Soda supreme, p.1
Soda Supreme, page 1
Damsel: Book Four
Soda Supreme
P.S. Power
Orange Cat Publishing
Copyright 2021
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter thirteen
Chapter fourteen
Chapter fifteen
Chapter sixteen
Chapter seventeen
Chapter eighteen
Chapter nineteen
Chapter twenty
Chapter one
“Fuuu?”
Hannah realized that she wasn’t being overly articulate, at the moment. A thing that was probably rude of her, or would have been if she even remotely understood what was going on. She had a hood over her head, which was a thing she was used to, after a fashion. It had come up in her escape and evasion course, when she’d been dropped in the woods, handcuffed and with one of those tied over her head, in fact. Then she’d been hunted, both by dogs and three people with superhuman senses. Another one was psychic, which had made the whole thing terribly fun for her. The drones hadn’t helped, either.
That had been hard to get out of.
She noticed a blow coming at her head, even if she wasn’t fully awake yet. She was blind, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get a sense of certain things, when they were coming toward her nose like an angry shadow that intended to bust her teeth out of her head. So, she dodged to the left, hard, just before the move would have hit her. It connected with something behind her, making a sound that she couldn’t identify at all. Like flesh on metal, only louder.
“Freaking hell, Smitty! She saw me!”
Hannah tried to roll, her hands behind her back. The binding felt like tape. Probably standard silver duct tape. Also, if she was right, not a whole lot of it. Like someone had thought to bind her, being smart enough for the basic idea, and then had simply forgotten that she might not want to stay that way. She was tiny, so whoever had done it probably didn’t think she could break free, even given the small amount of effort used against her. The few strips of tape really were more than she could just rip apart with brute force. What she did instead was scramble to her feet, lurched as someone grabbed at her left arm, jumped straight up and forced her hands down, trying to sit on her wrists, wedging them apart.
Meaning she hit her head. Then the tape broke, and so did something in her left wrist, when she hit the ground, landing on it, at an angle. That last bit had a nice snapping sound to it, which was loud enough to jar her awake the rest of the way. She groaned and sucked in air at the same time but didn’t let the pain stop her. Not that she wasn’t gasping already. Fear would do that, and she was well and truly freaked, at the moment. Still, injured or not, she managed to do two things at once, as a hand grabbed her right shoulder.
“Damn it... Get her... Help me!” The man didn’t have an old sounding voice or anything like that. Not that she could tell. It was a dude. Not to put down trans people, but women taking steroids weren’t as strong as this guy was. Not unless they had powers. Most men would be hard pressed to match the guy, so that wasn’t exactly an insult.
She was pulled upward in a snappy move and slammed into the side of the vehicle, near the top. It was, she thought, a van or large truck. One with no seats in it. Not in the back, at least. So, that left her room to fight, unless she was being delusional. In that case it still left her room to struggle and fail, of course, so either one would work for someone there.
The first thing she did was find the knife in her pocket, on the right-hand side. She’d been asleep, and in her pajamas, but had sewn a special holder into the bottoms, along with extra elastic, since just having a pocket with a weight in it had led to her ending up with nothing on in the morning, about half the time. At least on the lower half of her body.
The other thing she did, as she pulled the blade, still blind and having trouble breathing, was try to contact her pal. Alistair. She normally tried to meditate when she did that and silently focus on his name, until he responded. Gently, and with control.
This time she just screamed.
“Al? I need some data!”
She refrained from stabbing anyone, in case the set up was the next test of her abilities or talents happening, instead of a real kidnapping. As she slept. From her high-rise apartment. If that was the case, she was totally kicking someone in the jimmies. If Lash or Kate were behind it, she was dragging them to the Never, growing some of those for them and then punting their crotches for real. She hated being kidnapped. Even if it was just a game.
“Who is she talking to?”
Hannah kicked at the voice, aiming for the groin, since if it was a practice session, they’d be wearing a cup. That or she could apologize later. No one had noticed the blade yet. The devastating blow to the groin clearly missed, and hit a leg instead. It got a soft grunt, but nothing more rewarding than that.
“Al? He’s a telepath I know.”
“Fuck! No one said there would be telepaths! We’re just supposed to transport her, rape her, then pass her to the client!”
She could sense another grab coming, and decided to take a chance on stabbing. She did a good, rather fast job of it, even if she was blind and off balance at the moment. The man on her right let go of her shoulder and from the feel of it, she was making real contact. As he screamed and pulled back, being hit several times, she re-aimed at the man in front of her, trying to sense what he was going to do next.
Pushing her mind as hard as she could, through the pain of her left wrist. That didn’t give her any real relief, but allowed her to keep moving, which was enough, for the moment.
What she got was a hazy blur of her own possible motions. Most of those ending in her stabbing the man touching her, as something happened from the front of the van. A thing she had to avoid, from the feel of it. So she moved, ducking between the two bodies, stabbing at the same time, and heard a gun go off.
From the driver, almost certainly. A mass came at her from the passenger’s side seat, as well. She used the slumped and groaning man she’d stuck ten times in the middle as a shield, screaming since she had to pull him with her left hand to do it, and poked at the third man. It fucking hurt to do it, but not doing it would probably end with her being dead, so it happened, even as she gasped at the ridiculous pain of the move.
It made for a brutal several minutes, the driver keeping to the road, after the one shot had been fired. He kept calling out, screaming.
“What’s going on! Frankie?”
No one answered, though from the sound, everyone else was still alive.
Using the black rubber handle of the blade, she tried to tug the hood off. It was taped to her throat, all the way around. A small bit had come off, so, trying to be both fast and careful, using only the blade, she cut the thing free. There was a lot of pulling and awkward but quick ripping of tape. That still took until the vehicle nearly stopped.
Meaning she was able to see again, as that happened. It was dim in the back of the van, but there was enough light for her to make out the downed forms pretty easily. All men. Not wearing masks at all. It was tempting to quip at the driver about that being a mistake, but she moved to the left instead, stomping one of the men on the dick, as hard as she could, to distract him, even if the stab wounds were probably enough. She wasn’t taking any chances. After all, they’d gotten her from her bed.
Somehow.
The driver had a gun, but couldn’t drive and aim at her, at the same time. The vehicle was stopping, so she hurried, moving toward the front and reaching around the seat back to stab the man in the face. It wasn’t ideal, as far as targeting, but she could reach him that way. More to the point, standing behind him, with a barrier between them, the man couldn’t easily get at her at the same time. He had long hair, but the voice was deep and masculine, as he screamed and tried to get out the door.
“I don’t think so, asshole. If you don’t want to die, give me the gun, now!” She kept stabbing the man, who, naturally, shot at her. Nothing hit, since, apparently, it was hard to aim well, when your neck was being opened up. That wasn’t magical thinking on her part or anything, she decided. It would have been hard to manage, even with all the practice she’d had, if the shoe were on the other foot.
“Gah! Fucking hell!” The man didn’t give up, still trying to fight. Until he didn’t anymore.
Meaning she was busily trying to grab the gun as one of the men from the back attempted to grab her leg and pull her off balance.
“I don’t think so! I play video games, mother fucker!” She sounded feisty, instead of mean or intimidating. A thing she decided to work on, if she could.
After all, she wasn’t trying to get the guys into bed. Seeing them, she realized that she probably wouldn’t have, if given a choice in the matter. A thing they hadn’t planned to give her. Then, if they’d been nice, maybe started with flowers or even candy, she might have tossed them a handjob or two. Carpel tunnel was a threat, sure, but she wasn’t a monster when it came to rejecting people for being ugly.
Right now, though, covered with blood, and moaning like little bitches, she wasn’t even going to be that nice. Really, she considered killing them, at the moment. There were four of th em after all, and even injured, they might rally and get the drop on her.
So, the man on her leg was stabbed, rather efficiently, since she really had been playing video games. The Wilderness Hannah knife fight trainer, in fact. That hadn’t covered fighting with a hood on, true, but she’d managed that part, thanks to other things she’d been doing. Learning to be psychic in a pinch. Kind of like what had just taken place.
“Clearly, seeing a minute into the future wasn’t enough for some reason. Now, Alistair?”
She had to focus, sitting in the back of the van, hoping there wasn’t a second vehicle with armed men coming at her as she tried to get some help going. There was tape, which normally, if she hadn’t broken her own arm like an idiot, she could have used on the men. Instead, she just kept stabbing, not knowing if she could do anything other than that, at the moment. Not even knowing if she was going to need that energy to keep fighting, now that the van had stopped.
After several minutes of screaming, or at least calling out fairly forcefully, with her fighting panic and the shock of being injured, a youthful male voice finally came back at her.
In her head.
~Hannah? I’m sleeping.~
“Wake up then? Kidnapping. I think. If this was a test, well, I’m going to have to do some big payouts. I stabbed some people. I’m still doing it, in fact. Let me know if I need to stop that?”
~One second.~
Whatever it was Alistair Marks was doing at the moment, it took longer than a second. About a minute later, perhaps two, the voice came back.
~Got it. These guys were hired to take you. There was superpowered aid. A teleporter, and a limited telepath, who kept you stunned, while it took place. That part was nearly professional. These aren’t pros. The client...~
She felt a sense of dread. It could be one of a lot of people. Zero Six, of the Khan Collective sort of didn’t like her, after all. Having her raped was the kind of thing he’d do for fun, too. At least from what she’d heard.
The group that had been hitting cities with bombs in the last three months might do that as well. They clearly had people with powers and knew who she was, even if it didn’t make sense to target her. They’d gone after others that it didn’t make sense to hit though, so it could be that set of people. If they were really human at all. Some were asking if they were demons.
She scrambled, wondering if it might just be about ransom. She was wealthy, and her family had even more money than she did personally. Demanding a few hundred million for her would be a thing that a lot of people might think would work. It wouldn’t. She’d made her father promise that if she was ever taken again, he wouldn’t pay anything for her. Not even one thin dime. Even if it meant her dying.
Not to protect her, either. She had other family members who had to be protected, after all. If you paid the ransom once, you taught the villains to keep doing it. Still, that didn’t mean that the bad guys would know that part of things.
~He’s... Just a guy. He thought you were cute, on The Life of Kate, and decided that it wasn’t going to work to try and ask you out, so decided on kidnapping. Part of that was your size. He thought he might be able to control you, for a while, due to that. On the good side, he wasn’t planning on asking for a ransom. Just raping you and then hiding the body, when he was done.~
She nodded, mainly to herself.
“Okay. That’s better, I guess. At least he wasn’t being greedy, just... Insane. Can you find him?”
~Yep. I’m also on with some other people. You should be fine there. No one else is coming for you, other than our friends. You won. Can you keep those guys alive? There’s something off with them...~
It was going to take some work, but she nodded. Direct pressure was a thing, after all.
“Maybe? I’ll probably need to stop stabbing them, if we’re doing that today.” She still held the blade, ready to keep going, even as she spoke the words.
~Incoming. Wisp and Vidya.~
Hannah blinked at the last name. Diaspora was in The Society. The big-league super team. Wisp was her sister, but it seemed odd that she’d be brought in just for some kidnappers.
There was a yell from the back of the van about then.
“Damsel? Are you alive?”
The shouter was Vidya, from the voice. She spoke with an accent that Kate didn’t have at all. It was similar to Cry Diamond’s, really. Which made sense, both of them having come from the same island. Kate was from there too, but had left as a child. Thankfully. It sounded like a horrible place.
“In here!” She yelled the words, the side of the van opening, fairly soon after that.
Vidya stood there in normal people clothing, with Wisp being in her uniform. That had a full face mask, which was bullet resistant, as was the rest of the costume. Everyone knew who Kate was, in her superheroic outfit, but wearing it still made sense, being it was also armor. Hannah had some of her own, in her closet, at home. Just in case it ever came up. A bland outfit all in tan, so she wouldn’t look like a superhero in it. Not too much. She didn’t sleep in it, so it hadn’t helped at all.
Kate looked around at the mess and then scanned Hannah. Who was, naturally, covered in red.
She smiled, not feeling it at all.
“The blood is all theirs. I think I broke my left wrist. That... Well, waking up fighting, what can you expect? I suck if I don’t get a full eight hours sleep. Maybe a cup or two of coffee, too.”
Vidya laughed.
“Ah, you already did all the fun parts? Unless we get to torture them?” She moved forward, getting two of the men to make panicked sounds. Even if they didn’t get who was really there. If they had, they would have reacted more. Diaspora was known to straight up mutilate people, when she got angry.
Hannah shook her head.
“We know what they do already. Al got that for us. They need to get to the hospital and to be arrested, if possible. If not... Well, then...” She tightened her face, not knowing how to do all of that. She didn’t want the would-be rapists and kidnappers to go free.
There were laws, however. These men weren’t killers who had the ability to teleport or anything, so killing them out of hand wasn’t going to be allowed. Murder was illegal, even if you had a good reason.
Kate nodded.
“Vid, call this in? Your people can make the legal parts happen, right?”
The woman without the mask on, who was devastatingly pretty, smiled. It was a bit cruel. Her voice wasn’t.
“We can, I bet! I should call in that I suddenly left your house, anyway, Wisp.” She pulled her phone and stepped back, as Hannah did her own moving and finally escaped the van. All by herself, even if she had to hop down, cradling her left arm in her right. Still holding the blade, which was open. It needed to be cleaned, before she closed it. Otherwise, it would stick shut and not be useful to her if she needed it again.
Kate made the men vanish, taking them away, one at a time. Directly to an emergency room, probably. At the same time, Vidya was dialing her phone.
“Hey, Anthony? Vidya. My location suddenly changed. My sister teleported me to the scene of a kidnapping. Some idiots tried to take Damsel, if you can believe that? We’re trying to save them right now. Headed to the hospital, I think? It looks like dozens of stab wounds for each of them. It’s a bit hard to tell. Close to hamburger?” She was silent then and actually laughed. It sounded pleasant and even joyful.
After a moment, she got to speak.
“I know, that does sound like me, doesn’t it? I didn’t even touch them, I swear. Damsel handled it. Let me... Wisp! Where are they going?”
There was one left, so Kate sounded hurried as she spoke.
“South Memorial, Emergency Room! Four Caucasian males.” Then she vanished.
“Got that? There’s a white van. I have the plate number here. It’s fairly remote. I don’t know the specific location, really. It’s...” She looked around and then shrugged. “Rural. We have cell coverage out here, so you can find my location? Damsel has a broken arm, but...” She held the phone to the side of her head, and smiled at Hannah. “What’s the plan? We can bring you in, back to the base, or take you to the police, if you’d rather?”
She grimaced and shook her head.
“There’s a man behind this. I need to find him and take him down. The plan was to rape and murder me. So, you know, I’m not letting him walk. I don’t know if we can prove all that. That... I might have to do it alone.”
