Baroness Blackleather had never imagined that there could be such a thing as too many reminders of her triumph over Vindiatrix and Shield Lass.

That was before she’d begun the job of reviewing the cumulative output of the cameras—several dozen hours of video from which she needed to select angles and transitions and soundtrack accompaniments and everything else that would shape the final production of Intimate Initiation.

At times, she found herself wondering if she should have been satisfied to simply add the heroines to her personal harem and forget about turning them into pornographic performers. When that happened, she would take a coffee break and renew her motivation by imagining the deliciously entertaining scandal she was preparing to unleash upon the superhero community. When that wasn’t enough, she told herself that she’d already invested too much time and resources into the scheme to abandon it.

It was partly her own fault for being unwilling to delegate more of the work, she knew. She was willing to let Kristin act as onstage director and assign the other Leathergals basic chores like checking each shot for blurry focus or microphones dipping into the frame. However, she insisted on maintaining full control of the show’s final editing and presentation. She wanted this project to be hers.

Editing the scenes of Vindiatrix and Shield Lass arriving and accepting her offer had been straightforward. That was simply a series of medium-range shots, with a few closeup inserts of contract clauses mentioning adult entertainment and a zoom-in on the signatures.

The striptease scene was also rather simple, with carefully framed shots of the women disrobing in slow motion to reveal titillating but street-legal bare legs and arms and midriffs and backs. The tricky part was deciding how long to tease the audience like that before the sudden jump cut to a double dose of full frontal nudity, followed by a montage of naughty bits presented from a variety of angles.

The kissing scene also fell into place readily, consisting of head-and-shoulder shots of the duo with occasional closeups of tongue action and cutaways to wandering hands or shapely legs and behinds.

After adding a few shots of the two women being strapped into the Scissor-Matic, the Baroness began working on the main scene—the heroines’ titular intimate initiation. That was where things got difficult as she kept second-guessing herself.

This scene, the most intense sex scene of the production, would be the centerpiece. It had to be just right. She suspected that a large percentage of the audience would start with this scene, ignoring her “voluntary decision” introduction and getting off on the imagery of superheroines in bondage being sexually enslaved by a villainess. The Baroness chuckled at the irony: the viewers who chose willful ignorance would be the ones getting the true story.

She got herself another cup of coffee while the computer loaded and preprocessed another batch of video files. When that was done, she began reviewing them. The heroines’ two Scissor-Matic sessions offered a plethora of erotic images that demanded to be presented. Between replaying each moment from multiple angles to show off each curve and highlighting the very best parts by presenting them in slow motion, the scene could easily be stretched out long enough to anchor a full-length video feature.

After a few false starts, she realized that she was on the wrong track. She was putting too much focus on the women’s naked bodies, and not enough on the bondage and struggles.

Minimizing everything else, she skimmed through the various wide-angle camera views that showed the entire scene. She’d used a few of those images to establish the setting and then forgotten about them. That was a mistake, she realized as she took another look. The sight of the two women bound upon the slowly converging platforms, helplessly approaching each other, brought back the excitement she’d felt as she’d originally watched the event unfold.

The next half hour flew by as she created a new rough edit built around overviews of the Scissor-Matic’s inexorable progress. The flow of the scene was provided by views of the entire setup, sped up to show visible motion as the women were maneuvered into position. Interspersed in between were brief closeup shots, an assortment of sexy curves and straining muscles and dismayed faces.

The Baroness resisted the temptation to include too many of the last type simply because they were her personal favorites. She particularly enjoyed the ones from their first session. The captives’ genuine dismay during the initial imprinting session was considerably more visceral and intense than the playacting they’d done the second time around.

Oh, well, they’d have plenty of time to learn how to present an arousing display of feigned resistance. She made a note to have Kristin recommend some good lesbian capture-and-bondage videos for them to watch and learn from.

Everything started to click into place. Oh, yes, she was definitely on the right track now. A clip of the Scissor-Matic maneuvering the women into position, a lingering look at Shield Lass’s bare bosom, another wide-angle shot making it clear that the gap was inexorably closing, a closeup of Vindiatrix flexing her arm in a futile effort to pull free of the bondage mitt, another panoramic view, an image of Shield Lass helplessly gritting her teeth against her gag....

By judicious selection of viewpoints, she could cheat a bit and advance the real-time progress of the scene only a few seconds at each iteration, stretching it out to almost twenty minutes while maintaining a sense of slow but steady progress toward climax, so to speak.

As she clicked the mouse to replay what she’d put together so far, the Baroness noticed that her other hand had slipped between her legs without her consciously noticing. That was a good sign.

By the time the Baroness shut down the workstation, it was past midnight. Her eyes felt like peeled onions. Her back twinged when she rose from her chair. She was grinning from ear to ear.

-----

“Hand over the wallet and nobody gets hurt—”

The next thing he knew, his knife was rattling across the pavement, his arm was twisted behind his back, and his buddy was fleeing into an alleyway. “Forget about the wallet,” a voice growled into his ear, “and worry about the ‘nobody gets hurt’ part.”

He lashed out with a backwards kick. It should have knocked the legs out from under whoever was holding him, instead, it met only empty air. He lost his own footing and tumbled to the sidewalk.

“Now, what did I just tell you?” He looked up at the source of the voice—Vindiatrix. He froze. He knew better than to try anything.

With a few quick well-practiced moves, she bound the perp’s wrists and ankles. Shield Lass emerged from the alley where the other mugger had fled. “I’ve got him bundled up behind the garbage cans, all ready to not pass Go and not collect two hundred dollars,” she reported as she approached her partner.

The bound mugger’s eyes went wide as the sidekick gave her mentor a passionate kiss. As they pulled out of the clinch, he turned his head away—the last thing he wanted to do right now was get them pissed off....

“What’s the matter? Do you have something against lesbians?” Shield Lass asked. The question sounded oddly gentle after the way her partner had taken him down and tied him up. She was just asking the way somebody would ask for directions, without any angry or even annoyed overtones.

“No... no, of course not!” That sounded like a good answer. “I love watching lesbians!” His eyes went wide as he realized that was probably the wrong thing to say.

“Then watch this!” She mock-growled and leaned in to gently nibble Vindiatrix’s ear.

The mugger’s eyes went even wider.

As she pulled away, Vindiatrix lowered her own mouth to her partner’s ear. Instead of returning the affection, she whispered. “Much as I’m enjoying this, the Baroness did ask us to avoid public displays of affection until she’s ready for the publicity rollout.”

“Oops,” Shield Lass replied, too softly for the mugger to hear.

Vindiatrix then changed the subject back to business. She called their police liaison to send a squad car to pick up the perps, then checked her comm unit for any pending messages.

There was one new message from the Baroness. She could be ready tonight to do the final shooting session for Intimate Initiation, but assured them that it could wait if their crimefighting duties were too pressing.

The streets were quiet tonight; this was the only incident they’d encountered so far. After taking a moment to confirm that Shield Lass also had no pressing appointments in her civilian identity, she replied that they could be there in half an hour.

-----

The Baroness greeted them at the studio entrance. “I’m glad you could come so quickly. Congratulations on capturing the Indigo Ibis last week; have you two had any other interesting adventures recently?

Both heroines chuckled. “Yes — mostly the kind you told us to keep under wraps until you’re ready to roll out the publicity campaign for the video.” Vindiatrix reached over and gave her young blonde partner a quick pat on the butt. “It’s driving us crazy to be out on the streets together and have to bottle everything up until we’re sure nobody’s watching.”

“You won’t need to be discreet for much longer. The advertisement you recorded last week is scheduled to start appearing next Saturday night. At that point, the pre-publicity phase will begin, and you’ll be free to start publicly dropping hints.”

“Hints like this?” Shield Lass asked impishly as she brazenly goosed her partner.

“Subtler hints, I think,” the Baroness replied as she took hold of the blonde’s hand and moved it to the brunette’s hip. “Of course, after the big announcement you can be as blatant as you like. That’s still on track for two weeks from today.”

“Well, then, let’s get that last recording finished and make sure we stay on track,” Vindiatrix said as she put her own hand on Shield Lass’s hip.

“Most of the post-production is finished,” the Baroness replied. “There’s just one bottleneck I hope you can help me with. I’ve been making progress on the Scissor-Matic scene, but I keep getting a nagging sense that something is missing. Would you be willing to take a look and give me your thoughts?”

“Of course.”

The Baroness led the heroines into the building. They started along the familiar path leading to the main stage, but then turned down a side corridor that took them to a small office dominated by a computer, a large video mixing board, and a triple monitor array.

She sat down in the control chair. The others pulled up chairs to sit beside her.

“This is the latest rough cut.”

The big central screen came to life as the mouse clicked. It showed a freeze-frame view of the naked heroines being escorted across the stage. The Baroness used a handheld remote to lower the room lights and began playing the video.

“I think you should use more closeup shots of the fasteners being attached,” Vindiatrix said as she watched the Leathergals strap her and her partner into position. “Lots of them in quick succession to emphasize how thoroughly we’re being tied down.”

“And add some sharp metal clicks to punch it up!” Shield Lass interjected. “I remember how I felt tingly chills from the click-click-click of the belts being buckled into place.”

“Oh, I like those ideas!” She wrote “more time applying bondage, jump cuts, fastener sound effects” in her memo pad.

They watched as the machinery began moving the bound women toward their inexorable sexual encounter. “I like it,” Vindiatrix said, “but there should be more closueps.”

“Maybe two closeups instead of just one in between wide-angle shots,” Shield Lass suggested. “Maybe even three, one sexy shot, one struggle shot, and one face shot.”

“I think the flexing muscles are the really sexy part,” Vindiatrix added. “The stripping scene leading into this has plenty of peekaboo T&A. The struggle is what’s special about this scene.”

“That’s a very good point,” the Baroness agreed. She brought up a clip of Shield Lass staring wide-eyed as she gritted her teeth against the gag.

Shield Lass snickered. “I was really hamming it up, wasn’t I?” She turned to her partner. “Looking at that, you’d think I didn’t like bumping cunts with you!” They grinned at each other.

The Baroness suppressed her own impulse to grin, recalling that the image was from the initial session in which the heroines had been genuinely attempting to escape just that outcome.

They watched silently and appreciatively as the tribbing action began. The cameras cycled between wide-angle overviews and closeups of grinding hips and heaving bosoms and wide-eyed faces.

“Maybe a slow dissolve between our O-faces?” Vindiatrix suggested. “I think that underscores the idea of us becoming a couple.”

The Baroness added the comment to her notes as the video concluded with a scene of the women being released from the bondage rigs and led away by Kristin, lingering on a final rear view.

“Thank you for your suggestions,” the Baroness said as she stood up. “Now, if you’ll follow me, we have one last scene to shoot. You won’t be getting undressed, but you will be getting naughty.”

-----

She sat in a director’s chair, facing a couch where Vindiatrix and Shield Lass sat side by side. She gave them a moment to snuggle close and get comfortable.

“Tell me, why did you decide to take me up on my offer?”

Shield Lass spoke first. “I did it because I knew you were right. I was getting to the boiling point with how much I wanted Vindiatrix to...” Her voice trailed off. “I knew she was straight—”

“I thought I was straight,” Vindiatrix interrupted. “Even then, I sometimes wondered what it would be like with another woman. I knew you were attracted to me, but I didn’t want to do anything that might undercut the team,” the heroine continued.

“And how is that working out for you? Is being a couple getting in the way of being a team?”

“The team’s as good as ever,” Shield Lass replied. Vindiatrix nodded her agreement. “We caught a couple of muggers just before you asked us to come over to do the interview.”

“And you gave one of them a real eyeful, kissing me and nibbling on my earlobe,” Vindiatrix chuckled. She then looked apologetic. “Sorry about that; I know you wanted us to keep our relationship discreet for the time being.”

“Don’t worry about it. Nobody is going to pay attention to some street criminal.” The Baroness said, brushing off the matter. She made a mental note to remove that exchange from the final cut. The heroines were supposed to be expressing their new feelings in a way that made them seem fully their own, with no sign that of her manipulations.

“What were you thinking once you were strapped in?”

“The same thing I think when I’m ready to go into action,” Vindiatrix replied. “This is it; let’s do this!”

“And yet you look like you were trying to escape.”

“I guess that even after deciding I wanted to go through with it, I was still feeling just a little nervous. Fighting with the restraints was a way to work through those feelings.”

“So, you don’t have any more doubts that this is what you want?”

“Absolutely none.”

The Baroness turned toward Shield Lass, silently asking her the same question.

“Partly what she said,” the younger heroine replied, glancing toward her mentor. “And partly because getting tied up and trying to pull loose is kind of hot! Usually, I don’t get to really enjoy it because we usually get captured by people who do such a lousy job that we escape right away.”

There was an amused tone in the Baroness’s voice as she asked, “You mean you felt a sexual thrill whenever you were captured?”

“I’m not sure it was so much sexual as an adrenaline rush. This time, though... oh, yeah, sexual!”

“Does that mean you’d like to perform more bondage scenes in future productions?”

“Definitely!” Shield Lass responded matter-of-factly.

Vinidatrix looked thoughtful. “I’ll second that. I never thought I’d enjoy that kind of kinkiness, but then until recently I never thought I was gay.”

The Baroness assumed a thoughtful expression. “Do you think that the superheroine lifestyle might have made you more sexually adventurous?”

“I think maybe so.” Shield Lass replied.

Vindiatrix took a moment before answering. “All I know is I used to be straight vanilla, but not any more.”

“Just before the interview, I showed you some rough footage from Intimate Initiation. I couldn’t help noticing that you’re remarkably comfortable with people seeing you naked.”

“We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” Vindiatrix declared.

The Baroness made a show of looking them up and down. “No, you certainly don’t!” she smirked.

The heroines chuckled.

“That’s not all. You’re so nonchalant about putting on an erotic display that when I showed you a rough cut earlier today you started suggesting ideas for making it even more risqué.”

“Just trying to be helpful!” Shield Lass replied. “I’m not embarrassed to let people know that, yes, I like lesbian sex and yes, I like to get creative about it. I would be embarrassed to have people pay to watch me and not give them the best show I can.”

Vindiatrix nodded in agreement.

“Neither of you has anything to be embarrassed about on that score,” the Baroness declared. She stood up, her body language signaling that she was drawing the interview to a close. “I have no doubt that everyone who pays to see Intimate Initiation will consider it money well spent.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Vindiatrix said as she stood up.

“There’s no need to thank me,” the Baroness replied. “You’re the ones people pay to see.” She tilted her head coquettishly. “That said, if you’d really like to thank me, and don’t have any other urgent engagements this evening, we’ve just received a delivery of novelty props and toys that need to be properly tested under actual bedroom conditions....”