SSV: The Raven- Part 2

Teaser: There’s Going To Be Some Changes Around Here

Edward slumped his head against the leather headrest in his vehicle and took a deep sigh of frustration as he checked the time on his car stereo. 8:54. He’d been sitting in this line, waiting to get into the building for over a half an hour now. It was slow moving, but he’d seen from occasional peaks out his window that some sort of armed security were checking everyone’s cars before they were allowed to pull into the lot. Living in Metropolis obviously came with the risks of villian attacks, and Mr. Blackridge was always known to be careful when it came to building security, but if you asked Edward, this bordered on paranoid. Armed security? That seemed overkill. There’d never been a direct attack against Blackridge Inc, at least, not the building itself. While it was arguably the largest corporation in the city, they were a tech company. One that specialized in communication. They weren’t exactly a big ticket item for the villains of the city- no funds were kept on sight, and they didn’t even build anything here. It was an office building for executives and salespeople. Still. Edward had been working at Blackridge Inc. for 18 years, and ever since Jake had taken over the company for his deceased father about 6 years ago, he’d never known him to make rash decisions. Whatever this was, Mr. Blackridge felt it necessary.



Once Edward got to the front of the line, armed security approached the car, and a very large man tapped on his window, as a few other guards came around with dogs who sniffed out the car. “ID.” The man flatly asked as he stuck out his hand, and Edward offered up his employee ID. The man took it and inspected it, before handing it back to Edward. After the dogs finished their round of the car, he was waved into the lot. Edward took note of the strange symbol on the man’s body armor, but shrugged it off as he gathered his things and walked inside, passing even more armed personnel. These security companies always had weird logos.


Edward walked inside and called the elevator, and while he waited, he was joined by Ms. Courtney Teller, Mr. Blackridge’s personal secretary. “Hey, Ed.” She offered a shy smile, and a small wave, it was long suspected that her and Mr. Blackridge shared somewhat of a romantic connection, but Ed wasn’t one to keep up with the office gossip. “Did you see the email? Mr. Blackridge wants the rest of the board in the conference room near his office at 9:30. Something about a new product rollout.” Edward raised his eyebrows quizzically, for a multitude of reasons. The first of which being the fact that Jake hadn’t been seen around the office in a month. He simply sent out an email that he would be taking an extended period of time off, and that was the last anyone had heard from him- and second, usually they’d get some sort of memo way in advance of a new product rollout. Mr. Blackridge never started the process of product rollout by introducing the product itself, but maybe in his time off he’d been working on something secret. “Is he here?” Edward asked, and got a shrug of the shoulders from Courtney in return. “I haven’t seen him, but I would assume so. He’s never called a board meeting and not attended himself.” Courtney looked down at her phone and tapped on the screen, but sighed to herself quietly as she put it back in her pocket before they boarded the elevator. Ed managed for catch from a glance that she’d been trying to text Mr. Blackridge, but that her last few messages had gone unanswered. Edward silently scolded himself for snooping, and exchanged farewells with Courtney as they parted ways as the elevator stopped on the top floor. Ed took a moment in his office to gather his things before heading into the conference room for the meeting.


As the rest of the executives filed into the conference room, Ed settled into his chair and took a deep breath, checking his watch. It wasn’t like Mr. Blackridge to be late, but it was 9:29, and there was no sign of the young man. Ed was starting to get a sinking feeling in his gut that there was something… off, about this whole situation. Sure enough, the next person to walk through the door confirmed his feelings to be true- something was very, very wrong here.


A tall, platinum blonde woman, wearing a long dark dress, and even darker makeup, marched into the room carrying a box in one hand, and the end of a leash in another. That leash was attached to the collar of the woman flanking her, a pink haired, intense looking woman, who she herself was flanked by three members of the armed security unit inhabiting the building that day. The pink haired woman’s eyes didn’t leave the ground as she posted up on the wall behind the blonde, but a quick tug of her leash brought the shorter woman’s eyes forward. Her face was stone, and hard to read, but even through the RBF, it was clear to those in the room a little more inclined at reading body language that the collared woman was a little uncomfortable with being here. The blonde dropped her leash and set the box on the table, before looking at the other men and women seated around the table. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming.” The blonde said, eyeing each and every one of them like a lioness might eye a gazelle. “I’m here to introduce the newest product that Blackridge Inc. will be selling from now on.” The woman flipped open the box, and reached inside, but before she could reveal the contents of the box, a woman sitting towards the opposite end of the table, Sarah, raised her hand to interupt. “Pardon me, Ma’am, but just where is Mr. Blackridge? He usually handles these new product unveilings himself.”


The blonde’s eyes laser-focused on Sarah, and there was a long, pregnant pause, almost as if the blonde was deciding whether or not to answer. “You don’t need to concern yourself with the whereabouts of Mr. Blackridge any longer. He signed the company over to its new owner this morning.” That sent a wave of commotion throughout the conference room, as the rest of the now-startled board reacted to the news that the company had apparently been bought out. The blonde’s lip quivered in annoyance before she slammed her fist down on the table to recapture everyone’s attention. “Silence!” The woman bellowed, bringing all activity in the room to a screeching halt. “Just like Mr. Blackridge himself, this company now serves a higher purpose.” She reached back into the box and produced several devices which looked like collars, passing them out to the rest of the executives, before keeping one for herself, holding it up so that the rest of the room could see. “This is the first in the new line of products Blackridge Inc. will be selling. Shipments to stores begin tomorrow. Put them on.” The woman ordered, and the rest of the board members in the room obeyed. Edward examined the collar like device, before shrugging and placing it around his neck. He assumed they were in for some sort of product demo. The blonde eyed everyone in the room, ensuring that they put their collars on, before shutting the box. “Wonderful. These will be in all major retailers in Metropolis by tomorrow morning, and by the time the new Mayor of Metropolis takes over on Friday, they’ll be mandatory. Good day to you all.” The blonde took hold of the leash around the pink haired woman’s neck, but before she could leave, Sarah once again stood up in objection. “Excuse me, you haven’t even told us what these do yet. And what do you mean these will be mandatory? And what’s this talk of a new mayor?! I’m calling Mr. Blackridge right this instant!” Sarah began pulling at the collar and trying to remove it where the buckle had been to put it on, but found that, somehow, the buckle no longer existed. There didn’t appear to be a way to remove the collar.


The blonde’s face twisted into that of a glare, and upon noticing this, the pink haired woman shut her eyes and plugged her ears. “You want a product demonstration?” The woman’s eyes began to glow a deep purple. “Fine.”


Suddenly, Sarah let out an excruciating scream of pain, as she collapsed to the floor and began clutching the back of her neck. The rest of the room all jumped up in a panic, and began pulling at their collars, Edward included, but armed security quickly raised their guns and pointed them at the rest of the board members, quickly scaring everyone in the room back into submission. “There. That’s what they do. They ensure that everyone is carrying out the will of the Goddess, and if they aren’t, it deals with them accordingly.” The blonde gestured to the armed guards, pointing at Sarah, who still lay on the ground, screaming in agony. “Get her out of here. There’s vans waiting out back. As for the rest of you, unless you’d like to join her, you’ll ensure that all employees are wearing these collars before they leave the office tonight. You’ll find boxes of them on each floor. There will be a surplus. Take them home to your families. The Goddess will know if you’ve failed to do so, and she will deal with any disobedience swiftfully and painfully. Good day.” The woman pulled her leashed companion out of the room with her, leaving a horrified boardroom in her wake.



“I hate this.” Beth exclaimed as they walked down the hallway. “I fucking hate this.” She fummed as she walked quickly to keep up with Pamela’s longed strides. Pamela sighed and shook her head. “Silence, Kitten. I didn’t give you permission to speak informally. Your purpose in life now is to carry out the will of the Goddess, and this is the will of the Goddess. She made no secret of what her plans were with Metropolis, Jake knew the price of rebellion. Now the city pays it. No further words from you until we’re back in the car, or you will be punished when we get home.”


Beth huffed to herself, but kept quiet. It had been about three days since she’d surrendered to Pamela, and there were still growing pains. Still, it was strange. While Pamela put up this facade in public, she was much sweeter to Beth in private. Beth still wasn’t quite sure how she felt about this arrangement, but it was definitely better than the alternative- letting Aurora and Nastia get at her.


The duo had one more stop in the building before they left, and Pamela marched over to the desk that separated the rest of the building from Jake’s former office. There sat his secretary, tapping away at her phone. “Miss Teller.” Pamela crossed her arms and looked down at Courtney, who jumped a bit from being startled. Courtney looked up at the two women, and before she could even ask who they were, Pamela cut her off with a wave of her hand. “We’re simply here to deliver a message. Jake Blackridge is spoken for already. Stop trying to contact him, or you will regret it. Good day.” Pamela turned on her heel and headed towards the elevator with Beth in tow, leaving a very confused, and heartbroken Courtney at her desk. After a few moments, she took one more glance at her phone, before shutting it off and sighing to herself, before picking up and examining the collar-like device that management had instructed her to put on….



As they piled into the limo that they’d arrived in, Beth took one final look at the large tower that used to be Blackridge Inc. A familiar feeling of failure and inadequacy washed over her, as they drove away from what would be ground zero for Goth’s enslavement of the entire city. Millions of people, brought to heel because of her own failure. Beth felt a sharp pain in her chest, but even more surprisingly, she felt a hand wrap around her own. She looked over to Pamela, who had sensed her troubled thoughts about the situation, and was seemingly trying now to comfort her. Pamela stared straight ahead, as if she herself was also grappling with what they had just done.


“Worry not about them, Kitten.” Pamela tried to reassure.



“It is the will of the Goddess.”