Midas Complex

Compromised

Everything hurt. The kind of pain that wasn't just physical, but also came in the form of a constant mental feedback that thrummed through the mind like late-night static turned up to the highest volume.

Opening her eyes, Danielle blinked rapidly before slowly lifting her head and staring out through a veil of messy hair. She opened and closed your mouth, wincing at the dry, stale feeling - not at all unlike waking up after a night of heavy drinking, a state of being more familiar than Danielle would like to admit.

However, the telltale ache of her limbs and the wretched throbbing of her head were not the result of a party that got a bit out of hand. No, this was something much, much worse.

Suddenly, the room was turned white in a brilliant flash of illumination – causing Danielle to groan and jerk backward in her seat. Her limbs jingled metallically at the movement, and it was at that moment that Danielle realized that her wrists and ankles were bound.

Lovely.

Squinting, she turned her eyes towards the source of the overwhelming light, trying to make out the darkened figures standing just beyond the brightness. Her efforts were rewarded only when a single figure leaned forward into the light and gave her a wide, cherry-lipped grin.

"Hello, Danielle Waters, and welcome to Jupiter."

This was by no means an ideal situation.

Quite the opposite, actually.

And if Danielle hadn't already been regretting her noble decision to help the dark-haired stranger before, she definitely was now.

Seriously, who in the hell would kidnap someone who had only been trying to help?

Of course, it had kind of been Danielle's own fault she'd been endangered in the first place....

Damn, where was that wringing coming from? It sounded like someone was just repeatedly banging a gong right next her ear.

Or maybe it was just a side effect of whatever awful drugs they had given her.

"I am assuming you don't mean the planet," Danielle spat, glaring at the woman. She was a real looker – long red hair, pale creamy skin. Gorgeous, with a face worthy of some ritzy magazine. Danielle couldn't help but wonder if everyone in this place good-looking, or if she was just lucky enough to have all of the attractive ones doing the hard work?

She felt like a deer who had just wandered in front of a pair of oncoming headlights - if those headlights happened to be attached to a bunch of men and women dressed in suits and that car was in an empty, white room.

Hell, at this point she'd much rather be the deer. At least it wouldn't end up being fed to pigs or left in a dumpster.

Danielle shuddered. Nope, now was definitely not the time to be thinking about that. She was going to work herself into hysteria at this point.

The blond she'd met on the helicopter, Finch, snorted – turning away as he did his best to suppress his laughter. The red-headed woman, who Danielle assumed was the head of this whole...whatever it was - gang? Crime-ring? Modeling tour? – smirked.

"Good guess. However, I'm afraid I will not be able to answer any questions pertaining to who we are, or, more specifically, what we are," she stated, raising a sharp brow.

"Great. I at least thought that you would have the common decency to tell me your names before you killed me." Danielle blew frustratedly at her hair, which seemed insistent on remaining directly in her face. Why on earth had they tied her hands and feet? There was no way she would be able to run, and Danielle was pretty sure Mr. Finch over there had a gun holstered to his side - not to mention she was still woozy from whatever he had injected into her neck.