Kestryl crept down the hall, listening closely. Her partner was being held somewhere nearby.

She heard a familiar-sounding voice and put her ear to one of the doors. Yes, this was it.

“Never! I shall never yield to you!”

“You have six minutes and nine seconds to reconsider. The Express is commendably punctual.”

“I would not reconsider in six years and nine months! Better I should go to my Maker with my virtue intact!”

“As you wish. Such a pity it is to let such a beautiful body go to waste. And it’s an even greater pity that your young apprentice shall be left without her mentor.” The voice paused a beat. “The latter at least can be remedied. I shall take her under my wing.”

Kestryl heard a loud gasp, followed by a cry of “NO!” After a few seconds of silence, she heard the speaker continue, in a softer tone that was still distinctly audible through the door. “Very well. Spare her, sir, and I shall surrender myself. I only pray that you be gentle in taking my maidenhead.”

In one quick motion, Kestryl kicked in the door and leaped into the room. With a glance, she took stock of the situation. There was a length of railroad track lying on the floor. Red Lynx lay bound to it, dressed in an elaborate gown and petticoat along with her mask, gloves, and boots. A figure in a top hat and long black high-necked cloak loomed over her.

“Unhand her, villain!” Kestryl declaimed.

“So, this junior heroine hopes to foil my plans?” the cloaked figure sneered. “We shall see about that!”

Suddenly, hands seized Kestryl from behind. She just barely suppressed the instinct to use a judo throw that would slam the attacker to the floor, and instead squirmed in a deliberately ineffectual escape attempt. “Don’t bother struggling,” Synergia’s voice spoke in her ear. “It only delays the inevitable.”

“Now I have the both of you!” the villain cackled, and then addressed the bound woman on the tracks. “You have surrendered yourself to me to spare your companion. Alas for you, that decision is irrevocable, even though it is now unavailing. However, I do offer you one bit of comfort. I shall spare your maidenhead, in the technical sense of the term, for I am neither a ‘sir’ nor a ‘villain’.”

The figure whipped off the cloak, to reveal Psiductress clad in the very same outfit she’d worn the night of their capture and initiation. Kestryl nearly lost it completely at the sight of the handlebar mustache stuck to her upper lip. She somehow managed to stifle her laughter and avoid spoiling the theatrical scene.

“You’re a woman?” Red Lynx stage-whispered. “But, if you’re a woman... what are your intentions?”

“I believe I have made that quite clear. I intend to make love to you... and make love to you I shall!”

For a somewhat overlong moment, Red Lynx mugged a perplexed expression. Finally, she gasped. “You intend to perform... to require me to perform... unnatural acts?”

“Not at all. You and I shall engage in perfectly natural acts of sexual intercourse.” She licked her lips. “Homosexual intercourse, to be precise.” She twirled the tip of her fake mustache. “As I introduce you to the pleasures of purely feminine intimacy, your body will respond quite naturally.”

Red Lynx stared wide-eyed for a long moment. “Very well,” she finally sighed. “Give me your word that you will not lay a hand on my young ward, and you may do as you will with me.”

“Of course. I shall not touch your young companion,” Psiductress preened, waving toward Kestryl. “I have promised her to my associate.”

She paused, caught Kestryl’s gaze, and coughed, reminding her that she was supposed to react to that statement as a dastardly threat, not a delightful promise.

One of the hands around Kestryl slid up to cup her breast, the other settled into place between her thighs. Both hands lit up with little sparkles of energy. Kestryl stared wide-eyed, her mouth puckered into an “O”.

“Diana, you bitch!” Red Lynx chided. “You’ve been holding out on us!”

“No, I haven’t,” Synergia replied. “It’s a trick I’ve been working on for a while. Until now, I wasn’t sure my fine control was good enough.” The sparkles around her hands faded but did not entirely vanish. She stuck out her tongue for a moment. Shimmering lights danced at its tip. “It took a lot of practice, but I think the payoff will be worth the effort.”

The other three women in the room, especially Kestryl, sported grins that would make the Cheshire Cat look like Eeyore.

Psiductress decided to end the scene while there was still a chance of nudging everybody back into character for the finale. She undid the rope holding Red Lynx to the tracks and swept her up into her arms. “And now, my lovely ladies, it’s time for both of you to meet your fate... as objects of our depraved lesbian lust! Mwaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha!!”

-----

Eventually, passionate lovemaking gave way to a restful lull. Red Lynx knew that it was time to put her cards on the table.

Snuggling up to Psiductress, she began, “Jill... I hate to say it, but I think we need to take a few minutes and have a serious talk.”

“If you insist. Whatever it is, let’s get it out of the way so we can get Round Two started.”

“You’re insatiable!” Red Lynx chided, picking up a pillow.

“Oooh! Pillow fights make the best foreplay!”

Dropping the pillow, Red Lynx sighed. “Can you be serious for just a few minutes? If you’ll do that, I’m all yours for the rest of the night.”

“All right.” She glanced over at Kestryl and Synergia, sound asleep on the cot across the room. “Not that I have much choice.”

Red Lynx remembered watching those two demonstrate Synergia’s new trick, with their thighs intertwined and little sparks of energy dancing around their hips and thighs. From the look of it, they’d both had incredibly intense orgasms in less than a minute. They’d also been left highly sensitive to further attention and writhed helplessly as the other two relentlessly stroked and licked them. Before long, they’d both pleaded exhaustion and adjourned to the cot reserved for sleeping.

Her own stamina was holding up just fine. Years of old-fashioned physical conditioning had advantages over superpowers. She had to admit, though, that she was eagerly looking forward to her own clit-zapping session.

Returning her attention to the topic at hand, she said, “I have a problem I hope you can help me with.”

“I thought that’s what I was doing already.”

“I assure you, ‘not getting laid often enough’ hasn’t been on my list of problems these past few months. I’m sorry we haven’t been able to include you more often, but we can’t let anybody know about you and us while you’re on the wrong side of the law.”

Psiductress rolled her eyes. “Is this about me going straight? Again?”

“Yes, it is. This time, can we skip the bad jokes about the other meaning of ‘straight’ and just get to the point?”

She sighed, and then replied, “We’ve been over this before, Lilli. Yes, I’m tired of being chased by the police and the other capes. Yes, it’d be nice to be able to settle down so that we could be together more often.”

“It’s not just ‘more often’, Jill.” Red Lynx looked wistful. “The rest of us are making plans to eventually be together full-time. First, each of us came out as lesbian and poly in our civvie IDs. Then, to cover our tracks, we waited two months and arranged some double sightings....” In response to Psiductress’ quizzical look, she explained, “Trick setups where witnesses see your civvie and super identities at the same time. Anyway, then the three of us came out again in costume and went through the media circus.”

She shook her head ruefully. “Maybe staying in the closet would have been easier—after all, we’ve had lots of practice hiding who we are. It definitely would have been easier for Zephyr Lass.” In the days following the heroines’ announcement, the other female member of the League had grown rather weary of repeating that she was straight, got along perfectly well with her lesbian teammates, and would much rather discuss matters that were actually relevant to the League’s mission.

“Speaking of Zephyr Lass,” Psiductress remarked, “I wrangled myself a ticket to one of your talk-show interviews and asked her what she’d do if one of you hit on her.”

“That was you?” She remembered sitting on stage, glaring at the jerk who’d asked that question and wondering which of the local shock jocks had put her up to it.

“That was me, under a wig, a pair of nerd glasses, and some heavy makeup. More facial concealment than half of the capes in this city wear, come to think of it. I did a little light probing while she answered the question and found out that she’s straight to the core. Pity; she’s got great legs and a cute ass—almost as cute as yours.”

“Nice save. And what if she wasn’t straight to the core?”

“If it was just the usual flickers of bi-curiosity, nothing. If she had a genuine buried lesbian streak...” She winked saucily. “...I’d have gotten to work on recruiting her and she’d be here with the rest of us. No point daydreaming about the road not taken, though.”

“And no point changing the subject,” Red Lynx said a bit sharply, annoyed at herself for letting the digression ramble this long. “My point is that the three of us have a big personal investment in preparing for the day when we can all find a nice place and set up one big happy household together. If you weren’t a fugitive, you could be part of that. We just want you to meet us halfway.”

“Halfway?” Psiductress snorted. “You came out of the closet. Good for you. I’d have to turn myself in. I think getting five to ten years, if I’m lucky, is a slightly greater sacrifice than taking crap from bigoted pinheads. Anyway, it’d just make the problem worse; we’d never be able to get together until I finally got out.”

Red Lynx took her hand and looked her in the eye. “Hear me out, Jill. I’ve found a way to solve that problem.” As her companion stared at her, she continued, “I talked to Commissioner Harris, his friends in the DA’s office, and their contacts in the FBI. They’re willing to make a deal: probation on all outstanding charges, in return for one favor.”

Her expression turned grim. “I can’t give you the full details unless you agree to the deal, but here’s the general situation. Harris is holding someone with high-level organized crime connections. The charges will stand up for a few days, but after that the Mob’s lawyers will get him out and the cops won’t be able to touch him again. If this person chose to talk, Harris thinks it could be the first step toward shutting down every major racket in the city.”

“And convincing your mystery mobster to talk is where I come in.” Psiductress replied. “Lilli, this is ridiculous. After it wears off, he’d know what had happened to him, and anything he said would get thrown out—.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You are not asking me to do a slow-and-permanent mind tweak for the Feds.” There was edge in her voice, a blend of worry and anger and fear.

Red Lynx squeezed her hand. “Jill, I swear to you none of us told anybody you can do that. That would wreck all of our lives, and frankly it’s just too dangerous for the government or anybody else to know about.” As her companion calmed down, she continued, “All you’d have to do is make him willing to talk for a few hours. They can’t use his testimony directly, but he can point them toward other evidence that can be brought into court.”

“But when it wears off, he’ll know what happened to him and blow the whistle.”

Red Lynx grinned ferally. “No he won’t. By then, the police will be following up on the leads, and the Mob will know who tipped them off. If he wants to live, he’ll let the Feds give him a new identity, which would be blown if he tried to tell his story.”

Psiductress lay back, quietly thinking it over. Finally, she said, “You really think this will work, don’t you?”

Red Lynx nodded. “I’m supposed to give them your answer tomorrow. Obviously, I couldn’t promise anything on your behalf. All I told them is that I have ways of getting in contact with you—”

“You can say that again!” her companion snickered, reaching around to pull her close and press their breasts together. Red Lynx started to protest, but then decided to go with the flow.

When things cooled off again, she started over, “I told them that I had ways of communicating with you and convinced them to offer you this deal. I know there are some ethical issues—”

Psiductress interrupted again. “Lilli, darling, I’ve spent the last few years making guards believe that I’m supposed to be hauling away the valuables right under their noses! What makes you think I’d have an ethical problem with convincing a Mob boss to talk? It’s not like I’d be breaking his fingers.”

“You’ll do it, then?”

She nodded, “I’ll do it, so long as they don’t get the idea that I’m going to be at their beck and call from now on. I want your word on that.”

“You have it. Harris already got everybody involved to agree that this would be a one-time thing. To be blunt, he doesn’t really like the idea, but if it means a chance to clean up this city....” She let the words trail off into silence.

Grinning, Psiductress tousled Red Lynx’s hair. “So, your plan to make me go straight means that you have to go a little bit crooked. Well, you did say you were meeting me halfway.” She softly kissed her companion on the forehead. “You’ve got a deal.”

“Thank you. I’ll talk to Harris and the Feds and get everything set up.”

They lay side by side for a while, quietly cuddling. At last, Psiductress broke the silence by asking, “So... what does a gone-straight supervillainess do for a living? I don’t exactly have a resume for getting a normal job.” She grinned. “Maybe I can find us a rich latent lesbian to recruit and the four of us could be her kept harem girls.”

Red Lynx chuckled and shook her head. “Between the tabloids and enemies trying to use Sugar Mama to get at us, we’d never have a moment’s peace.”

“It was just a thought.” Psiductress’ expression turned serious. “The problem is my powers aren’t really that useful if I can only show people the ‘short-term sledgehammer’ version.”

“Sure they are. You could make patients relax and not be afraid before surgery, or help dying people find peace in their final hours. Somebody on the way to a party could get a quick booster shot of willpower to not eat or drink too much. People would pay money for things like that.”

Psiductress considered that and nodded. “Hmmm... I suppose there are ways to make an honest living with this.”

Red Lynx reached over to the nightstand and rummaged through the drawer for a small notepad and a pen. “Maybe you should take notes.” She handed them over, and said, “Now, listen carefully. One of the ideas I’m about to come up with could be your new career. So this is important. Serious. I’m about to dictate a list of things I, personally, would pay you good money for. Get ready to start copying these down.” She stared at the pad until the pen was in place to begin writing.

“Item One.” She paused as Psiductress wrote “1.” on the pad. Then, a bit faster, she said, “Convince the players at the next Ladies Open tennis tournament that wearing a bra ruins their serve. I mean, a decent display of bouncing boobs is the least they could do after luring me in with that false-advertising name—.”

Her recitation was interrupted as her companion swatted her with the pad and shook the mattress with her laughter. “Oh, listen to Little Miss Law-Abiding!” she chuckled, and then started another round of chortling.

“I am being perfectly serious,” Red Lynx mock-intoned. “If you’re not writing these ideas down, it’s your loss.” She coughed and continued. “Item Two: Take me to lunch at Hooters, and make the waitresses believe that somebody left a $50 tip hidden under my seat. I’ll settle for ‘under my chair’ if that’s the best you can do.”

“Oh, stop it!”

Red Lynx tilted her head coquettishly. “Make me,” she deadpanned.

Psiductress took her up on it.

When they finally disengaged their lips and tongues, she took a deep breath.... and quickly rattled off the words, “Item Three: What you did just now!”

Her companion silenced her again, and then again. By the time the evening was over, she was very glad that she didn’t really have to pay for it. She would have been hopelessly in debt for life.