Chronos, Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Contortion

“Mph? WHAT THE HELL?”

Skytalon was the first to speak. I couldn’t see exactly what was going on, from my position on the floor, but I had positioned myself so that I could see the women’s faces. Surprise was the first thing on the flier’s face, since she found herself kissing Miss Mysterious, followed by anger as she realized the situation. Then, she started pushing, trying to find a way free.

“Damn it! Quit squirming around, Skye! I’m sore enough without you rubbing up against me!”

“Well, sorry, Hannah, but I am twisted up like a pretzel, and I would really like to get dressed. God damn, I hate that fucker. When I find him, I’m going to break him into so many pieces they’ll have a better chance of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

I cleared my throat from down on the floor, causing the girls to look at me. “Ahem. I am going to take a wild guess and say that these restraints belong to you?”

Miss Mysterious twisted her head to look at me from her peripheral vision. “Oh, Doc! Good. Are your hands free?”

“Not really. Handcuffed with one arm through my legs. Arms are in front, though. Still, it definitely is not helping my bad knee. What can I do for you?”

“It looks like you are next to our clothes. Can you get to them?”

“Ah, yes. I should be able to work my way over to them. What should I do?”

“We keep restraint keys in our costumes. Mine is in one of the pockets of my coat. Skye’s is in one of the pockets of her utility belt. See if you can get to them.”

“Just be careful,” Skytalon chimed in. “There are boobytraps to keep people from ransacking our stuff if they don’t know what they’re doing.” She paused, and then said, “And don’t go messing around with my panties!”

“I can assure you, Skytalon, that I have no interet in doing anything of the sort. Sniffing panties, especially in front of the woman who was just wearing them, is not among my fetishes. But it would help if one of you ladies could guide me, as I am not used to this kind of thing.”

“Never been tied up before, Doc?” Miss Mysterious grinned.

“In my daily life? No. Otherwise? Well, only when learning the basics of knots and bindings for play. You have to be tied, before you can tie others, otherwise you could put someone in a position that really isn’t safe.”

“Can you two stop talking about sex stuff? I really don’t want to hear about your kink games or whatever.”

“Don’t mind Skye, Doc. Despite her looks, she’s very vanilla.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? No, wait, don’t answer that!” Skytalon sputtered. “You, Doctor Livingston! Get over to our clothes. I’ll direct you as best I can.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I did my best to keep my amusement out of my voice. I did, however, file that information away for later. Rolling onto my side, I began the supremely uncomfortable process of working my way over to the two neatly folded piles of clothes.

“Right. Looks like your hands are closer to my clothes than Hannah’s, so we’ll go for my utility belt. It looks like it is right on top.”

I tried to see around my legs as I felt about for the utility belt. I was not lying when I said that the contortionist act was putting strain on my leg, but I knew that any damage I suffered could be healed back later. Still, I was able to work my way around until I had the belt in my hands.

“OK, I have it. What now?”

“Turn around so that I can see what you’re doing.” That involved some none too comfortable readjustments on my part, but that’s how it went. “Good. All right, move your hands along the belt until you get to the buckle. You should be able to feel it easily.”

My fingers found the buckle, and I nodded. “Got it.”

“Go back to the third pouch, but don’t open it yet.” She watched until my fingers were on the pouch. “All right, instead of pulling the pocket open, you need to push down and to the left to disarm the trap. No, your other left!”

We both breathed easier when I got the pouch open without setting off whatever trap was inside. “All right, just reach in, and you should find the key.” I felt the metal key against my fingers, and pulled it out. “Great! Now, this is the tricky part. You have to unlock your own cuffs, without dropping the key.”

I took a breath to distract myself from my knee’s complaints, and focused. It took a couple tries, but eventually, I got the key in the lock, and turned it! I groaned in pain as my hands were finally released from the uncomfortable position they’d been in. A couple moments more and I had the restraints off, though I was also breathing heavily by this point. There was a reason why I wasn’t a contortionist, damnit!

“Good job, Doc! Now, can you unlock us? Skye’s pretty and all, but I usually want a date to buy me dinner first, before we end up like this.”

“HEY!”

“Yes, yes. Let me get right to th—AAGH!” My words were cut off by my knee deciding it wasn’t having it any more, and going out as I tried to get to my feet. The jolt of pain afterwards was less than helpful, as well.

Through the pain, I heard Skytalon’s voice. “Doctor Livingston! Are you OK?”

“Gah!” I breathed heavily, and grabbed my cane, using it and the conference table to haul myself up, and into a chair. “S-sorry, ladies, but I’m afraid my bad leg has decided to cause issues. I’ll take a potion for it later, but I need a moment before I try standing again.”

Skytalon sighed, but nodded. “Take your time. As uncomfortable as this position is, we are not in any physical pain.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll… just turn away, if that’s OK with you.” I breathed heavily as I turned the chair around, to face away from the pair. Not like they could argue with me if I wanted to keep getting an eyeful, but turning away like a gentleman instead of staring would help sell the image of me as a relatively harmless scholar who, having a bad leg and all, couldn’t possibly be a threat.

Another couple moments, and the pain had subsided enough for me to push myself unsteadily to my feet. As I turned back to the girls, I saw both of them looking at me with concern. “I’ll be all right. Old injury that never really healed properly, even with magic. Sometimes, it likes to remind me why I have the handicapped tags on my bike.”

The two did not look convinced, but simply nodded. Skytalon said, “Well, Doctor, if you’re up to it, could you start unlocking our feet? Those are the most uncomfortable bindings, and would be easier for you to get to than reaching over the table for our arms.”

“Of course, Skytalon.”

I hobbled over to them, and began the process of unlocking each of the restraints in turn, allowing their legs to separate from the uncomfortable position they’d been locked in. The girls stretched their legs for a moment, and then worked together to pull themselves off the table, so they were now standing next to me. After that, it was a simple matter to release their hands.

I was surprised when Miss Mysterious leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Doc. It would have been far more embarrassing to have to wait until someone came down to check on us, and found us like that.”

I offered a pained smile, and was about to reply, when Skytalon spoke, “Doctor, what is that in your pocket?”

Looking down, I frowned. “Huh. That wasn’t there before.” I pulled out the paper, unfolded it, and read out, “Naughty, naughty?” I then showed it to the girls.

Both of them frowned. Miss Mysterious ran a quick diagnostic spell, and said, “The paper and ink are consistent with those found in the room.”

“They ought to be, I regularly restock the conference room.”

Skytalon looked at the note, and then at the stationary pad and the pens on the table. “Damn. I bet the only fingerprints on any of it would be yours, and the cleaning staff. And the writing is in a block style, to eliminate any of the normal signs people use for handwriting analysis. The bastard is taunting us!”

“I’m more concerned with how he got through the library’s wards,” Miss Mysterious said, as she began pulling on her clothes. “Wards as strong as what I saw shouldn’t be that easy to get past. Doc, any ideas?”

I turned half to the side, so that I wasn’t completely turning my back on the two women as they dressed, but was at least looking like I was giving them some privacy. “Well, this is a public library. I stepped the wards down to ‘visiting hours’ status, because the lawsuit if some kid got away from their parent and ended up as a statue is not something I’d like to contemplate. I felt the twinge as something passed through, but the next moment, well, things stopped and I found myself on the floor.”

“You can turn around now, Doctor.” I turned about, and saw that the two heroines were already back in costume, or close enough that their ‘assets’ were no longer on display. Skytalon looked at me, and said, “So, it is like with one of the high-end speedsters, then. Traditional defenses simply cannot react fast enough to catch him?”

“Sadly, that seems to be the way of it. The overnight setting should still catch anyone who tried to sneak in, even if they stopped time, since those wards are more powerful. I can say, however, that there is no chance that he removed any of the books from this floor. Part of the wards that protect the books from any damage also keep them from being removed without a special ritual being conducted. For each book.”

“That sounds like overkill, doesn’t it?”

“Not really, Skye,” Miss Mysterious shook her head. “Even without the presence of any grimoires that might be in the stacks, most of the tomes here are probably extremely rare, or even unique. And the knowledge in them could be quite dangerous if misused. Honestly, the fact that you can take the books out and read them on this floor without some kind of binding is very lenient.”

“Yes, well, the library board wouldn’t go for that, unfortunately.”

Skytalon sighed, and said, “So, what does all of this mean for our attempts to capture Chronos?”

Miss Mysterious sat in one of the chairs, and said, “Well, six of one, half dozen of the other. On the one hand, it shows that Chronos is definitely onto us. He clearly expected someone to show up and consult Doc about the sword.”

“A leak?”

“No,” the mage shook her head. “Simple deduction. Anyone in the magical community in this city knows that he is one of the foremost magical scholars around, and everyone knows that the Mystic Arts section of the library has a lot of rare materials that cannot just be found on the internet. So, ancient artifact weapon is revealed? It is obvious who the first call would be, especially since Black Hat died.”

I nodded slowly. “She has the right of it, I’m afraid. As you know, I’ve tried to avoid standing out or getting caught in the crossfire between different groups, but that is not the same as laying low, or hiding myself away. Especially within the magically active community. If Chronos is some kind of specialized mage, then it would be shocking if he didn’t expect you to come here, looking for more information.”

“Yes, that’s the bad news.”

Skytalon slumped into a chair. “I could really use some good news right about now, Hannah.”

“Well,” she leaned forward, “the good news is that we now have a *ahem* close enough connection that we could perform the ritual, and see about getting an immunity to Chronos’s powers. That would allow us to trap him, the next time we are close enough!”

“So, just so I’m completely clear, your ‘good news’ is that, after being violated, we can now have a sex ritual that will make some kind of changes to our bodies and souls, possibly sacrificing some things in the process, all so we can catch the guy who violated us? Is that what I’m hearing from you?”

“Well, it is the best news I have, unfortunately.”

The two women looked my way, and said, “I have to make some modifications to the ritual, since making you immune to Paradoxical is pointless. I can be ready by four o’clock, if you come back then.”

“Anything we should do to prepare?”

“Yes, actually,” I nodded. “I’m afraid that you will need to impair yourselves a little. The transformation can only be done on the willing, but even so the body and mind will resist the alterations unconsciously. It is in your nature to do so. This means we must find a way to reduce your resistance, and leave yourselves open for the transformation.”

Miss Mysterious nodded. “I have some Elixer of Eros. A dose will only last for a few hours, though.”

I nodded. “That will do, and it will help with the more active part of the ritual, as well.” I took a breath, and said, “Now, about the sacrifice. Given your roles, I think a curse mark would be best, rather than reducing any of your abilities or stripping you of your skills or powers. I will try to make it something that will not affect your lives as superheroines, but a sacrifice without sacrificing anything is not truly a sacrifice.”

The two heroines looked at each other, and nodded. Miss Mysterious sighed as she turned back to look at me. “It is not my first choice, but you are right. May I look over the schematic before you begin the ritual?”

“Of course.”

Skytalon took a breath, and nodded. “Then we will leave you to your preparations. We need to report this attack, and what we’ve learned, to the other groups, as well.