Video #?: Wielder of the animal kingdom's power and supermodel, Feral, is cajoled into a 'charity photo shoot'...

As the video begins it zooms in through the window of one of the upper story rooms of the League of Propriety HQ as if on a flying boom. The point of view enters a photo studio with a particularly noteworthy figure at the center: Maiden America, the immortal founder and leader of the League of Propriety, protector of the Free World, standing there in her usual outfit which consisted of red and white striped boots and cleavage-baring, low-necklined leotard with gold panties at the bottom. Although her sculpted, statuesque physique is looking as heavenly and awe-inspiring as ever, rather than her usual confident, eyes-forward gaze, she is looking mildly uneasy, constantly glancing down at her red and blue striped heel boots. Next to her is someone you recognize as one of the Big 7 in the leadership, a stunningly attractive 40something heroine by the name of Influence, wearing a typical one-piece leotard with a pink tye-dye pattern running all over it. Influence is not as tall or nearly as curvaceous as Maiden A, but she's an impressive sight all the same. She is leaning forward on her lime green go-go boots (...it was often a butt of jokes in tabloids that Influence's telepathic superpowers clearly did NOT include a superhumanly acute fashion sense... apparently that had looked good back in the 1960s when she first joined the League) and pointing her finger in Maiden America's face in a way that very few would dare to.

...come to think of it, you're pretty sure that you saw one of the videotapes labeled with Influence's name in here... at the very top of the stack, actually. But before you can look too closely at that your eyes are drawn back to Maiden America's radiant beauty.

"Listen, you know I love you and I'd do anything for you, but now isn't the time for cold feet here, America Independence Philadelphia." It would seem that one of the downsides of unaging immortality is that someone who is is technically younger than you by a factor of four still gets to talk down to you sometimes. Since Influence was one of the first heroines to be publicly spotted by paparazzi with a 'baby bump' while in costume back in the 1970s, it's quite possible she had a young kid at home at the time this video was made and all the skill at scolding others using their full name and middle name she is developing has carried over into her workplace. Whatever the case, by Maiden America's chastened look it is working.

"The time for regrets and second thoughts is past now. Yeah, in retrospect, Tim probably wasn't the best choice for a sidekick, and you shouldn't have let the president pressure you into making the position of Spangle based on an essay contest. But he's been in the league for a few years now and the feelings of inadequacy he's getting are tearing him up, not to mention impacting his performance in the field. Which, um, has never exactly been great to begin with. I mean, I know that the last Spangle that I knew seemed to be very happy 'under' you," she makes air quotes, "so far be it for me to pry into your personal life, but I just feel like maybe getting something here that is making Tim feel like he's a failure as Spangle for lacking, erm, 'it' within his own team dynamics..."

"It's... it's complicated!" Maiden America throws up her hands. "Everyone, young women across the country are experimenting right now for the first time and I'm going through a lesbian phase. I can't help it!"

Influence puts her palms up. "No blame, Amy! If you say it isn't happening then it isn't happening. Everyone knows you don't have a selfish bone in your body. Except for the good kind of selfishness that is like, captialism and stuff. Believe me, I like the 'questioning my sexuality and unwilling to objectify myself for the sake of some dude's ego' Maiden A much more than I like the 'going around accusing people of being commie traitors' Maiden A."

"We've defeated no less than 15 Soviet-backed or affiliated supervillains in the last three yea-" Maiden A starts to say but she's cut off. "Ah ah ah ah!" Influence waves a palm in her face. "No changing the subject. Unless you can give me a good reason I'm going through with this. Our beauty queen friend might be a little put out but you've seen all the times that she's gone out of her way to tease and string along Ti- uh, the current Spangle. Plus, Spangle has really put his foot in his mouth a few times on, y'know... racial issues. And no! PLEASE! I do NOT want to hear your take on the civil rights movement, Amy! You know I have too much respect for you to ever try and use my powers on your mind, not that it'd work, but you must know how sorely tempted I've been..."

Maiden America (is her name seriously 'America Independence Philadelphia'? No wonder she doesn't publicize it) folds her arms and sighs, coming in and giving Influence a warm hug. "You're right. I do owe it to Spangle to show him I'm rooting for the home team for him, even if I'm not ready to, uh, swing the bat myself just at the moment. You have my full support. Do your stuff... Influence." she nods sharply and turns back to the door.

Just then, the door slides open and another very tall and very *stacked* woman strides in gracefully. You recognize her as 'Feral', a brief member of the Big 7 who came to the League from Africa as part of their international recruitment program, who made up for the relatively underwhelming raw power of her abilities with flexibility, poise and style. She has since found no small measure of fame in the secret identity of a fashion model, and it's not too hard to see why.

She is very tall, at least 5'9" even without elevated heels. Her body is lithe, toned and muscular, and her dark chocolate skin makes her a striking contrast to the mostly-lily-white membership of the League in the 1980s. Her hair is cut extremely short, in a style that is a bit masculine but still undeniably stylish, and is certainly practical for a heroine who does as much fighting with her fists as she does. Her power is to take on the strengths and abilities of any living animal, which had let her come up with some very fancy tricks and strategies over the years, proving her worth alongside more obvious powerhouses like Maiden A and the psychic Influence.

The outfit 'Feral' wears would be almost modest on most superheroines; a sleeveless orange jumpsuit with a deep plunging neckline, complimented by a necklace of animal claws around her neck and matching orange elbow-length gloves. But considering that each step she took caused the whole front of her outfit to dip and bounce with the momentum of her pendulous breasts - making the slang term 'melons' a bit more literal than usual given that an actual honeydew melon sliced in half and shoved into the front of that outfit would be smaller, if anything - with firm nipples poking right through the orange fabric to demand, no, to extort the attention of anything with a pulse... well, suffice to say she'd gotten as many angry editorials about her choice of attire from religious groups as any heroine.

"Hi," she says casually. "Good to see you're recovering from that mess with the Goldbrick Gang last Friday, Influence. And you're looking as stunning as always, Maiden A. If the P.R. department wants me to star in this photo shoot more than you, I've got to think it's only because I haven't done one for the League before... Hmhm~ I admit, I was a little worried that my agent will say it'll be too easy to draw the line with my 'civilian' identity and that it'll be harder for me to get runway work. But how can I decline a request from Maiden America herself?"

Feral is clearly smiling and excited, and she inspects one of her clawed, gloved hands to try to appear calm even though she's excitably shifting her weight back and forth from one foot to the other. "And besides... I always did want a chance to get to know Dark Energy Man a little better. Us heroes of color have to stick together, you know? And it almost seems like there's a policy to have one but only one of us on a team, some of the time..."

Maiden America clears her throat and exchanges a look with Influence. "Uh, yes, thank you for finding the time in your schedule for this, Feral. There has been a small change of plans, though... Dark Energy Man won't be able to-"

The other door slides open. The figure who stumbles in through it excitably is a bit less impressive. He's, well, it would be charitable to say he's on the short side - and the pasty young brown-haired man's 5'3" stature isn't exactly cancelled out by a figure that could also charitably be called 'stocky'. The current iteration of the Spangle costume, with an overly garish blue star-patterned vest plus a pair of padded pants held up by red and white striped suspenders, isn't doing him any favors either.

This is Tim, or 'Spangle' as he's been known at the time of this video for the past 8 years. When he was first accepted as Maiden America's sidekick he was kind of endearing, in an awkward teenage homeliness kind of way. Everyone had tacitly assumed he'd grow out of it into a square-jawed, heroically built, barrel-chested paragon of justice. But even after being given superpowers, the expected growth spurt and shaping up never came, and he'd been getting invited onto super teams less and less, with even Maiden America mostly finding some unobtrusive, non-public-facing task to put him to when the day needed saving. Every time that Spangle ran into villains, well, bless his heart, he would try his best and fight the good fight, but he always ended up smacked around and tied up, often in the most humiliating of ways. Behind the scenes, his personality wasn't exactly a winner, either - he tended to have a high opinion of himself out of proportion with his actual contributions, which many took to be an inferiority complex, and aside from Maiden A herself, he was often insufferably condescending to heroines.

"My wonderous Lady of Liberty! I'm here for our private... our private..." he seems to have been halfway through starting to undo his belt before he does a double take and sees the other women. "Uh... oh, hi Influence. Hi Feral. Were you girls just finishing up something in here? Maiden America~" he says the name with a breathy awe and relish that no doubt gets a little embarrassing after you've heard it 1000 times, "and I, her humble sidekick Spangle, were just about to have a private... well, 'ceremony' might be too strong a word, but it's about how I stood up to Baron Zima during the pyramid incident last week. It's okay, we can wait, but, you know, Maiden America IS pretty busy, being the greatest superhero in the world and all..."

"Yes, Spangle, like I was just saying to Spangle... there's a slight scheduling issue. I have... something I have to do. A solo mission. In space. But! Please, don't despair, plucky Spangle. There's something very important you can do for me right here. Since the hero who Feral was going to be working with had to cancel..."

Feral is visibly annoyed and sniffs loudly, folding her arms and frowning, but says nothing so far. Spangle looks crushed. Maiden A continues: "...I thought that you could, uh, help her complete it. Please, if you can, try to enjoy yourself." America winks very conspicuously but Spangle just looks confused and distraught. "Anyway, destiny awaits I hafto go GOODBYE!" With a whoosh of air she takes flight, and down the hall, she can be heard smashing through a perfectly good window as she zips out into the stratosphere.

"Thank you both so much for being so understanding!" Influence says, the veteran heroine putting a hand on Feral and Spangle's shoulders and, no doubt, pumping her telepathic waves through them. "So, we're starting with some basic shots and some beach-themed suntan-lotion applying... you know, the typical stuff for calendars. The League has to pay for personal submarines and broken windows somehow you know! And then after that there's a NEW kind of public service, educational photo series that we're going to be doing... try to keep an open mind for it, okay? And go with your feelings..."

"I'm feeling," Feral says coldly, "like this is some bullshit. I had to give up actual, paying modeling work for this and now you tell me that Donny isn't- that I have to work with-" she bites her tongue. "What is this 'new' educational thing you're talkin' about anyway, Influence?"

"Uh, yeah... we'll get to that, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Keeping an open mind, right?" The pink tye-dyed telepath says, smiling as she rolls a tray of props and a couple racks of swimsuits forward. "So to save time let's skip the formality of a dressing room and go ahead and get the both of you changed..."