Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Lois Lane Deathtraps Challenge #1

Okay, as sort of Christmas present to all the gentle reader/writers.

As some of you may know, I used to be involved in several cooperative ventures known as the Wendy and Tank Challenges.

This is sort of like that. I've written a little scenario of danger for our intrepid reporter and I'm leaving it up to any and all folcs to try and come up with a conclusion to my little set up.

I've numbered this as Deathtraps Challenge #1 because I want to keep open the possibility for more in the future.

As with the old W&T challenges, I haven't presented a scenario that I haven't at least figured one way for Lois to escape. The fun is in seeing how many different ways different folcs can resovle the predicament.

So, with that in mind, I present...

Lois Lane Death Traps - #1
By Tank

“Hey quit pushing!”

Lois growled at her captors as they shoved her along the barely discernable path through the heavily wooded area. They had just recently removed her blindfold and gag. The man with the gun at her back had warned her that there would be no ‘Help Superman’ shouts. He had carefully explained that no matter how fast Superman was, even if he could hear her, unless he was only yards away he’d never be able to rescue her before the gun could be fired. Lois had to agree, so she confined her conversation to insults and questions. Neither of which were acknowledged by her kidnappers.

Lois had no idea where she was, but it was obvious that large trees were the most prevalent feature. Given how long they had traveled she guessed they were in the forests of northern New Troy; quite a distance from Metropolis.

She’d left the Planet early, meaning to pick up some things before she made it home. Clark was in Smallville but she expected him back later that evening. She was going to surprise him by actually cooking a meal for a change. She’d secretly been taking some lessons from her Uncle Mike and felt she was ready to showcase her newly acquired talents. It was only a simple pasta dish, but she was sure that Clark would appreciate it. Or he would have, had she ever gotten home to prepare it. They had taken her in the parking lot of the local FoodMart.

She was sure that by now Clark had been looking for her. She wondered if he had found her Jeep in the supermarket parking lot yet. It wasn’t one of the first places he’d think to look for her. More likely he was checking out the docks around Hobbs Bay, or the empty buildings in the warehouse district.

The sun was close to setting and the shadows created by the large trees were getting very dark. They walked for a few more minutes then stopped. It wasn’t quite a clearing, exactly, but they were now in a circle where the trees weren’t quite so clustered. At one edge of the pseudo clearing was a very large tree. The trunk was so big around that two people couldn’t hug it and touch each other’s hands.

Lois watched as a couple of the thugs carried a ladder over to the base of the big tree. Her gaze followed up the trunk, suddenly icy tendrils slithered up her spine. Hanging from one of the upper branches was a long, thick rope. What had caused Lois’ sudden reaction was that the rope ended in a sinister looking hangman’s noose.

Obviously, this had all been set up prior to their arrival. She stopped in her tracks, causing the fellow behind her to stumble against her back.

She turned to face the man. “Alright, I’m not moving another step until you tell me what’s going on.”

The man waved the gun in her face. She glared at him and pointed at the noose. He chuckled.

“Okay, fair enough.” He spoke in a quiet, measured tone. “Intergang has decided that they’ve had enough of you and they wish for you to cease to exist.”

Lois shook her head in disbelief. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to just let you hoist me up and hang me?”

He shrugged. “If you don’t I’ll shoot you.”

“So shoot me. I’m pretty sure that will be an easier death than dying struggling at the end of a rope.”

“Oh but you don’t understand. We don’t plan to hang you.”

Lois was confused. “I suppose that rope and noose are there for decoration?”

The fellow chuckled again. “You really are something Ms. Lane. No, we do plan to hoist you up to that large branch, and place that noose around your neck.” He grinned at Lois’ look of bewilderment. “But we aren’t going to push you off. We’re just going to leave you there.”

“If Intergang wants me dead… why?”

His grin grew. “Because it will be eminently more cruel.”

“Really.”

He nodded. “Oh yes. Just think Ms. Lane. Standing up there, all alone, wondering if every gust of wind, or every slight slip of a foot, is going to be the action that causes you to fall. A short fall, granted, but a very final one.” He came up close to her. “And the longer you manage to keep your balance the more thoughts of your impending doom will crowd out all other thoughts and the fear will gradually become all consuming. And, of course, there is the fatigue factor. Eventually your muscles will begin to cramp and the pain of just standing still will become agony. Or, if you truly have the steely resolve to overcome all that? You can’t stay awake forever.”

Lois shook her head. “Doesn’t sound too pleasant. Perhaps I’ll just yell for help and at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll go to prison even if you manage to shoot me before Superman comes to…”

Lois’ words were cut off by another thug coming up behind her and shoving the gag back into her mouth. A large piece of duct tape was placed over her mouth to hold the gag in place. Lois gagged a couple of times and had to concentrate on breathing through her nose to get her breath back.

The man smiled at Lois’ glare. “Now I’m pretty sure that you are the kind of person who is just naïve enough to believe that old tripe about ‘where there’s life there’s hope’ so you’ll choose the rope and branch over a quick bullet to the brain, but if you aren’t… I’ve got that covered too.”

Two of the larger thugs grabbed Lois and lifted her off the ground. Her hands were still tied behind her back so her struggles were largely ineffectual against the two heavily muscled ‘muscle’.

Unceremoniously Lois was forced up the ladder and met on the large branch by another grinning goon. He quickly placed the heavy noose around her neck and scampered down the ladder before she could react.

The ladder was taken away and her captors stood around the base of the tree looking up at her. She was glad she was wearing slacks.

The branch was fairly large, and it gave a decent purchase for her to stand. About the same as a two by six, only rounded. Thanks to her martial arts training, and generally good athletic nature, Lois had good balance. A branch like this on the ground would present someone no difficulty in running over it, or jumping up and down with little care; but put the thing twenty feet into the air, and it was a whole different matter.

The leader of her kidnap group directed his crew to pack up their ladders and other gear, then he turned his attention to Lois. “I’ll bid you a farewell now, Ms. Lane. We’ll be back tomorrow to see how you are doing in the unlikely event that you’re still alive. Be assured that photos of your lifeless body will be posted in every newspaper in Metropolis. I doubt even a paper as pretentious and stodgy as the Daily Planet would fail to capitalize on the death of their number one reporter.”

The man gave Lois a mocking salute, turned and left.

Lois stared after the group for several minutes; watching them leave until she could no longer see them. Then; still staring as she listened to the sound of their vehicle leaving, leaving her there… alone.

She tried moving her jaw around to see if she could loosen, and possibly free herself from the gag. She wasn’t having much luck, and when one particularly violent motion on her part to dislodge the gag caused her to nearly lose her balance she stopped.

The sun had fully set and the night was becoming darker by the minute. She felt fairly secure for the moment, but what would happen if she had a slight misstep in the darkness? She felt the breeze picking up and the movement of the branches around her was threatening. She knew there were no other branches within an arm’s reach of her perch so there was no place where she could use another branch to steady her. Still the movement was disconcerting.

Though she no longer could see the rope in the darkness, she knew there was a fair amount of excess; so that when she fell, it would snap her neck as effectively as a hangman’s gallows. Unfortunately the slack in the rope wasn’t enough to allow her to reach the trunk of the big tree. Her captors had made sure that she was set far enough out along the branch such that the rope would become tight before she reached it.

Her hands being tied tightly behind her back was the worst. It meant that she couldn’t use her arms to help her keep her balance. It felt really awkward and they had tied it in such a manner that her shoulders hurt.

Despite the rapidly cooling breeze, sweat began to bead up on Lois’ forehead. It was too dark to see. Her muscles were beginning to tighten up from the tension, and she was finding it harder to stay calm enough to breathe easily through her nose.

It didn’t happen often, but Lois had to admit… she was scared.


Over to the gentle reader/writers.
Tank

Well, this challenge just goes to show what was already painfully obvious: I am no Wendy Richards.

I had read some of your older challenges and always wondered whether I would be up to coming up with solutions on my own. (I was too impatient to read the given solutions to try to think of one first.) Now that I have had the chance to try, I have failed miserably. The only things I can come up with are pretty far-fetched. (For example, Lois just happening to have a Swiss army knife in a back pocket and managing to get it out and cut the roped tying her hands, and then cutting the noose, thus freeing herself. Then using her cell phone to call Clark for a lift back to the city.)

Tank, at what point (if ever) will you be posting your own solution to your challenge? Please don't leave both Lois and me at the end of our respective ropes with this story!

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., Well done with the challenge. And since your post indicated that this was "Challenge #1," I am assuming that there will be more to come. I look forward to trying them.

Michael

I do have a possible solution to this dilemna, and I will try to write it up at some point.

But I am more interested with what the other gentle reader/writers come up with. The fun thing with the challenges that Wendy and I played with in the past is that we pretty much never came up with the same ideas for the solutions to the set up.

When I free up some time over the next few weeks, I'll put together my own solution but before then, (and even after), I welcome any other attempts.

Tank (who does have it in the back of his mind to come up with more of these in the coming new year)

Gee, the only answer I could come up with had to do with telepathy. And that just seems like cheating somehow.

Lois Lane Death Traps - #1
By Tank

“Hey quit pushing!”

Lois growled at her captors as they shoved her along the barely discernable path through the heavily wooded area. They had just recently removed her blindfold and gag. The man with the gun at her back had warned her that there would be no ‘Help Superman’ shouts. He had carefully explained that no matter how fast Superman was, even if he could hear her, unless he was only yards away he’d never be able to rescue her before the gun could be fired. Lois had to agree, so she confined her conversation to insults and questions. Neither of which were acknowledged by her kidnappers.

Lois had no idea where she was, but it was obvious that large trees were the most prevalent feature. Given how long they had traveled she guessed they were in the forests of northern New Troy; quite a distance from Metropolis.

She’d left the Planet early, meaning to pick up some things before she made it home. Clark was in Smallville but she expected him back later that evening. She was going to surprise him by actually cooking a meal for a change. She’d secretly been taking some lessons from her Uncle Mike and felt she was ready to showcase her newly acquired talents. It was only a simple pasta dish, but she was sure that Clark would appreciate it. Or he would have, had she ever gotten home to prepare it. They had taken her in the parking lot of the local FoodMart.

She was sure that by now Clark had been looking for her. She wondered if he had found her Jeep in the supermarket parking lot yet. It wasn’t one of the first places he’d think to look for her. More likely he was checking out the docks around Hobbs Bay, or the empty buildings in the warehouse district.

The sun was close to setting and the shadows created by the large trees were getting very dark. They walked for a few more minutes then stopped. It wasn’t quite a clearing, exactly, but they were now in a circle where the trees weren’t quite so clustered. At one edge of the pseudo clearing was a very large tree. The trunk was so big around that two people couldn’t hug it and touch each other’s hands.

Lois watched as a couple of the thugs carried a ladder over to the base of the big tree. Her gaze followed up the trunk, suddenly icy tendrils slithered up her spine. Hanging from one of the upper branches was a long, thick rope. What had caused Lois’ sudden reaction was that the rope ended in a sinister looking hangman’s noose.

Obviously, this had all been set up prior to their arrival. She stopped in her tracks, causing the fellow behind her to stumble against her back.

She turned to face the man. “Alright, I’m not moving another step until you tell me what’s going on.”

The man waved the gun in her face. She glared at him and pointed at the noose. He chuckled.

“Okay, fair enough.” He spoke in a quiet, measured tone. “Intergang has decided that they’ve had enough of you and they wish for you to cease to exist.”

Lois shook her head in disbelief. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to just let you hoist me up and hang me?”

He shrugged. “If you don’t I’ll shoot you.”

“So shoot me. I’m pretty sure that will be an easier death than dying struggling at the end of a rope.”

“Oh but you don’t understand. We don’t plan to hang you.”

Lois was confused. “I suppose that rope and noose are there for decoration?”

The fellow chuckled again. “You really are something Ms. Lane. No, we do plan to hoist you up to that large branch, and place that noose around your neck.” He grinned at Lois’ look of bewilderment. “But we aren’t going to push you off. We’re just going to leave you there.”

“If Intergang wants me dead… why?”

His grin grew. “Because it will be eminently more cruel.”

“Really.”

He nodded. “Oh yes. Just think Ms. Lane. Standing up there, all alone, wondering if every gust of wind, or every slight slip of a foot, is going to be the action that causes you to fall. A short fall, granted, but a very final one.” He came up close to her. “And the longer you manage to keep your balance the more thoughts of your impending doom will crowd out all other thoughts and the fear will gradually become all consuming. And, of course, there is the fatigue factor. Eventually your muscles will begin to cramp and the pain of just standing still will become agony. Or, if you truly have the steely resolve to overcome all that? You can’t stay awake forever.”

Lois shook her head. “Doesn’t sound too pleasant. Perhaps I’ll just yell for help and at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll go to prison even if you manage to shoot me before Superman comes to…”

Lois’ words were cut off by another thug coming up behind her and shoving the gag back into her mouth. A large piece of duct tape was placed over her mouth to hold the gag in place. Lois gagged a couple of times and had to concentrate on breathing through her nose to get her breath back.

The man smiled at Lois’ glare. “Now I’m pretty sure that you are the kind of person who is just naïve enough to believe that old tripe about ‘where there’s life there’s hope’ so you’ll choose the rope and branch over a quick bullet to the brain, but if you aren’t… I’ve got that covered too.”

Two of the larger thugs grabbed Lois and lifted her off the ground. Her hands were still tied behind her back so her struggles were largely ineffectual against the two heavily muscled ‘muscle’.

Unceremoniously Lois was forced up the ladder and met on the large branch by another grinning goon. He quickly placed the heavy noose around her neck and scampered down the ladder before she could react.

The ladder was taken away and her captors stood around the base of the tree looking up at her. She was glad she was wearing slacks.

The branch was fairly large, and it gave a decent purchase for her to stand. About the same as a two by six, only rounded. Thanks to her martial arts training, and generally good athletic nature, Lois had good balance. A branch like this on the ground would present someone no difficulty in running over it, or jumping up and down with little care; but put the thing twenty feet into the air, and it was a whole different matter.

The leader of her kidnap group directed his crew to pack up their ladders and other gear, then he turned his attention to Lois. “I’ll bid you a farewell now, Ms. Lane. We’ll be back tomorrow to see how you are doing in the unlikely event that you’re still alive. Be assured that photos of your lifeless body will be posted in every newspaper in Metropolis. I doubt even a paper as pretentious and stodgy as the Daily Planet would fail to capitalize on the death of their number one reporter.”

The man gave Lois a mocking salute, turned and left.

Lois stared after the group for several minutes; watching them leave until she could no longer see them. Then; still staring as she listened to the sound of their vehicle leaving, leaving her there… alone.

She tried moving her jaw around to see if she could loosen, and possibly free herself from the gag. She wasn’t having much luck, and when one particularly violent motion on her part to dislodge the gag caused her to nearly lose her balance she stopped.

The sun had fully set and the night was becoming darker by the minute. She felt fairly secure for the moment, but what would happen if she had a slight misstep in the darkness? She felt the breeze picking up and the movement of the branches around her was threatening. She knew there were no other branches within an arm’s reach of her perch so there was no place where she could use another branch to steady her. Still the movement was disconcerting.

Though she no longer could see the rope in the darkness, she knew there was a fair amount of excess; so that when she fell, it would snap her neck as effectively as a hangman’s gallows. Unfortunately the slack in the rope wasn’t enough to allow her to reach the trunk of the big tree. Her captors had made sure that she was set far enough out along the branch such that the rope would become tight before she reached it.

Her hands being tied tightly behind her back was the worst. It meant that she couldn’t use her arms to help her keep her balance. It felt really awkward and they had tied it in such a manner that her shoulders hurt.

Despite the rapidly cooling breeze, sweat began to bead up on Lois’ forehead. It was too dark to see. Her muscles were beginning to tighten up from the tension, and she was finding it harder to stay calm enough to breathe easily through her nose.

It didn’t happen often, but Lois had to admit… she was scared.

***********

Clark arrived back at their home from Smallville, carrying a pan of brownies that his mother had made for Lois. He knew that he would benefit from his mother's chocolate delights, and that his evening was going to be spent in the bedroom after supper.

He quickly defrosted some chicken with his vision and started stir fry on the stove. In rapid order, he set the table and called the Daily Planet to see when Lois would be coming through the door. Ralph answered the phone and said that Lois had gone out about three hours earlier and was in a very good mood. Clark was happier, if that was possible, to know that she was in a good mood prior to knowing about the chocolate delights.

Meanwhile, Lois was in real trouble. As she began to panic, she forgot to breathe and lost her footing for a second. She began to tumble towards a certain death screaming in her mind, "CLARK!" Miles away in the kitchen of their townhouse, Clark heard the panic of his wife and rocketed out of the kitchen into the sky. There was no heartbeat he could pick up, no further communication of any kind, and no sign of Lois on the streets below nearing their home. His mind screamed for her. But there was no answer. He super-changed into his suit and began a grid of the streets beginning from the Daily Planet that would lead to their home.

Panic had set in with Lois. Her foot was slipping over the side of the branch and toward a certain death. She mentally said her goodbyes to the man she had recently married and awaited the ending she was sure would happen. Just as she lost contact with the branch with one foot, the other foot slid in the opposite direction and she did the splits on the branch. She clenched her legs together to grip the branch, but her forward movement continued and she tipped over the branch heading toward the ground. As her back leg came toward the front of the branch and threatened to break contact with her perch, she got tangled in the rope and her back leg prevented her from losing all contact with the tree. When Lois was sure that she was tangled securely in the tree, she moved her front leg up next to the back one and twisted her foot around the rope so that she was securely hanging upside down from the tree. She anchored herself and started to move her head until she managed to get the noose to slip from under her chin. As she worked it up toward the top of her head, her breathing returned to normal and she began to realize that she might be able to make it after all.

***************

A very upset Clark/Superman was whizzing around in the space just above the buildings of Metropolis. As he flew and scanned, his mental radar was going off to try to locate Lois. He knew at a gut-level that she was in real danger. He knew at a husband level that his mate would try to contact him if at all possible, and if he wasn't hearing her that meant she was in real trouble! And he knew at a Daily Planet Employee level that she was capable of getting into some real doozies, so in real trouble. Since the last thing that the two of them had been working on was Intergang, he headed in a panic toward the main Metropolis Cost Mart. If the two of them were right, and Intergang and Cost Mart were related, possibly he would find her there. As he hovered over the building and tried to strain all the conversation to find any information about Lois, he happened to see a van drive up with three men inside. Lois was not with them, but they attracted his attention. They were packing heavy guns and when the van stopped, all the men went into the rear of the truck and pulled out shotguns before they entered the loading dock entrances. No one stopped them or questioned their hardware, so it got Clark/Superman curious. He tracked them as they went into the elevator and went down into the bowels of the Cost Mart. When they put the guns back on the gunracks they signed a clipboard and told the man there to tell Mr. Church that mission was accomplished. Then all three of them went back up the elevator and got into three different vehicles and left the area.


Clark flew back to the townhouse. He smelled the burning fry pan as he entered the window. He quickly turned the stove off and went into his den to a phone. He made a call to Inspector Henderson and gave him the license plate numbers and descriptions of the three men who had entered Cost Mart so heavily armed. He explained that he had reason to believe that Lois was in trouble and these three men were responsible. He said he would explain later, but wanted the police of Metropolis to question them and keep them under lock and key until he found Lois. Henderson said he would pick them up and question them, but Clark would need to have more information for them to be able to hold the men. Clark assured him that he would be back to him and for Henderson to call him if he got any information from these men about Lois.

Lois was not having a good day. She was beginning to make headway in getting free, but her upside-down position was threatening to make her lose consciousness. She could feel her face becoming very hot and sweaty as she tried to work on the noose that still was attached to her. She stretched her neck and turned her head, repeatedly, just as she began to feel faint. Oh, what she would give for a chance to take a deep breath of fresh air through her mouth. As she finally managed to work the last of the noose over the end of her head, she fainted. But Lois had securely wound the rope around her leg and the other foot was tangled in the rope on the other side of the branch, so she held securely in mid air.

**************

Three very unhappy thugs were hauled into the police department by Inspector Henderson. As the police began to question them in separate rooms, it became obvious to the men that they had been betrayed by someone. How could anyone know about Lois Lane being taken out of Metropolis? How could anyone know that she was most likely dead? Were they being set up to take the heat for a contract killing ordered by Mr. Church? Even though they were not given all the details, they were plucked from the streets before they even got back to their own homes and told that if anything happened to Lois Lane they would be held responsible. All of them were scared and willing to make a deal. Inspector Henderson called the office of the district attorney and was sent an assistant who proceded to tell them that he had just one deal for the first one who would lead them back to Lois Lane. Then the police could not shut any of them up. Henderson got back on the phone with Clark less than an hour after he had called and told him to get Superman to go to Lake Troy and he would find Lois near the boat rental facility.

Superman had reached the boat rental near Lake Troy in less than a minute after he received the call. As he hovered for just a second he heard Lois' heartbeat and zeroed in on her. She awoke to two strong arms flying her to Metropolis General Hospital where Clark joined her shortly in the emergency room. Henderson came in a little while after and asked Lois to pick out a photo line-up of who took her. Of the twelve pictures, she pointed out the three who had taken her at gunpoint. Upon being released from the hospital in good health, she and Clark took a taxi back to their townhouse and to a meal of their favorite Chinese (from China) and brownies. Instead of being on the front page of the Daily Planet the next day as a corpse, she was on the front page, above the fold with a story of the capture of three hitmen from Intergang. And it looked like another award-winning story to all who read it. To top that off, she and Clark celebrated another Superman rescue gone good. The brownies were just the cherry on top of a successful day for truth, justice, and the Kents.

********
Note to Tank: Thanks! That was fun!

/says without reading, to prevent spoiling of Muse/

Michael

PS: Will be back here after Christmas...

Nice. Well done. I always like it when Lois manages to get out of the deadly danger on her own. Superman was just her taxi.

See how easy it is .

Tank (who says, one down and ? to go)

I had started writing this and then read Lex Luthor's Revenge...Take One. Honest, there was no plagarism, just a resourceful Lois Lane at work in both cases.

________________________________________________

She was sure enough time had passed for any unseen watcher to be sure she would fall. She didn’t want to begin freeing herself only to have her feet knocked out from under her, literally. She was playing for the crowd, whether there was one or not, but her condition still wasn’t very good. Losing her balance had really shaken her.

Lois felt fear building inside her and knew if she gave it full reign she would die. She said to herself, “C’mon Lane. Pull yourself together. Yeah, it’s a tough situation but these dirtbags aren’t in your league. Deal with it!” Forcing herself to take deep, slow breaths she began to feel herself calming down, despite the gag.

What were her problems? Well, it would be nice to not fall out of this tree and kill myself. I need to do something about my legs. Her Tae Kwon Do lessons came to mind. “Balance is the key to any fight" her sensei had said..... "Even a fight for your life stuck in a stupid tree with a noose around your neck and no one knows where you are?” She let the thought trail off. As well as she could with her arms tied behind her she assumed a fighter’s stance and began some of her exercises. It had to be a strange sight she admitted, but the movement definitely helped ease the cramps in her legs.

Next, how to get out of here? Luckily she was still wearing the ring her mother gave her for her birthday a few years ago. One of the prongs had bent during a previous kidnapping when she had found it worked well as a small hook to tear the individual fibers of her bindings. A few days after she had set herself free a little research had shown that most ropes were vulnerable to the prong-hook attack to some degree and she had decided not to repair it. Bending her wrist severely she confirmed she could reach the ropes binding her arms. This time her kidnappers had used synthetic fiber rope which would require more care and patience than the hemp used last time but, given enough time she would be able to free herself. Of course, once the rope was dealt with she could remove the gag and yell for help.

Always one to hedge her bets, Lois considered the problem of communication further. “Help, Superman,” wasn’t going to be possible for some time. The rope was thick and she would have to take breaks from working on the rope or risk cramps. Her ropes permitted enough movement so she decided to snap her fingers in a snap – snap – snap – snapsnapsnap – snap – snap – snap pattern during each break. Superman would be able to hear and recognize the SOS.

She could also hum. Breath control would also help prevent hyperventilation and panic. But what to hum? Her musical repertoire was pretty extensive but she couldn’t think of any show tunes that would convey, “Rescue-me-because-I’ve-been-kidnapped-and-strung-up-to-a-tree-and-if-you-don’t-I’ll-die.” Lois didn’t know more than the first line of Please Release Me by Englebert Humperdink and honestly didn’t care to learn them. Then she realized she had the perfect song to hum. Clark would understand it immediately. It had started as a joke. Clark had complained about her “Hack from Nowheresville” crack so she had decided to see what would happen if she teased him about it. She morphed Monty Python’s I’m a Lumberjack song into “Clark is a Hack from Nowheresville.” He had turned red, laughed and then retaliated with a tickle barrage. Superman Express was the only reason they weren’t late for work the next day.

Work on the rope was progressing nicely, and it was a question whether Clark would come across her or whether she would have to hitchhike home if some other emergency had him tied up. Deciding to cross that bridge when she came to it she decided to keep the monotony of escaping at bay by outlining tomorrow’s front page story.....

_________________________________

Sorry--Couldn't work Arachnicus deathicus into the post.

Five minutes later she'd have been laughing her head off except for the duct tape and gag.

A little less melodrama and a little more attention to detail by her kidnappers and she'd have been in real trouble. Synthetic fiber rope and not enough loops meant her noose was nothing more that a fancy looking slipknot. A couple of minutes work and it was big enough to allow her to remove her head.

As she worked at the rest of her bonds she inwardly sighed. Page 13 below the fold at best. Oh well, another day another kidnapping.

Clever.

Taking advantage of circumstances that may have been inplied but not specifically mentioned can work very well in answering and thus solving a challenge type situation.

While the obvious visual one would take from the initial set up would be one of a typical gallows style rope and noose set up. But it wasn't specifially spelled out and so the challenged gentle writer is free to extrapolate conditions that fit their own vision without contradicting the initial chapter.

Well done.

Tank (who will consider his own solution over the next week or so, but has to admit that it isn't really very imaginative)

Umm...okay, so I've got a feasible idea. Might be a tad out there, but then again, Wendy once used ghosts, the Zelig stone, and clones to get out of the trap.

Unfortunately, I have to finish reading Virginia's Missing Lois first. And by 'have to', I mean, I already spent a good chunk my Christmas vacation catching up and couldn't get myself to stop and actually write fic of my own So, it's on the todo list. On the short list, actually. Hope it stays there. As opposed to getting pushed back.

Michael