At night, not all shadows stand still.

That’s something that Jack “The Purser”, a notorious criminal in Freeport, has seemingly forgotten. He screams as his own shadows rises up his legs and makes him stumble. He loses his grip on the stolen bag and someone else, a young woman, picks it up.

She’s a cape, that’s for sure, but not one of  the ordinary ones. She’s dressed like a witch of old, with her black robes and a wide witch hat, but she has tried to make it less ominous, even if the shadows wriggle at around her legs like hunting dogs.

“That’s not how I would like to spend my Saturday night,” Hexgirl sighs, tossing the bag back to the woman it was stolen from. The middle-aged socialite gives her a once-over, especially at the animated shadows and spirits that roam over her shoulders, and just gives her a nod as she walks away at a brisky pace.

“You are a freak, Hexgirl,” Jack the Purser grumbles. She ties him up in a knot of shadows and leaves him hanging from the lamp-post forthe first patrol to find.

No need to leave them a note. They know it’s her.

“I’m the freak this city deserves,” she replies with a harsh look in her blue eyes.

Hexgirl disappears in a bout of shadows and reappears atop a high-rise building a few blocks away, watching the city of Freeport glistening with its night lights, mirroring itself in the embrace of the Atlantic.

“Sometimes I think they are just ungrateful,” she murmurs.

“They just need time to adjust,” comes Janine’s voice from her earpiece. “Not all capes in this city are as… stylish as you.”

Hexgirl chuckles drily at her friend’s humour. But she might have a point. She looks at herself in one of the puddles on the rooftop: she’s a tall and slightly-gangly young woman, her slender arms and long legs covered in a spindly black material. She does not wear the colourful and bright suits of other capes, and in fact she has always preferred to dress the way she wanted, which also includes her large witch-hat, also black. Together with the natural pallor of her face and the shadows she commands, she looks a lot like a villain.

“Maybe I should die my hair…” she groans looking at her natural black locks. She’s not bad-looking, but she’s far from the doe-eyed, button-nosed and grinning bimbos many female capes end up as, either due to some mishap on patrol or because it helps with marketing. She cups her slight breasts. And of course there’s also the fact she does not have the physique du role to impose herself as a cape.

“Don’t be dumb now,” Janice chirps into her ear. “Being blonde is not that fun anyway.”

Hexgirl chuckles at the mental image of her best friend, sitting at her computer as she helps her with her patrol, looking for criminals on the loose. She’s the opposite of Hexgirl, a small blonde with dark eyes, but they have stuck together through thick and thin. Since Hexgirl developed her powers, Janice has been by her side, supporting her every step of the way. They don’t always see eye to eye, but she wouldn’t be where she is without Janice.

“I have a signal!” She chirps in her ear, giving her the coordinates. “Robbery, or perhaps something even worse. This could be your big break!”

By now, Hexgirl is used to hearing  those words, but she knows her big break is still a long way coming. Nevertheless, she covers herself in darkness and plunges into shadows.

+++

When she reappears, she’s standing in the middle of a dim-lit room. It looks like some kind of warehouse. Maybe there’s some industrial pilfering going on. Her heart takes a leap.

That does sound important… maybe if she finds the person responsible for this, she can arrest them and receive the respect she deserves! It’s not her fault she has developed powers over shadow and darkness. She is still going to use them for good.

“Where do I go?” She asks Janice.

“I don’t know, I’m still trying o get a gist of the place’s structure. Can you see a door ahead?”

She can. It’s three inches of reinforced steel, but for Hexgil, that might as well not exist.

She becomes incorporeal and shifts through it.

The next room is much smaller, covered on all sides by boxes. But there’s something weird going on… she just can feel it, even though she does not…

A noise behind her.

She turns to see a tiny silver drone that’s completing a drawing on the floor. She recognizes it immediately as her blue eyes grow wide in panic.

“Ablate!” She shouts, pointing her gloved hand at the thing. One of the boiling shadowy companions darts forward and eats right through the metal bug, but it’s too late.

It has finished etching the enchanted circle. It’s relatively simple, but it’s a mighty spell: it can contain and reflect any kind of shadow magic she’s capable of, and if she tries to break it by force, she risks losing control over her magic forever.

Whoever created this made it just for her.

She taps on her earpiece.

“Jani? We have a situation.” Her stomach churns – her friend is going to rip her a new one with her screams of anger (she should have been more thoughtful, she should have minded her surroundings, they have been over this…) but nothing comes out of the microphone. “J-Jani? Please pick up!”

No answer.

Her communicator is dead.

“Jani. This is not funny anymore. Please reply!”

Still dead. She takes it off only to see that the blinking lights around the earpiece, usually flashing white and blue, have gone dark.

“Jani! Jani, please!”

Fear is something she has forgotten about. Her heart picks up pace, fluttering in her chest as she clenches her fists. The enchanted circle keeps her in its stranglehold, but she has to at least… try…

“D-Dissolve!” She shouts. Three of her shadows reach for the silver edge and with a sizzle and a flash they burn up in white smoke. She wheezes as the loss of the spirits is like a punch to the gut. She fall on one knee, trying  to hold up against the dizziness. “N-No getting out that way.”

There must be another way she can take!

As she tries to think about it, something else starts to go on with the circle. Thin strands of silver metal start to sprout from its outline. They reach for her and wrap around her wrists and her knees, lifting her in the air.

“What’s going on? Let me go!” She shouts, struggling to get off. She calls upon her powers to disappear – and she feels the backlash as her entire body flashes white. The silver circle has stopped and countered her spell. “Haaa…” she groans, stunned.

Who made these? At first they look like they could come from the Mercurial, but he’s one of the good guys! This is for sure the work of a villain. But who could be interested in her? She’s such small fry and she has yet to step on anyone’s toes.

“Please let me go… Jani…” she groans weakly. Her eyes notice a brand on one of the strands of metal holding her and that’s when her heart truly knows the chill of fear.

The metal bears a simple enough sign: an equilateral triangle, pointing down, framed by a square.

“He-Hellframe…” she shudders.

That’s a relatively new name in cape circles, but the mysterious tech villain has made his name an infamous one already – always working as the middle-man, as a broker, nobody knows who he is or what he wants. But if someone has requested his help…

“No. Please, whatever you plan to do, it’s not worth it! I’m not an important cape! Please let me go!”

“You see, that’s exactly the problem.”

She starts at the sound of that voice. It’s horribly familiar.

The strands of metal, still holding her up in the air make her turn and she sees a short girl with a mop of blonde hair, keeping her hands in the pockets of her pink hoodie. Her dark eyes meet her own.

“Good evening, Lara.”

“J-Janice…?” Hexgirl mutters.

+++

Her blonde friend (wait, she is not exactly her friend, is she? Friends do not commission the most feared villain around to capture each other) clicks her tongue, passing her hands over the metal. It’s completely harmless to a normal human, and that’s what Janice is. A normal human.

“Believe me, I did not want to do this,” she starts.

“Do what?”

“Alright, that’s bullshit, I have wanted to do this for years,” she chuckles, pulling her hand off her pocket and waving it. “Sorry. I am new to all this ‘villain monologue’ thing, and I did not even prepare a script. I am just here to take a look at the makeover.” She blushes as she bites her lip and Hexgirl shakes her head. She  can’t believe that her best friend (former best friend) in the whole world did not jut sell her out, but she’s getting off on this!

“What are you talking about? Let me go!”

“No can do. Besides, everything has already been decided long ago. You just don’t have a market niche like that, Lara. Goth and witch are so last season. And this is an investment. You are going to love this. Eventually.”

“Jani no, no please, please let me go.” She babbles, scared. She battles against her tears. “Please let’s talk, let’s find a way out of this, please don’t make me turn into anything strange.”

“It’s not going to be strange,” Janice blushes again. She squirms her thighs, trying to keep her arousal in. “Remember that pool I showed you a few weeks ago? About the most popular types of female capes?”

She nods.

“Then you remember that bimbo ganguro villains were right on the top,” she grins. “And besides, they are on top of my list, so… win-win?” She gives her a big grin.

No!

No, she will not let this happen!

Hexgirl collects her powers, drawing energy from the nether plane. She flashes with a black halo.

“Oh Hecate thrice-knotted, I invoke Thee-eeghglgahahehhaah!” Her spell gets cuts short as the metal tendrils send an electrical shock through her system that turns her words into a garbled mess. It’s still more than enough to trigger the anti-magic functions of the circle and she whines as her shadows pop out in white bursts one by one.

“Please don’t strain yourself too much.” Janice picks up one of the boxes and sets it on the floor, sitting on it and watching her. “The show is about to start.” She unzips her hoodie and starts to knead her small breast, while her other hand reaches for her steamy pussy. She rubs her already-damp labia through her jeans with a delirious smile. “Please struggle. I love it when they struggle.”

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