Chapter 3: Descent

Samantha answered her cell phone on the second ring. She had just gotten home from her student-teacher "meeting" with Miss Harris when it had begun to ring. She had looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Blackbird who was phoning her.

"Hello, sexy," she said as she answered it.

"Hi," Blackbird said, his voice slightly confused. That was the first time she had ever called him "sexy". "White Owl and I are staking out the museum tonight. There's something here that Black Shroud wants really bad, since he came here two nights in a row. You interested in coming?"

"I'm very interested in coming," she purred, giving her words a double meaning.

"Okay," Blackbird replied, the confusion coming into his voice once again. "I'll see you later tonight then."

Samantha ended the call with a beep, then pulled her Lightburst costume out from her hiding spot underneath her bed. She looked at in disgust. The bright, vibrant yellow of the costume made her want to puke. She'd have to do something about her outfit if she was going to be wearing it out later.

A little over an hour later, Samantha heard the front door open as her mother arrived. She heard her bustling around downstairs for a few minutes, then Abby's knock came on her bedroom door. The door opened a crack, and her mom stuck her head in.

"Hey, kiddo," she said with a smile.

Samantha had been sitting in front of her vanity, putting on makeup. She looked at her mom in the mirror, giving her a cold glare. "You want to try waiting for me to give you permission to come in next time?"

Abby blinked in surprise, not sure she heard her daughter right. She opened the door the rest of the way and came in. "What's wrong with you?" she asked Samantha. "Bad day?"

"Not at all," Samantha replied, running lipstick over her lips.

"I don't think you should be talking to me like that, anyway," Abby said. She watched her daughter putting on makeup, dressed in revealing clothing. "Where do you think you're going? And dressed like that?"

Samantha flung her lipstick down to the vanity and looked at her mom in the mirror again. "I'm going out to see a guy."

Abby put her hands on her hips and began to tap her foot impatiently. "In case you've forgotten, you're grounded. What in the world has gotten into you, Samantha?"

Samantha turned in her chair and got up. "I've woken up, mother. I've decided that I'm going to have some fun, and I'm not going to let you stop me."

Abby was becoming furious with her daughter. Never before had she spoken to her like that, and Abby wasn't going to stand for it. "Now you listen here, young lady..." she began, her face becoming red with anger.

Her words died out as sparkles of light appeared all around Samantha, blinking on and off. She looked at the lights, trying to figure out where they were coming from. She was fascinated by them, unable to take her eyes off the hypnotic patterns.

Samantha paid no attention to her mother, letting her hypnotic light pattern do its trick with her. She slid the tanktop over her head, then peeled the miniskirt down her legs. Her panties soon joined the skirt on the floor. She was completely unconcerned about her full nudity in front of her own mother. Abby was too preoccupied watching the hypnotic lights around Samantha to pay any attention to her daughter. Samantha then picked her new and improved costume from off the bed and began to slip into it.

When she was in her costume, she turned off her blinking lights and walked over to Abby, standing close to her. "I want you to do something for me, mother," she told Abby.

Erin knocked on the door to the Stewart house. She had been surprised when Samantha called her a short while ago, saying that it was very important that Erin come over. Erin hoped it was so that Samantha could apologize for the way she was acting in school earlier that day. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed her friend, making her act in a way that was not herself. She had tried to run a search on the web to see if any villains could do that, and she found plenty of them. Several mind controllers and hypnotists all appeared on her search, and she was worried that maybe Samantha had had a run-in with one of them.

The door opened. Abby was standing there, smiling at Erin. "Hi, come on in," she told Erin. "Samantha's expecting you."

Erin smiled at Abby and entered the house. As Abby shut the door behind her, Erin saw Miss Harris from school sitting in the living room, watching Erin.

"Hi Miss Harris," Erin said in surprise. "I didn't know you and Abby knew each other."

"We just met tonight," the teacher told her.

"Samantha arranged for us to meet," Abby added.

A warning bell sounded in the back of Erin's mind. Something about this was not right. With the way Samantha had been acting in school that day, this whole idea of Samantha arranging for her mom and her teacher to meet sounded like trouble.

Before Erin could say anything though, Samantha was coming down the stairs. She was dressed in her Lightburst costume, but it had been changed. The white stripes and design was still there, but where there had been yellow in the costume, it was now black.

"Do you like it?" Samantha asked. "It reflects the new me."

Now Erin knew that something was terribly wrong. Samantha just parading around in her Lightburst costume in front of her mom and her teacher. The color of the costume being changed. Erin's mind was screaming at her to get out, and to get out quickly.

"I just remembered something I have to do," Erin quickly said, starting to back up to the door. "Why don't you tell me why you wanted to see me tomorrow, okay?"

"No," Samantha replied. "Tomorrow won't be good for me."

Sparkles of light began to appear around Samantha, blinking on and off in their hypnotic pattern. Erin stared at the lights, then looked back to Samantha, still backing to the door.

"Is that what you wanted to show me? Blinking lights?"

Samantha scowled at her, her eyes showing surprise. "Grab her!" she ordered.

Erin, dropping all pretense of trying to sneak to the door, started to bolt for it. Abby was already moving for Erin though, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her. Erin went off-balance and fell to the floor with a thud. Abby held her arm, pinning it to the floor as Miss Harris came running up. The teacher grabbed Erin's other arm, holding it against the floor. Erin tried to struggle against the two women, but the two of them combined held her down.

"You have quite the willpower there," Samantha said as she walked around to stand before Erin, where she could see her. "I didn't think you had it in you. No one else has been able to resist my little lightshow, I'm surprise that you could."

"Samantha, please," Erin said, struggling against the two women who held her. "What happened to you? Let me help you!"

"I don't want your help, dear Erin," Samantha laughed in derision. "What I do want is for my best friend to have some fun, just like I'm going to have in a while." She looked at her mother and Miss Harris, and said, "You know what to do."

Abby and Miss Harris pulled Erin to her feet, the teen still struggling against them. Lightburst blew her friend a kiss and waved at her before walking over to a window and sliding it open. Then, her body glowing brightly, she flew into the night, her energy aura trailing behind her.

The two women began to pull Erin up the stairs, the teenager kicking and trying to pull away from them. She almost got away once, when she was finally able to free her arm from Abby's grip. But Abby managed to grab her arm again, and the two continued hauling her up the stairs.

They pulled her into Abby's bedroom. Erin saw that the bed's four posts had cuffs fastened to each one. Knowing now that they planned to cuff her to the bed, Erin doubled her efforts to get away, kicking, pulling, and even biting. She did not want to be chained to that bed. The two women managed to throw her down to the bed, Miss Harris holding her down while Abby got one of the arms in a cuff. As soon as Erin felt the cuff close around her wrist, she knew it was now or never.