Dress Off 07: Pillar of Purgatory

[note from the author: This is the latest chapter in a story that I've been writing over the past six years, with far too many breaks and delays in writing for my own liking. My apologies to anyone who has been reading and waiting!

Chapter 5 saw two of our heroes, Tess Trueheart and Bree Carson - special agents in an elite spy agency called "Decider Enterprises" - enter a devilish game arena called "Lesbian Strip Humiliation" in pursuit of a mysterious yet possibly priceless prize, competing with six other women including their arch-enemy Elizabeth Harrington. Tess and Bree were defeated by Harrington, but were able to convince the organisers and an unseen audience to let them back into the contest.

Chapter 6 told the concurrent story of two of their friends and fellow agents - Stacey Shackleton and Tom Mitchelson - who were investigating the organisers of the game whose headquarters are situated in Brisbane, Australia. Tom was captured though while they tried to extract themselves from the organisation's headquarters, having discovered a conspiracy to use hypnosis to control agents from all across the world. A naked Stacey Shackleton was only rescued at the last moment by fellow local agents Jessica Beacham and Penelope Proudchest.

Now, we finally re-join our heroes as we see how Stacey, Tess, Bree and all the heroines of Decider Enterprises will cope as their freedom and that of the entire world is threatened by a nefarious organisation with some rather impressive technology...

As always, I love to receive messages - both constructively critical and complimentary - so feel free to get in touch.]

****

The long stretch of corridor was eerily silent as a head peeked around the far corner and cast a suspicious glance at the single opaque door that waited in the distance, plain sterile white walls on either side offering no hope of cover, and a smooth floor that might well betray any footsteps. The head pulled back around the corner for a few seconds, and then reappeared, wearing an expression of uncertainty. The raven-haired head belonged to an ebony skinned woman, whose calculating face clearly wasn't liking the odds that were being presented to her. After a few more seconds of thoughtful reflection, she once again withdrew around the corner.

Thula looked back at her companion, a fair skinned blonde woman who had long since given up anything that might possibly have caused any doubt in anyone's mind that she was both fair skinned and a natural blonde. Thula's companion was completely naked except for a yellow bra that mercifully covered the nipple sensors that would otherwise trigger the moment they detected a flicker of light, and her blonde bush was prominently on display for anyone to see. The woman carried a small box in one hand, and her free hand made a couple of small hand gestures to Thula.

"Is it clear? Do we risk it?" The gestures asked.

Thula nodded, and then shrugged. Pressed up against a side wall, Thula knew that Yellow Team would have to take some risks if they were to seriously get back into this game. Thula looked back at her companion and tried to give an encouraging smile. Charlize had lost nearly her entire outfit at the hands of that sneering bitch Elizabeth Harrington from Green Team, and Thula was looking forward to repaying that indignity the next time they met. However, right now, Charlize was one ripped bra away from being completely naked, and then the only thing from keeping her team from the Palace of Penance was Thula's own outfit - a yellow top and leggings with matching bra and panties.

And Thula had seen first hand, both from the ambush they'd run into themselves and from the two naked women of Red Team currently secured firmly to the Pillar of Purgatory at the arena's centre, just how easily an entire outfit could be lost around here.

Not three minutes ago they'd stumbled across a clue that there would be a couple of gadgets in the room down the corridor that would help even the odds. However, there was absolutely no guarantee that somebody else hadn't already stumbled across that clue already, and weren't already in the room armed with the promised gadgets, just ready to turn them on any unsuspecting players that blundered in. All they had in their own toolkit was the small box that Charlize held, a box with a motion sensor that would produce a large net to ensnare a victim if the trigger was activated.

Thula grunted and made a move to head out into the corridor, before she felt Charlize's hand grasp her arm. Turning around, she looked at her blonde companion, who was shaking her head, and then used an arm to sweep over her body. Then, she pointed at herself and the corridor. The sentiment was obvious: "There's no point in you walking into a trap Thula, I'm almost practically naked already - if it's a trap, better than I'm the one to trigger it. I've not exactly got much left to lose."

Thula was going to argue, but then begrudgingly saw the sense in what her companion was suggesting. She nodded and let Charlize edge past, relieving her of the box as she disappeared around the corner. Charlize sighed as she moved stealthily around the corridor, nerves jangled after her defeat at the hands of Harrington, and not wishing for a repeat performance. A hand occasionally wandered down to her crotch and briefly covered her bush, but then she mentally focussed and moved her hands back into a stance that would be ready to fight should a second ambush occur. With the video cameras plastered around the arena, any battle to protect her modesty had long since been lost. A small sensor on her crotch flashed occasionally, and the only thing that was important right now was ensuring the two sensors stuck to her swaying C-cup breasts weren't similarly triggered. Halfway down, Charlize turned and looked back at Thula. The African beauty nodded encouragingly, and Charlize moved determinedly on. At the very least the floor had not betrayed her footsteps and Charlize was able to practically glide forward without disturbing the pristine silence.

Three metres from the door, the quiet in the corridor was finally interrupted by the slow hiss of the door beginning to open. Charlize froze in anticipation, but then cursed herself under the breath. If there was someone waiting, then standing stock-still in the exact middle of the corridor only achieved the goal of making herself the world's most inviting target. Instead, before the door had even fully opened, Charlize sprinted forward, her athletic bra-clad body blasting into the room beyond like a pale blonde tornado. She even let out a war cry, more to put anyone waiting for her off guard than in any hope that she'd instil fear in anyone, especially given her current attire.

The war cry died on her lips though as a wild-eyed Charlize surveyed the storage room she now found herself in, and mercifully found that she was it's only occupant. For the first time in a while, a triumphant smile appeared on Charlize's face, and she quickly turned to look back down the bright white corridor, to where her dark-skinned companion stood out in stark contrast. Charlize's gave the "all clear" sign, and then turned back to begin to see what she could find while the yellow-costumed Thula gracefully ran down to join her.

There was a small pedestal at the back of the storage room, and some shelving units on each side. Charlize quickly moved to the pedestal and briefly looked over what seemed to be a small handgun, checking it out from multiple angles before making the calculated decision to pick it up.

"Well?" Asked Thula in a thick South African accent and with an eager note of anticipation clear in her tone.

"Don't know yet." replied Charlize, who now only had eyes for the weapon in her hands. "I'm guessing we point it at someone and there day becomes immeasurably worse because of it."

Thula gave a smile of approval, and then paused. "I mean, you don't think..." Thula gave a gesture like a bullet flying into her body and then a small explosion of blood coming out.

Charlize shook her head. "Very much doubt it... some kind of clothing disintegrator I think. Remember that mission back in Pretoria? Something like that I reckon." Charlize smiled admiringly. "And if that's the case, then I've got the perfect bitch in mind to act as as target practice for a little weapons test."

Thula nodded again, and then quickly grabbed some items of the shelves as well. Small boxes, spheres and a couple of flat discs that she looked forward to finding out what they did. This was quite the cache.

"Come on," Thula said, "I placed the net trap at the end of the corridor so we wouldn't be interrupted here, but this is still a room with a single exit in a dead-end corridor, so let's not loiter."

Charlize dragged herself out of her reverie, and silently agreed. The two women took their new found bounty and made a quick exit down the room. When they were about 10 metres from the end of the corridor, Thula pressed an arm against Charlize and silently signalled a corner of the wall and floor. With a brief nod, Charlize signalled her understanding. Thula had planted the net trap and they need to trigger it from a distance otherwise they'd be ensnared in their own defence system.

Thula reached down and quickly undid a yellow shoe. Picking it up, she tossed the shoe towards the trap and was rewarded with the sight of a net suddenly springing forth and latching on to the footwear as it arced gracefully towards the ground.

Thula smiled at Charlize and then jogged over to the net, squatting down to retrieve her shoe. The net was strong and had wrapped around the shoe several times, so Thula cursed more than once as she tried to get her shoe out of the trap. As she leaned down and tried to figure out how to untangle the net, she suddenly heard a strangled cry from behind. Looking back sharply, she realised Charlize was staring at the junction of the corridor, gun pointed up but not taking a shot. Thula turned now to look up. She heard it before she saw it. A low hum came out of nowhere and then suddenly a quadcopter drone appeared around the corner. Thula stood up abruptly, forgetting all about her shoe. The drone danced in the air towards them, a small nozzle underneath immediately grabbing the two South Africans' attention.

"Shoot it!" Thula barked, and Charlize took aim and fired, only to see a capsule of blue goo splash into the wall of the corridor junction, as the erratically flying drone wove a complicated path towards them.

"Take cover..." Thula shouted, but even as the words came out of her mouth the drone was on top of them and the corridor offered no room for taking evasive action. The drone paused and hovered for a second, before a whirring noise signalled the start of the nozzle beginning to spin around. Then, a misty spray erupted all around the drone and coated the two women as they both turned to try and run back to the room they'd just emerged from.

"Come on, we've got to..." Charlize urged. However she never finished her sentence. Barely half way down the corridor, Charlize suddenly felt the tingle of an itch start to spread over her chest where her bra protected the last remnants of her modesty. With the agony of realisation, she looked to her left where Thula was running beside her, and saw that her team mate was similarly beginning to experience an itch sensation that, in her case, seemed to consume her entire body. Or at least those parts of it which were clothed.

The two women stumbled in unison, as the itching began to increase from distracting through to annoying before arriving at thoroughly overwhelming. Collapsing in front of the door to the supply room, the two women began to frantically pull at their clothing, trying to keep whatever misty irritant the drone had unleashed away from their sensitive skin. The cause was hopeless though, and Thula collapsed on the ground first, her own outfit - previously their greatest asset - giving her by far the worse of the experience as the irritant seemed to interact with clothing and Thula had far more of that interact with.

The women tugged and yelped, twisting and turning, trying to scratch an itch that wouldn't go away. Crawling on her knees, her bra-clad breasts swinging like pendulums beneath her, Charlize desperately tried to haul herself back to the room, but for every inch she got closer, she had to stop and tug at the one item of clothing she had left until with a cry of despair she finally succumbed, sat up, fingers clawing at the bra clasps behind her, and then finally ripped the bra off and flung it as far away as she could. Drawing in deep breathes, her now naked chest rising and falling, she collapsed backwards in relief as the itching suddenly disappeared. Her mind was still overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what her senses had just been subjected too, and she could only stare up blankly at the ceiling as beside her Thula went through her own defiant struggle. She barely noticed the beeping of the two sensors on her now fully exposed nipples, and didn't register that now the nipple sensors and the crotch sensor were now beeping in unison, signalling to whoever controlled this devilish game that Charlize was well and truely compromised.

Thula struggled on for a few moments longer, knowing that her team was now entirely dependent on her resisting, but the battle had already been lost and finally she realised that now she was just delaying the inevitable. With an anguish cry, Thula began to tear at her own clothing, practically shredding the top in her muscular hands and pulling both her leggings and her panties down in one violent movement that left her bent over and exposing her ebony backside to whoever might decide to look down the corridor. The fact that there was undoubtedly a video camera capturing her naked posterior for all of posterity no longer registered as a concern in Thula's mind, she simply needed to be rid of her clothing and the unbearable itching that had consumed her.

As her now exposed skin began to feel free of the itching, Thula gritted her teeth, and unclasped the one item of clothing left - her bra - which joined the rest of her outfit on the ground around her and left Thula standing, panting, naked, bereft of any dignity, in the middle of a corridor in an arena being monitored by strangers that she was now entirely at the mercy of.

Thula turned around to face whoever had controlled the drone, fury burning in her eyes. As the itching finally faded, she gathered her wits and covered her breasts with one arm draped across the her chest, and one hand strategically over the crotch. It was of course too late. The moment she'd stripped naked the sensors had been triggered, and with Charlize similarly naked, Yellow Team had been defeated. Beside her, Charlize returned to her senses as well and stood up, similarly draping an arm and a hand to block their assailants from the satisfaction of seeing her naked breasts and bush up close.

They stood there shivering for a moment, before they finally heard footsteps approaching. Defiant even in defeat, Charlize and Thula stood side-by-side. If looks could kill then their assailants were about to be struck down the split-second they rounded the corner. Finally, as Thula and Charlize stood panting and trying to catch their breath, nude and rooted to the spot, two blue-clad blonde babes rounded the corner and smiled.

Through her seething resentment, Thula could at least see one sliver of a silver lining in that at least it wasn't that evil green witch Harrington and her simpering lackey who had recorded victory over them.

As Bree Carson and Tess Trueheart surveyed the carnage of Thula and Charlize's brief fight against the itching powder, Bree waved the drone remote control that she was holding at Tess. "Nice to find this literally minutes after leaving the Palace of Penance." She said, with a broad smile.

"You... you made it out of the Palace of Penance?" Thula asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

"That's right ladies!" A voice interrupted, a male commentator cheerfully cutting in over hidden loudspeakers as if he was announcing a particularly sweet pass by a quarterback on the football field, "And soon you too will have the chance to prove yourselves in the Palace of Penance and avoid the perils of the Pillar of Purgatory!" There was an audible smirk in the man's voice that caused Thula and Charlize to grimmace.

"Yellow Team. We look forward to seeing you in the Palace of Penance in less than ten minutes. I'll be your guide as to how to get there from here. Rest assured though, we'll leave it up to your imaginations as to how you convince our audience to let you back into the game..."

As Thula and Charlize reluctantly marched away, Bree and Tess walked over the checked out the loot they'd just picked up. Yanking a yellow shoe from the netting on the floor, Bree called out after Thula, "Hey, you forgot your shoe!" With no response forthcoming, Bree shrugged and lightly tossed the shoe over her shoulder, and settled into looking at the more interesting gadgets strewn around.

"Nice!" Bree said, picking up the weapon that had so enthralled Charlize. "Did you see that goo that landed on the wall when she fired this thing?"

Tess nodded. "I'm guessing that we don't want to be hit by it."

"Well," Bree replied thoughtfully, "that's pretty standard for anything fired out of a gun, Tess. You generally try and dodge it..."

Tess raised an eyebrow at her senior partner's sass. "Come on Bree, we've still got Harrington to deal with."

Bree nodded, and then paused as she saw her partner staring down thoughtfully at where Thula and Charlize had just disappeared. Tess spoke without looking at Bree. "Do you think they'll make it out of the Palace of Penance."

Bree shrugged. "I guess we'll find out. If they don't, then at least those two Japanese chicks will have someone new to talk too, and it only leaves us with Harrington and Monica between us and final victory!"

Tess nodded, but she was thinking back to what she and Bree had been made to do to earn their second chance at the game. They'd been defeated by Harrington once before, made to submit themselves to an intense session of love making for the benefit of audiences unseen, and it had been made very clear to them that the next time there were defeated, they'd be heading straight to the Pillar of Purgatory to join their asian ex-competitors. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Thula and Charlize, but right now she had to put that to one side and focus on the job at hand. Too much depended on Tess and Bree winning this game. Too many friends and colleagues were counting on them to get their hands on the prize being offered.

She silently picked up the gadgets that Thula had been carrying while Bree took possession of the handgun.

"Come on, let's go give Harrington a taste of humble pie..."

****

Stacey Shackleton dropped the tablet on the table and collapsed into the couch next to Jessica. She ran a hand through her hair and then leaned forward, intense concentration on her face. Resting her head in her hands, she took a deep breath in and then started to speak.

"Okay, so in all likelihood Tom's still in that building, right?"

Jessica nodded, and indicated for her junior partner Penelope to bring over a batch of documents that were sitting on the breakfast bar across from the lounge where they were sitting. Penelope Proudchest jumped to her feet with the eagerness of a new recruit looking to impress her far more senior colleagues, and bounded over to fetch the folder.

"Yeah," Jessica said slowly, playing a few different scenarios through her mind, "as far as our recon could determine, that's their only site in the city."

Their new temporary Brisbane safehouse was a multi-room serviced apartment in the middle of the city. Thankfully, Jessica and Penelope had managed to get some of their notes and equipment from the original safehouse that had been abandoned after Penelope was arrested and both her and Jessica had been made by the very people they were surveilling. Equally importantly they'd managed to leave a specially coded message so if any allies made their way to the old safehouse, they'd have a chance of finding Stacey and the others. Right now, they could do with all the allies they could muster.