Later
Chapter 11 – The Vault
Sam had now been back at home with the rest of the spies for a few days, having made a full recovery in a very short amount of time. Her WOOHP appointed doctors had all told her they were quite impressed by her tenacious will to heal. While her body had completely healed in the hospital, Sam couldn’t help but feel a part of her hadn’t.
Currently, all four of the spies were enjoying a night in at the Sam, Clover, and Alex’s luxurious villa. Alex and Clover seemed to be in a very pleasant mood, obviously happy about having their best friend back home with them again. Britney seemed happy too and even helped throw a welcome home party for Sam a couple nights earlier. The only person who didn’t seem to share the same happiness was Sam herself. She had seemed to have been pretty moody for the past few days for some reason, especially when Britney was in her presence.
Despite the apparent tension between the two girls, at least on Sam’s part, all four spies were in the villa’s living room together, trying to have a good time. Alex was enjoying playing a game of Dance Pants Revolution on their big-screen LCD television, stepping her feet in sequence on the game-mat on the floor in the directions the arrows that flew by on the screen told her to dance. Clover watched attentively next to her, quite concerned that her high-score on the game she had just set would shortly be broken.
Britney, although sitting near the tv, wasn’t really watching the video-game. She was currently too preoccupied with chatting with Mandy on her cell-phone. This was something she had done a lot of lately. It had seemed to the other spies that if she wasn’t hanging out with Mandy, she was talking to her on the phone. Alex and Clover had both commended Britney on the admirable bravery she had shown by spending so much time with the detestable, bratty girl just to investigate the case. Sam, however, had not been so thankful to her.
Sam, herself, was currently sitting two seats over from Britney on the couch. She continued digging strawberry ice cream out of the tub she held and spooning it into her mouth as she had done most of the evening. She was also pretending to watch Alex play the video-game, but was more consciously eavesdropping on Britney’s side of the conversation with Mandy.
“So whacha’ wearing?” Mandy asked from the other side of the line. She was currently sprawled out on her bed, twirling some of her long strands of black hair and wearing a short, lacy violet nighty which barely covered her body.
“That purple top and designer jeans you bought me. You know the ones with the embroidered diamonds in them.” Sam was now peering at Britney from the corner of her eye, suspicious of the direction the conversation seemed to be headed.
“Mmmm, your butt looks so good in those jeans, but why don’t you take them off?” Sam watched as Mandy’s suggestion caused Britney to blush brightly and a large sweat-drop to form on the side of her head. “No, I can’t do that. Sam, Clover, and Alex are in the room.” Sam started grinding her teeth, becoming incensed. “Maybe later though,” Britney said before giggling incessantly like a little school girl.
“Grarrr,” Sam growled quite audibly.
“Are you ok Sam?” Britney asked, moving her lips away from the phone. “You don’t sound well.”
“It’s just a brain-freeze from the ice-cream. That’s all,” Sam fibbed with her hand over her throbbing forehead. She then started shoveling the ice-cream into her mouth at a much quicker pace.
“What happened?” Mandy asked.
“Nothing, Sam just ate too much ice-cream.”
“And what else is new?” she sniped sarcastically.
The musical, electronic chime of Sam, Alex, Clover, and Britney’s X-Powders than simultaneously rang through the room. Alex turned off the game and the tv. “Sorry, Mandy, I have to go now,” Britney told her.
“Wait, I want to tell you something!” Mandy pleaded somewhat urgently.
“Sure, what is it?” Britney asked, sounding extremely interested. “You can tell me anything, Mandy. It’s ok.”
“I... I… never mind!” Britney heard the click of Mandy hanging up on the other end. Mandy had seemed on the verge of telling her something very important for the past few days. Britney suspected she was close to getting a confession out of her. Success was so close, she could almost taste it.
“Can we answer Jerry now?” Sam asked, looking absolutely annoyed.
“Yeah, sure. Sorry.”
Sam opened her X-Powder, placed it on the spies’ long coffee-table, and pressed the button to receive the call from Jerry. Suddenly, bright light shot out of the X-Powder, producing a mouse-sized hologram of their British, suit-wearing boss. “Good evening, spies.”
“Hi, Jerry!” all the girls answered him.
“I have some very important news regarding the case you’re working on.”
“What is it Jerry?” Alex asked, sounding very intrigued.
“We’ve analyzed that ring Arnold dropped in his backyard during the altercation with the villain. While we were not able to determine the manufacturer of the transmitter and light hidden within it, we fared much better with the precious stone itself. Our WOOHP scientists have determined it is a variety of emerald only found in the Masvingo region of Zimbabwe.”
“So we’re going on another African safari?” Clover asked. “Great, getting that sweaty and not being able to shower is terrible for my complexion,” she whined.
“Not exactly. While the emerald was mined in Zimbabwe, it was actually cut and processed into a gem suitable for jewelry in a facility near the city limits of Los Angeles. We were able to tell by examining the gem under powerful WOOHP microscopes. The tool marks carved into the gem match exactly with only the tools used in that particular factory.”
“So, who owns the factory?” Britney asked.
“The factory is owned by and ran under the umbrella of Luxe International.”
“That’s Mandy’s last name!” Alex shouted.
“That is correct,” Jerry said. “Luxe International was founded by and is primarily owned by one Maximilian Luxe. Maximilian is indeed the estranged, biological father of your friend, Amanda Luxe. Sh…”
Clover cut him off, “She’s not our friend!”
“Excuse me, acquaintance and one of the prime suspects in this case, I might add.”
“So you want us to go investigate the factory for clues, right, Jerry?” Sam asked.
“Exactly. Now would be the perfect time to do so since the factory’s operating hours ended fifty five minutes ago. So do so immediately. Good luck, spies!”
Fifteen minutes later, the four spies, now all wearing their form-fitting spy uniforms, were on top of a hill overlooking the jewelry factory. It was Britney’s idea to scope out the area first, despite Sam’s complaint that it was a waste of time. However, due to the very dark clouds in the sky blocking the moonlight, it was nearly impossible to see anything below the hill.
“Girls, it’s pretty dark. I think we should all take out our WANGs,” Britney suggested.
“Whaaat? You have those?” Alex asked, sounding both shocked and frightened. Huge sweat-drops appeared on the foreheads of the other three spies.
“She means Water-Resistant Air-Tight Night-Vision Goggles,” Clover explained, “like duh!”
“Oh, it’s a gadget,” Alex said, rubbing her head, embarrassed. “Actually, Jerry didn’t give me any gadgets since I got out of jail. He said he would, but when I asked him about it again recently, he kept changing the subject.”
“That’s pretty strange,” Sam remarked. “I wonder why he would do that.”
“Guess you’ll just have to be extra careful in the dark then,” Britney said. “Anyways, enough chit-chat girls. We have a mystery to solve.”
“You sound like Scooby Doo,” Sam muttered quite audibly.
Britney simply ignored the insult and put on her goggles. Clover and Sam did the same, while Alex watched, feeling left out. Britney then pressed the button on the side of her right goggle to extend the lenses out and zoom in on the entrance to the factory. It was a large but very simple structure. Its only distinguishing features were a sign with a large diamond-shaped logo with the words “Luxe Jewelry” under it and a security camera perched next to the sign that continually panned back and forth. The factory seemed completely abandoned, but then she noticed some movement. Zooming in more, Britney was surprised to see that someone was sneaking towards the entrance. “I see some one!”
Clover and Sam zoomed in too. Sam kept pressing the button until it was squarely on the person’s face. She recognized those beautiful pale cheeks and that long, dark hair immediately. “Oh my god, its Mandy,” she said, sounding quite concerned. “What is she doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Clover asked. “She’s the crook!”
“We can’t be sure of that,” Britney reminded her. “Although, she did say she was staying in tonight to do homework. I thought that was really suspicious since she hates school-work so much.” The three girls watched as Mandy snuck towards the door, obviously trying to avoid the sight of a security camera as it panned back and forth on the top of the building. While it was pointed in the opposite direction, she quickly darted towards the door and hurriedly unlocked it with a key in a matter of seconds. She then disappeared inside before the camera had a chance to turn and point in her direction.
“Wow, I didn’t know Mandy was so good at spying herself,” Sam marveled.
“Me neither,” Britney said, also surprised.
“I’m not,” Clover stated matter-of-factly. “She’s so sneaky. Who knows what else she can do.”
The four girls converged on the entrance, mindful of the slowly turning camera. One by one, they made it inside the door, which Mandy had left unlocked, without being spotted. Inside, they were surprised to see the lights were on, illuminating the cavernous factory floor which was filled with a sea of tables and lamps where only hours earlier workers were constructing very expensive fine jewelry. They also could see Mandy walking far ahead in the distance, unaware she was no longer alone due to the spies’ stealth, as she turned a corner and disappeared.
“How can she just walk though here like that?” Sam whispered. “Wouldn’t a place that makes expensive jewelry have more security?”
“Hmmm. That is strange,” Britney admitted. They then heard a sound from outside followed by the door creaking open behind them. “Maybe that’s them,” Britney whispered. Clover and Alex jumped to either side of the door and crouched near the floor, while Britney and Sam dove behind the tables in front of them, putting the four spies out of the immediate plane of view of the opening door. The person walked forward, revealing who she was.
“Tara,” Clover whispered to herself.
“Clover, where are you?” The maroon-haired girl cried out. She was answered by her own voice echoing back to her from the eerily empty factory. A loud metallic bang was then heard in the distance from back behind the corner that Mandy had disappeared behind. “Clover is that you?” She then started running in the direction of the sound. She was in such a hurry, she dropped the piece of paper she was holding. She then disappeared behind the same corner Mandy had moments earlier.
Alex got up and grabbed the piece of paper from the floor and read it to her team-mates.
“Dear Tara,
Hey, baby. Meet me at the jewelry factory at 439 Industrial Lane tonight after 9. I have something really nice to give you for being so good to me.
Hugs and kisses,
Clovey”
“I didn’t write that!” Clover protested.
“I hope not. It sounded pretty mushy,” Alex said, creeped out.
“It must have been used to lure Tara here,” Britney deduced.
“Or Tara’s using it to throw us off,” Sam retorted her somewhat scornfully.
“That’s possible too.”
The four spies then walked forward in the room back to where Tara and Mandy had disappeared. Turning the corner, they found a hallway, one that forked off at the end into two separate directions.
“I think we should split-up,” Britney whispered to her team-mates. “Sam and I will go to the left, and Clover and Alex, you should go to the right.”
“Who made you leader?” Sam spat off annoyed. “And I’d much rather go with Alex or Clover.”
Clover and Alex frowned at her, finally having enough of Sam’s snotty attitude towards Britney as of late. “Jeez, and I thought I was the one who was supposed to be jealous of Britney.” Alex said. “Why are you being so mean to her, Sam?”
“Yeah, would you just get over yourself already so we can finish the mission, you know, together? We have hotties to save.”
“Well, all right. Fine, I’ll go with Britney,” Sam pouted. “But if you find Mandy, don’t hurt her. She’s completely innocent as far as we know.”
Clover groaned, also becoming sick of Sam’s insistence on defending her archrival as of late. She then left with Alex to the right, while Sam did indeed follow Britney down the left corridor.
After walking for what seemed a really long distance, Britney and Sam found a door. It was wide open, appearing to have been forcefully broken into from the outside. Inside was an office-room, which was now a total mess. It appeared to have been ransacked earlier that night. Chairs and tables were over-turned, and the drawers of several file cabinets were pulled out with the hundreds of papers they once contained now existing as white, crunchy carpeting over most of the floor.
“Looks like there was a struggle,” Britney remarked.
“And that someone was trying to find something in those files,” Sam said, examining some of the papers on the floor.
“Or that they wanted us to think that,” Britney retorted, also looking at the papers and finding them to be mostly mundane accounting records of routine business transactions.
“Yeah, whatever,” Sam muttered, hating being corrected by the blue-haired girl in the same way she had done to her earlier.
Sam then spotted something on the floor, something that was almost invisible to the naked eye and would’ve surely gone unnoticed by most people in this very messy room. She leaned down, picked it up between her two gloved fingers, and raised it to her eyes. “A contact.”
Britney came over and also looked at the contact lens Sam held. “Excellent find, Sam. It could belong to the perpetrator. Do you know if any of the suspects wear contacts?”
“Well, Arnold wears glasses, but he’s never worn contacts before as far as I can remember. I haven’t ever known Mandy, Alex, or Tara to wear them either. Maybe we should test it for DNA. If they wore it recently, there should definitely be some left on the lens.”
“Great idea. Let me call Jerry.” Britney opened her X-Powder and pressed the button to call their boss, who then appeared on the gadget’s small screen.
“Did you need anything, Britney?” Jerry asked.
“Yes. Sam found a contact lens on the floor of the jewelry factory’s office. We would like you to scan it for us and see if you can find any traces of DNA on the lens. Maybe you can tell us who the owner is.”
“Why certainly.” Sam held out the lens in front of the X-Powder, and a pink laser shot out of the bottom of the gadget and scanned over the lens. The information acquired in the scan quickly transferred from Britney’s X-Powder to GLADIS in WOOHP Headquarters and appeared on the computer monitor on Jerry’s desk almost instantaneously. He looked it over for a moment, seeming somewhat surprised. “Hmmm. I’ve found some scant traces of DNA on the concave side of the lens, but this can’t be correct. There must be some contamination or your X-Powder is malfunctioning. I’ll send an agent over right away to collect the contact lens so I can make a more thorough analysis. In the mean time, continue your investigation.”
“Thanks, Jerry,” Britney said.
“You’re welcome, and good luck, girls,” the Briton said before his image on the X-Powder’s screen switched to static. Britney closed her X-Powder.
“That was strange,” Sam remarked as she placed the lens in a small plastic evidence bag, which she then put in her pocket. “I wonder what was wrong with the DNA he scanned.”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”
Mean while, Clover and Alex had found a large storage room containing various kinds of equipment used in crafting jewelry including a number high-powered diamond-tipped drills and saws so strong they had the ability to cut through other diamonds.
While Clover was inspecting the room thoroughly for clues, Alex wandered forward through a door into an adjacent room. The room contained a large steel vault near the back. Strangely, the huge, thick titanium door of the vault was open. Curious, Alex walked inside. She found two long walls of metal cabinets that stretched back nearly a hundred feet. The metal drawers of each cabinet were locked and had to be opened with a key. However, one drawer had been unlocked and pulled out of its cabinet. Its contents, hundreds of gold rings with very large diamonds, had been dumped all over the floor.
“Wow, look at all the bling,” Alex marveled. “Clover, you should come see this,” she called out to her. Clover didn’t answer her. A few seconds later, there was a large thud as the vault door closed and locked shut with Alex still inside. Alex then started pounding on the door with her fists and calling out desperately for help.
A few seconds later she could barely hear Clover shouting from the other side of the thick door, “Alex? Alex? Are you in there?”
“Yeah, I’m locked in!”
“How did that happen?”
“I dunno. Someone closed the door!”
“Give me a second. I’ll get you out of there.” Clover unzipped her spy suit from her collar down to near the top of her shapely breasts. From her cleavage, she extracted her Laser Lipstick. She then aimed it at the door and fired it, causing a bright laser-beam to shoot out that very slowly began melting the door. She stopped firing it when she heard what sounded like a loud electrical discharge from inside the vault. “Alex, what happened?” There was no response. “Alex?”
At the same time, Sam and Britney had just found the security room. On the floor were the two armed security guards assigned to watch over the factory who had seemingly been knocked unconscious.
“Well, that explains why Mandy and Tara could just walk in here,” Britney said.
Sam leaned down and examined the wounds on their heads which were shaped like the prints of a high-heeled boot. “The foot that kicked these guards belongs to the Black Widow. I would recognize that print anywhere after she stomped it into my stomach.”
“It also closely resembles the design of the standard-issue female WOOHP uniform boot,” Britney added.
“You’re exactly right.”
“The Black Widow must have pretty good legs to be able to kick someone that hard.”
Sam gave Britney a funny look and then turned to the wall of monitors that were being fed video from numerous cameras hidden all over the factory. “I wonder where Mandy is,” Sam said as she scanned each screen, but not finding a trace of the dark-haired girl. She then spotted Clover who was still trying to burn through the vault door with her Laser Lipstick. The video on the next screen over was from the camera hidden inside of the vault. It simply showed static due to the feed from that camera having been cut off. “What’s Clover doing?” Sam asked. She then opened her X-Powder and called her. Sam and Britney watched on the screen as Clover turned off the laser and answered the call. “Clover what are you doing? We can see you from the security camera.”
“Alex got locked in the vault. I’m trying to get her out.”
“Did she lock herself in there?”
“Sounds like Alex,” Britney quipped.
“No. She said someone else did it,” Clover explained.
Britney and Sam then noticed that a dark figure had walked into the room behind Clover. She was female, dressed from head to toe in black, and gripping a large carving knife. It was the Black Widow. “Oh my god, Clover! The Widow is right behind you!” Sam screamed into her X-Powder as she watched horrified as the Black Widow lunged forward with her knife for Clover’s back. Before they could see Clover being stabbed, however, the lights suddenly went out, leaving the two spies in total darkness. The video on Sam’s X-Powder was now mysteriously static as well. She shook it a few times, before she closed it. She then pulled back out her WANG and put it on, which Britney did as well. “Come on, we have to go save Clover!”
“Right!” The two girls ran back through a series of doors and back down the hallway that forked off in two directions, one leading to the vault, which they were now headed for. On the way there, though, they noticed the green shape of a person wandering through the hall in their night vision. Britney approached the person slowly, preparing to either catch her in her arms or karate-chop her once to the jugular vein. Just as she was about to strike, though, the lights suddenly switched back on, flooding the room with bright light.
“Ahhhhh!” the girl shrieked. Sam and Britney both took off their goggles and saw that it was Tara.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you,” Britney promised.
After panting for a good while, she caught her breath. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Why were the lights out?”
“There must be a storm,” Britney said.
“Hey, I know you,” Tara said. “Aren’t you that new girl who everyone hates because she’s so perfect and is always hanging around with Mandy? I think Dominique and Catlin said your name was Bratney or something.”
“That’s Britney,” she groaned.
“And I know you! You’re Clover’s friend.”
“I have a name. It’s Sam,” she said dryly.
Tara then looked over Britney and Sam from head to toe and raised her eyebrow quite high. “Why are you both dressed like dominatrixes?” she asked, referring to Sam and Britney’s skin-tight, leather-like uniforms with seamless high-heeled boots and gloves. “Did you come from some kind of kinky orgy or something? Is Clover in it?” she asked, getting excited at the prospect of joining her.
Britney and Sam couldn’t have looked more embarrassed. “Umm, no. We’re filming a movie.” Britney fibbed as a huge sweat-drop rolled down her head.
“You’re making a porno?” Tara asked.
“No, we’re not making a porno,” Sam said nervously. “We’re making aaaa… spy movie, that’s it. It’s going to be called Super Teenage Spies. It’s about normal high school girls who double as secret agents. Britney and I are extras, and we’re filming on location in this factory.”
“Wow, that has to be about the stupidest idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. Who’s in it?”
“Lindsey Lohan, Hillary Duff, and Miley Cyrus,” Britney said.
“And William Shatner as their boss, Jeremy,” Sam added with her hand on the back of her head.
“Wow, that sure sounds like a hit,” Tara said, rolling her eyes. “Do you know where Clover is? She said to meet her here.”
“No,” Sam said. “Now you have to leave. It’s against the rules to be on set while we’re filming.” She then started pushing Tara from behind back in the direction of the entrance.
As Tara was pushed towards the fork in the hallway, from around the corner a black hand suddenly shoved the spinning metal blade of a saw right into her face. The blade was only half an inch away from sawing Tara’s head in half. Tara screamed freakishly for her life, as Sam pushed her out of the way of the deadly twisting metal. As Sam tried to get out of the way herself, it grazed her shoulder, cutting right though her uniform and leaving a gash that began to ooze bright-red blood. She fell to her knees from the sheer shock of the sudden injury. Looking up from the ground, she could see the Black Widow’s evil, blank face staring down at her, and she became completely petrified as the Widow lowered the saw towards Sam’s head.
“Sam, move!” Britney tried to warn her, but she seemed to be almost hypnotized. Thinking fast, Britney pulled out her Laser Lipstick. She shot the laser directly at the chord attached to the saw and it stopped spinning just a few inches away from Sam’s head. Britney then shot the laser again directly at the saw, causing it to begin to melt and the Widow to drop it from the intense heat burning her hand. Britney then shot the laser directly at the Black Widow’s face. She, however, expertly dodged the beam and dived for Tara, grabbing the very frightened girl. Before Britney could move to attack her again, the Widow had pulled out GAWD, the carving knife shaped gadget, from a holster on her leg and pressed it against Tara’s throat.
“Drop the lipstick or the slut dies!” that creepy metallic voice warned. Britney dropped the Laser Lipstick on the ground. “Yours too, Sam!” Sam, still on the ground, extracted her Laser Lipstick with a trembling hand and tossed it in the direction of the Black Widow. “Now move to the back of the room very, very slowly. Don’t make any unexpected movements either. I have no problem with slicing this girl’s throat and then stabbing her right in her heart!” Sam got up off the floor, and she and Britney walked very slowly to the back of the room and stood against the wall. With the blade still pressed against the mortified Tara’s throat, the Black Widow led her towards the other side of the room.
Once against the opposite wall, she pressed the button on the handle of GAWD that caused it to start emitting that blue light. Quickly, she moved the knife in a large arc against the wall, creating a bright twisting portal of blue light. She quickly put the knife back against Tara’s throat and backed up with her into the portal, disappearing inside it. Britney ran forward as fast as she could and lunged for the wormhole. However, it suddenly vanished in a bright flash right before she could reach it, causing her to collide with the hard wall instead.
Standing back up she pounded her fists against the wall in protest. “Damn it!” She then turned to see Sam, who had fallen back to her knees and was sobbing into her hands. Britney walked over to her and leaned down to her level. First, she extracted some emergency gauze and antiseptic from a department on her belt. She sprayed the gash on Sam’s shoulder with the antiseptic and then wrapped the gauze around her shoulder, expertly dressing the wound to stop the bleeding. Seeing she was still crying terribly, Britney put her arms around her waist and held her tight. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I was just so scared. I couldn’t even move. What is wrong with me? I almost killed myself,” she said before she continued sobbing.
“You’re probably still traumatized from your last encounter with her. You were very badly injured. It’s a perfectly normal reaction.”
Sam looked up at her and wiped the tears from her eyes. “It’s not even that. I keep having this nightmare. The Black Widow has me and Mandy captured, and no matter what I do, I can’t do anything to save Mandy. It’s just so terrible,” she said, crying some more.
Britney looked directly into her eyes. “Listen, you’re not acting like yourself, Sam. The Sam I know is one of the bravest spies I’ve ever seen. I look up to her as a girl who, no matter how high the stakes or how high the danger to own her life, always stands up and fights as hard as she can until she finishes the mission and brings the badguy to justice. You’re just a little shell-shocked. That’s all. But I know the Sam I know isn’t going to let a few bad dreams stop her from doing her job so well like she always does. Am I right?”
Sam wiped the tears from her face again. “Yeah, you’re right.” She then tried to stand up, but was still a little wobbly from the fear and the injury. Seeing this, Britney put her head under Sam’s uninjured shoulder, helped her rise to her feet, and continued to help her walk down the hall way. “Thanks, Britney, and thank you for saving my life.”
“Don’t mention it. Now come on, we have to go find Clover and Alex and get you and those security guards some medical care.”
“Ok.” Britney kept giving the girl balance as they walked down the long hallway scrunched up together. Sam hated to admit it, but she didn’t feel any anger against Britney anymore. Being this close to her also felt nice somehow.
Suddenly, a bright flash erupted from behind them. Being under Sam’s shoulder, Britney didn’t have enough time to react. A black black boot impacted the back of her skull from a lightning-fast flying kick, sending Britney sailing to the ground unconscious. Sam turned around and stood petrified as the Black Widow stared her down through that terrifying, faceless black mask.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” the widow cackled, amused by Sam’s terror-induced paralysis. She then switched on the hand-held, cordless drill she was holding, and the diamond tipped drill-bit started spinning. The Widow walked right past Sam, quite aware of her current state of defenselessness and convinced she proved no threat. She then approached Britney who was laying face first on the ground, motionless. “Let’s see how smart miss perfect is here when she no longer has a brain.”
As the drill-bit moved closer and closer to Britney’s skull, Sam started shaking as an intense feeling ran from somewhere deep inside her to up her spine. She clenched her fists, suddenly able to move again. “Get away from her, you bitch!” The Black Widow didn’t have time enough to move away as Sam dove and tackled her to the ground with more force than a linebacker.
Wrestling with the Black Widow and her spinning drill, she was able to pin her to the ground. Sam then delivered a long series of lightning-fast rights and lefts to the Widow’s masked skull, seemingly fueled by pure adrenalin and haltered for her enemy. After about ten punches to the head, Sam wrapped her hands around her neck and started chocking her. The Black Widow finally reacted by twisting her wrist and stabbing the spinning drill-bit into Sam’s calf on the back of her leg. Sam cried out in pain, and the Widow was able to roll out from under her.
Despite the pain from her wounded leg that was now hemorrhaging blood, Sam stood back up and charged for the Widow again. The Widow, though, ducked out of the way of her fist, grabbed Sam’s arm, and pushed the drill into her previously injured shoulder, re-opening the wound and causing blood to splash out of it and onto her black face. As the drill continued to rip into her flesh, Sam tried to stop her by chopping for her neck with her other hand, but the Widow expertly performed a spinning, low kick directly into the injury on the back of her leg. Sam then fell to the ground, again unable to move, but this time not from fear, but from bodily harm.
“Good bye Sammy,” the heartless metallic voice said as she moved the drill towards her heart.
“Sam, no!” A voice yelled out from behind Sam and the Black Widow. The Widow turned just in time to see Clover’s red boot whiz right past her face, the kick just missing her. The Widow then moved with the drill towards Clover’s blonde head, but she tripped and fell forward, Sam having grabbed her by the legs. Clover then whirled her foot around again, this time making direct contact with the Widow’s head, sending her rolling across the room. She then lay motionless on the floor. “Sam, are you all right?” Clover asked concerned, seeing Sam’s two wounds oozing quite a bit of blood.
“I’m fine, just get her!” she said, pointing towards the Black Widow. The Widow hadn’t remained motionless for long and had pulled GAWD out of the holster on her leg. As Clover approached her, she took a crouching position, activated the gadget, and quickly ran it around herself in a circle on the floor. Clover grabbed for her, but she fell out of her grasp and down into the twisting blue portal that was now below her. A bright flash then erupted from the ground, causing Clover to stagger backwards. The portal was gone and once again so was the Black Widow.
“Wha.. wha happened?” Britney asked from the ground, having just regained consciousness.
“The Black Widow attacked us again. She knocked you unconscious. Thankfully, Clover came to the rescue,” Sam said as she dressed the bloody wound on her leg herself with the gauze she had taken from the department on her belt.
“So that’s why I’m seeing two of you,” Britney said, feeling the rather large bump on the back of her head.
Clover then came over and helped wrap the re-injured wound on Sam’s shoulder. “Thanks, Clover. What happened to you? We saw the Black Widow about to stab you on the security cam before the lights went out.”
“She almost got me,” Clover said, turning and showing the rip all the way down the back of her uniform that miraculously did not penetrate her skin. “I fought her a bit in the dark, but after I was able to put on my WANG, she was gone,” she explained, continuing to dress Sam’s wound.
“Scary,” Sam said before moaning in pain as Clover tied a knot with the gauze.
“So did you find Mandy or Tara?” Clover asked.
“We didn’t find Mandy,” Sam said, sounding regretful, “but we did find Tara.”
“But then she was kidnapped by the Black Widow,” Britney added, standing up, having finally come out of her concussion induced daze.
“You know what this means right?” Clover asked. Sam frowned and Britney looked at the ground uncomfortably, both already knowing what she was going to say next. “Tara and Mandy were the only remaining suspects. If Tara was kidnapped, then that means I was right! Mandy is the Black Widow!”
To Be Continued