You end up coming to blows with the sanctimonious Nightingale and go to see if it's true...

"Before you start whining," Nightingale says, "I'm not accusing you of being a party to the criminal enterprise of Michael Estevez, a.k.a. 'Madman Mike'. If it makes you feel slightly better," she condescendingly emphasizes the word 'slightly', "the gullible journalists and corrupt police have been taken in by his cover story just as easily as you and these other two heroines were."

"No, no," you hold your hands up and shake your head vehemently, "it ain't a cover story! He and his partner are tryin' to take down a gang led by a bad guy called Red Tattoo who's working together with the new Deathsmite! That guy is the evil gangster pimp, not Mike!"

"Estevez is not going after these other criminals out of the goodness of his heart, Lynn. It's just a matter of getting rid of the competition. You've never encountered a criminal in a turf war with another criminal? Are you THAT much of a novice?" Nightingale asks, smirking mirthlessly.

"But... he'd been tracking these gangsters at the waterfront and took them down when my teammates and me were about to get dragged off to who knows what!" you protest.

"Yes - on HIS turf. And now you're helping him deal with a larger, more dangerous gang." Nightingale narrows her eyes at you behind her domino mask. "And I suspect someone like him has other uses in mind for you, as well. Trying to get you to fall in love with him or something, I'd bet. And after he turns on the charm a while, then he will start warming you up to the idea of 'spending time' with a few friends of his, just as a favor to him. That's how pimps operate. I've been dealing with this urban filth since you were a middle school kid in super-pageants, Lynn. You should listen to my advice."

"That's... no, it was to get information about Lady Deathsmite. It isn't like Mike **** me an' M.K. or anything!" your voice is getting weaker as a redness rises in your face.

"Oh for Christ's sake." Nightingale huffs and shakes her head. "You mean he ALREADY got you so-called heroines 'working' for him? The day after you met him? I don't know whether I should be more disgusted by his audacity, or your malleability. After I help you get out of this sinkhole of depravity you've jumped right into, perhaps you should think long and hard about whether you are Acropolis City material, Lynn."

"Alright, now you're really starting to piss me off." you make a sour face. "Do you understand that a deadly new supervillainess is about to grab all the loot she needs to become a threat to this whole city you're such a great defender of, Mrs. Prissy-pants? If you ain't gonna help with that, then just tell those boys in blue to release my teammate," you point at where the handcuffed Wushu Panda is having her arms held by the two cops, "and come bring some kinda evidence after Lady Deathsmite's been busted! End of discussion!"

Nightingale's emotionless, superior demeanor cracks. The purple-clad veteran heroine is visibly taken aback by your show of disrespect. "Are you accusing me of lying?"

"Maybe I am!" you put your hands on your hips and push out your chest defiantly. Normally when you do that, it just makes any guys present stare down at your cleavage. But Nightingale at least seems to take it as the challenging gesture it's intended to be.

"I suggest you consider your next words very carefully, 'Lickety-Split Lynn'." Nightingale says your title with unconcealed disdain. "What I need from you is the location where 'Madman Mike' and his partner are hiding out. That's all. Then you and Wushu Panda and Magik Knight can go chasing after this oh-so-dangerous villain that no one has ever heard of before."

"...No. No!" you stamp your leather cowboy boot on the floor so loudly it makes a couple of the cops lurch nervously. "I'm not giving you anyone's location 'cept for my good friend 'Jack Shit'! Go fly off out the window, little birdie! I'll wait for some other hero to come and help me get those cuffs of Panda. Hopefully one who isn't such a BITCH!"

Nightingale lowers her gaze and takes a deep breath. Then she turns and walks over to the two cops on the other side of the lobby. "Officers? As a representative of the League of Propriety, I am officially denying the request to have that probationary heroine released. Book her."

"WHAT?!" Wushu Panda shrilly protests as the two police start trying to drag her off. "No! You can't do this to me! What did you tell her, Lynn?!"

"Oh, son of a...." you mutter as you trot over to where the cops are manhandling Panda. "Enough of this bullshit. We'll get it sorted out after the bad girl is busted." You reach out and grab Wushu Panda's cuffed wrists.

"Hey!" The police officer who'd recognized you shouts in surprise. "Miss Lynn! Step back, you can't interf-"

But before he can finish his waring, you use your superior strength to pull on the chain linking the handcuffs together until it snaps with a sharp clink. When the shock wears off, the two police officers reach down and draw their handguns... and Wushu Panda reacts on instinct, lashing out with two hand-chops that knock the guns out of their hands.

"C'mon, Panda! Let's skeedadle!" you shout, jerking your head towards the entrance.

"Ski-what?" the martial arts heroine still looks confused by this sudden turn of events.

"I mean run, gawddamnit! Run!"

It seems like Wushu Panda's reaction is to try and punch you right in the face! Her hand lashes out, coming towards you so fast that not even you can dodge it!

You are so surprised you can't even block, only flinch. But instead of smacking you, Panda's hand goes right past your head. When you turn around to look, you see that she's caught several bird-shaped throwing knife/boomerang type things in midair, right before they could clock you in the back of the head. Nightingale's arm is still outstretched from throwing them at you.

Panda disdainfully tosses the projectiles to the ground. "Attacking from behind? And you call yourself a hero?" She points a finger at Nightingale defiantly. "Lickety-Split Lynn and I have an important task to take care of. If you insist on interfering, why don't you run away back to the League and tell them to send a REAL fighter?"

"I'll show you a real fighter, you arrogant little slut!" Nightingale pulls a grappling hook from her utility belt and fires it up towards a conveniently-placed gargoyle statue high up on the wall. It reels her up, and she performs a dramatic swing straight towards you and Wushu Panda, launching into an acrobatic flying kick.

Wushu Panda counters with a panty-flashing high kick of her own, which flips the charging Nightingale upside down in midair! To her credit, Nightingale displays some impressive acrobatics and lands on the palms of her hands, flipping forward and landing on her feet.

...unfortunately for her, that lands Nightingale right in front of Wushu Panda, with her arms at her sides. "AIYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!" Wushu Panda shrieks a high-pitched staccato battle cry as she punches so rapidly that you can barely see the motions of her hands. Each individual impact seems quite light, and Nightingale, though clearly surprised, doesn't even stagger as her unguarded torso is struck dozens of times by the barrage of flying fists.

Immediately after, Wushu Panda drops her hands to her sides and slides out of her fighting stance. She turns her back on Nightingale, not even bothering to keep her guard up, and walks towards the lobby exit. Rather than take advantage of Panda's seeming lack of care, Nightingale just stands there.

"Alright, now we can go, Lynn." Panda says casually. "Hopefully Daisaku and his partner will have a hacksaw to get these things off my wrists. The extra weight really slowed down my '44 Thunder Fists Collected Barrage'."

"Uh... sure, Panda," you say, "but... what about..."

Before you can finish your sentence, Nightingale, the red-haired superheroine who was assigned to mentor you and Magik Knight just yesterday, topples forward and falls flat on her face with a soft thump.

"You were saying?" Wushu Panda smirks pridefully at you before walking out.

The two police officers stare goggle-eyed at the **** Nightingale kissing the polished marble floor. "We're... uh... we're gonna have to report this, you know." one of them says nervously.

"Hah!" you can't suppress a smile. "Go right ahead, but y'all better make sure you clear it with Nightingale first, when she wakes up. I'm not so sure she's gonna want it on the record that she got her butt whooped by a teenager with no superpowers!"

A few moments later, Wushu Panda yelps in surprise as you sweep in and grab her around her waist from behind, sweeping her up off her feet. "Ai yah! Lynn?! What are you doing, put me down!" she complains as you start picking up speed, terrorizing the motorists of Acropolis City yet again as you start zooming through the streets at fifty miles an hour.

"Zip it, Panda!" you say. "We just attacked the cops and an official superheroine! Next time I say 'skeedaddle', how about you just do it instead of goin' and getting us in more trouble?"

"Ah...!" Panda stops struggling in your grasp and gulps. "Sorry... but when she attacked you from behind like that, I just..."

"Yeah, I know. She was askin' for it." you smile. "But if we want the head honchos at the League to see it that way, we better bring 'em a whole lot of hogtied villains to smooth things over. Let's go find Ilyana and the guys and work out a plan 'B'."

Even as you thread your way through busy traffic you can't help but wonder and worry about what Nightingale said. Surely she just got the wrong idea? Bringing up such ridiculous accusations now isn't the time. After you've defeated the evildoers and earned your place in the League, then you can worry about doing a little just-in-case snooping to put your mind at ease.

...

A short while later you're back at the dingy abandoned bowling alley that serves as Madman Mike and Daisaku's vigilante bolt-hole. You pound on the door with your fist, well aware that the cops might have already sent out a BOLO for the two of you. "Hey! Open up!"

When no entrance is forthcoming, you tighten your grip on the door handle and **** it, ripping out the lock and shouldering it open. For a moment you thought the bad guys might've invaded it - but just up ahead in the impromptu living room is Mike, having shucked his formal suit from this morning and changed back into the loud hawaiian shirt he prefers.

Normally, Mike looks overjoyed to see you. But instead of looking like he can't wait to get his hands on you again for another 'training session', he has a deer-in-headlights expression. "Lynn?! How'd you get back so fast? It hasn't even been 15 minutes!"

"Uh, yeah, it's called 'super speed', not 'slightly-above-average speed'. I didn't even know I could split off clones of myself until yesterday, you know? Speed's what I picked my hero name for! Now, listen, Panda didn't work things out so well with the bank manager, so we're gonna have to-"

"Stop, stop! This is REALLY a bad time, Lynn. Do you think you could come back in, uhh..." Mike glances down at his wristwatch, "maybe thirty minutes? Hey, how about some more food? Can't fight crime on an empty stomach, you know? I'll hold down the fort here till you get back. A-and make sure you have Panda watch your back for ambushes while you're out!"

You raise an eyebrow suspiciously. "I just watched you stuff yourself silly at that fancy-schmancy hotel restaurant two hours ago. I know you're a big guy and all but we got a problem that can't wait! Panda here," you point at the asian girl behind you, who is trying a little too hard to look nonchalant, "didn't handle things so gracefully with the bank. We've gotta figure out another-"

"LYNN! Baby, please, I'm begging ya! Just... take Panda and run around the block a few times! I'll explain later!" Mike is getting down on his knees and clasping his hands overdramatically.

Your fists start balling up involuntarily. "Mike, now, I been real patient with you an' all, and I wasn't gonna mention this, but Nightingale had some downright un-flattering things to say about you. So whatever it is - I think you better make honesty your best policy, mister! 'Specially if you're still holdin' out hope that I'm gonna be your girlfriend, or something!"

"Huh? Nightingale? The chick in the purple jumpsuit? Red hair, likes to swing around with grappling hooks, hides listening devices all over the place? What was she doing at the bank?" Mike sounds genuinely curious but he's also clearly trying to change the subject.

...and, all of a sudden, you hear a key hitting the lock to the main door. A moment later it swings open. You were expecting it to be Daisaku, but it's... someone quite different.

The three women who stroll in are dressed quite provocatively, even by your standards - and as someone who runs around everywhere in a one-piece swimsuit that doesn't do a particularly good job of hiding your nipples or the cleft between your legs, and covers a lot less of your ass cheeks than it hides, that's saying a lot. One of them is a tan-skinned girl with dyed blonde hair in pigtails, a snug white blouse, and a plaid skirt exposing her pierced navel. Another is an asian woman with obviously silicone-enhanced boobs poking through a lime-green crop top and wearing a pair of daisy dukes so snug it's a wonder she can even walk, and a more tattoos than you've ever seen on a single body in your life (and you've gone fishing for intel in biker bars!).

Walking in front of them is a pale girl with a similar short, boyish haircut to yours, except dyed bright blue instead of your natural blonde, and sporting a nose ring and lip piercing... and a navel piercing... and, you notice as you look down at her modest-sized breasts poking through a blue bikini top, pierced nipples too. The cherry red microkirt she's wearing shows off the straps of her thong riding high on her hips. Like the other two she's wearing knee-high boots with stiletto heels.

"Hey Madman." the girls all say in unison - the two on the sides in a flirty feminine voice, the one in the middle sounding more bored.

The tanned blonde giggles and eyes you and Panda. "Oooh, do we have some new sisters joining us?"

"Shhh," the one in the middle steps forward. "Business first, we can say hi to the new girls later." she holds out an envelope that she'd had tucked under her shoulder and waves it at Mike, who looks like he's in the process of having a heart attack. "Here you go." the blue-haired young woman says. "I'm a little light this month. I had to pay for an abortion thanks to one of those idiots from the yacht party a couple months ago. I just found a regular with deep pockets so don't worry about next month's cut, I think you'll be happy with it."

Although prevented by the laws of biology and physics, you feel like your jaw had just dropped open any harder then it would've smashed a hole in the floor under your feet. Your eyes are as wide as saucers. You suck in breath so hard you feel like you might inflate and pop like a balloon.

"Are these your whores?" Wushu Panda asks matter-of-factly, her tone of voice betraying mild disdain at most. She holds her hand up. "Arms length away! Ai ya, what is that horrible smell? Is that supposed to be perfume? Dismiss them. We have more important matters to discuss."

You slowly turn towards the kneeling Madman Mike and transfix him with an intense stare. "Oh no we don't, darlin'."

Raising your voice to a high-pitched screech, you speak to the girls without taking your eyes off Mike. "Get on outta here, you three l-ladies! You can keep your money! He ain't gonna be needing it!" you take a couple of steps forward, balling up your fists.