Action!

Ethrienne arrived at the VaVaVidd building and took her seat in the small glassed-in observation booth that overlooked the main stage.

Ostensibly, this was to ensure that she’d spot any hint that Vindiatrix and Shield Lass were being manipulated or coerced into performing. She had never seen any such indications. What she saw was a sexy show that made her want to join in.

The stage had been set up to resemble a decadently opulent boudoir. She watched as the Baroness arrived and sashayed across the set with a dozen cameras swiveling to follow her every move. Instead of her usual catsuit, she wore a black leather ensemble consisting of a skimpy corset, a short skirt, and thigh boots with six-inch stiletto heels.

Clearly, the outfit was meant to tease fans who expected to see Baroness to get naked in her special appearance. She idly wondered whether or not that wish would be granted at some point, but she’d have to wait to find out. Probing her Mistress’s mind without permission was utterly out of the question.

The Baroness sat on the foot of the bed and languidly pulled off one glove and then the other. She set them down on the mattress alongside a pair of black leather bands that were already lying there. She picked up the bands and began idly fiddling with them.

Vindiatrix and Shield Lass entered, both as naked as they’d been during the previous scene. They approached the bed and stood before the Baroness.

The Baroness looked thoughtful, then handed each of the women one of the leather bands. “Buckle these around each other’s necks. Make sure you can fit two fingers under them but not three.”

Ethrienne recalled that that was the usual rule of thumb for putting a collar on a dog.

After a bit of “After you…” fumbling, the Trusty Twosome obediently collared each other. They then returned to their previous stances and waited for further instructions.

The tableau froze in position for about half a minute. Ethrienne noticed that the collars were changing appearance, with small streaks of lighter color appearing on the black leather. As she watched, the streaks expanded and joined together and finally resolved into bright pink cursive text reading “Property of Baroness Blackleather”. She guessed that it was some kind of ink that became visible as it warmed to body temperature.

Vindiatrix and Shield Lass were mostly focusing their attention on the Baroness, but they did cast occasional glances at each other. She did a quick surface scan of their thoughts. They knew about the labels, and they found them arousing.

Ethrienne felt a momentary phantom sensation of a collar around her own neck and shivered.

Finally, the Baroness pointed at Shield Lass. The blonde knelt at her feet. The Baroness reached out to guide her head into position beneath her skirt.

The psychic heroine didn’t need a mind scan to know what was happening. She used her powers anyway to share Shield Lass’s experience. She could taste warm wet cunt on her tongue and feel fingers stroking her hair.

She touched Vindiatrix’s mind as well. She found a more subtle but definite arousal and a hint of impatience at being made to wait for her turn. Noticing a hint of something else, she probed deeper. Unlike the Baroness, the Trusty Twosome had given her permission to probe as deeply as she liked.

While she waited, Vindiatrix was entertaining herself with memories of her recent date with the Baroness. They had spent the evening at Lik-Mmm-Good having dinner and drinks while watching the strippers. Afterwards, they had spent half the night in an energetic and creative sexual marathon.

Ethrienne pulled down her tights and slipped her right hand into her panties. Her left hand tightened into a death grip on the seat’s armrest.

She shuddered, not because her fingers had found a sensitive spot but because she’d kept her psychic senses focused on Vindiatrix as she knelt to take her turn servicing her Mistress. The taste and touch were much the same as they’d been in Shield Lass’s perceptions, but more intense because she’d had less time to prepare for the experience. She eased off but did not break contact altogether, continuing to indirectly experience the onstage sexual action while devoting more attention to her own body.

Her fingertip found her clit as Vindiatrix rose to let Shield Lass take another turn. The Baroness’s skirt flipped up, giving the cameras a split-second view of her bare crotch. More teasing. Ethrienne started teasing herself, pulling her finger out of her cunt and raising it to her lips to simultaneously taste herself directly and taste the Baroness through extrasensory perception.

She let herself be carried on a wave of telepathic sensation. Her surroundings came back into view as the blonde sidekick rose from her knees to allow her mentor to take another turn. She plunged her finger into her wet needy cunt to fill the lull in the onstage action. As the scene heated up again, she probed beyond immediate sensations to delve into memories of previous sexcapades, both onstage and backstage. She sensed that Vindiatrix was aware of her deep probe, and that she was vicariously feeling and enjoying Ethrienne’s self-indulgence. She stroked her clit harder and faster, both for the direct stimulation and as a favor to the other woman.

The Baroness came, and the telepathic feedback tipped Ethrienne over the edge. She cried out in ecstasy.

As she started to come back to her senses, she was very glad that the booth was soundproof. She pulled up her tights and tried to look nonchalant. It was pointless, she realized. Vindiatrix knew what she’d been doing, and no matter how perfectly she straightened her costume her activities would be fairly obvious to anyone who wasn’t suffering severe nasal congestion.

It didn’t matter. The Baroness and the Trusty Twosome knew she was a lesbian who enjoyed telepathically sharing in their sapphic experiences. The general public didn’t, at least not yet. When the time was right, they would.

The scene had concluded, and the three women were sitting on the bed casually chatting. Ethrienne left the booth and went down to the stage floor to join them.

Quantress cruised above Rumbletown, watching the few people out and about at this late hour to see if any of them needed help.

Despite the neighborhood’s rough reputation, the streets were peaceful. They always were when she was watching from above. When she flew, her body glowed with enough power to make her conspicuously visible against the night sky. Very few troublemakers were stupid enough to try anything when they knew a superpowered crimefighter was on the scene.

Even so, she made a point of flying night patrols here. She wanted to at least try to protect the people who were stuck living in this dump, not just the more fortunate citizens in Heldeburg’s better neighborhoods. Forcing the local criminals to keep their heads down for a while and giving law-abiding citizens a window of opportunity to walk the streets safely at night was worthwhile.

She slowly circled the old rail station. After years of neglect, the city was starting renovations to turn it into a mall and civic center. It was a hopeful sign. Maybe Rumbletown would eventually turn around to the point where people called it Railston again.

As she continued her patrol, a bright light appeared on a roof a few blocks away. She picked up speed as she turned toward it. When she got a bit closer, she could tell that it was a stage light on a stand, not a fire. That was slightly less odd when she realized that the building was the VaVaVidd studio.

The light turned off. That made it easier to see the figure of Shield Lass standing right behind it.

Quantress came in for a landing. “If you’re trying to get my attention, put a big ‘Q’ on that light and aim it at the clouds,” she quipped.

“It looks like I’ve got your attention even without the light,” Shield Lass replied as tilted her head coquettishly.

Indeed she did. “It looks like you want attention, wearing that Musk Minx outfit…” Quantress froze for a moment with her mouth open as she realized what she’d blurted out.

“You watched that?” Shield Lass smirked. “What did you think?”

Quantress wasn’t inclined to be prudish or get defensive about the fact that she enjoyed watching porn to unwind after a hard day of blowing up supervillain doomsday devices. “I liked it.” She also wasn’t inclined to delve into a detailed cinematic critique, so she cut to the chase. “Are you hitting on me?”

“Yeah. I thought that was pretty obvious.” Shield Lass pointed at the skylight. “The studio’s empty. I could get us inside and we could borrow one of the beds.”

“Hey, at least buy me dinner first!”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of an old-fashioned attitude?” the blonde replied teasingly.

“I don’t care what kind of fashion it is; I’m hungry!” Quantress replied. It was true enough, and it gave her a way to slow things down a little without derailing them. She’d fantasized about hot lesbian sex with Shield Lass while watching her videos, but now that it was a real possibility she didn’t want to get rushed into it.

“Fair enough.” Shield Lass grinned. “How about you pick the place, you carry me there, and I pay? I have some cash and an untraceable credit card in my utility belt.”

“I guess Vindiatrix taught you to be prepared, like a Girl Scout.”

Shield Lass leered. “Oh, if you decide to stick around after dinner I’ll show you that I’m no Girl Scout!”

“I’ll let you know,” Quantress said in a tone that indicated that “yes” was at least a distinct possibility. The more she looked at the blonde in skimpy spandex and remembered her onscreen performances, the more tempted she was to take her up on her proposition.

“They built some new restaurants at the edge of Rumbletown last year,” she continued. “Might as well support the local redevelopment.” Quantress grinned a bit nervously. “Maybe we could support it a little more by renting a room in one of the local motels.” Well, now she’d talked herself into it, she thought. She’d taken things a bit too far to back out now.

“What’s wrong with the studio?” Shield Lass replied.

“The studio is full of cameras. I’m not into doing it for an audience. If you’re trying to talk me into signing up for that, sorry, no toaster oven for you!”

Shield Lass laughed. “I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.”

“As long as you’re willing to take ‘no’ for an answer, I guess it doesn’t.”

“Well then,” Shield Lass replied, looking Quantress up and down with undisguised lust in her gaze, “I’ll just have to hope I can get you to ‘yes’ before dinner’s over.” She bent her knees and prepared to jump. “Catch!”

Quantress’s reflexes and athletic prowess weren’t in the same league as Shield Lass’s, but she did manage to smoothly catch the other heroine. Holding her in a bridal carry, she lifted off and headed toward the new restaurant district, specifically to a diner she occasionally visited to catch a quick bite during her patrols. They were used to her showing up in costume, the food was good, the prices were reasonable, and the service was quick.

She might have preferred slower service if she were still trying to make up her mind. As it was, the only question in her mind was which motel to head for after dinner.

The Baroness reviewed the hidden-camera video of Ethrienne pleasuring herself as she telepathically shared the Trusty Twosome’s erotic performance and considered options for how to best make use of it.

She was leaning toward making it a special feature on the Costumed Champions, Conquered Concubines video. Maybe it would be most effective as a hidden special feature, to be discovered when someone triple-clicked past the end of the disc menu or something. That would make it seem more like a spontaneous event that “accidentally” got onto the video rather than a staged scene. It would also allow the studio to draw attention to the display by placing an announcement on the SpandexGirlsex site explaining how to access the hidden feature after news of its existence got out.

The spectacle of the psychic superheroine giving in to lust as she visually and telepathically enjoyed the onstage sexcapades would make it easy to believe that she wanted to experience it firsthand.

Yes, she thought, that scene would serve as Ethrienne’s pornographic debut, setting the stage for her to properly join Vindiatrix and Shield Lass as a superheroine sex starlet.

With that decision settled, she turned her attention to her other recruitment project and accessed the recordings from the rooftop surveillance cameras.

The suggestion to Shield Lass that she ought to try getting Quantress’s attention had fallen on very receptive ears; she’d already seen the other heroine introduce her skimpy new costume on Tongue Waggers and liked what she’d seen. It had only taken a small nudge to get Shield Lass to take action.

She’d let the sidekick believe that the studio was empty, but in fact she’d been conveniently “working late” ready to get Quantress signed up if she actually got talked into performing in front of the cameras. That was too much to hope for, she knew, but it was worth a try. What she had gotten out of the encounter was enough to advance her plans for the pretty young silvery-haired heroine.

A video clip of the duo chatting on the studio roof and flying away to a rendezvous would suggest that, at the very least, Quantress had no objection to her companion’s porn-starlet lifestyle. The fact that she’d turned down the idea of sex on camera would be hidden by leaking a copy with no audio and low-resolution shaky video. That would also distance the Baroness from the matter by making the footage look like something obtained by an anonymous paparazzi photographer on a nearby rooftop. The result would be sensationalistic enough to attract attention but restrained enough to air in prime-time television.

The Baroness logged off and shut down the computer. Her plans were proceeding smoothly, and it was time to go to bed and eventually get some sleep.

She was on stage, pulling down her tights. No, they weren’t her tights; they were the blue Frigidelle tights she’d worn the first time she’d gone on camera at the Baroness’s studio.

She pulled off the tights and kicked them aside. Now they were the tan tights she’d worn to play Musk Minx. The stage floor was already littered with garments, a motley assortment of tunics, tights, gloves, boots, and masks she’d worn in various roles as an anonymous pornographic performer.

There was an audience out there in the darkness, cheering and whistling. They took up a chant that began soft and indistinct but soon became loud and clear.

“Take it off! Take it off!”

She looked down at herself. She had already taken everything off. Everything except… She reached up to her face and felt a mask. She could tell that it was actually two masks, one concealing the other.

Slowly, shakily, she took hold of the outer mask, pulled it off, and tossed it aside.

The audience cheered. Now she could see them, a crowd of women eagerly leering at her.

The chant picked up volume and energy as it changed to “Ethrienne! Ethrienne!”

The women at the front tables tossed things onto the stage. Hotel room keys, bras, and paper-airplane notes landed on and around the clothing on the floor, which now consisted entirely of her own red and grey Ethrienne costume.

A paper airplane glided toward her. She caught and unfolded it.

“You deserve a chance to make a name for yourself in this business. I’d like to sign you up. What do you say?”

She felt herself get tingly between the thighs. She spotted the woman who’d sent the note… Baroness Blackleather herself. She smiled and gave her a thumbs-up…

Ethrienne woke up and stared at the ceiling.

Obviously, the dream was based on the memory scan images of Vindiatrix’s date with the Baroness last night. Her subconscious mind had put her into the role of one of the strippers they’d watched perform at Lik-Mmm-Good.

The symbolism of the dream was fairly straightforward, especially to a telepath who knew the human mind backwards and forwards. Stripping off her false mask after stripping off everything else obviously represented going onstage as herself, as Ethrienne, rather than hiding behind stage identities. The way the doffed clothing changed from stage outfits to her own costume confirmed that.

Variations on that idea had been appearing in her dreams for the past few weeks.

It must be her own idea. It must be what she wanted, deep down.

Intellectually, she knew that a few months ago she’d been absolutely desperate to avoid any public connection between her porn performances and her superheroine identity, but she just couldn’t relate to those feelings any more. It was like a bit of teenage drama that had seemed cataclysmic at the time but felt embarrassingly petty in retrospect. She wasn’t the same person now that she’d been then She’d developed a more adult attitude about being an adult actress.

Over the last few months, she had telepathically shared not only the Trusty Twosome’s sexual pleasure, but also the pride and satisfaction they felt from delivering good performances for the cameras and giving their fans enjoyable entertainment. Those feelings were no less powerful and no less valid than the pride and satisfaction they got from fighting crime and earning the people’s trust and confidence.

Not one of her psychic probes had discovered any evidence of coercion or trickery or sinister hidden agendas.

Why shouldn’t she feel the same pride and satisfaction, and why should she hide them?

The one thing that still made her hesitate was recalling the controversy that swirled around the Trusty Twosome after they’d come out of the adult film studio closet. She was uneasy about dealing with something like that herself.

It was all so confusing!

Maybe she should talk to the Baroness about it. She was media savvy and had dealt with the situation before. She’d surely know what to do.

With that reassuring thought, she let herself drift back to sleep.