’t get away with that! I’ll- I’ll- I’ll make you pay! I’ll warn Irene! I’ll-”

“You mean that you will let the Eudokias know that YOU spilled the beans on their latest operation?” Mag interrupted her. She put a hand on her cheek, pretending to be shocked and scared. “My, my, you’re a brave one! I’m wondering how long it will take them to offer you a nice trip to the harbour with cement shoes... Or maybe they will just crush your little establishment and ruin you until you have to sleep under a bridge… What do you think?”

Jane opened and closed her mouth several times without being able to talk. She had become ghostly pale.

“So just do yourself a favour and keep your mouth SHUT.” Mag concluded.

The manager wordlessly nodded.

Mag gagged Jane with Tina’s discarded barmaid tights: she shoved the first one into her mouth, and used the second one as a cleave-gag. She added the rest of the roll of tape, just as an added humiliation.

Then, she patronizingly pinched Jane’s cheek, like a grandmother with her grandchild. “Glad we could come to an arrangement.”

With a kick, she sent to the office chair rolling to a corner of the room, concealing Jane in a blind spot. The manager angrily groaned in her gag, but Tina and Mag ignored her.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Tina jokingly said to her sister.

They left the room, abandoning the manager to her fate and her eventual humiliating discovery.

The sisters didn’t learn much, but with the information they had, they knew one thing. They couldn’t let Irene Eudokia act with impunity. If she was going to meet criminals, they had the opportunity to expose her.

Perhaps this time, they’d be able to bring down the corrupt aristocrat...

**************

Author's note: More of an appetizer, but I can assure you that you will get the main course (the 'infiltration') soon. I'll be honest. I enjoyed a lot coming up with the next part, so I wanted to set it apart.
Trackman281
Posts: 1600
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Chapter 42.5: The Noblest and Most Ancient House of All

Post by Trackman281 »

Okay, here we go! 8-)

I loved the opening scene and of course it has some massive continuity nods with Edwige, Zoe, Gillian, Ayano, Betty, Janette and Susanne of course being a part of Theo's little scheme from before, and of course Heartfelt's own Phoebe and Raven are there with Glitch being thrown in for good measure too. This sets up the story wonderfully and I can't wait to see what major part Zoe, Gillian and Edwige play. :D

WOW! And I do mean, WOW! The follow up scene with Zoë and Ellie was simply amazing. For keen eyed viewers as well who follow the series.......The Phantoms "business partner" has just been revealed, and I hope readers now understand why I couldn't reveal who they were in my previous arc (for obvious reasons). ;) ..................As I was saying. Now what's really interesting here, is the way Ellie responds, like when she was having doubts about revealing the information to Zoë about Tina and her sisters. I guess she somewhat see's all the things that they have done for Louette, Willow and Cassie and maybe they aren't bad women after all. I'm purely speculating here as I don't fully know what you have in mind for Ellie in this story, but damn, I can't wait to find out, because you really do have me both hooked and very interested in what will happen next. :D

I'm also very curious to see what will happen when or if, Ellie confronts Blink and Knipperen, I mean, was it either of them to begin with? Or was it just one of them? Or was it both of them? I have three different scenarios playing out in my head and I'm really curious to see what kind of path this all goes down. :D

Once again, I really like writing scenes of the sisters just enjoying normal everyday life, and I think you've managed to incorporate here in your story wonderfully too. Now as we all know, Marie is the video gamer out of the sisters, she certainly does enjoy them, even if it's not mentioned often, so I thank you for reminding everyone about that, and of course Soph being Soph is always up for a bit of light hearted, competitive fun with her sisters, so naturally she would be the one going against Marie of a video game. :D

I truly do like and admire the way you capture these moments with the sisters and I really do believe that you have done a tremendous job here too. :D

I like the opening to the next scene too with BB telling the history of the Eudokia family to her sisters as it's also a great way to remind everyone just how powerful the Eudokia family really are. I also really appreciated the other little Easter eggs as well such as the mentioning of Evans, The neon goons, the crimson lancers, the ravens and of course the Golden Tigers themselves. I love all these sneaky little references and easter eggs you put in your stories and if I'm being honest. I actually have a lot of fun trying to find them. :D

I also enjoyed the scenes of dialogue between Tina, Mag and Tinker. I've always enjoyed writing scenes with just Tina and Mag together, as these two always seem to bounce off each other nicely and they compliment each other's styles, so yes, good choice in having Tina and Mag being the only two doing the snooping here as scenes with these two sisters are possibly some of the best. In my opinion. :D

I like the opening of this next scene as it's a great way to highlight that even though the bosses of all these major gangs are now behind bars, they still have plenty of grunts that flew under the radar and are now being reluctantly form alliances so they can actually get some work, although it's nice to see them still sporting their original gang logos and colours, as to remind them as to where their true loyalties lie. :D

Hahahaha, I see what you did there. Poor Edwige, she just can't catch a break can she. :lol:

I loved the entire USB scene here, I really enjoyed the varied takedowns of all three bouncers, like Soph and BB pretending to do the whole "younger angry sister rant" just to lure the bouncers into a trap, nicely done and I thought it was genius! :D I also really liked of how Mag and Tina both took down the tall purple haired bouncer. I've always just written Mag using her rope launchers to encase her targets, so I really do find it refreshing and original to see you come up with some new and interesting ways to use Mags launchers. Honestly, a massive well done here and you've even given me food for thought as to how I could mix it up in the future too, so thank you! :D

I also really liked the sisters little jokey side they had about the outfits of the bouncers making them look like buffoons. I also love the small little comedic scenes of the sisters just having a laugh and joke together while their on an infiltration. It's really nice to see and it reminds us of how strong their bonds are as sisters, it's great. Plus, Yay! BB gets her disguise from a woman whose just her size! :D 8-)

Hahaha, I really enjoyed the barmaid scene. :lol: I just love Tina's poor phrasing and then realizing what she said, she quickly tried to correct herself. Nicely done and Tina is right. It is a GOOD thing that Libido isn't there, otherwise that poor barmaid wouldn't have had any peace outside either, as Libido would have been all of her so she can, shall we say........Vent and Release some of her anger, something that Libido would certainly love to help her do. :D 8-)

Okay, so the moment Jane appeared, I was immediately routing for her to be stripped and humiliated, and thankfully you gave us that and more, I mean seriously. WHAT A SCENE!................If I may be blunt here, you really REALLY captured both Mag's and Tina's personalities and characteristics PERFECTLY here, you really did such a fantastic job and if I'm being truly honest as well. I genuinely don't believe I could have done a better job, you just captured it all so wonderfully, that it was truly a sight to behold! :D I loved it all. I loved Tina's sympathetic side, I loved Mag's dominance and shows that she can be a force to be reckoned with and while yes, Tina does know that Mag was only joking with those staples and was simply using a fear tactic. We've all seen how protective Mag is over her sisters and we all know that out of all of them. Mag can come across as the one who could most likely be pushed into truly hurting someone, especially if it means she'd keep her sisters safe, as I may point out once more, look how far Sarah pushed Mag. Now as we all know, Tina stopped Mag from making the ultimate mistake and killing Sarah, but this is beside the point.........Okay do you know what, I'll say it.......THIS! Was my favourite scene through this part of the story, it was just so well written and because you absolutely nailed both Tina's and Mag's personalities so tremendously well. I have nothing but absolute praise to give you! :D

This was another brilliant part and with so many factors now coming into play, I honestly can't wait to see what else you've crafted, because as I've said before, while I may know snippets of what's going on, I also know that you kept a great chunk of this story hidden from me (which is what I wanted as I love surprises), so I honestly have no idea what's going to happen next at the moment, and that's the way I like it! 8-)

Amazing work once again! :D :D
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