1

"Does Gizmo always complain that much?", the Red X asked. Jinx and he were in the cab of a moving truck, driving to a hideout that their new squad leader was providing. Gizmo, Mammoth and everything they had rode in the back. Strangely enough, the Red X was right when he stated that spraying a reflective surface on the windows of the truck would evade all suspicion. No one noticed either of the two criminals.

"Yep.", Jinx confirmed. They had reached their destination at this point. In a classic suburban neighborhood there stood a classic suburban house. "What? Here?", Jinx pointed and asked while the Red X backed the truck into the backyard.

"Of course.", the Red X answered. "People have come to expect supervillains like myself and criminals with powers like you hiding out in slums and attacking in city centers. Suburbia-the land of blissful ignorance-is the motherland for hideouts. Why do you think the setting of The Sopranos is suburbia?"

"But how can you just have a big ass house in the middle of da 'burbs?", Jinx continued.

"My dear...I'm a successful thief.", the Red X replied. "Let's get everyone and everything inside. We have very little time before your first preperation."

2

Less than an hour or two later, the three ex-H.I.V.E. students were shown their respective places.

The first room of the house was more like a lobby than a living room . Its cieling was actually the cieling of the second floor. The front door was a hop skip and a jump away from the stairs that led to the stairs. Mammoth had one leg sprawled across the floor and the other laid from one end of the couch to the other. In one hand he held the remote to a television nearly as large as him and in the other, a large blunt that he handled like a joint. The Red X had accomodated his size again in showing one of the bathrooms was double doored, linked to this room and had a hot tub that could fit him even if the shower couldn't.

Beneath him was Gizmo's set up-the basement. Gizmo was already to go into a tirade until he saw the place. Long gone were the leaky walls he was accostumed to. A fine set up somewhere between 'top secret lab' and 'PeeWee's Playhouse' was his prize of the day. The tiny inventor had yet to stop bandying about the levels, slapping a few scattered parts together.

"There is room for you to clean up and get out of your costume.", the Red X informed him.

Gizmo stopped wiping off his goggles and glanced back at the Red X and Jinx. "What costume?", he asked. Then suddenly one of his haphazard jury riggings of a moment ago spewed grezse onto his coveralls.

"As long as you complete the designs I have given you, I'll let you be.", the Red X told him.

"Yeh, yeh, yeh. A red 'x' shaped compressable shield, red 'x' shaped gyro-guided throwing stars, red 'x' shaped chemical tactile mines, red 'x' shaped whatsitmahuziz, hand set time bomb with red 'x' on it, whatever.", Gizmo dismissed. "You'll get your stuff."

"By tomorrow.", the Red X pointed. "I give you your second success tomorrow."

Then the Red X took Jinx by the wrist and led her to the second floor of the house. "And this is your room.", he informed. The room was actually quite regular. A large but not luxurious bed. The drapes were drawn. The closet was large enough to lack the need for and dresser. The only unique thing was its lack of decor.

"So, I get to personlize it?", guessed Jinx.

The Red X laughed. "No.", he said shaking his head."My price from your team will be exacted from you here."

"What, no foreplay?", Jinx accused with bravado. "Okay big boy. You ain't ugly underneath that mask, right?"

"You misunderstand me...somewhat.", the Red X warned. "While what you are thinking will be true, it is not for the reasons you assume. I'm preparing you. What I do to you WILL be painful, humiliating-it will rend your very soul.However, it may actually save your life."

"Now strip."

Jinx raised an eyebrow at him. "Did I stutter?", asked the Red X. He grabbed her oversized collard and ripped his arms away from her. Buttons bounced off him. When her dress was whipped across the room, the villain squeezed her from her total body stocking like a toothpaste from a tube. As Jinx's jaw hung agape from the nigh-clinical brutality, the Red X shredded her bra away from her and dragged her underwear off. He even slipped her hair bands off, putting the bright pink pig tails into the very chaos she manipulated with her power. Neither knew when her shoes had come off.

Jinx lay on the floor, subconciously taking the fetal position while her mind tried to cope with what was happenning. H.I.V.E. had never taught her anything of this, because super heroes would never do something like this. Should she fight back, show the Red X that she had the spirit he was looking for? Or should she be accomodating, and help him get off, paying him back for leading her cohorts to the success she failed to give them? Was he insane? Was she? How far was this going to go?

The Red X pulled a red cord from his utility belt. Turning her on her belly, the Red X drew her elbows together and bound them together. Next, her wrists were individually attached to her upper arms, leaving her as if she was at the bottom of a push up. He then spun around and grabbed her now struggling feet. As soon as they were bound together he pulled them up and used the rest of the cord to truss her up completely. It was as if he had pre-measured the length to exactly her.

Jinx could barely move her head around enough to realize the only thing she could see was floor. Her hands were useless and her physical struggles only drug her nipples along the carpet. Her eyes began to glow pink.

"Don't. Get. Free.", the Red X said pointedly. He laid next to his vict...partner. "I want you to stay bound exactly like this until I return."

Jinx had to catch her breath before replying. "When's that gonna be?"

"I don't know.", said the Red X. "More importantly, you don't know. I'm going to leave. I'm going to tell Mammoth and Gizmo not to disturb you, and not tell them what I've done to you. I don't know when, or if, I'll return."

"I hope it's after you've lost all hope of me coming back to free you. I want it to be after you feel the absolute despair of knowing there is nothing to gain by remaining bound but remaining anyway. When your throat is sore from thirst, after you've wet yourself because there's no other option, when you're damning me to hells you have yet to imagine I still won't have come back."

He slid his hand along her back until it was resting on her butt.

"And you need to stay here. Bound. We both know you could just 'happen to slip free' or 'happen to have the cord snap'. You don't need to stay here because I'll leave the team or seek retribution or some such thing like that. You need to suffer this for your own self."

"Oh yes.", the Red X finished. "See if you stop huffing and puffing while you're at it."