Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
So the man had a name. Mantis.
Valik nodded to two guards in black-visored helmets, who stepped near the captive superheroine. Mantis dropped the end of the chain and stepped away as the guards each seized Sapphire Angel by an arm, holding her upright. As her head drooped, causing her hair to flow down over her face, Valik stepped in front of the costumed woman and lifted her chin.
"So, I get to see the spectacular Sapphire Angel again, after all," the scientist said. "I didn't think anyone could conquer you."
"What do you want from me?" she asked, her words slurred and her voice barely audible, as she tried to hold his gaze. He released her chin and her head dropped. She hung limp in the firm grasp of the guards, her knees bent and the toes of her boots pointed into the floor.
"I think you will see soon enough," Valik answered, before turning back to Mantis.
"Mr. Mantis, thank you for your efforts. But now we have highly classified work to do.”
Mantis stared at Valik for a moment, unmoving, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the camera. He ejected the memory card with his thumb and extended it toward Valik.
“Please see that at least one photo on this card gets to Devlin,” Mantis said. “That will assuage any doubts he had about my abilities.”
Mantis placed the memory card in Valik’s outstretched palm and, without expression, turned and exited through the door. Valik waited until the door closed before slipping the memory card into the pocket of his lab coat and turning back to the guards.
"Remove the chain, please," the scientist asked.
Sapphire Angel tensed, but only for a moment. Now would be the time for an escape, if she weren't so weak. The effects of the gas were still too much, and she couldn't even lift her arms or stand on her own. A strange mix of panic, despair, and humiliation washed over her.
The guard to Sapphire Angel's right held her upper arm with one hand, while he unwrapped the chain from her throat with the other. When he finished, he freed her wrists and tossed the chain to the floor.
Valik gave a nod to two men in lab coasts, who moved toward her. When they reached her, one took her slender right leg and held it in the air, while the other went to work untying the laces of her white boot. A moment later, he slid the boot from her foot, and handed it to a man behind him, who placed it on one of the metal tables.
She watched, stunned, as the man holding her right leg lowered it, and moved to her left leg. He raised her leg in the air, while the other man unlaced the boot and removed it. He handed it to a man behind him, and moments later it founds its place on the lab table next to her other boot.
"What... what are you doing?" she asked, unable to keep the tremble from her voice. Her chemical-addled brain struggled to process what these men were doing to her.
None of the men answered. Instead, the guard to her right shifted his hold, and extended her right arm forward. The closest man took her long glove by the fingertips, and carefully tugged at it, sliding it from her arm. As the man lowered her right arm, the other guard extended her left arm.
She wanted to resist, but could barely hold up her head. Her head bobbed up and down occasionally as she forced her gaze up, only to have her strength give out. The smooth material of her other glove slid across her flawless skin as the man pulled the glove from her hand.
Sapphire Angel dangled helplessly between the two guards, now bootless and gloveless, as another man in a lab coat moved behind her. Seconds later she felt his fingers fumbling at the neck of her costume, where her necklace was fastened.
"No..." she murmured, barely able to get the words out, and knowing any hope of escape would vanish if they took her necklace.
But they didn't heed her protests, and moments later she groaned and power ebbed from her body as the man unfastened the clasp of her necklace, slid the chain from her neck, and handed it over her shoulder to another scientist. The scientist took it and deposited it on the table with her boots and gloves.
She felt the fingers of the man behind her continue to fumble, pushing her hair aside and finding the clasps of her costume on the back of her neck.
"No, please!" she pleaded, her voice almost a sob, and her skin flushing red with shame. This disgrace — this symbol of her utter defeat — would be too much to bear. From proud visitor to depowered and stripped, it didn't seem real.
"Plead all you want," Valik replied. "But I must find what gives you the power to defeat an entire barroom full of trained fighters, Sapphire Angel."
The man behind her showed no mercy, unhooking the clasps and pulling her costume away from her neck. She felt the cool air of the room on her shoulders as he took a fistful of the fabric and tugged it down her arms. Each of the guards had to reposition his hands to let it pass.
"No!" she cried with renewed vigor, trying unsuccessfully to squirm free. Her costume approached her elbows, the front of it lingering over her breasts, before the man tugged it down. Her breasts spilled free as the other men in the room stared at her nearly naked form.
The two men holding her had to reposition their hands again, allowing the man behind her to pull her costume down, free of her hands. She stood naked from the waist up, humiliation burning in her face, the top half of her costume bunched at her waist.
They did not stop there. The man behind her moved to the front, pulling the costume down, wiggling it past her hips, before pulling it toward him. The motion caused her legs to raise up and forward, allowing him to slide the smooth, shimmering blue and white costume down her long legs and free from her lithe body. A moment later, her famed costume joined her other items on the table.
Sapphire Angel hung limply between the two guards, wearing only her tights and a stunned look on her face. She had come here thinking she would find answers about Erik's disappearance, but these men had turned the tables on her. More specifically, Mantis had turned the tables on her, ensnaring her. Now these men were reaping the fruits of his efforts.
Still the man wasn't done. He grabbed her tights at the waist, pulling them down past her hips, and down her legs. Once they were bunched at her ankles, he pulled the tights down and forward, causing her legs to once again come forward as the tights came free.
Sapphire Angel hung naked and defeated between the guards, helpless in the clutches of her captors. Total despair assailed her soul.
"Put her on the table," Valik said to the men holding her.
A chill of fear gripped Sapphire Angel's entire body as the guards half-dragged, half-walked her toward one of the lab tables. She knew what was to come wouldn't be pleasant. She struggled, but was powerless to stop them.
They slammed her back onto the table, causing her to grunt, and pinned her arms down to her sides. As they fastened straps around her wrists and ankles, securing her to the table, she turned her head to see a man approaching with a large needle and syringe.
"No!" she cried again. He reached her, placed one hand on her arm near the crux of her elbow, and plunged the needle into her skin. She winced and turned her head, watching as her blood filled the vial. The vial seemed to be impossibly large. As the blood rose higher in the syringe, her vision grew more blurry. When her blood reached the top, she slipped into unconsciousness.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Literally, I could not say anything other than “no” over and over and over and over throughout this entire chapter. I was expecting Mantis to stay around to watch Valik and his men dismantle Sapphire, but I guess business and action was really his thing, not necessarily science or experiments. I knew they were going to do at least some terrible stuff to her---I had a hunch they would try to take her blood, amongst other things---but I was not expecting them to actually take her costume away.
The scene where they forcibly take her blood kind of reminded me of Chapter 4 of Viper’s Bite (the very first novel of the PCU.....ahhh, memories) where Dr. Duncan Drevis took The Viper’s blood to complete the Herculean Serum. Granted, that one wasn’t nearly as much of an invasive process, but it still gave me a bit of nostalgia nonetheless.
I already think this is worse than when she was bested by Tristan in the previous novel, because for all her faults, at least Tristan didn’t strip Sapphire bare against her will. She may have attacked her systems with several chemicals, anesthetics, and drugs---and interrogated her excessively until she revealed her identity---but this is on a whole other level. Sapphire did get revenge on Tristan for that later, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to do the same with Valik and his men. Also, Tristan acted alone during that torture scene, while Valik’s got backup. It’d be cool if Conner came to Sapphire’s aid again, like he did last time, but I suppose we’ll see.
It’s definitely not gonna happen, but it’d be funny if Valik and his men are about to go in for another test on Sapphire, and then all of a sudden Ross and Jack fly through the wall in their vehicle and go “hey, we’re back from the grocery store!” or something along those lines. Even though the current floor isn’t on ground level.....maybe they could ramp off of a ledge or something. Would be quite the entrance.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this stressed to get the next chapter before now. I start the Spring 2023 semester on Monday, so I’m not looking forward to that! Will still definitely keep up with this, though!