The gray woman smiled at the freshly renovated chamber. She'd taken hold of one of the many smaller rooms off the main hallway of the basement in preparation for her first detention in quite a while. What had been an empty, dusty, musty cube of concrete was now a well-furnished hall of torment and torture. The center of it was dominated with a metal table bearing four solid leather straps, one at each corner. On the wall at the foot of the table was a row of hooks holding devices ranging from a simple wooden paddle to a thrice-reticulated whiplike contraption that ended in hooked barbs. Miss Steel admitted she didn't really know how to use that one, but it certainly looked impressive on the wall. Beneath these hooks was a large sort of tool chest made of simple steel and aluminum, again filled to the brim with implements of pain and restraint, from blindfolds to handcuffs to a little wheel of spikes on a handle sharp enough to leave a dotted, red line on even the hardest of skins. On the other three walls were a cage, a St. Andrew's cross, and what looked like a hook for lifting weighted crates, given the number of pulleys attached.

This was almost all for show, of course. The gray woman knew who was coming and had something besides a straightforward beating in mind for the poor girl. Steel enjoyed a good bit of performance, and besides, it wasn't like the room would disappear when she was done with it. But no, no, chains and whips and things were all well and good, and the gray woman did intend to use some of them, but there was so much more planned for Bala in the student's near future. She had been bad, after all, and Mother would have wanted bad girls punished properly. Thus it was that Steel found herself checking the top shelf of the cabinet again and whispering softly to the tools within to be patient, that they would have their victim soon. The gray woman slid the drawer closed delicately, went to take up the rumpled bit of paper describing Bala's absenteeism, and sat down on the single, simple, uncomfortable chair in the room, facing the doorway. Her foot absently tapped on the floor as she waited, spelling out a perfectly even rhythm on the seconds. Soon enough, the young woman would respond to her summons and arrive down in detention room E.

Bala made her way down the stairs still fuming. She had argued with her teacher that she had not missed any classes. Save for illness, she hadn't missed a class in her life. And she certainly remembered being in class during the time she allegedly missed. But Miss Williams wouldn't hear any of it. So here Bala walked. It didn't help that several of her classmates insisted that she really did miss class. (And to be fair to Miss Williams, Bala's absence from the class was due to her being raped by one of the islands unsavoury inhabitants. An attack that Bala did not remember.)

What annoyed her most of all was that her detention would cause her to be late for the dorm party. Everyone in her wing was going to be there. She was prepared to go straight from detention to the party though. She carried a book bag with a change of clothes for the dorm party; khaki cargo shorts, her "Dressage Babe" t-shirt, and sandals. She'd find someplace to change on her way to the party. For detention, Bala was dressed in proper school attire, school supplied skirt, blouse, tie, vest, jacket, and shoes and socks. Her one concession to the coming party was to unbraid and brush her hair so that it lay straight down over her bum.

The basement's appearance startled Bala when she opened the door to the hallway. In contrast to the rest of the school, the hallway was dark, dank, and dirty. She began her search for Room E. The labels for the rooms didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason. Some rooms had numbers while others had letters. She couldn't figure out the pattern. She would just have to look at every door.

Bala opened the door to 027 just to see what it looked like. Inside the room were about a half dozen student desks and one teacher's desk, all fairly antiquated. Bala supposed that they used to have classes down here, perhaps when they had more students. Or maybe they used these rooms for special classes. She closed that door and continued her search for her dreaded detention room.

She tried another door only to find it locked. She tried to force it open but it wouldn't budge. She left that door and continued on down the hallway without hearing the room's occupant screaming for her help.

Finally, she found Room E. She grabbed the watch she wore like a necklace and saw that she was almost five minutes late. "Blast!", she thought. She opened the door and hurried inside. "Sorry I'm late. I..." Bala was stunned by what she saw. The whips and cage were pretty self-explanatory. But there were many objects in the room she couldn't fathom their purpose. They merely looked evil.

She stared at the objects for what seemed like forever until the spring loaded door slammed shut behind her. She broke her trance with a yelp. "I must have the wrong room. Sorry", she said with a nervous quiver in her voice. Not wanting to stay in this room any longer, she turned and tried to open the door. Only to find it locked.

"You're... Bala Gavaskar, yes?" Steel said, rising slowly to her feet. She was nearly a foot taller than the young woman before her. "If so, then you are most certainly in the correct room." The gray woman stepped slowly forward, her bare feet padding along the floor. One hand dipped into the gray, pocket-covered vest the monster was wearing and came back with something tucked into its palm.

"I am going to need two things from you, Bala." The single, bare lightbulb flickered for the briefest moment, and the gray woman turned to stare up at it with such venom in her eyes that the bulb seemed to straighten itself up and burn brightly again. Steel turned back on her prey and smiled briefly before continuing her approach.

"First, I'm going to need your detention slip. Your teacher should have given you one with a list of your offenses. Second." A gray hand slapped sharply into the wall beside Bala's head, echoing in the room like a high gunshot. The other hand floated back into view before the girl's eyes, brandishing what looked like a finely-carved fang that had been sharpened into a hooked knife.

"I'm going to need your uniform. Be a good girl and put them both on the table for me and I won't count your trying to escape against you." The cold, serpentine stare Steel fixed the young woman with offered no other compromise.

Bala squealed at Steel's hand slapping the wall within inches of her head. Her eyes open wide with the appearance of the knife. "Listen. Take it easy." She held her detention slip in front of her as she backed away from the crazy lady with a knife. The table ended Bala's retreat.

Bala wasn't sure why the woman wore so much grey makeup or contacts that made her eyes look like... look strange. She certainly was acting strange or crazy. And such a person armed with a knife like that mustn't be trifled. Not understanding what Steel meant by "uniform", Bala takes off her jacket and places it on the table next to the detention slip. "I don't even know why I'm here. I'm getting detention for missing class time that I didn't actually miss."

She Picked up her book bag from the table. She had put it there to take off her jacket to comply with the "uniform" order. She considered her options. If the crazy grey lady attacked her with the knife, she could use the book bag as a shield. She looked around the room for an escape route. It seemed the only way out was the locked door. Instead of knocking the woman off balance and fleeing, Bala would have to subdue her and get the key. Well if it came to that, that's what Bala would do. Hopefully, she could talk her way out of this...

"You're brave. That's good. Most of you aren't very brave." The gray woman smiled as she turned towards Bala and held the curved knife in one hand. Somewhere else in the basement, another door slammed shut hard enough to send a faint thud through the bunker walls.

"It's been awhile since I've had to do a takedown. You usually don't fight after a good show of power." Steel licked her lips softly and leaned back against the wall. The table was cold against Bala's rear. The slip rumpled slightly as the taller woman turned it over in a metallic hand. Strong fingers crushed it into a ball and tossed the scrap of paper into a shadowy corner. In the briefest flicker, the student could have sworn she saw something snatch the note and drag it into the darkness.

"But it's such a pretty outfit, and I'd hate to have to destroy it, so we'll try this one more time," Miss Steel said as she looked back to her prey and took half a step forward. "Take off your clothes and put them on the table. All of them. No complaining. No wondering why. Just do what I tell you and I won't have to hurt you." The gray woman took another step forward as she spoke, and the shift in light caused the slits of her eyes to open up and refocus briefly. Thick gray hair shifted and spilled over one shoulder with a soft rasp of metal on metal.

Bala gave a brief, annoyed smile at being called brave. It sounded like the grey woman was very confident in her abilities. That might give Bala the upper hand if this came to blows. The thud gave her a start. And then she smiled again. Someone was probably in the next room, probably another detention proctor. If Bala couldn't handle this woman, she could probably scream and they'd come to see what's happening. They'd be sure to hear her.

Steel's "takedown" comment upset Bala. <Great. The woman welcomes a fight. Not good>, she thought. A compromise isn't likely now. Bala considered making an attack right then and there. But the woman hadn't made a move yet and Bala figured she'd have a hard time justifying to the Administration assaulting a detention proctor who hadn't physically attacked her.

Despite the threat the woman posed, Bala took a step forward just to get her bum away from the table, somehow uncomfortably cold even through her skirt. She rubbed her bottom with her free hand to warm it up some.

"What? Take off my clothes? You're not allowed to tell me to strip to my underwear!" Bala stared finally beginning to understand, though still incompletely, what the grey woman was demanding. "You can get into big trouble for that." The woman's glare told her that she could have chosen her words better. She changed tact hoping to calm things down. "Listen. I know we got off to a bad start. Just open that door and I won't tell the Administration", Bala lied. Of course she was going to tell them. She couldn't allow someone this crazy to proctor detention for other students. In the meantime, she gripped her book bag a little tighter and awaited this strange woman's next move. <The hook in that knife dictates the direction of her attack>, Bala thought, preparing for what she expected would be an inevitable attack. She was so intent on being ready that she completely missed the sound of Steel's hair brushing her shoulder.

"Oh. Oh, you're not brave. You're ignorant of how this all works. Strange. Here, let me explain it to you." The gray woman rose up to her full, imposing height. The metal hair rasped softly again with the motion.

"I am going to do whatever I want to you for the next, oh, hour or so. Whatever I want. Then you're going to leave and go about your business and you're not going to get into any more trouble so you don't land in my claws again. It's amazingly simple, you know." The curved dagger rolled over in her right hand as she smiled down at her prey.

"Now, if you don't want to take your clothes off yourself, I'll just have to take them off myself." The gray woman stepped quickly forward and reached out for Bala's shirt with her left hand. Gray fingers stretched wide as they closed in on the girl and tried to take hold of the fabric. A long, forked gray tongue flickered from matching lips and vanished again between them.

Bala felt quite intimidated as the strange woman gained height. This time she heard the strange metal on metal sound as the woman's "hair" brushed her shoulder and was beginning to understand that this was not an ordinary woman. Bala brought one foot a half-step back to give herself a little more separation.

Bala cursed in Hindi, quickly stepped back and leaned away from Steel's hand. "RUNDI KI BACHI!" She hadn't moved quickly enough, for the woman got a hold of the top of Bala's shirt. Bala's quick retreat and lean freed her of Steel's grasp at the cost of her top two buttons. They clattered to the floor, tapping along as they made their escape. Her red tie, also freed in the brief grab, fluttered to the floor. Her shirt opened and, given the way the school designed their shirts and undergarments, revealed a nice amount of cleavage. The contrast of the white shirt and dark skin was actually quite pleasing. It's a shame Bala wasn't where someone could appreciate it.

Bala had backed into the table again. And again she could feel the uncomfortable cold through her skirt. This forced home the point that she had allowed herself to be cornered. This woman was frightening and seemed not quite human. Bala shivered at the thought of the image of that tongue. Even so, she knew she had to act now or risk losing the fight before it even began. She had paid too much attention to the knife before, she wouldn't let that happen again.

The close proximity of Steel called for the Markhor combat style. Bala began a complex attack she hoped would give her some breathing room. Using the table for leverage and letting out a primal scream, she lunged for her grey opponent while she gave the book bag a quick swing into the hand with the bone knife. She hoped that the bag would knock the loosely held knife out of the woman's hand. But she would settle for the bag interfering with any attack from the knife. She would continue on, thrusting her right hand for the woman's chin, fully hoping to continue her punch to a point a foot behind the woman's head. Bala hoped that she could surprise the grey woman with this attack and gain the advantage. And she would need that surprise too as the island's inhibitors slowed her normally lightning quick attack into merely a fast one.

Miss Steel, actually, was quite enjoying the contrast of white fabric over darker skin when Bala pounced and struck. The bag crashed into the gray woman, sending her weapon flying from her hand. The tall creature was pushed just slightly off-balance by the weight of the improvised weapon. Yellow-green eyes followed the knife as it curved out into the air. Before it landed, Bala's fist snapped through Steel's hard jaw. The gray face rocked back hard under the blow, hair scattered in a tangle of metallic wool, and Steel crumpled hard to the ground.

Her head bounced on the concrete once before she slid backwards under her own weight, leaving a thin smear of yellow blood until her body uncurled. The gray woman stared blankly up at the ceiling and lay still for a moment. Her serpents eyes didn't blink.

With a sudden wrench, Steel's body arched up like a pulled bow, and a deep hiss of pain shuddered from her lips. She rolled to her left side and swung the other way, curling into a tight ball to hold the bleeding back of her scalp. Her whole body trembled with the pain working its way through her. She seemed quite distracted and unable to stop Bala.

The door, however, was still locked, and appeared to require a key to open. The gray woman's vest and shorts were covered in pockets stuffed with random things. The top drawer of the tool chest was still slightly ajar.

"So you're going to do whatever you want with me, huh?", Bala asked mockingly. She then dropped her book bag and grabbed her right hand and let out an "ow!" as the strange woman's chin seemed to be as hard as concrete. She looked at the supine woman and feared for a moment that she had killed her. And what was that yellow fluid?. Bala circled around the woman carefully, fearing that this was a trick. Reaching out to the woman, she just about touched her head when she wrenched around.

Then Bala saw the yellow... blood? coming out of the woman's head. Bala had a horror film moment when she deduced that this woman wasn't human at all. Focusing back on the problem at hand, she looked at the locked door. Then she looked at all the pockets in the wom... creature's clothing. She didn't want to approach the creature while it was moving. Looking around, she saw the ajar drawer. "We kept our keys in a drawer back home", she said aloud. So she quickly went to the cabinet to see if she could find the key.

On her way there, she noticed some yellow had splattered her vest when the creature moved. She had to pull the vest over her head because the blood was splattered over some of the buttons. She then used the vest to wipe more blood off her skirt. She was NOT going to take off her skirt!. Because of that, she failed to notice that some of the blood had gotten inside her skirt.

Bala opened the drawer and once again was shocked by what she saw. She didn't know what most of the items were, but she recognized enough to know she wanted nothing to do with them. There were also a couple of scalpels with rather fiendish shapes. She shook her hands imagining some of the items being used on them by the thing lying on the floor. No keys here.

She walked over to the thing and said, "you'd better stay down or it's more of the same." She kept one hand clenched in a fist while she used the other to search the pants pockets. Unable to get into a pocket, she reluctantly brought her other hand to help out. Then she took her eyes off the thing to look at what she was doing. "Where's the key, Sali Kutti."

Yellow ichor pooled slightly around the gray woman. Fingertips smeared it further over the concrete, then lifted a few drops to feed the fluid back into the monster's lips. The gray woman groaned tremulously and shuddered on the floor. She seemed completely oblivious to the world as Bala checked the drawer and came back to try and rummage in Steel's shorts. A playful grin creased her lips as she felt Bala tugging at the pocket.

"If you hit me... ahhn.. some more... I'll tell you," the gray woman panted. Her eyes stared dazedly up at the ceiling. "Make me hurt and I'll make you free." A dark, forked tongue rolled around gray lips as the acid-green eyes turned back to the young woman and pleaded silently for more suffering.

The pocket opened and revealed a space within larger than without. Thin chains with various clamps were the first to spill out, followed by a length of soft black fabric and a pair of plain handcuffs. Then something skittered out of the darkness and fled up under the gray vest. In the brief glimpse she got of it, Bala was able to pick out a metallic spider-like shape.

The drawer, still open behind the student, stirred slightly with something else alive. A viper with silver scales and eyes the same shade as Steel's slithered to the lip of the macabre tool drawer and peered over the side at Bala's back, moving silently.

The creature's movement caught Bala's nervous eye. The sight of it seeming to drink its own blood both surprised and disgusted Bala. Then their eyes met. The sight of those soulless eyes staring at her frightened Bala even more.

"If you hit me... ahhn.. some more... I'll tell you." Bala couldn't believe what she was hearing. And the thing repeated a similar statement. Bala figured the hit to her head had dazed the thing and it was confused. Bala shook her fist at the thing and said, "if you don't tell me where the key is, I will make you hurt." She then went back to the pocket.

Bala didn't understand the things coming out of the abnormally large pocket. They looked to her to be unusual nose chains (she hadn't really looked at the nastier clamps). She was sure that this thing had a different purpose for them though. The handcuffs she understood. Just as she was about to try another pocket, the metallic spider slipped under Steel's vest. Bala let out an "Eeek!" at the sight of it.

Bala was afraid to search through pockets now. That spider could cause trouble. So she took the handcuffs and put them on the grey woman's hands. She locked them in front of course. Bala lacked experience in these things. She continued her interrogation of the creature. "I'm not kidding. Tell me where the key is or I'll knock you around some more!"

Bala obviously didn't see the silver serpent in the tool drawer (she didn't scream and pound the viper with anything handy). She was totally oblivious to the silent ophidian watching her from behind.

The gray woman smiled insanely up at Bala, still resting in a small pool of yellow blood. "I'm not telling you," Steel said, her voice wavering almost melodically. She writhed slightly on the ground, lifting her hips up to give Bala a better angle to kick at gray ribs. The vest spilled open, revealing coal-black nipples hard from the slight chill in the room, or possibly excitement. From the look in the yellow-green serpentine eyes, it was more likely the latter.

Outside, something heavy seemed to scrape along the floor up the hallway, growing slowly and steadily louder with each passing moment. Within, the serpent watching Bala's back curled back on itself and began carefully clambering down towards the floor.

"Hurt me," Steel hissed hungrily. "Hurt me reaaaaaal good."

Bala growled with her teeth clenched in frustration at the grey woman's refusal to talk. It even seemed as though she were taunting Bala, almost wishing to be struck again. And she reinforced that point by lifting her hips, almost daring Bala to kick her. <She knows I won't attack her when she's helpless>, Bala thought in horror.

Still bent over after her search of the first pocket, Bala was still giving the thing a nice view of her cleavage. It was then that Bala heard the scraping outside the door. Getting louder meant it was getting closer. She was saved! Bala wanted to run to the door to pound on it and yell, but she didn't want to let Steel out of her sight. So she kept her eye on the thing and yelled, "HELP! I'M IN ROOM E! I'M BALA GAVASKAR, OPEN THE DOOR!" The scraping continued uninterrupted. "I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! LET ME OUT! I'M TRAPPED IN HERE WITH A CRAZY WOMAN!" Bala was stunned by the sound continuing, fading away. As it moved out of earshot, she added a plaintive "Please!"

Bala let out a short whimper as the sound faded away completely. "Why didn't they stop?", she asked rhetorically. She returned her attention to Steel, still presenting a target for Bala to kick. She started rummaging through another pants pocket, keeping a keen eye out for that spider-like thing to make a reappearance. Even so, she couldn't help but look at the strange woman's breasts, so very inhuman in appearance. She thought that she and the grey creature were alone in the room. Why would she look around for anything like the silent serpant slowly approaching from behind?

"You wanna know what I did with the key?" the gray woman said, her voice becoming slightly surly. "I sssssswallowed it," she hissed, her forked tongue flickering in the low light. Wicked teeth, most prominently a pair of long canines that were disturbingly reminiscent of fangs, shone back from within the gray woman's crooked, insane smile.

"If you want it, you'll hafta get me to spit it back up, won't you?" The pocket was stuffed with more random things than before. A harmonica clattered on the concrete. A ball rolled off into the darkness. A key rang out softly beside the harmonica. A small clump of paperclips spilled between the gray woman's legs. When Bala's eyes realized what they'd slid past and returned, they realized immediately that the key on the floor had nothing to do with the sealed door. The end of the wrought iron was nearly as large as the handle and would never fit in the thin vertical slit that kep the portal sealed. As she settled back in to dig around further, the gray woman sighed.

The silvered serpent slithered steadily onwards. It dodged the ball, which rolled past and under the tool cabinet, and finally reached the dark-skinned student. It hissed softly at her and began to slowly coil around her leg, apparently seeking the warmth of her flesh.