Thursday

There was something strange about certain people in Chicago.

I was putting together a file on Hit Girl and Fusion – for my own amusement. I already had quite a few photos, only something did not quite add up. There was something familiar about the people in my photos, but I had no idea where from...

That afternoon

D-JAK

I ran up the stairs with my sister close behind.

"You two are late!"

"Sorry, Chloe!" We both answered running to our places in the class.

Chloe smiled and rolled her eyes. I blushed in response and took up the same stance as the other kids, my younger sister following my actions beside me.

..._...

Forty minutes later I was dripping with sweat and desperate for a drink.

I saw Mrs Wilson – oops, Mrs Williams, appear and she had some cartons of juice for us all. Chloe called us together and sent us for a ten-minute break. While I drank my juice, Mindy, dressed in her black Gi, came over.

"Hi, Lauren – you're doing really well."

"I'm really enjoying myself, thanks Mindy."

There was something about Mindy – she was nice and I liked her; only her eyes told me something... But I had no idea what. It was the same with our instructor, Chloe – her eyes were the same. I had no more time to contemplate my thoughts when we were called back to our places.

"Now kiddies – let's up things a bit!" Chloe growled.

The following night
Friday

I should not even have been in that part of the city where I was.

It was stupid, and it was dangerous. But I needed to get some more photos – was I getting fixated on Fusion? I had no idea where they would be that night, but I thought that if I stuck to some of the darker parts of the city then I might find them.

I was waiting in the shadows of an alley, just off the street, when I heard a noise from down the alley. I was feeling scared – I was being stupid. It was time to leave...

There was somebody close, I could feel it. I made to move – then a hand came around and clasped itself across my mouth. I tried to scream as I was physically lifted off the ground, I struggled and fought against whoever held me.

"Get the little bitch into the SUV and let's go..."

I was being kidnapped!

A black hood was pulled over my head and I was thrown into the back of something.

Beneath me, I felt a leather seat – then my camera was pulled from around my neck and I heard it dropped to the floor of the SUV. I tried to use all my senses to identify what was going on and maybe where I was going.

I sensed movement close by and then I felt a stinging pain in my head and...

..._...

When I came around, my head was sore. But I felt something that was much worse than a headache – I felt hands on my belt...

I was lying on my back, on a bed, with my arms over my head. I tried to move them, but they were tied together at the wrists and then to something solid. Ominously, my legs were tied too, but spread apart about the width of a normal bed. I opened my eyes, but I must have been blindfolded as all I saw was blackness. I could hear things, though, and there was defiantly somebody moving about.

Whoever it was, they were undoing the belt on my jeans – that freaked me out and I started to struggle against my bindings.

"Keep still!" Came a gruff voice.

I froze and opened my mouth to cry out only to find that I had been gagged, too. I felt my belt being pulled out of the belt-loops and heard it fall to the floor. The same hands then got to work on the button of my jeans, quickly opening them and pulling down the zip. I was crying now and begging through the gag as the fear grew inside of me.

My right ankle was released from the bed and I tried to kick out as my jeans were pulled down my legs. The jeans were pulled off my right leg and I realised that I was no longer wearing my sneakers nor my socks. The right ankle was then secured again. The process was repeated on the left ankle and leg so the jeans could be removed completely.

I was relieved to still feel my knickers – at least for the moment.

..._...

Nothing else happened for several minutes.

I was shaking with fear and my bare legs were starting to get cold. Then I felt hands on my chest and I realised that I was not wearing my thick jacket. Something cold and metallic touched my stomach and I felt it move upwards. I also felt cool air on my skin – somebody was cutting off my t-shirt and sweatshirt. I started to struggle against my bindings again.

The movement up my stomach stopped and I felt a stinging sensation as a hand slapped my left cheek. I cried out in pain and stayed as still as I could as I was stripped completely. I felt the cold across all of my body as the last item of clothing, my knickers were cut off me. Then to top off my humiliation, I heard the click of what could only be my camera. What was happening to me?

Why?

I was sobbing and I felt complete hopelessness with my situation. Then I felt my restraints being removed and I hoped that things were going to get better...

Forty minutes later
Eastern Chicago

"You enjoying your 'peeping tom' routine?"

"Funny, Hal – I'm not peeping, I'm... scanning!"

"Yeah, seen any naked men yet, Leon?"

"Look, I – break – Fusion, I have a situation; range: two-four-eight yards, bearing: zero-eight-seven, from my current location, fourth floor!"

"Leon, Hit Girl – what do you see?"

"I have a naked girl – twelve or thirteen – she's being raped by some fat fuck; Leon is engaging..."

The Apartment

The pain was extreme.

I had never felt anything like it – he was rough and it hurt. After the first few minutes, my body started to react strangely. Something started to feel good – and that sickened me. I knew what was happening to me; I was not stupid – I knew an orgasm building.

The man was enjoying himself, ramming his thing inside of me again and again. Then, just as I reached my climax, he reared backwards and I heard a sound – breaking glass? Then the man's head seemed to – well... Explode!

I reacted instantly as stuff splashed across my face and body – his brains I guessed. I pushed his body out of the way and rolled off the bed onto the floor. I jumped up and made for the door to the bedroom and then out into a hallway. I had no idea where I was going, but I saw what looked like an external door. I pulled back a pair of bolts and yanked at the door; it was heavy, but I hauled it open enough to squeeze out.

..._...

Two sensations hit me as soon as the door clicked shut behind me. First, I felt a chill and realised that I was still completely naked and standing on the fourth floor of an apartment block. Second, I could feel the man's bodily fluids dribbling down the inside of my left thigh. I ran down several flights of stairs and I burst out into an alleyway. The cold hit me full force and I felt disoriented for a moment before I fell to the snow covered ground, shivering almost immediately.

As I lay on the snow, I heard an engine – a big engine. I heard snow crunching under some large tyres. Then came the sound of doors opening and several voices. I heard feet approaching on the soft snow, crunching towards me and I felt something rough push underneath my bare back and thighs and I was then very gently hoisted out of the snow and carried a short distance into blissful warmth.

Just as gently, I was placed onto something soft and a blanket was wrapped around my still shivering, naked body.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

The senior Doctor on duty that night ran towards the main door.

She burst out into the ambulance bay where an enormous black vehicle rested. The rear hatch opened and the easily recognisable form of Kick-Ass appeared, a blanket wrapped bundle in his arms. The armour-clad vigilante strode over to where a pair of nurses where waiting with a gurney. He gently laid the bundle down and turned to the Doctor.

"The girl is aged around twelve to thirteen. We found her, naked in the snow, after breaking up her rape."

"She's in good hands," Dr Cathy Bennett replied as she waved the gurney towards the door and began issuing orders. "Reese give us a hand here – Maggie, page Dr Manning."

Eastern Chicago

The Apartment

I sat alone in the darkness.

I was silently stewing in my own anger as I awaited the return of the other man. On following the trail from outside the apartment building, I had found the fourth floor apartment and ignoring the headless corpse that lay just three feet away from me, I had found evidence of somebody else living in the apartment.

I would have been both mad and itching for revenge even if it had been just any teenaged girl who was unlucky to find herself seized and raped. However, I knew the girl and she was under my protection. What was the stupid girl doing in a place like the apartment? I had found her clothes and her camera – I also knew that she had a thing for Fusion and taking photos of us in action.

About half an hour after I had sat down to wait, I heard a knock on the door and then the door being pushed open.

..._...

"Bert?"

So the headless bastard was called 'Bert'.

A hand reached in and flicked the light switch – once, twice and then again for good measure.

"Damn bulb – what's happened this time?"

"I smashed it!" I growled from the darkness and almost laughed as the man jumped like a hundred feet in shock.

I stepped forwards and the light spilled onto the purple gauntlet of my right hand – the man began to scream.

An hour later, I stood up and turned to the man.

"Thank you for your help, Frank..."

I aimed my pistol at his head.

"But, you said..."

"I lied!"

"Nooooo..."

I pulled the trigger twice and left the apartment, closing the door behind me.

An hour and a half later

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

I had spent the past couple of hours being prodded and poked in the most humiliating ways.

Don't get me wrong, everybody had been real nice to me, but arriving stark naked for a start, was embarrassing once I had been warmed up and I was able to understand what was happening to me. The full body examination as part of the rape-kit had been very humiliating as a complete stranger inspected every square inch of my body – including a painful internal examination.

It was also the first time that I had acknowledged that nasty four letter word – yes, I had been kidnapped, stripped and then raped. It had happened, whether I liked it or not...

..._...

Finally, I had taken for a bath to wash off all the dried blood and brains that were all over me. Then I had been given an ill-fitting hospital gown and taken to a bed in a small private room. I endured a visit from the Chicago PD too, which was not much fun. The Doctor, who seemed slightly familiar – I was sure that I had seen her around at D-JAK, well she reassured me that I was fine and that I should rest.

I had dozed off for a short while when I heard something and came wide awake, instantly fearful of being attacked again.

"Have no fear... We are not here to hurt you."

The voice was electronic and it scared me until I realised that I had heard it before. A light came on beside the bed and I recognised a blue armoured gauntlet. Then I heard another voice and saw a very familiar purple form appear in the light.

"You need to stop pursuing us, Lauren – please don't do it again... You are safe from the men that did this to you and I have your camera, which I will return to you in due course."

"Who found me?"

"That was Kick-Ass – he brought you here to the hospital."

"Thank you," I said.

"Stay safe..."

With that, Shadow and Hit Girl were gone.