by Androidus
Rebecca had just arrived in from a very rare evening out at the cinema with friends and, exhausted after a long day, was about to go to bed when her natural curiosity got the better of her and she opened the secret compartment in her wardrobe to check her computer monitor for the state of play in the city. Still dressed in a pair of pumps, skirt and blouse, Rebecca hardly looked like her alter ego Flaxen, the luscious blonde haired adventuress who has made the lives of the city's crime lords hell over the last few months since her 'arrival'.
Her face changed as she viewed the screen and Flaxen's familiar purposeful look took over. The images on her monitor were coming direct from the highly secretive 'Covert Action and Tactics' wing of the government. Rebecca studied the information which was to be her next mission as Flaxen. In it, the 'new kid on the block', so far as super crime was concerned - Androidus6 - had apparently kidnapped a group of visiting foriegn dignitaries from their plane - whilst in mid air - over Korea. Rebecca stiffened. She realised that this was going to be a 'one woman' job. No back up, no knowledge of her existence. Just sneak in, rescue the dignitaries, and sneak back out again, hopefully undetected so as not to cause any embarrassment to the Government.
Everything was set. All Rebecca had to do was grab her costume and a few 'overnight' items and catch the plane to North Korea. From there it was up to her to find the hideout of androidus6 alone from the photos and details she had printed off from her computer.
"Perhaps I can get some shut eye on the flight," Rebecca yawned as she closed everything up and locked her apartment door behind her....
...Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Korea, Androidus6 was enjoying the idea that soon...very soon, the delicious yet annoyingly effective super agent Flaxen would be hastening to his secluded hide away in the hills of South Korea.
Ecstatic that his latest hacking device (stolen from a NORAD chief of staff) was able to send the bogus message to Flaxen's computer direct called for another drink. As he crossed the room to his drinks cabinet, Androidus was met by one of his miriad of henchmen. Androidus looked at the manilla envelope he had in his hand, marked 'Top Secret: for your eyes only'. "Will it be ready in time?" Androidus enquired, neither engaging in small talk nor making eye contact with his drone. "The men are putting the finishing touches to it right now, sir." The man answered. "Excellent...." Androidus allowed himself a smile. "Be sure to leave enough clues for her to race downstairs into the basement, I want to make this our gorgous little Flaxen's most...'exciting' adventure yet. Or perhaps I ought to call her Rebecca Edwards..?" His voice changed to laughter as he flipped the envelope onto his couch, scattering the photographic contents across the cushions. The pictures were of Rebecca entering and exiting her apartment, in civilian clothes, and other pictures of her dressed as Flaxen.
Two of the pictures had been composited together, totally giving away Rebecca's secret identity and playing her right into the hands of a new breed of super criminal - Androidus.
His henchman nodded and departed, leaving Androidus still laughing to himself and reaching for a photo of Flaxen.
"Soon I will have you, my pretty. Soon you will face the deadliest challenge of your life so far - me. Luring you into my trap, into a fate you cannot know anything about right now, is going to be my greatest work of art. I am going to make history as the man who detroyed the sexiest secret agent lady in the known world - you, Rebecca Edwards, Flaxen."
What evil trap does the super villain have in store for the unsuspecting beauty?
How can Rebecca possibly know the peril she is rushing into?
Will Androidus have his way and draw the alluring adventuress into his wicked clutches? Check out chapter....coming SOON!!!
Rebecca's flight had landed over eighteen hours ago and only now was she finding her way to Androidus' hidden hide away high in the hills of South Korea. She fully expected the place to be heavily guarded and was initially surprised to see so little activity outside the building. As she neared the house, though, she figured, 'Well, it is so out of the way and he's not going to be expecting anybody anytime soon...I guess it's just my lucky day!'
Rebecca ducked behind a low wall, even if her costume was dark and it was nearly night, she didn't want to take any chances with this Androidus character. Two armed guards walked past on their way to a jeep. Listening to their conversation, it seemed clear to Rebecca that they were done for the evening and were on their way to their quarters
"This is just getting better and better..." Rebecca thought as she effortlessly entered the house and made her way silently into Androidus6's personal study.
A thorough search uncovered a plan of the building, which Rebecca studied carefully. The most logical place to be holding prisoners was down in the basement rooms, according to the schematic layout. Rebecca memorized the floor plan and quickly replaced everything she'd disturbed. Silently, she crept out from Androidus' study and made her way downstairs into the basement....
From his secret vantage point in the bowels of his hide away, Androidus6 watched the sensuous legs of Rebecca "Flaxen" Edwards slowly, cautiously creep down into the basement. The walls were fitted with hidden button cameras, too small to be noticed, and Rebecca was oblivious to their existence.
"Look at her, friends, see how she even now heads to her terrifying doom, totally unaware of the horror she will soon face." Androidus followed her every minute feminine movement, her long, sleek legs slowly stepping along the corridor to the room she figured must hold the prisoners.
As Rebecca stopped outside the door, she pressed her ear to it to see if she could hear anything. Dropping to her knee to listen at the keyhole, she could hear the voices of the foreign dignitaries. Rebecca placed a piece of discarded paper under the door frame to try and attract their attention. Inside the room, one of the men noticed the paper and hurried over to the door.
"Who's there?" He whispered, not knowing whether the guards were still nearby or not.
"My name is Flaxen, I'm here on behalf of the government to rescue you - stand back from the door and I'll -" Rebecca was looking around for a joist of some kind to force the heavy bolt from the door, when the man hurriedly interjected.
"-No! Don't force the door! I overheard them talking a few days or so ago saying that it is rigged to set off an explosive detonator in this room somewhere - we'll all be killed!"
"Did you hear where the control access to the detonator is situated?" Rebecca glanced furtively around checking for any unwanted visitors.
"Apparently in the next room there's a pillar in the centre with a control panel housed inside it near the top. None of us have seen it but the guards have a great time threatening us with it."
"Okay, I'm going to go next door and disarm this detonator, then we're all getting out of here, ladies and gentlemen...sit tight." Rebecca moved from the door to the one a bit further down the corridor. Checking again for sounds, she turned the handle and carefully peered into the room.
The room was effectively barren, looking like it had been gutted. Except for the large columns propping up the floors above, plus a tell tale set of small steps, the room looked totally unused. Rebecca singled out the centre column and carefully picked up the small step box, placing it at the foot of it. Climbing the three steps, she examined the column for any kind of sign that there was a hidden panel there. As she brushed her hand over the smooth surface, she felt a slight bump and pressed it. Suddenly, a panel slid back inside the column itself, revealing a strange and unfamiliar type of control box within, still almost arm's reach away above Rebecca's head.
"Whoever uses these steps to set this damn thing is a whole lot taller than I am!" she mused to herself. Straining on her tip toes to peer into the newly opened cavity, Rebecca didn't notice the movement in the column happening a little lower down....
Androidus watched from the safety of his secret room - this one would not be found by consulting the floor plan - his face a picture of evil anticipation.
"Now we shall see just how 'super' our sexy 'super agent' really is, gentlemen. Behold, she has triggered the genius design that I have had created solely to destroy her."
Rebecca suddenly looked down, feeling something brush against her side and her back.
Her face whitened as she fully took in the activity going on lower down the column around her waist.
The column had sprouted a thick and powerful looking telescopic 'tentacle' which had quickly wrapped itself around Rebecca's back and had returned to the column again, this side into an aperture on her other side. She was secured around her waist and back to the face of the column, her abdomen and bust pressed against the solid concrete.
Leaving the control panel, Rebecca concentrated her efforts on trying to pull the coiling metal fibres away from her waist. Her best efforts met with no result.
"Blast! Now what do I do? Androidus' henchmen must surely come around to check up soon, and here I am bound by steel coils to a concrete pillar! How the hell do I get myself out of this?!" She thought to herself
From a hidden speaker in the column's cavity, Rebecca heard the worrying sound of laughter...confident and arrogant laughter from her captors.
"Welcome to my humble abode, Flaxen." Androidus began. "I trust the quarters are to your liking?"
"They're a little cramped." Rebecca said, referring to the tight coil around her slender waist.
"I'm afraid I must apologize for that, you see, I designed it especially for you...Rebecca Edwards...." He let his words trail off and he watched her reaction on the monitor. Rebecca was shocked and stunned. How could he possibly have got her secret identity? In fact, how had he managed to lure her so easily into his diabolical clutches?
"I have heard so much about the almost legendary Flaxen. How you stopped so many of my competitors and colleagues in their criminal ventures. I wanted to meet you face to face before I watch you slowly die." The door flew open and Androidus stood in the doorway, a remote control fixed in his hand.
"What are you going to do to the prisoners?" Rebecca stammered, her own predicament feeling slightly more important at that moment.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about those bureaucratic pencil pushers, Rebecca - I can call you Rebecca, can't I? No, if I were you, I'd be a touch more concerned about your own fate right now." He clicked the remote and the coil withdrew further into the column, squeezing Rebecca tighter around her vulnerable waist. She couldn't help but let out an apprehensive gasp as, taken by surprise, the breath was squashed out of her. Androidus watched quietly as she fought to keep her tip toe footing on the wobbly steps. Vindictively, Androidus kicked the steps out from under her outstretched black boots, and Rebecca gasped again, this time because she was left dangling just by her waist against the column. She wriggled and churned, shaking her hair about in the attempt to try to find a more comfortable position. There wasn't one.
Androidus moved around to her side, still maintaining a safe distance from her sleek yet powerful 'tight clad' legs. He watched her hands futilely grasp at the coil, trying to peel it away from her.
"Ever wanted one of those really slim 'wasp like' waists, Rebecca...?" He was taunting her, hinting at the peril she was soon going to face. "Your government will deny all knowledge that you were ever here. You are no doubt alone...and from the looks of things, Flaxen, you're in a great deal of danger."
"What are you going to do to me?!" She blurted out in fear, unable to control the rising swell of terror building up within her.
Androidus flipped open the remote control and punched a few buttons. Looking Rebecca straight in the eye, he close the remote again and placed it on the ground, a good few feet out of the reach of her dangling, squirming legs.
"I have programmed the coil to slowly...oh, so slowly squeeze you against the concrete column an inch every thirty seconds..." Rebecca's eyes shot to the remote, just feet away, but it might as well have been a mile. Panic began to set in as she fully began to understand her predicament. She struggled.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Do you still believe your feeble skills and strength are a match for a hydraulically powered 'death coil'..?" He walked off cackling to himself as he stopped in the doorway one last time.
"You will be slowly crushed tighter and tighter in the grip of the coils, Rebecca.."
Rebecca's hands were gnarled as she desperately fought to push herself away from the surface of the column.
"...Enjoy your final energetic writhings, though...you have approximately three minutes to find a way to escape before you expire. Good-bye, Rebecca Edwards." With that, Androidus closed and locked the heavy door behind him.
Back in the room, Rebecca was perspiring now from her exertions, her entire body writhing, contorting, churning and struggling feverishly, Utterly trapped, utterly unable to escape, yet desperate to try. She had, after all, nothing or no one else to fall back on.
"P-please..." She whispered, as if talking to the very coils themselves, her legs flailing, kicking, writhing to be free. The remote chirped and another inch was winched into the column. Rebecca threw her head back in desperation and frustration, her face reddening through the strain. She realized that in another couple of 'squeezes' it would be all over for her.
"Nooo...It...it can't end like th-this...not here..I must escape him...I've got to - I'm Flaxen..."
Is this the end for Babelicious Becca?
Is there any hope of escape from Androidus6 and his death trap?
How can she possibly save herself from this terror???
Find out in the final thrilling installment of..
"FLAXEN"
Androidus and his skeleton crew of henchmen headed towards the communications centre he had set up to monitor some of his more illegal operations. True, he had many legitimate concerns and ventures in hand also, but these were mainly as a smoke screen to 'decoy' the authorities away from his more lucrative, ill begotten gains. Currently, the main monitor was dedicated to the slow and certain execution of his sexiest adversary - Flaxen. He waited a few moments, savouring the dilemma she was in, watching her frenzied churnings, her fear, her wide eyed terror...he smiled to the other members of his group.
"Truly a pity, she was an incredibly beautiful woman. Stunning curves....a real shame she got on the wrong side of me..." He paused for a moment, wanting to watch her demise to the very end, except he had other plans to attend to. He flipped a switch and Rebecca's image changed to that of a tanker ship docked at the main Korean ferry port. "I'll have to catch up with you on the video we're filming, Miss Edwards..." He muttered to himself as he watched events unfold on board the vessel which was going to bring him in a shipment of Opium with a black market value of over 100 million U.S. dollars...
Rebecca was frightened. She was hardly able to breathe now, except in extremely shallow, irregular gasps. She didn't want to die, but she knew she was helpless, powerless against Androidus' hideous trap. Her beautiful blue eyes, open wide in sheer horror, darted around the room, still desperately searching for the slimmest hope of escape. It was obvious there was none. She was at the point of yielding to the crushing coils, relaxing her body and letting them just finish her off quickly. Her frantic struggles had only succeeded in weakening her anyway. Then the slightest glimmer of hope struck her from out of nowhere. "My God...! My boot heel: The transponder inside it...If I can just..." She was suddenly back in fighting spirit again. The transponder was intended for other C.A.T. operatives to be able to trace her in times of real trouble, unfortunately the signal only worked up to a ten mile radius, so nobody was going to come and rescue her from America... they'd never reach her in time even if they received the signal. But as she had figured, the signal could be sufficient to disrupt the remote and its control over the crushing coils. It was an impossibly hard manoeuvre. Rebecca, almost breathless and all but crushed to death, yet she had to curl her legs up behind her and take her arms away from the column to try to reach behind her to her boot heel. The increased pressure to her waist almost caused her to give up again and let it kill her.
"Aaaahhhh! Th-this is....k-killing m-m-me...!" Her entire midriff and lower abdomen felt on fire, throbbing in response to her waist having been squeezed in to around seventeen inches or less. She looked 'wasp like' as Androidus had called her earlier: broad, toned shoulders, 'V' shaped back, her waist squeezed to next to nothing and her fabulous hips and thighs threatening to burst out of her skin tight costume at any moment.
Miraculously, Rebecca managed to reach her heel. Gasping, red faced and racing desperately against time, she fumbled frenziedly with the inside of her heel, trying to prise open the little compartment in which lay the tiny transponder.
"Got...to...just...GOT...TO..!!" She thought, her eyes now tightly shut in concentration and agony. Finally, she opened the heel compartment and grabbed the transponder delicately, being careful not to drop it now at this stage. Firmly in her hand, Rebecca's legs collapsed back down, dangling uselessly against the killer column. Through blurring vision and sweat soaked eyes, Rebecca pointed the transponder at the remote control, pressing the tiny plates together and making the electronic connection. It was not a second too soon, for the remote chirped again just at the second Rebecca pointed towards it with the transponder and the coils began their final, terminal constriction...
"Oh no...! NO!! NNNOOOOOO!! HELP - HELP ME!!!" Rebecca dropped the transponder and went into what she thought would be her death frenzy - her last ever struggle...Instead, just as she thought she was going to die, the remote chirped a second time, virtually immediately after the first. The coils were stopped in mid squeeze and the effect was as though something inside the column had snapped, releasing the coils and dropping the wriggling wonder woman to the ground in an exhausted heap.
Rebecca had all but blacked out. She had been certain that she was going to meet her doom and at first she wasn't sure whether she HAD actually died. Slowly her hyper ventilating breaths returned to normal. She had escaped her death by a whisker. If she had remembered the transponder as little as one second later..... She shook her head, not wanting to think about it. Still terribly shaken from the terrifying ordeal, Rebecca gradually stood to her feet and made her way over to the remote control.
Picking it up, she studied it carefully and walked painfully over to the door.
"Let's see if I can't still rain on your parade even more, Androidus." She said, aiming the remote at the door lock and clicking. The lock opened and Rebecca carefully made her way into the corridor and to the room the kidnap victims were held. Kneeling slowly down to the keyhole, she whispered into the lock. Shortly, one of the captives replied, looking through the keyhole back at her.
"Did you manage to cancel the detonation--Holy Cow...What happened to you, Flaxen?"
The man had noticed her dishevelled looks, her sweat soaked hair and her face, still bright pink from her near death experience. "The 'detonator' never existed, Sir," Rebecca explained. "I'm sorry, I don't understand, Flaxen. What do you mean? They were very vocal about it."
"...So that you would be sure and tell me." Rebecca replied. "They tricked you into giving me false information, so that I would walk right into their sick and twisted little death trap."
"Heavens...! Are you all right?"
"Well, I won't be doing any sit ups for a week or so, but I think I'll live." She joked now, but inside she was still weak and shaky at how close it had been for her.
"So if you'd care to stand back from the door, Sir, I'm going to let you all out and get us all the hell out of here."
"I don't need telling twice!" The man said, backing away as Rebecca again used the remote to unlock the door, freeing the men and women inside. Some of them couldn't conceal their tears of joy at being released, or their gratitude by throwing their arms around Rebecca. She winced inwardly as her tender waist felt little shots of pain from the emotional captives. She allowed it, nonetheless.
"We don't have a lot of time, folks, so I suggest we get going as quietly as possible."
The group headed quietly up the corridor and up the staircase to the house above. Fortunately, nobody was watching the corridor button cameras, otherwise Rebecca's attempted escape with the prisoners would have been stopped before it had properly begun.
One guard stood at the entrance to the outside door, his back to the staircase and unaware of Flaxen and her entourage.
"Wait here one moment." Flaxen whispered to the group. She tip toed delicately up to the guard and delivered an almighty karate chop to the base of his skull, felling him like a tree. She quickly dragged him away from the door and hid him behind the sofa.
"Okay, come on - it's clear." She called to the group.
They made their way through the courtyard under cover of darkness and Rebecca stopped them just by a truck.
"Right, I want you all to climb into the back of this truck, keep your heads and voices down, and don't stick your heads out from inside no matter what you hear." She ordered them.
"What are you going to do, Flaxen?" Enquired one of the women whilst the rest dutifully began entering the back of the truck.
"I'm hopefully going to see to it that we can't be followed out of here, now, get inside and keep out of sight."
Leaving the woman to climb into the truck, Rebecca ran quickly to the small cluster of vehicles near the building. Fortunately Androidus had been so confident in the success of his deadly trap that he'd allowed most of his team the evening off in town, keeping literally a skeleton staff of barely twenty behind. Now all but two of those were in the command centre along with Androidus, who was currently in negotiations with the various governments linked to the dignitaries regarding sizeable ransom demands.
Rebecca leapt over the wall and took both of the guards by surprise, kicking both of them full in their backs. One fell sprawling to the ground as Rebecca punched and kicked the second guard without mercy. "Pay back time, you scumbag. Give my regards to your boss." She said as the guard fell to the ground unconscious with a bloodied and broken nose. Turning around to deal with the guard who had fallen, Rebecca was surprised to find he'd recovered his balance remarkably fast and was virtually upon her as she spun around. Before she could prepare herself, the guard - a whopping 6'7" tall hulk, grabbed her in a bear hug around her waist, lifting the dwarfed blonde heroine into the air. She yelped in pain as he brought to bear years of training and bodybuilding on her, squeezing her gorgeous costumed body in the most powerful embrace she'd ever experienced. For the second time in a matter of minutes, Flaxen was again struggling to catch her breath, trapped in the grip of a mighty man mountain. She looked in anguish into the man's hateful, shark like black eyes.
"I will crush you like insect, American woman!" His broken English, though hardly understandable ordinarily, was perfectly understandable now due to his practical demonstration.
The pain was unbearable. He was squeezing her right where she was the most tender. Her body convulsed, she was no match for his brute strength. Had she got to him first with a few solid kicks it would have been a different story, but now history was repeating itself.
"I will crush you NOW!" The brutish guard gritted his teeth and screwed his eyes half shut in a monumental effort to kill Rebecca with his bare hands. Rebecca couldn't even gasp enough breath to scream for help, and her struggles were pitifully weak.
".....He's... going to...kill me..." She thought to herself, unable to do anything this time - the transponder wouldn't work on him...
Suddenly Rebecca felt the guard flinch and stagger forward, his grip weakening slightly, and she became aware of a series of cracking noises, muffled to her dulled sense of hearing. Dropping to the dewy grass, she recovered to see the huge guard lay out cold on the lawn, surrounded by pieces of terra cotta pottery. Above him stood the woman she had been talking to at the back of the truck.
"...I thought I told you..." Rebecca said, nursing her injuries and getting to her feet - helped by the woman. "..To stay in the truck no matter what..."
"Well, " The woman began. "You could go ahead and sue me, girl, but my government might not take kindly!" She smiled.
Rebecca smiled back at her. "Thanks. After that trap I got caught in, I was in no condition to win a fight with a human boa constrictor..." Flaxen decommissioned the remaining vehicles so that they'd never be able to pursue them, then the two women hurried back to the truck. Flaxen got in behind the wheel, the other woman beside her in the passenger seat.
"You okay to drive?" She asked.
"Sure, I'll be fine now...and thanks again, I'd have been a goner out there."
"Least I could do for our rescuer and a fellow woman."
Rebecca let off the hand brake and rolled the truck down the pathway, out of the hillside hide away. Fortunately, the moon offered just enough light to enable them to get a good distance away before igniting the engine and turning on the headlights.
"Well, even if they are aware that we've gone, there's no way they'll catch us before I get us off this rock in my boat." Flaxen sighed, caressing her bruised abdomen.
"We are so grateful your government sent you Flaxen, he'd have probably killed us eventually anyway."
"If your governments didn't pay up he would, certainly."
"So what about you? Won't he be even more focused in wanting you dead after tonight's little adventure?" The woman asked.
"I think that's a given." Rebecca replied. "He'll never rest until he's destroyed me one grisly way or another..." Rebecca was concerned. After all, he still had her secret identity and had somehow got into her computer at home. Could there be a leak at C.A.T? She knew she would have to look very carefully into it when she got back - form a very safe distance. She'd probably have to uproot and move home, too.
"...I think I can safely say I've not heard the last of Androidus6..."
The truck bounced along the mountain track, weaving it's way down the hill towards the cove where Rebecca had stashed her boat and hidden it in a lagoon covered with large branches and leaves. As the group headed out to sea, high up in the hills, Androidus turned from his monitors and faced the guards who had failed in preventing Flaxen and the prisoners from escaping.
"Do you want me to 'deal' with them, Sir?" Androidus' chief of security had arrived back along with some more guards, having returned a different route than the one Rebecca took with the truck. Androidus smiled to himself as he lit a cigar and stretched out in his chair, resting his feet on the desk. He looked at the smoke rising from the end of his cigar for a long moment then looked to his chief.
"I think we all severely underestimated our quarry this evening, gentlemen," He said, still marvelling at his Cuban weed. "I think the next time we had better show some improvement, otherwise we might be experiencing a few more losses.." The threat was hardly veiled, and the guards all knew precisely what was meant. They also knew they had just escaped with their lives...for the time being.
"Okay, gentlemen, that will be all. I want those vehicles ready by dawn tomorrow, we've got a big shipment to go and collect."
Androidus dismissed the team from the command centre ordering them to get some rest, then, turning from them, Androidus replayed the last few minutes of the video to watch what should have been the death of Flaxen. Instead, he watched the very near death of a very frightened but unfortunately extremely lucky young woman until her inspired and miraculous escape. He raised his eyebrows as if to say 'Se la vie', then, from his chair, held his glass to the monitor. He toasted Rebecca's resourcefulness.
"...This will just make the hunt and the final kill all the more interesting, Rebecca Edwards. You escaped from me tonight...until the next time." He rewound the tape and turned off the monitors and the lights, quietly enjoying his cigar in the half light of the moonlit room. "...Until the next time." He said, exhaling smoke rings into the air...
The End........
For now.