Spider-Woman and

The Books of Doom

"Kane, darling," the long-haired witch smiled as she toyed with the massive head harness ballgag, "a girl likes to play with her toys when she gets the chance."

Kane shrugged. "We're talking about capturing one unarmed journalist. She'll probably faint dead away before you even get the cuffs out."

Mab looked up, wicked lust suffusing her beautiful features. "Doesn't mean I can't tie her up anyway."

He nodded, as if he'd expected the response. "Try not to spend too much time playing; just get her."

"Kane, if you don't want to play, you can just wait in the car."

He sighed. "Fine. I'll keep the car close by and once you've got her secured, we'll dump her in the trunk and bring her back here."

Once Mab had her satchel ready to go, the two of them descended to the underground garage of their high-rise lair, where a striking blonde in a chauffeur's uniform waited next to a large, black luxury sedan: mystical travel might be more efficient, but a smooth ride on soft leather seats was one of the human sensations Kane had grown most attached to. The deadly pair got in, and the driver climbed in front.

The plan for the abduction of Kate Cutler was now underway.

*****

For her own part, the notion of abduction was pretty far from Kate's mind. As she made her rounds of interviews and research, she'd found her meeting with Spider-Woman very much on her mind--how could it not be, with her mysterious new protector lurking somewhere in the nearby shadows? In fact, in the late afternoon, as she made her way past a series of downtown office buildings, back towards the now-nearly-empty parking lot, she found herself running parts of their meeting over and over again in her mind.

Somehow, though, the actual content of their conversation--the dangers inherent in what she was doing, the dark mysteries she might uncover--seemed to be receding into the background. Coming more and more to the fore were things they had seemed to say without words, as well as the tingles that came with remembering the shapely figure that might have been poured into the garish costume; the torrent of shining dark hair; and a scent that filled her head in a way that not even the most expensive Paris perfume could have matched. Kate was hardly accustomed to becoming obsessed with women she had just met--particularly ones whose faces she'd never seen--but there was something very different about Spider-Woman.

As Kate found herself musing on just how those silky black locks would feel running through her fingers, she was startled to see a long, smooth tress of black hair suddenly whip into her line of sight… and fasten itself around her left wrist!

"Wha…?" Not a woman usually lost for words or action, Kate could only stare dumbfounded at the strange sight, wondering for a moment if it was some by-product of her fevered fantasizing. By the time more of the long locks had bound both her wrists together in front of her, she could only stumble foolishly as she was turned and pulled toward one of the most striking women she had ever seen: not tall, but perfectly-formed, an exquisite figure in tight black leather… and a face of such predatory beauty that she might have been a female T-Rex ready to devour her prey. Certainly, little of anything recognizable as human emotion glowed from her blazing eyes.

"Dear Miss Cutler," the woman's voice was a decadent murmur, "I am so glad to make your acquaintance. You and I will have such fun playing 'Twenty Questions'."

"Who are you?" Kate sputtered as the woman's grasping hair dragged her forward toward the huge black car whose open door looked like a mouth preparing to swallow her whole.

Blood-red lips opened to respond when there was a crackling sound on the air, a flash of greenish-blue light, and Kate's wrists were suddenly freed as the woman staggered back, clutching at her chest.

"She's toast," came a familiar voice, as Spider-Woman emerged from the shadows, the wrist that had delivered the Spider-Venom sting still raised. With the lightest twitch of a muscle, she delivered another shock to the stunned would-be kidnapper, then turned to Kate.

"Are you all righ--ahhh!" Her question broke off as she felt something impact with her back, knocking her forward into the red-haired reporter's arms. Ignoring that delightful contact, she spun around to a sight she'd have thought impossible: her foe had got back to her feet, and used her prehensile hair to throw the chunk of brick that had collided with Spider-Woman's back. The woman was clearly still woozy, but that she able to stand at all after a double dose of Spider-Venom was a pretty clear indication that she was not going to be a pushover.

"Who the hell are you?" The woman gritted out, her voice harsher now. Her blazing eyes fixed on Spider-Woman, and Sophea felt something that seemed to go right through her, head to loins. That the woman was beautiful she had seen from her hiding place. What she hadn't experienced until this moment was the sheer power that radiated from her.

For as long as she had had her superhuman abilities, Sophea's female friends, whether galpals or bedmates, had shared one characteristic: they were weaker than she was. Not only were they not as physically strong, but even the smartest and most confident of them would have been no match for her in any sort of conflict or test of wills; it was sometimes comforting, but more often maddening, to be the "strong one", the one who had to hide her powers to avoid upsetting, or endangering, her friends.

And though she had only the evidence of a few moments to go on, Sophea was absolutely certain of one thing: the woman facing her was possessed of a strength that might well match her own. In a deep, animal part of her brain, that was fascinating… terrifying… and seductive.

But uppermost in her mind was the thought that, whatever else, it made the woman too dangerous a foe to give any quarter. She wondered if her pheromones would have any effect on the witch; then realized with a shiver that any physical desire the woman might have for her would not be expressed by a peck on the cheek: whatever else her foe might be, Spider-Woman knew a sexual predator when she met one.

Mab snaked another long tress of black hair toward Spider-Woman, catching her right ankle. Spider-Woman was yanked off her feet, landing hard on her already-aching back. The witch was on her immediately, trying to follow up her advantage by seizing a fistful of Spider-Woman's glossy dark mane, and banging her head to the ground.

"Slut! No one lays hands on me!" Mab shrieked in a shaky voice.  She was clearly still weakened from the Spider-Venom blasts, though, and instead of slamming her foe into unconsciousness, she succeeded only in giving Spider-Woman a nasty headache… and really pissing her off.

"Dammit!" Spider-Woman unleashed another Venom blast, straight into the woman's chest, throwing her back; her fingers yanked painfully at Spider-Woman's hair as she lost her grip.

Spider-Woman sprang back to her feet, noting that while the woman's ability to withstand her attack was greater than anything she'd ever seen, the repeated blasts were starting to have their effect: her beautiful, deadly foe was moving even more slowly now as she got to her feet.

"Oh, when I get my hands on you…" Mab seemed to be slurring her words now. She didn't finish the threat, and Sophea found, to her horror, that her own brain was filling in the blanks, as a picture flashed into her mind of herself, a helpless captive in the hands of this grinning beauty, who was just about to…

"Shut up!" Spider-Woman snarled, and drove the vision from her brain with a flying tackle that sent the two of them colliding into the wall of a small shed behind Mab. Spider-Woman saw some kind of electrical sparking, and heard wires spitting. She threw Mab aside, hoping to dash her against the wall of the building opposite, but the witch recovered herself before the impact, and squared off, though she seemed barely able to stay on her feet.

Spider-Woman stood ready, and as Mab rushed dizzily towards her, she  executed a neat leap into the air, spinning head over heels like a gymnast to stick a perfect two-point landing… right in her foe's back.

"Ugggghhh!" Breath whooshed out of Mab's lungs at the impact, and she slammed forward to the ground. She once again began to get up, but even more slowly this time.

Having made up her mind that her foe was likely superhumanly strong, Spider-Woman had no compunction about delivering another roundhouse kick to the side of Mab's head, sending the long-haired witch spinning to the ground again. Her next attempt to get to her feet was stopped by Spider-Woman's foot being planted firmly on her derriere. The heroine shoved hard, sending Mab sprawling again, and followed it up with yet another blast of Spider-Venom.

The woman collapsed, her face lost in the tumbled mass of her hair. From her position on the ground, she groaned out a single syllable that meant nothing to Spider-Woman, before sagging to the ground, finally unconscious.

*****

For his part, Kane was having trouble believing what he was seeing… or, rather, not seeing.

He had been waiting in the car for Mab to return with their prey when he'd heard the sounds of the brief fight. With a word to the driver, he'd stepped out of the car, to see his sister collapsed on the ground, the red-haired reporter cringing next to her in fear… and what appeared to be an area of dark grey emptiness in his vision: an emptiness that seemed not only to elude his sight, but impinge on his other senses as well. It was as though his eyes and ears were enduring some sort of terrible pressure; a stabbing headache piled on top of some kind of force that was driving him somehow back towards the car. He couldn't even begin to imagine what was overwhelming his superhuman senses; he knew only that he could not prevent his legs from propelling himself back into the car, or his voice barking an order for the driver to start the car.

"Full speed," he snarled. "Drive straight toward the space between my sister and that wall."

"Space?" The driver asked. "You mean where that woman in the costume is standing?"

"What woman?!" Kane replied, and he pulled himself up to the window to see what she was talking about: somehow, even though all he saw was a ghostly grey area that physically repelled him, the driver was able to discern that it was being caused by a woman.

Interesting note to file away for later, Kane thought weakly to himself. As the car started to head in Spider-Woman's direction, Kane heard Mab's muffled voice call his name once, but almost before he could process the sound, his senses were once more overwhelmed, and he gasped for the driver to turn around, and put some distance between him and the mysterious force.

*****

Spider-Woman stood over her defeated foe, panting heavily from her exertions. She was thankful she'd had the foresight to stay hidden while guarding Kate: getting those first blasts of the Spider-Venom in before the woman knew what hit her had probably been the difference in the fight.

She had noticed a large, dark car nearby when Mab had emerged, but now that she had a moment to look around, it seemed to have disappeared.

Likely her confederates, she mused. Better deal with this one first, though.

For the first time, she noticed the black leather satchel that Mab had carried. She reached down, and opened it. She examined the contents of the bag, and saw that it was a dizzying assortment of restraints: rope and handcuffs, and custom-made leather pieces that suggested something deeper and darker than simple captivity.

"Guess you were planning to use some of this stuff on poor Kate," she taunted her unconscious foe. "Well, let's see how you like it."

With that, she drew out a large sheath made of leather, with eyelets and laces running up its side. Unfamiliar as she was with the device, it was pretty clear that it was designed to hold both a person's arms together behind them, and she bent down and began to fit Mab's drooping arms into it. Her nimble fingers made short work of the laces, and in a few moments, her foe's arms were fused into a single leather-covered limb. Leather straps dangled from the front of it, and she lifted Mab's body far enough off the ground to fasten the straps between her breasts, then buckle them back over her shoulders, fastening the garment in place. A pair of leather cuffs then went onto her prisoner's ankles, and another above her knees, leaving her unable to use either hands or feet, and not a moment too soon, as Spider-Woman could hear the first quiet moans of her stirring.

Damn, she's a tough one! As Spider-Woman looked down, she realized that, even though her foe's hands and feet were now useless, there was still the danger of that prehensile hair. She rummaged in the sack for a moment, and pulled out the head-harness gag that Mab had been admiring earlier. Again, lack of experience with the device didn't prevent Spider-Woman putting it to use: in a few moments, she had seated the thick rubber ball between Mab's teeth, drawn the web of leather straps around her head and over her hair, and buckled the gag tightly at the nape of her neck. As Spider-Woman had hoped, the pressure of the harness kept Mab from striking out with her long hair; the fact that she was starting to drool helplessly around the ballgag was just a bonus.

Spider-Woman was starting to turn to see if Kate was all right, when she heard a crashing sound, followed by a blast of heat. She turned to see that the electrical panel that she and Mab had damaged in the fight had caught fire, and suddenly an entire section of the building next door was engulfed. Though the flames were moving away from them, Spider-Woman realized that anyone inside the tall building was in imminent danger.

She turned to the red-haired reporter. "Get around to the front of that building, get a phone, and call 911."

Kate nodded, her reporter's instincts kicking in, pushing fear to the back of her mind to be dealt with later.

"What about her?" She nodded to the bound and gagged figure on the ground.

"Personally, I think she deserves to have a building fall on her," Spider-Woman quipped, though she wondered how much effect even that would have on someone this powerful. "But she'll keep. The fire's not headed this way. We'll take her to the cops as soon as everyone in the building is safe."

She bent down to where Mab feebly struggled against her bonds. She lifted the dangerously beautiful face by her chin, damp with saliva. Slightly bleary eyes glared daggers back at her, a gaze filled with impotent rage.

"Don't go away, honey--I'll be back to take you to jail in just a jiffy!" With that, Spider-Woman turned her defeated foe to her stomach, and, in an impulse she could hardly explain to herself, delivered three sharp spankings to her leather-clad buttocks, leaving her foe lying trussed and gagged, ass-up and humiliated. And that thought sent something thrilling and strange coursing through her body, as though she had just thrown down a gauntlet that would be picked up and paid off in ways she could barely imagine.

"There--consider yourself touched. And I'm no slut--I'm Spider-Woman!" With that, she soared high above the flaming wreckage, to begin helping the endangered innocents to escape.

*****

For Mab, it felt as though hours had passed in this humiliating pose, though it was probably no more than a few minutes before she felt her brother undoing her bonds.

"Kane… what happened? Where were you?" Her voice, though shaky, was bitter. She tried to get to her feet, but found it easier just to slump into her brother's waiting arms.

"I'm not entirely sure… but I'm starting to work it out." He gathered up his sister's slim form, and gently laid her down on the back seat of the car. "Let's get you home… I have an idea."

By the time Spider-Woman returned, breathless and perspiring from flying people to safety from the fire, there was no sign of her foe, or the big car.

"Shame I didn't get to bring her in to the police," she smiled to Kate.

"Do… do you think she'll be back?" the reporter asked.

"Not if she knows what's good for her," Spider-Woman replied, hoping that would not come under the heading of Famous Last Words.

Chapter Four

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