Lotion: Unmasked at Last!

(Some of you may have met my friend 'Lotion' at Nostalgic Source or elsewhere. She's part of the unmasking community and a big fan of exposed superheroines. Now she volunteered to contribute some photos of her being being unmasked if I would write a little story to go along with them. Naturally, I agreed!)

~~~~~~

Lotion was finally at the end of a hard day of battling crime in the city. Her body ached, particularly from that gang of thugs she had to fight singlehandedly. They swarmed her at one point and almost managed to pull off her mask.  If they had exposed her, they would have had Lotion at their mercy. Her career would be ruined.The whole criminal underworld wanted to unmask her, it seemed. They all knew that being unmasked was her Achilles heel. But that time Lotion had fought them off... barely.

Now it was time to return to her secret lair and rest. But there were the ever-present fans. They were always asking for an autograph, or a photo with her and she didn't want to disappoint them. So she posed with little kids who had a Lotion action figure and 'tweens' who wanted her signature on an unauthorized comic about her that somebody had done. A large crowd stood around watching.

Then a 20-ish guy and girl asked if Lotion would pose on a seat with one of them on each side... like friends. A third friend would take a few photos. Suspecting nothing, the heroine sat and the two slid up very close. The thought crossed her mind that the guy was getting a little too close, but young guys sometimes tried to get a bit "personal" with the superheroine so they could brag about it later. Jerks.

But this time she was in a much more dangerous situation. A fourth accomplice had sneaked up behind her. Suddenly the two people grabbed Lotion's arms and
pinned them at her side!
"Wha -- what are you doing?" she asked, taken aback. Then, before she could react, the accomplice reached down... and grabbed her mask! She began to struggle but it was already too late. He pulled her mask up from her face while their  other friend took picture after picture.

"No," the stunned heroine cried out. "Not my mask!!"

And then, galvanized by her words, the crowd closed in, eager to see who Lotion really was! "No, no!" she screamed. "Please don't look at my face!" Instinctively she pulled free from the two people's grip and covered her face with her hands. Bystanders grabbed her arms and tugged at them, trying to force them away so they could get a good look.

Lotion finally was able to break free although someone had already claimed her mask as a trophy. She was forced to hide in the shadows and turn her face away from everyone until she was able to reach her headquarters, where she slumped down in despair. Now there were people who had seen her face, possibly recognized her! And there were the photos. What if those people uploaded them to the Internet -- maybe to some weird unmasking fetish site? There were such foul places! They might have given them to the police. Or what if they were working for one of her worst enemies? She would be defenseless against them!

Was her career over?