A helicopter from London hired by Richard Morton landed on the deck of the Nike. Ginny and Pansy hugged and kissed their family and friends goodbye before boarding. Luna, Bess and Kate did the same when the helicopter landed on the Balaska II and the Bonaventure in turn. They were then landed at the fishing plant headquarters of the K G Bird Fishing Company Incorporated, before the helicopter returned to its heliport just outside Reykjavik.
A man with a clipboard let them into the canning factory. "My name is Mr Mackerel. Welcome to our factory.
"Please go through that door there into our main office. Captain Fishfinger is waiting for you then."
The five ladies, armed with mobiles, Dictaphones, notebooks and pens, entered through the door that they were directed to. As they did so, a trawling net beneath their feet was lifted into the air by its corners by ropes attached to a pulley. "You are now our prisoners!" yelled a large man with a greying black beard dressed in the uniform of a captain in the merchant navy, as ten large thuggish-looking men with automatic pistols came up behind him.
"Ginny, Pansy, is it usual for reporters to be caught in fishing nets these days? I can never understand these weird social etiquette rules." The ladies in question decided not to dignify Luna's question with an answer. Harry, Ginny thought desperately through the Coven's mental link, gather our forces now please!
Of course, Gin! Stay strong! You too, Pans!
Thanks, Harry. Come soon, Millie.
I shall, my darling. Don't worry about your covers, girls. We can obliviate later if you need to spin yourselves into Wrath and Lioness.
Not yet, Millie. I want to know why they have taken the five of us prisoner.
Bess wriggled amongst the mesh that held her, using her body to hide her tapping the screen of her smart watch with the second figure of her right hand twice. From the revealed special menu of the Q-Branch supplied device, she pressed the bell-symbol to activate the emergency alarm and homing beacon. Having done that, she repeated the gesture to switch the display back to the watch face. I see no point in using the circular saw or the laser cutter with our present company. Hopefully once they have us tied up somewhere, they will leave us alone and Kate and I can cut ourselves free.
"Lower the prisoners," Fishfinger ordered, "then confiscate their mobiles, notebooks, Dictaphones and bags. After that, bind their hands behind their backs, before I ask them a few simple questions."
"I don't think that you are understanding the concept of an interview, Captain. We ask the questions and you answer them. You seem to have that the wrong way round.
"Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that we are fish. These nets are not designed for people."
"Please, Luna dear, just stop talking!"
"Why, Ginny? We are here to ask them questions, are we not?"
"Yes," Pansy answered, "but I would prefer you not to irritate our captors into shooting us."
"Since that blonde likes to talk so much, you can gag the others," Fishfinger ordered as the net was lowered. "Take them to Depot Three and tie their legs. Keep them under guard until I arrive. Blondie here can then learn just what happens to her and to her friends when she refuses to answer our questions."
"Ginny, is "Blondie" an affectionate nickname like "Looney?" I can never understand these things…"
"Luna, for the love of Aphrodite, just shut up!"
Once they were free from the net, they were forced to surrender their personal effects, before their wrists were tied together behind their backs. Fishfinger instructed the henchman knotting the rope around Luna's wrists to ensure that he tied her as tightly as he possibly could. The other four prisoners had oily rags forced into their mouths before thick scarves were tied over their lower faces. Please hurry, Pansy and Ginny thought desperately to the rest of the Coven.
We are gathering other forces as quickly as we can, Harry thought back. Are you both OK?
Other than the foul taste from our gags, yes, Harry. That might change soon. They are threatening to interrogate Luna whilst torturing all five of us.
Pans darling, stay as strong as you can. We can use the strength of the full Coven Bond to magically snap your bonds at any time. Again, spin yourselves into Furies as soon as you can. Act first, obliviate later!
By this time, the prisoners had been taken to Depot Three, a storage area that had a door into one of the three large industrial freezers. They were sat down on benches and their ankles tied together. Once again, the man tying poor Luna ensured that the knots were cruelly tight.
"Captain," Luna said when Fishfinger arrived, "the flow of blood to my hands and feet is rather restricted at the moment. Could you loosen my bonds please?
"In the meantime, what are your thoughts on illegal whaling…?"
"You know about that then?!"
"Yes. Wasn't I supposed to?"
"Now, Blondie…"
"My name is Luna Scamander, not "Blondie!" It must be the Wrackspurts!"
"Now you are talking gibberish! Do you not know that I can make things very painful for you and your friends?! Start taking this seriously and just answer our damn questions!"
"There is a hydroelectric plant nearby. Is that the dam that you were intending to ask about? If so, I know little more than that. If you removed their gags, perhaps my friends could be of greater help."
"Are you trying to test my patience to the limit?"
"No, I'm not. If I was, however, I would seem to be succeeding."
"Guards, rough up the brunette and the elder redhead!" Two guards apiece pulled Pansy and Ginny from off the bench and began to kick them repeatedly with steel-capped boots. The helpless pair grunted into their gags. Harry darling, I don't think that Pans and I can survive much more of this, particularly if Luna continues to be – well, Luna…
We'll be there soon, Gin my darling, I promise you!
"Your friends are clearly in some pain, Blondie. Do you want them to die in agony?"
"I wouldn't be a very good friend if I did, would I? You are not a very nice man. Please let us go and we shall say nothing further about our treatment."
"That does it! Guards, untie the three older prisoners."
Three guards unsheathed knives and cut the bonds from Luna, Ginny and Pansy's wrists and ankles. As Ginny and Pansy undid the scarves around their lower faces and gratefully spat out the disgusting rags, Luna rubbed the circulation back into her aching limbs. Once they had finished, the three were forced to their feet and held tightly before any of them could remove the bonds and gags from Bess and Kate.
Fishfinger ordered two guards to aim their pistols at the Pembrokes' stomachs. "Blondie, I want you to strip completely naked. Your friends here need to strip to their bras and panties. Failure to do so will guarantee your two young friends slow and agonising deaths…"
Pansy broke down in tears. Ginny glared at their captors. "My sister-in-law is a rape survivor. Please don't make her strip…"
"Don't worry, Red. We don't intend to do anything sexual. We merely intend to bind the pair of you to a pipe in the freezer, before shutting the door and turning it up to maximum. The sound of your chattering teeth should keep Blondie more focused.
"As for you Blondie, I am a collector of rare torture equipment. Mr Haddock, please bring in that whipping post. Blondie, forty lashes of the cat o' nine tails against your bare back and bum should teach you the proper respect for your betters…
"Remember what fate awaits your young friends. Start undressing now!"
The thug that Fishfinger had identified as Mr Haddock went to the back of the depot to retrieve a long vertical frame with a high crossbar from which two chains with shackles hung. Luna, Ginny and a still sobbing Pansy stripped as requested. Once Ginny and Pansy were just in their bras and knickers, they were seized and escorted into the freezer. At the back of the freezer, they were made to kneel and their hands secured with cable ties around a pipe over their heads. As the door was being shut, their last sight from without was of a naked Luna having her wrists shackled to the whipping post. Within minutes, their shivering bodies felt that the temperature had dropped rapidly below freezing, whilst the sounds of loud cracks and Luna's agonised screams came from just outside the door. We need that rescue now please, everyone! Ginny thought over the Coven Bond link
There was a sudden flash of light and the cable ties around their wrists snapped. Spin yourselves into costume, my dears, Millie told them telepathically. We are in position to launch our attack! The materialisation sound of a TARDIS sounded nearby, whilst mortar fire was hitting the factory complex.
Pansy wiped her tears away with her left forearm, before she and Ginny span rapidly to the right. Two flashes of light and thunderclaps in quick succession later and Wrath and Lioness were in full armour. It was time to get out of the cold and turn the tables on their hosts!
Within minutes of the five ladies being caught in the net, Jupiter had contacted the Balaska II, the Bonaventure and the Gloria Scott. Jeff and Liz on the Bonaventure and the TARDIS crew had already heard the emergency signal from Bess' watch. Further messages were sent to the Alchemists Arms, the Batcave, Themyscira and Storybrooke. Reinforcements were quickly promised.
Anne took the portal to the Gloria Scott to activate the portkey runes. Even on honeymoon, Mary was not going to let her sisters suffer on her watch! Back on the Bonaventure, Catalina let Edward Seymour through the portal. The tenth of the resurrected Tudors had been a distinguished military commander in his first life. His strategic grasp was on a par with Ron Weasley's.
Wonder Woman and Superman were en route in the Invisible Jet, with Lois and Lara in tow. Wanda Maximoff and Zatanna Zatara Apparated into the bridge of the Nike, with Bill and Fleur Weasley, John Constantine and Pugsley Addams joining via portal. Wednesday Potter pulled her brother into a tight hug. "Mon frere, I want my beloved Gin in my arms so much right now," she sobbed.
"I know, Sis. We shall get them all back safely. Right now, Ginny needs you to be strong for her sake."
Wonder Witch led Protectress, Vendetta, Justice (Padma) and Warrior (Astoria) of the Furies onto the main deck of the Nike. Grace was also in costume, tasked with keeping an eye on the children. With a tap of her Caduceus wand, Wonder Witch activated the Concealment Runes on the prow, whilst Jupiter activated the adaptive camouflage and the various systems to cloak the ship from electronic and other technological means of detection. Similar procedures were taking place on the other three yachts, whilst a boarding party including Emma, Killian and Mulan who had also been on the Gloria Scott when Anne activated the portkey rune entered the Doctor's TARDIS. As the TARDIS dematerialised, Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet flew overhead. Mortar cannons emerged from hatches in the foredecks of the four yachts, all of which were bearing down rapidly on their island destination.
When they were in position, the Coven of Hecate channelled their magic into Ginny and Pansy, freeing them from their bonds. "Everyone," Wonder Witch called, "prepare for action. We attack!"
For the tenth time, the cat o' nine tails cracked through the air before its nine loaded tails struck Luna's bare lower back and buttocks. Mr Haddock wielded the whip with precision and Luna's back and bum were already patchworks of red stripes. Being forced onto tiptoes with her arms secured high above her head was adding to her considerable discomfort. Kate sobbing piteously from the bench where she and Bess were bound and gagged wasn't helping Luna maintain her composure either.
Bess, however, was alert. Since their last adventure, Q-Branch had modified her, Kate and Mary's smart watches to include a second activation method for the diamond-encrusted circular saw hidden in the face of the watch. When held prisoner on Brownsea Island, Kate had discovered that it was hard to see the screen with her hands tied behind her back. Luckily, her adoptive mothers were with her, none of the three were gagged and Catalina had a good view of the watch screen. After the modification, using the right hand to push two tiny buttons on either side of the strap would slide the sawblade out of the casing and whir it into life. All I need is a distraction. I hope for our poor friends' sake that one happens soon… Hearing the materialisation sound of her spouse's TARDIS was exactly what she was waiting for. As mortar shells from the yachts struck the roof of the factory and Wrath and Lioness tore the freezer's door off its hinges, she pushed the two tiny buttons. Once the saw had sliced rapidly through the rope around her wrists, she undid the scarf, spat out the rag and took off the watch to activate the laser cutter and burn through the cords tying her ankles together. Kate was copying her actions.
As Lioness deflected bullets from two of the henchmen's guns with her bracelets, Wrath ran up to the whipping post. A single swipe of her broadsword decapitated Haddock and a second sliced through both the chains holding Luna. The blonde fell crying with pain into the brunette's arms. Lioness, after charging three of the goons into a wall with her shield before knocking them unconscious with the flat of her sword, used her Caduceus wand to seal Luna's scars shut and reduce the swelling. A final swish of her wand conjured a robe around her friend's nude body. Luna will need blood-replenishing potions quickly!
I have some, ma belle. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rolf and Draco are in the TARDIS with me. We shall be out in a jiffy.
Having fully materialised, the TARDIS doors opened. Wrath carried a sobbing Luna into the TARDIS. After she had taken the blood-replenishing and Dreamless Sleep potions, the blonde witch fell into a deep slumber. Rolf kissed her forehead as Wrath laid her down into a comfortable chair in the console room.
By this time, Superman and Wonder Woman had torn the roof from above the depot and they and the Furies had flown into the room. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco charged out of the TARDIS, with the Doctor, Zelena, Edward Seymour, Emma, Killian and Mulan. The remaining guards surrendered at once. They were tough against helpless journalists. Taking on metahumans and mages, to say nothing of apparently ordinary humans armed with guns and swords, was a fool's errand.
Captain Fishfinger, however, had spotted Bess and Kate retrieving their handbags and mobiles. "How did you two get free?!" he asked, grabbing Kate. His captive, however, twisted the middle one of three decorative stubs on the front of her handbag. A secret compartment opened, containing a throwing knife and a combat baton. Kate grabbed the latter, extended it and whacked Fishfinger on the head with it. Bess, meanwhile, twisted the top of a ballpoint pen retrieved from her handbag anticlockwise before clicking the cap. Instead of a nib, a dose of anaesthetic spray caught Fishfinger in the face. He was quickly snoring away in a deep slumber.
With Fishfinger out of the way, Bess turned on her mobile phone and tapped her face on a picture of the three Pembroke sisters that served as the screensaver with the second finger of her right hand. From the revealed Special Functions menu, she selected the app for scanning the chemical structure of a building or object. Seeing something of interest on the display, she ran over and twisted a length of piping on the wall. Part of the storage depots floor hinged down to form a ramp leading into a vast additional dock. Five trawlers identical to the ones that had fallen into the portal to Arendelle and three vessels with large harpoon launchers on the prow were moored, behind the crack in the dock wall that Jupiter had spotted the previous day.
After kissing the Doctor passionately, Bess asked if she and Kate could be taken back to their family. Ginny and Pansy quickly echoed that sentiment.
Back at the Iceberg Lounge, the Penguin was waiting impatiently to hear from Fishfinger. A sudden explosion forced a balcony door open. Batman swung through on a climbing rope.
"How tiresome! Now I need to have that door replaced yet again…"
"Superman, Wonder Woman and others," Batman growled, "are ending that illegal whaling operation of yours as we speak.
"Come quietly, Penguin. It is time for you to accompany me to the police station holding cells…"
Penguin merely gave another of those asthmatic squawking wheezes as he surrendered his weapons to the Caped Crusader. He had long ago learned that fighting the Batman only delayed the inevitable. If he came quietly, that would be taken into account during sentencing.
Bess and Kate shared a four-way embrace with Mary and Dan, having already shared one with their mothers. "Are you both alright?" Mary asked anxiously.
"Yes Mary, apart from a few ligature marks around our wrists and ankles," Bess replied. "It will be a good few hours until I stop tasting the oil from that rag that they stuffed in my mouth though! Yuck!
"We suffered nothing as bad as Ginny, Pansy and especially Luna did, though. I regret every wretch that I or my High Council had flogged during my long reign bitterly now."
"You are safe and sound now, my dears," Anne said softly, her arm around Catalina's shoulders.
The following morning, Luna winced as a blanket dosed in healing salve was placed across her naked back and buttocks by Hannah Longbottom. "That stings!"
"Not as much as that whip did, I bet!" Hannah retorted. Harry had asked the Healer to come over the evening before to give the released captives a once over. Whilst the Pembrokes had suffered little physical harm and Ginny and Pansy just needed a couple of applications of a salve where they had been kicked, Luna required more extensive treatment. "At least the basic healing prevented any serious infection from starting. From the dirt in the wounds, that bloody whip must have been filthy."
"Since I had my back to it, I couldn't say, Hannah. Even if I did have a better view, its cleanliness would have been low on my list of priorities at the time.
"At least, I shall be back to work shortly…"
"No you won't!" Rolf told her sternly. "Your father, Rex and I are putting you on the inactive duty list until those welts have largely faded.
"Thank you, Hannah. How is Susan's pregnancy going?" Susan Bones had been caught by the same legislation as Daphne. Luckily, she had found True Love with Hannah and Neville, whom she had loved from afar for years. Susan had already birthed twin sons Frank and Edgar. She was currently six-months pregnant with a daughter.
"Very well, Rolf. Sue's maternity leave starts shortly. Nemesis is already on the inactive roster." As Susan headed the Wizard Prosecution Service with Padma as her deputy, Nemesis and Justice were obvious codenames for their Fury alter egos. As superheroines, the former determinedly pummelled villains into submission and the latter preferred continuous chains of elaborate spells, living up to their respective Houses at Hogwarts.
"Give my love to all the family," Luna said as Hannah prepared to leave the adult Scamanders' cabin aboard the Balaska II. "Thank you for the treatment."
"Thank you. I'll be back in a few hours, Luna, for the next application of the salve. Try to avoid any more dangerous criminals until then."
"This is the life," Ginny sighed, as she and Pansy relaxed in the hot tub on the Nike. "It was good of Hannah to prescribe us both a certain number of hours in the hot tub for the next couple of days to prevent any lingering remote risk of hypothermia.
"You know, Pans, I should feel anger towards Luna for ignoring our warnings to shut up. Not only, however, is she just too damn lovable, but… If anybody else has said those sentences to that Captain, I would have assumed that she was trying to deliberately trying to antagonise him, but I really do think that Luna generally didn't realise that she was winding him up."
"I adore Luna too, Gin. She is really sweet, as long as you are prepared to look past her eccentricities.
"For the moment, however, I just want to enjoy the warmth."