Fortuna lost the round!

{if@ Opponent's Pile = 4}The boss attempted to calm herself down in the face of defeat, but it wasn't working well-- she obviously wasn't used to losing. She continued to grind her teeth and wring her clenched fists around her whip like she was itching to use it. "Well then, I lost one round. So what? I've got plenty of money. Ten-thousand ought to be enough to start, right?" she questioned, while glaring a hole through Robin's professional dealer smile.

Robin looked at the gigantic karmic counter number above her opponent's head, then shook her own head back and forth. "No, I'm afraid not. If you're betting above what you own, I believe I'll take... half the operating funds of the Soldiers of Fortune as collateral. You being their boss, I'd say you're the only one qualified to surrender such a sum," Robin spoke evenly. Internally, however, she was shivering with excitement. She'd never asked for such an outrageous payment before.

"You-?! You must be joking! Do you know the sum of money you're asking me to surrender?!" Fortuna scoffed, uncharacteristically wide-eyed.

"We're both going 'all-in' for this game, Boss. If you defeat me, I'll be happy to return all of the money and belongings I would have otherwise won off of you. You've still got plenty left to bet, right?"

"The insolence on display here is baffling. A two-bit dealer like yourself, trying to wring me dry!"

"Well, you could refuse, I suppose... It doesn't exactly seem like the option a powerful woman like yourself would exercise in front of her entire camp, though," Robin sighed, still smiling her goading smile. "If you turn tail and run with all of the advantages I've already turned over to you in this game, I think that would be rather humiliating, don't you?"

That provocation hit home-- Fortuna stood still for a moment, no longer angry, but with some other emotion displaying on her face. It was a look of dread, forcing the corners of her mouth down even further as her eyes scanned this way and that over the other mercenaries in the ring around her. "No... No, you're talking tough, but I still have the overwhelming advantage here! You will be made to kneel as my subordinate and I'll have you on toilet duty for the rest of your life!" she snarled, curling her hands into fists on the table. "Deal, you swine! And I had better not see a single card out of place when you shuffle!"{elseif Opponent's Pile = 3}The corner of Fortuna's eye twitched as she tried to control her anger-- and her breathing, for that matter. "Then... o-one million dollars, or the currency of your choosing... that ought to cover the debt, correct?" she questioned, keeping her fists on her table and her eyes down upon the cards Robin was clearing.

"Ha ha, I'm afraid not. We aren't dealing in numbers right now, ma'am. The surrendered amount will be the remaining battle chest of the Soldiers of Fortune, which I have to imagine totals well over the stated one million you're offering to surrender," Robin answered, while Betty snickered upon her shoulder.

"That's asinine! Why should I have to turn over that much money-- for anything?! For this rigged card game, of all things?!" she snarled, scratching at her hair with both hands, both the shaved side and the side with volume.

"You agreed to the terms, I'm afraid. Of course, you could always retreat-"

"You know damn well I can't!" Fortuna hissed through her teeth, as her eyes traveled back and forth between the assembled mercenaries. "Very well... Y-You can at least agree to one condition, correct? If... by some happenstance I should lose another round... We can play the remaining rounds inside my tent, instead of out here in the open?"

"I suppose that would be fine. Although, if you should lose the game itself, I can't promise that your punishment won't involve exposing you in front of your soldiers."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I would!"

"... Then... Then I just have to win. Sure. I'll play carefully and defeat you. Your blasted luck won't hold out forever, Red. When it runs out, perhaps I'll have you be assigned as a personal hug pillow for Bugs, or a dedicated weapons test dummy for Flowers, he hehehe.." she cackled, narrowing her eyes with a mixture of fury and delight at the thought of her future vengeance. The boss raised her whip's grip up to her mouth and began gnawing at it. Under these terrifying circumstances, the thought of getting **** was the only thing comforting her. "We'll play another hand. This time, I'll take you for everything you owe me!"{elseif Opponent's Pile = 2}Fortuna's body shivered with indignation as she kept her head down towards the table. Her long, swept ponytail dragged the felt and her eyes swam, half-watching her cards get cleared from the last hand. "I'll get you for this! You won't escape this camp alive! I'll have your guts for garters! I'll melt your bones in an oil drum and bury them in the desert! I'll-"

"I think we should be talking less about what will happen to me and more about what will happen to you," Robin interjected, holding her deck with both hands and smiling across the table. "I believe you asked to relocate before your next surrender?"

Fortuna gasped, then nodded. "Yes! Back into my tent, quickly, subordinate!" She practically scampered off.

Robin raised an eyebrow curiously, then looked to Betty. Betty shrugged.

Colline smiled and hugged her arms around her sides. "Oh dear. She's a shy one, he he. Much like myself."

"As if! You'd be stripping down in front of these drooling mercs and loving every second of it," Betty teased. "Anyway, follow her, Robbie-Baby. Colline and I have got some work to do!"

Robin folded up her table, gave a little wave to the assembled, dumbfounded mercs, then carried the table into the large tent at the back of the camp that Fortuna had indicated. The soldiers followed at her heels like curious dogs until she was all the way to the tent flap. "You all, stay outside. Okay? Let's respect your boss's privacy for at least a little while longer."

Inside the tent, Fortuna was waiting as impatiently as possible, gnawing on the leather of her whip like a student nervously chewing their pencil. "You know, all of the soldiers in the camp are my property. I can put up any one of them and their possessions as collateral! My clothing would actually be a pittance by comparison!" she bargained, wearing a shaky grin. "How about it?"

The answer came as two invisible forces on either side quickly pulled down her trousers, exposing her long, bare legs. For a mercenary, they were surprisingly model-like without a single scratch or blemish.

"Eek!" she cried out, bending down to try to pull them back up. Betty took the opportunity to wrap the woman's whip around her own wrists, holding her hands together. "W-What devilry is this?!" she shouted out, still squirming as her pair of unseen tormentors pulled off her cape.

"Most karmic debtors don't surrender what they owe willingly, so I have a couple of assistants to help me collect on those debts."

"You can't do this to me!" Fortuna protested, as buttons began to pop open on her blouse one by one. She wriggled on the unique shag rug inside her tent as her jacket was pulled open, revealing a very flashy, leopard-print bikini set to match her cape. The bold, ready-for-action look was a little surprising, as was the fact that she didn't have a single scar anywhere on her body.

As the woman's boots were being pulled off her feet, Robin had to question it. "How is it that you've managed to avoid taking a single injury on your body as the leader of the Soldiers of Fortune? You even have an eye-patch!"

"Th-That's none of your business!" Fortuna wept, her lower lip trembling as her gloves were pulled off her hands unceremoniously.

"Speaking of the eye-patch..." Betty giggled, then began to unhook it from the back of the merc leader's head.

"S-Surely you can leave her that? She might need it for medical purposes!" Colline protested.

"I need that for medical purposes!" Fortuna added desperately, trying to roll over so that whatever forces were at play couldn't reach the buckle. It was too late. The eye-patch was lifted off, revealing...

... A perfectly healthy, normal eye, just like the one on the other side. It even had matching make-up. With the deed done, Betty finally uncoiled the whip from Fortuna's hands and placed it in the pile, as the startled woman stood back up on her shaky legs, covering her half-nakedness with her arms.

"I have so many questions," Robin murmured. "Why wear an eyepatch if you've got a perfectly good pair of eyes? Pretty eyes, I might add!"

"Oh, thank you... Wait, forget that! I do not have any responsibility to answer! Look, we've had our fun, but this has gone too far! L-Let's end the game here, you can keep all the money! Just give me my clothes back, please!" she insisted, a dark blush growing across her face as she inspected the tent flap to make sure no one was peeking in. "You're going to ruin everything!"

"It is precisely my intention to ruin everything, unfortunately. There's a large karmic debt owed by the Soldiers of Fortune that still needs to be paid-- and you did say you represent all of them," Robin responded, smiling sympathetically. "Besides, don't you want a chance to win it all back? As long as you don't lose two more hands, nothing is set in stone. That's the fun of gambling!"

"Y-You're a maniac! You must be a huge gambling addict if you think anyone could have fun under these circumstances!" Fortuna shivered, dancing from foot to foot as though worried she was about to be attacked by invisible fairies again. "I don't want to play anymore! Pleeeease, I'm begging you!"

"Chin up, Fortuna. You might feel better once everything's out in the open!" Robin consoled her opponent, then relentlessly began to shuffle the cards.{elseif Opponent's Pile = 1}"Gyaaaaah! I can't lose! If I keep losing, it's all over!" Fortuna wailed, scratching at her hair with her blue-painted nails while thrashing her head back and forth. "How am I losing?! I stacked everything in my favor! This was supposed to be a game with no risk at all!"

"You need to be more careful if you really think you can play a game of blackjack with 'no risk at all,' ha ha. I'm not sure that exists anywhere in the world," Robin joked.

Fortuna didn't appreciate it. She leaned across the table, making a grab for the weapon she'd had taken off of her earlier. "G-Give me my whip! I'm going to remind you that I'm the leader of the Soldiers of Fortune, I am not some doormat you get to walk all over and wipe your dirty feet on, I am- eek!"

She gasped and pushed her chest down on the table as her leopard-print bra suddenly came unhooked, then slid off of her, moved by the unseen hand of Betty. Fortuna grasped a hand over each of her naked breasts, failing to quite hide the color of her nipples.

"One more round, Fortuna. Maybe you can still turn it around?" Robin taunted.

"You... when you lose, I'll have Bugs grind you into powder, Red! Mark my words! You're going to regret trying to make a fool of me! The Soldiers of Fortune never lose, let alone against one lowly card player! And... And... And just checking, the offer to pay my way out of this really isn't on the table?!"

"It is not."

"Fuck!" the mercenary sobbed, kicking the carpet with the blue-painted toenails of her bare foot.{elseif Opponent's Pile = 0}With the final hand finished, Fortuna fell to her knees, her narrow shoulders shaking with despair. "I... I've lost... I lost everything... The Soldiers of Fortune... are finished!" she spoke in a quivering voice, biting her lip with an empty look in her eyes. "How could this have happened?"

"It's simple: a big ego like yours can't conceive of defeat. It doesn't even cross your mind that you could lose after you've stacked the game in your favor," Robin explained. "You aren't as careful as you think."

"Wait! One more round! One more round, I'm begging you!"

"You just lost five..."

"As long as I still have these on, you haven't won! I- wait! Waaait!" Fortuna squealed, trying to hold onto her panties with both hands as Colline grabbed them to finish disrobing her. She clenched her teeth and jerked her chin up, writhing with exertion as she tried to overpower the small, invisible opponent. "You're going to tear them, whatever you are! Let goooo!"

Snickering, Betty grabbed up the whip from the table-- over-sized for her, but not beyond her power to hold-- and gave it a crack against the rug.

"Eeeep!" the mercenary leader gasped, suddenly standing straight and snapping a salute. Colline took the opportunity to finish sliding her panties down to her feet, revealing a very neatly trimmed landing strip above her pussy. "Ah--- a-a-a-AAAAAAH!" she cried, pressing her hands first to her blushing cheeks, then crossing them between her legs, closing her knees together as tightly as she could manage. "Give them back!"

"Maybe we'll play for them again some time in the future, if they mean that much to you. But first, you'll have to work up a decently sized pile again. Luckily, I know just the place for you to earn it!"{endif}