A commission for  WolfRider



Tigress Titan stood just past the helipad atop the Marymount University Skyscraper on West 6th in L.A. Sweeping over the nearby harbor with a pair of binoculars, she targeted the small cargo vessel approaching the docks. Her lenses surfed the deck — found plenty of nondescript cronies. A couple of times, she caught glimpse of Wartblink Fu’s cronies, Rolling Mountain and Bamboo Split.

Blockbuster the British bulldog descended from the sky behind her, landing with the same soft bracing of the knees as an astronaut on the moon. “Afternoon, Tigress.”

She turned her head toward him curtly. “Long flight?” she joked, knowing the LA Bureau director’s office was but a few miles away.

“Aye, my back’s all bent out of shape.” He turned to the swoosh and clomp of a tabby cat and a grey wolf alighting on the helipad. They said greetings. Blockbuster nodded. “Code Blue, Wonder Wolf. Good to see ya, mates.”

“Impeccable timing. The ship’s just arrived,” Tigress said. “As the three of you know, that ship’s loaded with narcotics: oxycodone — methadone — the like. Our panda and pangolin friends are aboard. You know how to handle the lot.”

Code Blue said, “Hold your nose around panda . . .”

“. . . And deprive her of food,” Wonder Wolf finished, swinging her lasso with an air of confidence.

“And Rolling Mountain?” Tigress kinked an eyebrow.

Blockbuster didn’t hesitate. “Paste him in the gut where he’s without armor, or give ‘im a good conk to the nose, should do it.” Striding forward, he borrowed the binoculars from Tigress then squinted. “There aren’t any cranes about, so they’ll be unloading the ware by hand, I gather.”

Tigress’ jade eyes narrowed. “And while they have their hands full, we’ll strike — catch them off guard. If Wartblink’s aboard the ship, she’s our priority. Then the panda and pangolin. Then the narcotics.”

The superheroes flew low across the main channel, avoiding the notice of The Witches’ Triad on the opposite side of the Seaside Peninsula, then navigated around warehouses and through a field of cargo containers. Peeking around a nearby metallic vantage point, Tigress watched as Rolling Mountain and Bamboo Split began ordering suited goons to carry cardboard packages labeled “Cane Sugar” out of the ship’s now-open interior.

Blockbuster peeked, too. The package-carrying minions were crossing the docks toward a warehouse.

Without sight of Wartblink Fu, the two Bureau Directors directed a strike on the caravan of goons. Tigress Titan, Blockbuster, Code Blue and Wonder Wolf dashed into the thoroughfare, giving great battle-cries.

The goons, heavily loaded down, only had time enough to curse and drop their packages clumsily. One of them fumbled for a pistol on his belt, but his fingers slipped from the half-drawn metal to a gut blow from Blockbuster’s fist — and the goon found himself flying into a slew of his comrades, who’d been drawing their pistols as well. They hit the gravel in a gunk-wad of cheesy sweat, groaning and shuddering, while all around them skirmishes began — and ended just as abruptly. Pistol shots rang out; clubs whooshed through the air; knives glinted in the harbor sunlight; and presently the owners of such things found themselves laid-low, twitching and convulsing on the ground.

Tigress Titan joined the foray, swinging her body as if it were a lotus petal in the breeze, her nunchucks a blur. Three goons crouched around her as if to wrestle her, except that they wielded spiked bats. She showed them a dextrous, spiralling dance then moved with the speed of a stroked laser pointer, delivering a nunchuck chin uppercut that had cavitied molars bouncing into the air. Unnerved, one of the other two goons swung his club barbarically, sidestepped by Tigress. A karate chop cut down between his neck and shoulder like a brick. Gasping he fell. Goon #3 snuck up on Tigress. But she whirled — the rattle of dangerous chains imperceptibly swift — and flogged him in the gut with the hard, cold rubber. All this unfolded within a pawful of seconds. Then she stood stanced, encircled by lain-out bodies, alert yet breathing easily. When another batch surged toward her she charged, swapping out her nunchucks and unsheathing Asian steel. She sliced through garb with the effort of a praying mantis swiping her claws. More goons-for-hire tasted hot gravel, shaking in the epilepsies of sharp pain.

Wonder Wolf parried a club with an “X” of her wrists. With precisive force, she threw a left hook into a goon’s jaw. Spinning, she grabbed an attacker’s knife, chucked it then slabbed her elbow into the back of their skull. Goons fled her radius. She uncoiled her whip and slung it as far as she willed it, getting out of one goon a “Gasp!” as it fastened around his waist. The wolf pivoted, before jerking the rope counterclockwise, swinging the captured goon at his fleeing buddies in a 360-degree spin. Meatheads swiveled and fell, collapsing atop each other. She then reeled in the roped goon, hooking his gut with gloved knuckles. That made him the rosy of the ring.

Bamboo split heard the commotion and, instantly unconcerned with the narcotics, she dropped a bunch of packages back into the ship. “Well if that wasn’t Tigress Titan’s cry I just heard.”

“Tigress?” Rolling Mountain said, grinning. “Mee-yow . . .”

His partner was already climbing out of the ship’s interior. He switched gazes between the packages she had dropped and his own, and she yelled back at him: “Forget all that! It’s the twerps — and that Chinese tiger you have a crush on.”

It wasn’t sarcasm. Though Rolling Mountain hated the Chinese government, he loved Tigress Titan. They say, after all, that love and hate are more closely related than apathy — just how the sun and moon often get paired together in symbology. So the pangolin dropped his goods with a quake, and hurriedly climbing to the deck behind the panda, he saw:

The british bulldog’s fist slammed into a goon’s cheek. His shoes went soles up, and he fell into the harbor, producing a crashing eruption of water. The bulldog, smacking his fists together, then produced a concentrated force field. He backed a gang of Wartblink Fu’s goons toward the Pacific Ocean. They dropped their weapons, threw their hands up, pleaded. One last bump of the field sent them soaring, and yelling:

“Yaaaaaaaaaahhhhooooaaaaaah!”

Splash!

“Tch,” said an unimpressed Bamboo Split.

She raced down the ship’s ramp. Rolling Mountain rolled after her.

A goon skipped drunkenly toward Blockbuster, preparing a club-swing the likes of a home-run hit. Feline hands gripped his his hips from behind.

“Oh no you don’t!” said Code Blue, letting out a cat’s battle cry. She hurled him overhead. He skidded over the ground, losing shreds of clothing along the thoroughfare the way a sack of potatoes loses potatoes during a roll down a hill.

As the superheroes wrapped up cleaning house, Rolling Mountain and Bamboo Split entered the fray.

The panda said, “Tigress! Come to take another beating from me, I see.”

The supervillains supplied no time for them to reply. Rolling Mountain spun into a ball, wheeling through Blockbuster and Wonder Wolf; the superheroes struck the ground, rolling likewise, and wearing fresh bruises. Code Blue rushed to her two comrades, preparing to heal them. The pangolin’s tail cleaved through the air, sweeping cleanly into her ribcage. She hit the ground, stunned. But swiftly she dizzily leaped to her feet. Her vision blurry, she saw the pangolin ahead grinning and flexing his muscles at her; the way the corded lumps of mass popped and rolled and shuddered, Code Blue found it oddly attractive.

“What a hunk!” she said to herself, and let out a dreamy sigh swept up by the harbor winds.

“Snap out of it, Code!” Tigress commanded. She rushed toward the tabby cat to assist her. But Bamboo Split tackled her, wrestling her into submission.

Wonder Wolf got to her feet but found the pangolin rolling towards her and Tigress Titan. The pangolin leaped at the tiger and wrestled her hand to hand, telling her, “When I win, we’re going out on a date, beautiful.” He laughed, overpowering her, and rolling across the ground over her. During the roll her skull smacked against the gravel repeatedly, the cyclical motions disorienting her vision.

Tigress made a disgusted noise, said, “Get lost, boy.” She heard the impact of Wonder Wolf’s fist into the pangolin’s snout, and felt herself be freed from the smother of the pangolin’s musky armpits. Tigress bolted to her feet, seeing Rolling Mountain gripping his snout and cursing.

“That’s some punch you got there, sweet princess…”

Tigress chucked her nunchuk at him. The pangolin grabbed the end, and instead chucked her. Beaten against the hot black ground, she found Rolling Mountain pinning her down again and smirking. She groaned. Not only did his pits stink; he reeked of oil and fishy foods from the voyage.

“Ready to concede? Wanna have a bite to eat when this is all over, babe?” The grip around her flexed, tightening on her ribcage, and she gasped hard, losing her own grip of her weapon.

“Bite this dust.” Wolf paws gripped the pangolin’s tail, before swinging him into the air; the pangolin, releasing Tigress, was clubbed against the earth.

“Oof, off, oormph!”

Quickly Wonder Wolf let go, brandishing her lasso, and then looped the lasso around the pangolin’s body, constricting him. That gave time for Tigress to land blows against the pangolin’s face. Presently the muscles of his hided body slackened; he fainted.

Meanwhile, Code Blue struggled beneath the fat panda. Bamboo Split’s lack of hygiene fashioned a stench that’d both snapped Code Blue out of her stunned state and cured her sinuses better than a bowl of onions.

“Gyuck! You’re awful!” she choked out. “Why not take a shower or six?”

“So I can smell nice for you?” Bamboo Split laughed. “Waste of time. I’d rather see you suffer, prissy girl!” She rolled, locking Code Blue into submission beneath the heavy, suffocating musk of her armpits mixed with the pungent heat of her breath, which reeked of ramen and onions.

A right hook from Blockbuster cracked into Bamboo split’s pudgy cheekbone. Her blubbery body bounced over the ground with the grace of a dud rock tossed across a pond. On the last hurdle she breathed hotly in labor on her back. Battling the heroes had worked up her appetite, and so she rose snacking on a papaya from the Land of the Rising Sun. This seemed to improve her reflexes, for, as she chewed, she dodged the incoming fists from the British bulldog with a developing, slothlike ease. One swing of his fist, though, struck the uneaten portion of the papaya out of the Bamboo Split’s burly paw. Then . . . then, her stomach grumbled angrily, and she shot him a glare the likes of a Kung Fu movie antagonist could not likely replicate. The next punch he threw, she caught firmly with both paws.

“That… was… MY PAPAYA!”

With a barbaric roar, she slung Blockbuster down. Her gargantuan rump came down on his spine like a mortar blast. Crushed beneath her weight, the bulldog got to hyperventilating, not able to squirm out from underneath those mammoth buttocks. The horrid odor of the panda’s fur, like sweaty noodles and sour papaya, left him wheezing. She bellowed evil laughter, clapping the ground such as might a referee, and began to count toward ten.

Consumed by the thrill of victory, she let her attention drift too far away from Code Blue. The tabby cat bounded at the panda with considerable agile, striking the panda’s jaw. Hundreds of pounds thundered down on the gravel, the black-and-white body skipping up, before flopping back down again for a second mountainous thud. Offering the panda no moment to recover, Code Blue sprang like a cat upon a mouse, before two burly arms reached up and locked her in a hug. Bamboo Split backwards somersaulted, wheeling over the trapped feline in a Rolling Mountain-inspired move. Mid-roll, she flung the tabby cat aside. She pulled a dumpling out of her unwashed pelt and tossed it into the air, gulping it down greedily. Refreshed, Bamboo Split treaded toward Blockbuster. She grappled him, raised him high into the air, then drove him down in a drilling move. A great cry rang out. The British bulldog’s legs angled out, like a Mason-ring symbol, before they gave completely. An ear-jarring crack left his legs horizontally spread. He gasped, going out cold. Bamboo Split snickered, plopping down on his limp body for a seat, and then chucked another dumpling into her mouth as a reward for herself.

Fires burned in Code Blue’s eyes. “Ooh, why, I oughta!”

A slingshot couldn’t have launched a rock quicker than she moved. She sprang, fists a blur, beating into a panda parrying with wrists up. The blows knocked Bamboo a couple of feet back due to recoil. Bamboo Split drew from her back a great staff. And when Code Blue advanced again, she was met by a flurry of the panda’s finest strikes. The cat dodged nimbly, but was dazed by a thwack to the shoulder, then thrashed off of her feet.

And Bamboo Split leapt like a wrestler off the ropes of a ring, body slamming her to the gravel. Pain arced and raced through the feline’s body. The unbathed panda’s body odor was depressing, debilitating. She almost faltered — a voice groaned far away from her — Blockbuster’s! And so Bamboo Split, as she prepared a chokehold around the feline, found herself suddenly twirled beneath Code Blue. Stars exploded in the panda’s vision. Luckily for her, black eyes go unnoticed on those of her species.

Leaping up, Code Blue snatched up a stack of packages from around the fallen bodies of the goons. At the panda now beginning to rise she thrust them at bullet speed. Narcotics packages bombarded the panda’s face and body, bursting in brilliant white fireworks. Left jab, right jab, left again — and then the panda, wearing a new pair of black splotches below the original pair around her eyes, slumped back to the earth, BOOM!

KERTHOOSH!

There was no time to celebrate. Wiping a smudge of dirt off of her face, Code Blue ran to Blockbuster. Laying hands on him, she proceeded to heal him.

Tigress Titan and Wonder Wolf approached her. They weren’t badly bruised, but nor were they in peak physique. “Will he be alright?” Tigress inquired.

Code Blue sighed. “Just fine. He’s lucky he rarely uses his legs to kick.” Tigress and Wonder Wolf raised an eyebrow at that. The tabby cat medic went on: “You two go ahead and board the ship. I’ll help you clean up when I’m done tending to Blockbuster.”

Wonder Wolf laid a paw on Tigress’ Shoulder and nodded. Confident of Code Blue’s healing powers, they kicked off and flew towards the ship, landing on the deck. Who knows how many grams of hard white there was, there in the interior of the ship. Hundreds and hundreds of packages thicker than Random House dictionaries.

Before danger struck, Tigress Titan sensed it. Not by any superhero power, but by the strange quietus of the ship, despite a treasure hoard of narcotics lying before her very eyes. Fearful words were on her tongue, and then a curtain of dark magic swathed over the ship in a dome, a dome of evil fabric. And then the words left her lips:

“A set up . . .”

A witch’s laugh, foul as a fruit fallen into a swamp, rang through the dark domain. Tigress Titan and Wonder Wolf circled with unease. The tiger drew her sword, while the wolf readied her lasso. Yet, wherever they turned, the laughter seemed to come from that direction: a show of the skilled sorceress’ trickery. Wartblink Fu.

“A pleasure for the two of you to appear. I take it you received the invitation from our friend.” Wartblink’s words confused Tigress Titan, until she realized who the frog was speaking of. The Hound. The one who tipped us off about the ship. But . . . he was trustable . . .

“Aww. Why, you’re so cute when you’re discomforted, Tigress, darling! And you’d be even cuter as a mindless worshiper of mine. As for your friends, I suppose I could find some . . . use of them.”

“You’ll find use of my lasso to tie you up,” said Wonder Wolf.

“Ahaha! Oh! You think I am afraid of your enchanted rope . . .”

“Funny,” Tigress said, “because I know you’re very afraid. So afraid, you wouldn’t dare to fight us four on one.” She paused, and the sorceress was silent . . . an angry sort of silent. “After all, you’re just another shoddy drug dealer.”

“Keep your mouth shut, Chinese pest!”

Out of the shadows, Wartblink Fu blinked. She spread her arms like wings, exposing an Asian fan in one hand. With a frog-like jump she bounded at Tigress and Wonder Wolf, whirling at them, smacking the superheroes across their faces. The attack took the wolf and tiger off guard, and so Wartblink Fu got a rhythm going, slapping them about in a furious combo chain, laughing like a maniac court official.

Giving Wonder Wolf and Tiger Tigress no chance to switch from defense to offense, the frog launched a backhand followed by a palm thrust, the consecutive swats sending both superheroes over the edge of the deck into the ship’s interior. Metallic clangs rang out. Pressing her palms to the deck while perching her elbows on her knees, Wartblink Fu then hopped two stories into the air, rising like a cannonball before pummeling the ship’s interior, crouched in a sinister pose before each of the fallen heroes.

“You can’t win,” came a thorny echo. Wartblink Fu’s eyes flashed a blazing orange. “Your only choice, dears, is to submit to me . . . Admit defeat. Accept your fate. Abandon your wit, and serve me.”

Had Blockbuster and Code Blue been battling her alongside Tigress and Wonder Wolf, Wartblink Fu would’ve lacked the time to so much as subdue them.

But both heroes were down. The perfect time for Wartblink to hypnotize them.

The frog stepped closer, and the power of her hypnotic gaze escalated off the charts. Writhing, like dreamers aware of and trapped within their resting states, the superheroes struggled to break free of her spell. However, Wartblink Fu required steady eye contact in order to maintain the spell and break the wills of her enemies, and swapping her gaze between the two didn’t supply enough focus to keep them each restrained.

A blur of crimson and orange leapt forward. Dodging a severe slash of Tigress’ blade, Wartblink hopped and stuck to a wall, grunting. A diagonal line of sundered robe breezed at her middle.

Wonder Wolf awoke.

“My wonderful robe.” Rage blazed in Wartblink’s eyes, reflecting Tigress. “You insolent fly.”

She didn’t finish speaking, before leaping at Tigress Titan. Too quick for the tiger, she pinned the feline prey to the bottom of the ship, stretching open her mouth to reveal toothless jaws, and a long, sticky tongue; annoyance flashed over the frog’s face, though, to the quick-footed sound of Wonder Wolf nearing her right, and quick to react, Wartblink bounded off of Tigress onto the canine. Frog arms wrapped around the wolf, and the frog began to smother her. The wolf tried to struggle; however, Wartblink Fu’s slimy body odor left the wolf gagging and unable to move. Wonder Wolf felt the breath leaving her throat. But then Tigress recovered, appearing behind the frog, and landed a crude blow across the frog’s back, knocking the slimy villain aside with a THWACK!

“You alright?” Wonder Wolf asked, helping up Tigress Titan.

“I’ll be fine —” Tigress meant to say more, but a yellow binding ring of energy squeezed around her waist, causing her to gasp. A similar one materialized her partner Wonder Wolf’s waist, tightening.

Wartblink Fu got up, her eyes blinking a harsh orange. She hopped forward, and her eyes flashed into fiery glows, and she said to the two superheroes: “Neither of you are powerful enough to defeat me. Behold — a taste of your futures —” And into their minds she sent these images: to Wonderwolf, an image of her losing her belt, of being thrown in the ocean coiled in ropes, sinking to the bottom of its depths as she suffocated; to Tigress Titan, an image of the Chinese government revoking her title of Bureau Director, of failing in her mission to defeat Wartblink Fu and returning to China as just that: a failure. Doubt and worry and weakness seeded in the minds of the two, and they gave out cries of horror and of terror. They writhed viciously in the grasps of their yellow rings. Then, the rings dissipated — having run out of time — and the two superheroes hit their heads on the ground.

This woke them from their nightmares.

Cursing, Wartblink Fu quickly jumped at the one of the two that she hated most: Tigress. They sparred, exchanging blows. They wrestled. Wartblink Fu slammed the tiger against the skeleton of the ship. Metal rang about. The tiger tried to move free, but the swampy odors of the frog distracted her. It was a foot to the frog’s jaw from Wonder Wolf that freed her.

Together, Wonder Wolf and Tigress advanced on Wartblink Fu, the frog shivering and rising to her feet. Wonder Wolf looped her lasso around the enemy, whilst Tigress Titan recovered her nunchucks and then twirled them, attacking the immobile frog point blank in the face. Sounds like “Guhk!” “Grr-oh!” and “Oof! Pesky bugs!” the frog spat out of her mouth with every attack, until she was again brought down to her knees: a gesture which fooled Tigress. She slackened the strength of her blows. That gave Wartblink the opportunity to jolt out of her feint and wrench Tigress’ feet out from under her with a grab of her ankles. With a gasp Tigress fell, with Wartblink Fu avalanching on top of her. The two grappled and gripped on the ground, and Wonder Wolf, trying to remove Wartblink Fu from Tigress Titan, reeled in her lasso; however, that only brought the two of them towards her. So she abandoned her weapon, running forward to help Tigress Titan.

It was then that Wartblink Fu widened her mouth: her tongue darted out of the slimy maw at Wonder Wolf, wrapping around the superhero’s body. The superhero, constricted, was lifted off of the air, shouting and squirming within her restraints; ironically, she had abandoned her own coiling weapon to find herself in the slick, wet loops of the frog’s thick tongue, her eyes open wide, as suddenly the tongue vibrated, before ziplining back toward the frog’s toothless maw. Briefly Wonder Wolf saw Tigress’ horrified mask, heard Tigress’ cry of anguish, before a humid black swallowed her vision, and her every word became muffled and screamed. Wet flesh closed upon her, clenching over her, defining her form in the villainous frog’s neck, pushing the collar of the frog’s robe down to shoulder level, before the bulge with all its volume, and the heavy, desireful gulps of the frog, could no longer be kept held back. A swipe of the tongue across her face, and GULP, Wartblink devoured the canine. Tigress Titan let out a sickened groan as an engorged lump traveled overhead, crossing underneath the frog’s chest to her stomach. Screams and cries from Wonder Wolf kept Tigress Titan company down there, down within Wartblink Fu’s expertised wrestling grip. Unable to loosen free her arms, Tigress could neither attack Wartblink with her nunchucks nor her sword: she could only so much as land weak blows to the sides of the frog’s gut, which only had force enough to massage and to knead the insides, and heighten the experience of the frog siphoning energy from her pitiful meal.

“Ooh! My, oh my. Your wolf friend feels eager to be inside of me, Tigress, and you seem quite enthusiastic yourself about massaging me. Please, continue on; I insist.”

As the grip on Tigress Titan grew stronger, Tigress herself and her partner within Wartblink Fu grew exhausted. The supervillain glowed as energy pooled into her body and as she threw taunts at the two of the superheroes with building vigor.

Tigress was checkmated. She could not roll out from under her opponent, nor could she free her limbs to harm Wartblink Fu. It was Wartblink’s own playfulness that saved the tiger. Having had a refreshing taste of Wonder Wolf, Wartblink Fu spat up the wolf. Wonder Wolf went ricocheting into a pile of narcotics packages. Sparks of crystal white flashed, and crystal hail rained about about Wonder Wolf’s limp body. When she stirred she appeared paler in hue, while the skin of Wartblink Fu herself glowed faintly with newfound health.

When Wartblink Fu spat up Wonder Wolf, her defense went down. Tigress Titan capitalized on this moment, kneeing the villain in the gut. A groan rose up above the tiger, and she rolled to her side and retrieved her nunchucks, spinning into a standing position. She then cut left and right with them, hammering Wartblink across the cheeks, the frog’s blubbery mouth spitting up drool, as the frog staggered toward the pile of narcotics packages. Wonder Wolf, seeing the frog about to fall into the pile, reached out and grabbed the villain between the ribs. Their bodies tussling deep down into the pile of packages, they grappled with one another in a fight to come out as ‘top dog.’ Wonder Wolf kept clobbering the frog point-blank in the face till the frog caught her by the wrist, suddenly leaning forward. Her eyes and lips glowed orange, and she kissed the wolf with such an ardent passion.

Draining Wonder Wolf yet again, Wartblink Fu felt a surplus of energy ebb into her body. Vigor glowed in the sheen of her skin, and her hair grew ever more luscious. Meanwhile, the superhero struggling and squirming felt pulses of energy leave her furry body, her complexion becoming more pallid, such as an insomniac’s after a poor sleep.

Tigress Titan was rushing towards the spot in the pile of packages where the orange was glowing the brightest. She jumped for the pile, nunchucks in paw — when suddenly, out of the pile exploded Wartblink Fu, knocking back Tigress and Wonder Wolf in a flurry of packages — in a cyclone of newly-inherited energy.

“What? Are you bugs growing tired already?” Wartblink Fu let out a terrible laugh. She then fell onto her hands, missiling into the air in a single hop before landing squarely between the two downed heroes. “I simply cannot get enough of your taste, sweetling — I think I’ll have another!”

Wartblink Fu picked up Wonder Wolf. Devoid of her fighting spirit thanks to Wartblink draining her twice, Wonder Wolf did not counter Wartblink well: she could only throw her weight to the right in a failed attempt to bring Wartblink off balance, and attempt this a second time to reach for her abandoned lasso. Barely missing the length of rope by inches, her paws scraped across the ground, as her boots fell into the frog’s maw. Inch by inch she was devoured up to the waist. Tigress recovered swiftly, and leaped toward Wartblink Fu, but with enhanced speed, a fan blinked out at the tiger and smacked her to the ground, as if she weren’t a superhero but an irritating insect.

As such, Wartblink Fu continued to consume more of Wonder Wolf, reaching the flailing meal’s waist, toying with the wolf in her maw with multiple coils of her tongue, a humiliating display. A couple of times, Wonder Wolf was allowed to squirm free and the hold on her to slacken, only for her to be suckled farther back into the frog’s mouth than she was before — cheeks bulging — neck bulging — the frog’s gullet tossing and turning like the sleeping-bag of an insomniac. A gloved hand reached out for help — and a canine muzzle let out a cry — before slurp, she again fell back into the throaty abyss. Neck bulges writhed and rippled their way down through the frog’s esophagus, clambering underneath her chest and into her stomach, which stretched the front of her robe taut.

Wonder Wolf was struggling and squirming, the pillowy flesh of the stomach kneading and squeezing over her, sapping her of her energies again. “Ohh . . . you feel wonderful,” the frog moaned. “Now I know where you got your name from.” Her hands fell to her stomach, dragging the bulge of her gut upwards and letting it flop heavily down again and again, jostling her prey about in the wet, gurgling imprisonment inside. However, Wonder Wolf didn’t give up quite so easily: despite having little energy to spare, she propelled herself with the current of the draining juices inside, thrusting herself into the stomach walls to upset the frog. The frog, as full of vigor as she was, couldn’t take it: absorbing one’s energy, after all, does not make you exempt from a stomach ache. The frog began to lurch and heave, gasping dryly while pulling up on her stomach, as if attempting to perform the heimlich maneuver. Tigress Titan did not even recover quickly enough to witness the turn of the tides: Wartblink Fu, acquiring a sickly expression despite her new healthy hue, suddenly bent forward and created a lewd, gurgling sound inside of her throat. Almost the superhero wolf geysered up, her bulge bubbling up to the midpoint of Wartblink Fu’s gullet. Determined, Wartblink however did not vomit her up; she inhaled the wolf back into her gut, and cackled and chuckled as though she had been teasing Wonder Wolf all along. More energy ebbed out of the wheezing wolf inside. She gasped on the swampy air of the humid atmosphere. It smelled of stagnant waters and rotten flies.

As Tigress Titan got up, Wartblink Fu’s left eye winked with light: she anticipated that the the tiger would attempt to thwart her yet again — interfering little twerp! Both of her eyes glared a harsh orange at Tigress, and she said: “You’d love to offer yourself to me the way your obedient friend has, wouldn’t you?” Wartblink Fu spread her arms, causing her middle to bounce. The prey inside struggled more violently. “You could live a pathetic mortal’s life, or you could live the rest of your days as part of something greater. Someone who will live for generations and generations to come. Me.”

A finger, she waggled at Tigress Titan, gesturing for her to approach her stomach. The tiger had shielded her eyes, but she had already seen a glimpse of the frog’s eyes, slowing her down. Thus the frog was able to come forward with a slow, refined walk, gently tap down Tigress’ elbow, and say, “Look at me.” And then Tigress looked into her eyes. And then Tigress caught the full force of Wartblink’s gaze, and she imagined herself being swallowed up by a tide, an ocean tide, and being twisted into a whirlpool down into a giant abyss, a stomach . . . Wartblink Fu’s. “You will join her . . .” The image warping into Tigress pleading, beating against the walls of the great pink expanse, only to find herself drowning, being drained mentally. “. . . Or, you can pledge your fealty to me . . . give me your hand . . . let go of your mind and obey me . . . let go of all of your worries and obey me.”

Tigress croaked, “It’s . . . just a dream.”

But Wartblink laid a finger on her lips, silencing her. “Shh, shh shh.” She kicked the dazed tiger onto her flank, and the tiger lay with void eyes, curling up, contorting and writhing, as if fighting off the demons of some horrid nightmare. “It is the truth. And you know it. And your friend knows it too. Isn’t that right, Wonderful?”

What she received in response was Wonder Wolf’s thrashing. The frog laughed, and released a loud belch. The sound of it disgusted Tigress Titan, and actually caused her to flinch, breaking her eye contact with the hypnotising frog. Gritting her teeth, Tigress Titan shook her head and she was able to slightly wake her from the hypnosis of Wartblink Fu, but not quite. Wartblink Fu saw the change of the light in her eyes, and gazed deeply into her eyes, and sent her deeper into nightmare.

While Tigress’ mind was wracked by horrifying, discomforting visages, Wartblink Fu did what she did best: she leeched off of the positive energy of her opponent, Wonder Wolf, and continued to grow in strength while Wonder Wolf herself tired, and grew feeble and weak with her attacks within the tightening stomach. The gut walls constricting her locked her muscles into awkward, stiffening angles, leaving the wolf unable to attack. Another smelly “GRrruuuuUOOOOoop” left her predator’s maw, and Wonder Wolf found the foul stench both dazing and demoralizing. But she knew she needed to hit Wartblink now with all of her remaining strength, for she would only grow weaker, and with Tigress disabled (Wonder Wolf reckoned she was, for the assistance from the outside had seemed to disappear), she knew that the only person she could rely on now was herself.

So Wonder Wolf launched a powerful jab into the entrance of Wartblink’s stomach, causing the sphincter to ripple all along the sides and cough itself open. Outside, the frog made a pained, annoyed gurgling noise. That gave Wonder Wolf a smirk. Though Wartblink may have been well-defended on the outside, what with Tigress disabled and the shield surrounding the bridge, her stomach was no less vulnerable from attack than a mere mortal’s.

Wonder Wolf kept buffeting the roof of the gut with quick, professional jabs. Finally, the sphincter gagged wide enough for the wolf to thrust both of her arms inside of the throat then spread them, like a crook trying to break his or her hands free from a pair of paw cuffs — except, she was actually succeeding. As she spread her arms the gullet yawned wider and wider. And Wartblink on the outside was silently yodeling, appearing either distressed, drunk, or both, dancing in an odd wheezing way. Then, lo, Wartblink’s tongue shot out with a loud “HACK” and the length of her throat began to buckle, shiver, and coagulate with humanoid shapes, slowly burbling to the top. And then that first throaty sound was followed by a second similar “HACK” that sent the wolf rolling to the metallic floor of the ship, covered in disgusting wet juices of the G.I. tract.

Wartblink cursed as she staggered about, still coughing up phlegm and now holding her gut sickly. Wonder Wolf gave her no time to recover. Moreover, she had the perfect opening on the frog. Diving for her lasso, she bounded up and slung it around not the frog, but the frog’s tongue. When this was done, she tightened the loop of the lasso, knotting the end of the tongue in the loop, and Wartblink Fu’s eyes went as large as plates. The supervillain flung herself at the loop of the lasso, not thinking of simply retracting her tongue. When this was done, Wonder Wolf jerked her right elbow sharply backward, and the frog bulleted past the wolf’s shoulder, penetrating a wall of the ship’s interior. Steam hissed out of the vessel’s skeleton of broken pipes. Wartblink Fu wailed to the heat of the steam, before Wonder Wolf spun her lasso, dragging and wheeling the villain across the floor, until she generated friction. Sparks of bright white leaped and skipped about the tongue of Wartblink, who shrieked to the friction’s heat, as though she had swallowed not a wolf, but a very spicy chili pepper.

Around and around Wonder Wolf spun the villain, till birds were dancing dizzily above the villain’s head and she flopped manically about the floor; without warning, Wonder Wolf loosened the loop of the lasso, and up up and away went Wartblink Fu, rocketing out of the ship’s interior — and a cacophony of shattering was heard, as she went through a window at the bridge of the ship. Glass glittered over fancy chairs and touch screens and cherrywood floor. In the center of it all, Wartblink lay with a disfigured robe and mangled black hair. As she budged her face away from the floor, such incredulousness was in her eyes!

Wonder Wolf had taken this time away from Wartblink Fu to shake Tigress Titan back into her wits. When the two were ready, they jetted up and out of the vessel’s interior, Wonder Wolf zooming through the shattered window whilst Tigress crashed through another one. They lost no momentum by entering. Wartblink Fu, wheeling around, saw both of them home toward her at great speed, before Tigress smashed into her torso, and the two of them went rolling along the deck. Midroll, Tigress brandished her sword and stared straight into her target’s eyes for the finishing blow, but with the time it took her to lean away, Wartblink Fu plotted a counterattack. Her eyes and lips blazed brightly. She leaned forward, and planted a deep kiss on Tigress Titan’s lips. Tigress gasped, slackened. Out of the wheel of bodies her sword flew, whizzing past Wonder Wolf, who ducked out of the way.

There Tigress Titan lay on the floor, wrapped in the evil frog’s grasp, having her life force smooched from her body. The amount of fight she responded with was naught. Wonder Wolf leapt forward to save her, but unbeknownst to her, Wartblink had had her eye on Wonder Wolf, concocting for her a spell: a yellow ring of energy appeared out of thin air, wrapping around the wolf’s waist and trapping her in the middle of the bridge. Her muscles seized up, and she dangled and groaned, like a stationary marionette.

The frog grew quite passionate with her kiss, her facial expressions morphing from eagerness to greediness to obsession. Soon, she loved the taste of her Chinese snack too much and couldn’t help herself. Rather than slowly draining her in this romantic way, Wartblink Fu desired to taste the kitten for herself. Her maw slowly widened, lips parting. And then out flew her tongue, wrapping around the tiger’s middle. Tigress Titan had been deprived of too much strength to react quickly: she dove down Wartblink’s mouth, the frog’s slimy lips carving into a sinister smile, as they suckled and gulped down their big feline meal. The hips of Tigress descended into the gullet, wrapped in thick loop after loop of the villain’s pink appendage, followed by her legs and her feet: the slip-on shoes slipped off of them with a nasty SQUELCH, a splash of saliva leaving the frog’s closing lips.

The bulge of the cat fell swiftly down the frog’s eagerly working esophagus, and she splattered into the roomy stomach. Walls of flesh closed in on her and grappled her, getting sopping wet and sticky her fur frisking about her face. Gasping wherever she could get a couple of inches to breathe, Tigress Titan reached for her waist, but found the sheath for her sword empty, and cursed. She tossed her weight around the fleshy belly, but she may as well have been trying to belly flop out of a ball pit in a fun park.

A stinky, slimy pit.

“Hooh! I take it you like it in there, Tigress? Right where you and the rest of your friends belong . . .”

Wartblink Fu rubbed all over her gut and moaned, beginning to feel new energy be transferred from Tigress into herself. With the medley of both Tigress’ and Wonder Wolf’s energies coursing through her body, she brimmed with power, and despite the weight at her middle she easily rose to her feet, stroking her gut, and striding towards Wonder Wolf. Smiling up at the helpless wolf caught by the ring of energy, she tossed her stomach about like a chef would a slab of pizza dough, eliciting loud gurgles and glorps to fill the bridge of the ship. Wonder Wolf cringed. It appeared to please Wartblink Fu, and the frog made soft little exclamations of bliss, drowning them out with the sounds of her own gut, as if to draw attention to them.

“Oh. You and Tigress are so . . . yummy. I must say, you’re both so much more exciting when you’re inside of me than . . . outside of me.” And the shape of Tigress Titan emerged from her robe-covered gut; the bulge of a paw reached out to Wonder Wolf, as if for help, and Wonder Wolf saw the shape of a muzzle opening to make a muffled cry. “D’aw, how cute is that? She’s asking you to join her, Wonderful.”

“Let her go,” the wolf ordered.

“Let her go, you say? Hmmmm . . .”

Wartblink Fu placed a finger under her chin, feigning thoughtfulness. Then, stroking all over the sphere of her gut, she asked, “Like this?” She arched over at the stomach and produced a warbling, grunting sound in her gullet, before spitting Tigress Titan up directly in Wonder Wolf’s face. The ring of energy around the wolf snapped away and disintegrated, while the two superheroes piled on top of each other on the floor.

“Bwahahahaha!”

Wartblink Fu spread her arms, bestowing the sight of her sparkling, healthy body teeming with energy. In this state she appeared with perfect glamour, yet there was something distressing and unnatural about her appearance — the way her hair was messed up and her robe was torn in unflowing directions. She had the look of a celebrity who had once feigned beauty in front of a camera, but could no longer hide her crazed mentality.

Both Tigress and Wonder Wolf sent each other glances of knowing: Wartblink Fu could not be defeated with mere strength alone. Their only advantage now was number. Two trumped one. Besides, a power-hungry villain completely out of her mind with triumph beat a power-hungry villain primed with wit and deceit any day.

How could they outsmart her?

An idea blinked into Wonder Wolf’s head. Somehow, she had to get Tigress Titan away from Wartblink Fu to tell her. She tapped the tiger’s shoulder, and whispered, “With me.”

And then she was up and running. Tigress, though confused, pursued her. They raced along the deck, as far from Wartblink Fu as they could get, and Wartblink chased them with arrows summoned from portals wrought of dark magic. The arrows would bolt into computers and destroy them with flashes of electricity. Wartblink Fu also launched fireballs, some of which had straight projections — others of which chased the heroes like heat-seeking missiles, before they leapt out of the way and fed the heat to additional exploding screens.

Sprinting, Tigress snapped at Wonder Wolf: “Be quick.”

Wonder Wolf told her her plan punctually.

“What?”

“Just give me an opening. We can exhaust her quicker than she can us.”

With no time to negotiate other options, Tigress said, “Please tell me you know what you’re doing” — then hopped toward Wartblink Fu.

Bringing out her nunchucks, Tigress jumped up into the air, releasing a cry of battle. She was headed straight toward Wartblink Fu’s maw. This caused the frog to open her maw instinctively, and her tongue to lash out and catch Tigress. The moment she did, Wonder Wolf raced across the bridge and fetched up from the rubble a piece of Wartblink’s shredded robe.

The frog moaned with great vigor, swallowing down a flailing tiger for the second time. The bulge in her gullet swelled, like that of a frog about to ribbit. It shined with a great, sparkling sheen, and undulated and squelched as the meal went down. As she ferried Tigress Titan back into her stomach, Wonder Wolf took the opportunity to leap behind Wartblink and tie the shredded cloth around the frog’s eyes as a blindfold. The frog yelped: “Hey!”

Now, as someone with a blindfold wrapped around their eyes is obliged to do, the frog began to reach behind her head to undo the knot — but Wonder Wolf moved too fast for the prey-encumbered predator. She fetched her lasso and slung it around the frog’s biceps, pinning her arms to her sides. The lasso tightened around her chest. And the frog struggled to free herself of it. Devoid of sight, she could no longer hypnotize or target Wonder Wolf for an attack, and Wartblink Fu scorned using her magic to empower her physical strength, so the thought of using it to free herself of the lasso did not occur to her. She had begun to cast a spell when she felt a terrible blow land in her gut.

Tigress Titan’s nunchucks.

Tigress flogged the inside of Wartblink Fu with the nunchucks with what power she could muster, attacking the sphincter, attacking the stomach walls before they could clench over her and immobilize her. With all of her energy, she bounced to and fro in the gut, leaving the stomach walls spread and plenty of room for her to launch her nunchucks. Heavy blows assailed the frog’s gut, and she arched forward, clutching her gut in pain. The next thing we can assume is that she would try to upchuck Tigress.

Having had enough of the terrible internal beating, she made a rough hissing sound in her throat. She tried to gag up Tigress. But the lasso looped around her chest was tight — so tight, the passage from her belly to her throat was sealed, and she couldn’t spit up Tigress. The blind, bound frog twirled in her agony, writhing helplessly before losing her balance, and falling onto her side on the ground, flopping from Wonder Wolf’s leash like some sort of pet having a seizure. Bulges of Tigress’ nunchucks striking the frog’s insides continued to appear, and would not let up.

At last, Wartblink Fu was gagging and hacking up a great deal, as if about to croak. Nobody in the room wanted that — smuggling narcotics into the country, after all, called for imprisonment and not a death sentence. So Wonder Wolf loosened her lasso just enough for Wartblink to spit up Tigress Titan, and the frog spewed the tiger onto the floor in a puddle of gastric goop.

“And take . . . this!” Tigress landed blow after blow across Wartblink Fu’s face while Wonder Wolf held the frog taut.

Presently the frog passed out. And then lo, the light of the deck brightened: for the shadowy murk that had surrounded the ship evaporated.

“Tigress!”

“Wonder Wolf!”

Cries of relief and of worry rang out from beyond the ship. Code Blue and Blockbuster.

Tigress and Wonder Wolf’s eyes bent into the shape of half moons. They grinned at each other, relieved. Tigress said, “Another mission well done.”

“The law has been served,” agreed Wonder Wolf.

Soaring out of the ship with Wartblink Fu flopping from a rope, Tigress Titan and Wonder Wolf appeared, touching down on the docks next to the tabby cat and British bulldog.

“We’ve called the authorities — they’re on their way to handle these blokes,” said Blockbuster, aiming a finger at the bodies of Rolling Mountain and Bamboo Split. They had been tied up with thick ropes from a nearby warehouse, and a collaborative stench of body odor and armpit musk wafted up from their figures.

Tigress smiled. “Best sight I’ve seen all day.”

Code Blue pinched her own nose. “Pee-yew. No offense, guys, but you smell like you splashed into something worse than the L.A. harbor.”

“Even so, it was worth us catching these guys,” said Wonder Wolf.

“Agreed,” Tigress said. “Everyone deserves a long shower when we get home. A much needed reprieve . . .”

The police were on their way to the ship. The Witches Triad were on their way to the L.A. police station. The heroes were on their way to a lot of hot water, body wash, and shampoo.