Possibly the most iconic cosplay of the Scarlet Witch. I love everything about this. That headpiece is simply perfect, too. It's amazing how she makes it all look so good!
Not surprised vampires (the non-sparkly kind) are winning in this poll by @torbooks, but I would never have expected “swamp monsters” to beat out “werewolves.”
Trying to take down a mind control conspiracy is like chess. You need to think several moves ahead.
It was ironic for an academic like me, but thinking hadn’t been my highest priority these last few months. All semester I’d been a vapid, mind-broken Pearl Girl. Fortunately, the mastermind behind the Pearl Girls had overreached by ordering me to convert my former lover and superheroic lover, Yvonne Yates. Yvonne had used her super-strength to break my pearl necklace, freeing my mind from pearl-control. That left me with the ability to do the thinking needed to take down that mysterious mastermind who had captured so many Pearl Girls throughout Skarlette City University.
Which approach would be most effective? Should I go in with superpowers blazing as Argent? Maybe bring several members of the Libido in as backup? Call in an anonymous tip to Detective Maggie Voyeur of the Skarlette City Extra Normal Crime Unit? Register a formal complaint as Alexis Ames, PhD?
And what parts of the conspiracy should be confronted first? The dean? The trustees? The Pearl Girls scheduling site on the dark web? The pearl-level members at Club Absinthe? The sponsors of the Chloros Neriada Sorority? The individual Pearl Girls themselves?
With the deadline that Treasure Tartarus had set for me, I knew I only had until midnight until she realized that I was no longer a loyal Pearl Girl. I had to make the most of that advantage. I needed to strike quickly. As with so many things, those at the top were the most protected and those at the bottom the most vulnerable. The dean, Trustees, sponsors, and the pearl-level members would have layers of defenses—from bodyguards to publicists to lawyers. I couldn’t take all of them down in a few hours. Fortunately, I didn’t need to. The same resources that protected them tied them to their mansions and penthouses. They weren’t going anywhere.
The Pearl Girls were a different matter entirely. Mandy and all the other girls enslaved by the Pearls were completely defenseless. They didn’t even have their own minds to use to protect themselves. There was no telling what a panicked pearl-level member might make them do! A quick and low-profile intervention would be the best way to get all the Pearl Girls free of their necklaces before their controllers knew what was happening. Free the innocent first, punish the wicked later.
“Low-profile” meant no superheroes on-site. “Quick” meant I needed help. I used my pull as a member of the Libido League to contact the Skarlette City Extra Normal Crimes Unit. Detective Voyeur was on a leave of absence, but her replacement, Sergeant Arnie Auroch, seemed to understand the nature of the situation. He led a team of twenty highly-trained plain-clothes officers toward the Chloros Neriada Sorority house.
Yvonne and I met them there in our civilian identities. I told the officers that “Argent had sent us to help” and explained the situation and what they could expect from the Girls. Sergeant Auroch’s team donned heavy gloves and carried high-tech satchels to safely store the pearl necklaces.
We went in together, spreading out to help each enslaved Pearl Girl as we found them. Most of the Girls were downstairs in the main hall. I left Yvonne and the officers to start freeing Mandy and the others from their bejeweled collars and headed upstairs as quickly as I could. I wanted to find Treasure Tartarus myself. As grateful as I was for the ENCU’s help, I didn’t want to risk one of them labeling Treasure as “the mastermind” of this operation and treating her roughly. I’d experienced for myself how deeply the Pearls could change behavior. They had done more than forced me to capture my friend, partner, and lover, Yvonne Yates. They had forced me to want to do it. I had no doubt that Treasure, the brilliant, charismatic girl that she was, had also been forced into her position as lead recruiter, disciplinarian, and manager to the Pearl Girls.
I found her in the upstairs drawing room, toying with her laptop. “Treasure, I’m here to ...” my voice died in my throat. Facing away from me, she was dressed in the same pearl-white dress with pink accents that she’d worn the first day she came to my office. The first day I submitted to her. The first—and only—day I’d kissed her. Even without the mind-shaping buzz of my pearl necklace, Treasure Tartarus was breathtaking. The pearls were no longer telling me that I needed to kiss her, but my own body was telling me that I wanted to kiss her.
We can’t always get what we want, I reminded myself. Putting as much steel into my voice as I could muster, I said, “I’m here to help you, Treasure.”
“You’ve lied to me long enough, Alexis,” Treasure said, closing her laptop but keeping her back to me. “There’s no reason to lie any longer. You’re here to arrest me.”
I shouldn’t be surprised that Treasure was further ahead of the other girls. The pearls had never dulled her intelligence the way they had mine. “No, Treasure. While I am here with the police, we’ll only be arresting the mastermind behind the Pearl Girl scheme, not the victims that were shaped by the necklace like you.”
Arching an eyebrow, Treasure turned to face me. Her beauty still made me catch my breath. Unclasping her five-strand pearl necklace, she held it out between thumb and forefinger. “You think I was shaped by this necklace? I’m the one who made it look good by wearing it. I’m the one who turned my uncle’s abandoned prototype into a multi-million dollar escort service. I’m the one who found the clients and ran the business. I’m the one who decided which girls to recruit. I’m the one who wrote the training protocol, breaking down their mental defenses. I’m the one who brought them to their knees and made them beg to break their deepest taboos. This bauble helped, obviously. It rewarded the Girls for complying with my wishes. It gave me feedback on how deeply the pearls had penetrated their brains. It helped me twist their own lust into a tool for controlling them. But it’s just a tool. You want the hand that used it. If you’re looking for the mastermind behind the Pearl Girl scheme, look no further, Alexis.”
I wanted her words to be lies. But I knew in my bones that they weren’t. And I knew in my pussy that part of me didn’t care. She was still Treasure. How could someone so beautiful be so wicked? How could she make wickedness so sexy? Adjusting my tweed jacket, I forced myself to speak as I would as Argent, drawing on whatever confidence my superpowers gave me. “I can’t even begin to describe the levels of transgression you’ve stooped to, Treasure. You have so much to answer for. I’ll see that you do.”
“I don’t think you will, Alexis. You’re going to help me avoid the long arm of the law.”
Her brazenness helped to stiffen my resolve to bring her to justice. “After everything you’ve done to these girls, after all the ways you’ve humiliated me, why would I ever help you?”
“Two reasons: First, investigations like this have a way of spiraling out of control. I don’t think you want to risk that. Imagine the outrage across Skarlette City if they learned that a member of the Libido League were brought to her knees by a little string of pearls.”
She couldn’t possibly know that I’m a superheroine, could she? I struggled to keep my shock off my face and out of my voice. “Libido League? I don’t know what you’re getting at, but you’re wrong—”
“Don’t deny it, Alexis. Or should I say ‘Argent’? I’m only sorry that I didn’t put the pieces together until today. I suspected something was different about you months ago, when you continued to resist the pearls. No normal person is that strong. But the possibility that you could be superhuman? I dismissed it out of hand. If someone had the power to fly and crush cars, why would they spend their days teaching English to a bunch of entitled college kids? It’s pathetic.”
“But, how did you—?“
She sighed like an exasperated teacher explaining a simple concept to a slow pupil. “I told you that my necklace took in feedback from the others. Four and a half hours ago, it let me know that your pearl necklace suffered a catastrophic failure across all systems simultaneously. That should only be possible if it were caught in an explosion, or crushed with super-strength. At the same time, the necklace I gave you for Yvonne came online in recruitment mode. A few minutes later, it shifted to instruction mode, but there was no phone call to the instruction center. After another ninety minutes, the length of a standard instruction cycle, that necklace was also destroyed.”
She watched the shock play across my face before continuing. “Since there’s been no reports of explosions around the city, there’s only one explanation. You tracked down Yvonne Yates, like I told you to. Since you’re the heroine Argent, that would make her your sidekick, Sable. Because of whatever Professor Paulson had done to her, she resisted your advances. The two of you fought. In the struggle, she broke your pearls with her super-strength, just as you got her necklace around her throat. Without your pearls, you grew a conscience and sobbed about what you’d done. You regretted making Yvonne a Pearl Girl, but you also knew she was deep under Paulson’s control. So, you hijacked the instruction mode to deprogram her from being his loyal subby back to being yours. To prevent me—that is, to prevent the ‘mastermind behind the Pearl Girls’—from getting my hooks into her, you destroyed her necklace. Then you rounded up the cops to come here and ‘rescue’ all of us from the Pearls. Isn’t that how it happened?”
I stared at her, slack-jawed. “I don’t ...”
“Don’t bother with more lies. The look on your face tells me I’m right, or right enough. It’s a shame you never let the pearls break you, Alexis. I was really looking forward to kissing you again. That’s the second reason you’ll help me. Because in your deepest, most secret thoughts, you know that you still need to kiss me.”
Her confidence was breath-taking. “That’s not—”
The door burst open and Sergeant Arnie Auroch came in. “How’re you doing in here, Doctor Ames?”
The moment Treasure saw the officer, her entire demeanor became one of hysterical shock. “Oh my god! Get it out of my head! Get it away from me!” She flung her five-strand pearl necklace across the room. As it struck the back wall of the fireplace, the chain broke and dozens of individual pearls scattered throughout the ashes and down the grate.
“Easy, Miss. You’re safe now,” said Auroch, reaching out a hand to steady her.
“I’ll never be safe again! Those pearls made me say things … made me do things … you have no idea!” Treasure burst into tears. Throwing herself into the policeman’s arms, she sobbed into his shoulder.
“That’s not true,” I said. “She was in charge ...” I could barely speak above a whisper.
“Easy there, Professor,” Auroch replied. “The evidence indicates that the pearls, and whoever built them, was in charge. Mind control stuff like this affects different victims in different ways. We’re here to help all kinds of victims.” He turned away from me, still holding Treasure in his arms.
Treasure glanced at me over his shoulder, wearing a grin worthy of having devoured a flock of canaries. I could see in that moment how right she was. She would never face justice for this. She was a rich, beautiful girl who knew exactly how to use that to her advantage in every situation. Her wealth had given her the advantage in showering her sorority sisters with expensive gifts. Her stunning beauty had given her an advantage in seducing and dominating me. Now, her “helpless femininity” act would give her an advantage in the official investigation.
For all I’d done to bring down the mastermind behind the Pearl Girls, I hadn’t gotten the better of her. I’d just changed the arena where she outmaneuvered me.
I knew the truth of her crimes, but couldn’t prove any of them. She had the perfect alibi for everything she’d done here: The Pearls made me do it.
Worse, that was my alibi, too! I couldn’t undermine her credibility without ruining my own.
Beyond that, if she let slip that I was actually Argent … I didn’t dare imagine how that would destroy whatever vestiges remained of my personal life. Or Yvonne’s.
I knew what a checkmated king felt like: Still standing tall on the board, with every possible move a catastrophe waiting to happen. Just like that king, I was beaten. I’d freed the Pearl Girls, but there would be no justice for Treasure Tartarus.
I stood dejected as the gruff Sergeant wrapped his coat around Treasure’s shoulders. “Come with me so I can take your statement, Miss …?”
“Jessup, officer. The Pearls made me want to use my middle name, Treasure, but my real name is Janine Jessup.” She batted her eyelashes as he escorted her out of the room.
I could barely catch my breath. I’d faced alien sex conquerors and AI-optimized fuckbots, but no one had ever been sexier than Treasure Tartarus walking right out of my trap like an invincible queen. As much as I hated being checkmated, I hated myself most of all for something else: How much I wanted to kiss her.
--To Be Continued...
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