This story is inspired by one of Doctor Droid’s first Global Protectors pictures, Strip Mall. It showed three of the Global Protectors mind controlled and humiliated in the middle of your typical mall.  Obviously such genius required a backstory and, well here's my effort.

I think we all love the idea of poor innocent superheroines subjected to mind control, I know I do.

The Global Protectors and Villainy eXtreme are of course copyright Doctor Droid (www.superstories.net/droidzone which unfortunately is off line right now), other characters and text are copyright Marcus Lycus. If something does not fit the good doctor’s vision or the established world of Megapolis then just assume this story happened on Earth 2 ½.  You can find more of my stories at the Wizard’s Lair (http://www.superheroinecentral.com/~wizard/Stories_MarcusLycus.htm)

Any resemblance between characters in this story and any actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

It was June of 2001. A couple more dot-coms folded, Britney danced with a snake, sharks bit some tourists and Ultra Woman saved the world from an alien invasion. All in all a pretty slow news month.

But this sleepy Saturday morning that was about to change…

The armored truck exploded, rising several feet into the air before landing on its side. The two guards started to crawl out the passenger’s seat window but were quickly stunned by shots from the Villainy eXtreme shock troopers.

Behind the truck a tall man dressed in a VX power suit emerged from a black van. "Hurry up!" He cried as three more troopers ran out of the van towards the armored car. They quickly cut open the rear door with a laser and entered the storage compartment.

A minute later one of them called out "I found the MCH! Let’s move." Leaving behind the rest of the cargo the three troopers ran back towards their van.

The whole operation was over in less than three minutes.

***

Then the shadows appeared over them. One paused and looked up, the MCH still cradled in his hands. "Huh?"

Three shapely women hovered in mid-air with their hands on their hips, their legs spread, silhouetting the crooks.

"Who the fuck?"

"Ultra Woman & her sisters?"

"No, it’s um, waddaya call’em those foreigner chicks, Captain Canada and the Global Girls!"

Hovering 100 feet up, Maple Leaf scowled. The team had been around for almost six months and the villains still don’t know who they are.

She’d have to hire a publicist.

But first, she and her comrades had some crooks to bust. She nodded to La Sola and Tigress and the three sprang into action. Before the goons could react, La Sola knocked out two of the troops in front leaving the other two scared and running.

The other three troops started their van and took off with Tigress in hot pursuit.

Maple Leaf singled out the leader; he in turn activated the suit’s anti-grav system and took to the air to challenge her. Maple Leaf backed off a bit, showing the power suit some respect. She had read about its capabilities in the FBI file but had never faced one live. She knew it offered the user superstrength, flight, a force field and blasters and that it was only given to the most highly trained Villainy eXtreme agents. McGee, the VX leader, also backed off a bit; he had never faced the GP but had heard they weren’t nearly as soft as they looked.

***

The Global Protectors were not exactly the most imposing superheroes around. Certainly they weren’t as scary as the psycho vigilantes like Nightbat or the Penalizer covered in weapons and armor. Instead the five gorgeous members of the team wore colorful costumes consisting of a one-piece leotard modeled on each heroine’s flag. A matching mask, thigh-high boots and gloves completed the outfit. The sexy costumes were also incredibly tight, showing off every curve and line on the heroines’ bodies. Their image was not helped by the fact that each girl was in perfect physical condition, a useful side effect of the process that gave them their powers. Many critics said they looked more like Miss Universe contestants than protectors of the globe.

But the joking usually stopped once they moved into action. Each girl had the powers of flight, super-strength and was protected by a powerful psychokinetic force field. They could break the sound barrier, tear through steel and were invulnerable to most weapons. Since they debuted six months ago they had defeated several ordinary criminals and even a few supervillians. They weren’t the most famous heroines in the world (yet) but VX troopers had been warned to respect their power.

***

So McGee decided to sound out his foe, both to gather information and to buy time for his team to get away.

"So, what do they call you anyway? Cap’n Canuk? Vindicator? Snowbird?"

"The name’s Maple Leaf, remember it when you’re being raped in the prison shower asshole."

"Honey, I ain’t scared of you, I’ve got a VX power suit, with my enhanced strength I can rip apart an SUV."

"Really?" She smiled "Funny you say that, since y’know, I can rip apart a tank."

"Um…"

He hesitated for a second and that was all she needed. The Global Protectors’ leader pounced on top of him raining blows and quickly sending his force field into the red. Scared, McGee tried to turn and fly off but the Canadian heroine caught his boot and crushed it like an egg, crushing his ankle as well. He cried out and fell painfully to the ground fifty feet below. Through the pain he tried to fire off some energy blasts but the red and white heroine dodged them easily. Maple Leaf landed on top of him and caught his power gloves in her hands, tearing them off and crushing them as well. By then La Sola had the foot troops wrapped up as well and Detective Mulligan and his Paranormal Crimes Unit were arriving to cart them off.

"Detective, any idea what they were after?"

Mulligan tried not to stare at Maple Leaf’s breasts hanging out there in front of him. He hated this part of the job, trying to carry on a professional conversation with incredibly hot women wearing the tightest, skimpiest outfits imaginable. "Yeah, and this is a nice rack-I mean bad attack. The truck was carrying some top-secret projects from Megapolis Technology Institute to the government’s secure facility in Breast-I mean West Virginia. I dunno what was in it but it’s definitely not something we want VX to have."

Maple Leaf wondered what was wrong with the detective, he always seemed so distracted around her. She chalked it up to stress and worry.

"My teammate Tigress is following them now, we planned to track them back to their base. But if they have some kind of weapon, maybe it’s best to stop them now."

Mulligan nodded a few times, it gave him an excuse to look down her top. "Right, you, um, do that. I’ll go call the FBI and see what I can find out."

Adjusting his pants he headed for the car.

***

Tigress’ communicator beeped as she was following the black van. She’d been flying high, counting on her improved vision to track the van without the VX goons knowing. She was a bit disappointed to end the hunt before it was over but she had to agree, whatever the unknown weapon was, VX could not be allowed to keep it any longer. For all they knew, it was a bomb that could go off any minute.

Waiting till the van turned down an almost empty side street, she dove in front of it.

The frightened driver slammed on the brakes and tried to turn on the narrow street but Tigress caught the van’s bumper in her hands and with a smooth motion flipped it on its side. The driver had enough time to cry out before her fist smashed through the windshield and knocked him out. Another trooper kicked open the back doors and ran out firing his blaster rifle randomly behind him. Tigress took cover behind the van and grabbed a manhole cover from the street. A quick flip of the wrist and the fifty-pound metal disk caught her prey in the gut sending him sprawling. Smiling evilly the predatory heroine walked around back to catch the last trooper before he recovered.

Inside Hogan, the sole remaining VX trooper, ripped open the box he had stolen. Pushing past the Styrofoam peanuts he pulled out the blue high-tech helmet and pushed the ‘on’ button. He just hoped the MCH was a working prototype or he was in for a real beating.

"Come out little man, all your friends have gone to sleep" Tigress taunted her prey. She was not as overconfident as she seemed though, her senses were tuned and she was ready for whatever the VX trooper was trying to do. She was hoping the taunts would rattle him. In just a few months she had seen that most Americans had a deep fear of Africans, they expected her to be some kind of man-eating cannibal from the lost jungle. She knew it was a terrible cliché and that she should try to open their eyes but sometimes it was just too easy to use that fear against them.

Walking to the rear doors she found the last one wearing his black and red body armor but wearing a different helmet than before. There was an empty box, but no sign of any obvious weapon. She hissed at the trooper making him take a step back and narrowed her eyes to slits. She opened her hands like claws and crouched a bit lower. "Now little man, take off that helmet and lie down before I tear you apart…"

The helmet wasn’t working! Hogan didn’t feel anything! He retreated another step and stumbled, falling on his ass. Tigress growled and took another step forward. "No!" He yelled panicking "Stop!" Amazingly Tigress paused in mid-step and fell silent. Hogan blinked a few times but she was still there and still not moving. The painful expression on her face showed she was trying, that she wanted to move more than anything, but she couldn’t.

"IT WORKS!" he yelled. The MCH, the experimental mind control helmet, actually worked! No wonder the government had been in such a hurry to get it locked away. If it could do this to a superheroine, what could it do to normal people?

"Um, stand up straight and don’t move. Don’t speak, and um, don’t even think, just stand and wait OK?"

The mind controlled heroine’s face went blank and she obeyed. Under the helmet Hogan smiled. He copped a feel as he walked out and quickly recovered his so-called buddy Phil who had run out on him. With Phil and Parker (the driver) they managed to break into an SUV parked on the street and get it started. Hogan ordered Tigress into the back seat with him, taking a second to pinch her butt as she climbed in. They started to drive.

"Now what?" Phil whined. "We can’t take her with us, they’ve gotta have some way to track her." Hogan wasn’t so sure but agreed they couldn’t take the chance. But that bitch had been about to rip him apart, he couldn’t just let her go. So they headed over to the west side, the old warehouse district and started cruising. Soon they found two old bums hanging out under the freeway drinking 40 ounces and smoking cigarettes they’d salvaged from dumpsters.

Hogan thought for a second about what to say. "OK Tiger Chick, take off your little swim suit and head over there. I want you to fuck those guys and love every minute of it. And after that go back to your friends and tell them you lost us, OK? And forget all about the helmet and the fucking."

Her mind completely blank, Tigress nodded. Reaching behind she unzipped her Kenyan flag leotard and peeled it off. Her face still blank, she stepped out of the SUV and walked towards the bums, her large breasts bouncing with every step. The first guy dropped his bottle letting it shatter at his feet. The other chugged the rest of his drink and walked up to her full of false courage.

"Hey sweet thing, looking so fine, whatchadoing-"

His smooth pickup line was cut off as Tigress grabbed his head and inserted her tongue deep into his mouth. Pushing him against the concrete wall she started unbuckling his pants…

From the SUV, the VX goons watched open-mouthed.

The surprised hobo shot his load in minutes but his buddy took longer before finally crying out in relief and falling to the ground panting for breath.

Wiping herself off with his jeans Tigress calmly walked back to the SUV, put her costume on, and flew off.

The VX goons sat there for ten minutes staring in wonder.

"Damn" Hogan said, finally taking off the helmet. "This is the best thing EVER!"

Phil just smacked him on the head, "so why didn’t you make her fuck us you dumb ass?"

***

Meanwhile at their small office at the World Peace Institute, the rest of the Global Protectors were meeting. Maple Leaf and La Sola were already there, their remaining teammates Rising Sun and Valkyrie soon joined them.

"Any word from Tigress?" Maple Leaf asked for the third time. "There must be something we can do to track her."

"I just hope nothing happened." Rising Sun fretted.

"She is quite competent, I’m sure she can take care of herself." Valkyrie threw in.

"Then why isn’t she answering her communicator?" La Sola asked a bit of fear in her voice. "We should be out looking for her!"

Then the door opened and the Kenyan heroine entered. She seemed a bit tired but otherwise unharmed. The others greeted her with relief. "Sorry I am late my sisters, I lost the van and was looking for it."

"What about your communicator? We’ve been trying to reach you for an hour!"

"I…" Tigress was puzzled, she didn’t remember the communicator buzzing. In fact she didn’t even really remember looking for the van, it was as though she had woken up from a nap just minutes ago. "I don’t know…" she said softly, her head starting to hurt.

"It may have failed. I said before we need better communicators, with GPS locators and panic buttons." Rising Sun threw in, raising a point she had brought up many times before.

Maple Leaf scowled at her. "And how will we pay for them? Or the lab Valkyrie wants, or a plane, or a detention cell, or a monitor board… these things cost money and none of us are millionaires."

"Actually I had an idea about that." La Sola interrupted. "I have been talking to my friends in the fashion industry and they told me that this year imitation Global Protector swim suits are very, very, popular in Florida."

"So? So what if someone’s copying our costumes, doesn’t help us any."

"Well, why not sit down with some designers and put out our own line of clothes. Swimsuits, tee shirts, lingerie… if there’s a market we should get a piece of it."

"I don’t know" Maple Leaf wondered "Superhero tee shirts? Would anyone buy them?"

"Look at all the Superman tee shirts you see people wearing, and he’s just a character Time-Warner made up to cash in on Ultra Man’s popularity. Clothes based on real heroes like us would sell very well I think. In fact we could go even farther, make calendars, posters, action figures, even do commercial endorsements…"

"You know, Carmen-san some Japanese producers have asked me about making a J-pop album. I wonder how well they would pay…"

"Really Rising Sun, I didn’t know you could sing."

"Well… singing talent isn’t really required for J-pop…" she answered embarrassed.

"Guys, guys, I like the fact you’re thinking about our money problems but I’m not sure this is the way to go, I mean doesn’t it cheapen things a bit? We’re heroines not pop stars."

"Well Maple Leaf you’re the one who raised the point. Rewards, donations and such are barely covering our bills now and we can’t really save the world if we’re worried about paying the rent. I don’t know about you guys but my stipend is barely enough to get by. Besides you’re the one who started that fan club for us."

"Fan club? The Global Protectors Women’s Empowerment and Education Program is not a fan club! It is a grassroots educational program to encourage tomorrow’s leaders to achieve their goals."

"The WEEPers pay $5 to get a poster and a video of us in action. Sounds like a fan club to me. And not a very profitable one even…"

The heroines spent the next hour bickering about money until Maple Leaf finally, reluctantly, agreed to let La Sola look into merchandising opportunities. She didn’t like the idea but who knows, it might help with their perpetual money problems and reduce the stress on her as leader.

To finish up they discussed that day’s mission quickly and decided that, other than Tigress losing the van (very unlike her Maple Leaf thought), the mission had gone very well. The cops said the stupid VX goons had left behind plasma grenades and a particle cannon only taken some apparatus from MTI’s psychology department, probably nothing dangerous, so no real harm done. Hopefully the prisoners would crack and give them some clue where the VX base was so the Global Protectors could shut down their operation.