Action Comics Inc.... [for nerdherdchuck]

[psychette]

Things were buzzing at Comic Con. People milling here and there, some in costume, some without. Somewhere near the entrance...

"Com'n, we're gonna miss it!" Jackie urged, absentmindedly tugging on her arm bands. She was loving her Kira costume this year, getting quite a few thumbs up from passers-by...ignoring the fact most of them were thirty-ish guys who probably still lived with their mom.

"Chuck, I thought you wanted to be at this auction thing too. What's taking so long?"

Comments

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Sad part being they're at a Comic Convention...and the guys holding them up happen to be dressed like agents from the Matrix...or it's possible they could be their normal clothes, who can tell?

The man from the auction coming towards them gives a nod and the two of them are urged towards the service exit...decidedly less people near them now. Jackie gives Chuck a confused/worried look, hoping this is some sort of elaborate prank.

Outside the door is an unmarked van which the two of them are unceremoniously shoved into, another guy driving the van. Jackie and Chuck get their hands and ankles duct taped rather quickly. "Wow...did you major in duct tape in college? This is some professional handywork." She gets nothing but unamused stares at that quip so she shuts up after that.

Auction guy relieves one of the gunmen of his weapon, sitting down near Jackie. "I want to know where the painting is."

"....seriously??"
He levels the gun at her. "Yes."
Jackie glares at Chuck. "He'll get over it??? This doesn't look like getting over it to me."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"Look, um," Chuck began, looking around a bit, hoping to see some way out of this. C'mon...flash. Do...something. Disarm bad guy skill...thing? Please?

When nothing happened, he continued, "I-I'm sure there's others out there. Maybe tr-try eBay?"

Their captor looked less than amused at Chuck's suggestion. "I need that one," he grunted. Chuck looked at Jackie and then back to their captor. "We...don't have it with us."

That provoked the obvious follow up question, "Then where is it?!"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Chuck's really gonna regret getting kidnapped with a Spencer...cause instead of answering the question the right way, she found the need to ask, "Why? You have a Jayne shrine at home that needs it?"

The bad guy backhands her across the face with his free hand. Jackie comes back up looking a bit chastised, saying pointedly, "Ow."

"I'm going to make this simple," he said, readjusting where he was sitting so he had a clear shot of both of them. "You two aren't going anywhere till you tell me where you hid that painting."

Jackie whispers at Chuck, even though it's obvious everyone's gonna hear "I don't think they're comic book fans..."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

And sure enough, the whisper was heard by their kidnapper. "No. And I don't understand your crazy...whatever this thing is." There was a grunt, showing the dissatisfaction at being sent to a convention of science fiction and fantasy fans.

"Well...we don't exactly know where it is now," Chuck somewhat lied. "A friend took it back to store it."

"And what does this friend look like?" the kidnapper demanded.

Chuck decided to give a fictional description of their friend that was quite vague. "Well, he's dressed as the most recent incarnation of Doctor Who."

Not only would that description have matched several hundred patrons, but also it confused their kidnapper. "What are you talking about?"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie takes the cue from Chuck and runs with it. "Y'know, The Doctor? Timetraveling british show? Striped suit, trainers, really messy hair...Man, you'd think even kidnappers had a working knowledge of mainstream television..."

Her voice trails off, finding herself staring down the barrel of the gun. "I think either one or both of you is lying. So this is your last chance." He looks at Chuck meaningfully, since he's the more nervous looking between the two of them. "Either you tell me where it is now or..." he cocks the gun still in Jackie's face. "things get unpleasant."

ooc: p.s. he's not gonna shoot, I figure if this doesn't work, they'll just clunk them both on the head and work them over at their hideout. whaddya think?

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"No really!" Chuck insists. "Look...we didn't have it on us, right? I mean, you could tell we weren't lying about that! We did give it to someone like that, honest."

ooc: That works. You can have their kidnapper get fed up and knock them out then.

lol! Chuck looks so nervous in that icon!

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie doesn't realize she's holding her breath...till the kidnapper uncocks the hammer on his gun and she lets it out. "Perhaps..."

His cellphone suddenly rings, making Jackie jump without leaving her seat. He answers in short sentences, "Yes, sir......yes....understood." He snaps his phone shut and makes a sign towards his henchmen as he moves up to the passenger seat to the van. Before Jackie knows what's going on, the two Matrix agents are grabbing her and Chuck, hitting them on the back of the head with the butt of their handguns.....and everything goes black.

ooc: your turn! you decide how they wake up :)

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

ooc: I know. It's one of my favorites. I forgot where I found the still though.

The darkness slowly started to fade and Chuck could feel a sharp pain on the back of his head. He groaned as his eyes adjusted to the light and tried to figure out where they were now. He saw a few crates stacked in rows and figured their kidnapper must have taken them to some sort of warehouse.

He glanced behind him, seeing a large metal shelf where some of the crates were stacked. And his hands were bound by ropes, weaved around some of the metal bars that held the shelf in place. And next to him was Jackie. Upon seeing her, Chuck asked her if she was all right.

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie's answer is a groan, still coming around. "....ow...."

It takes her a minute or two to figure out the whole hands-tied-behind-her bit, blinking to clear her head and focus on Chuck. "Rats, I thought we were doing so well for awhile there..."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck sighs. "Yeah, I know. I thought maybe that would buy us some time while they searched the place too but I guess they saw right through everything."

He looks around, trying to think of a way out but poses a question to Jackie first. "Any idea of what to do now?"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

She turns her head gingerly side to side. "Ughh...don't suppose I could answer that tomorrow when my head stops throbbing..."

Jackie looked up and around. "Where do you suppose we are? They could have driven us anywhere." She tests the ropes on her wrists. "Must be boy scouts, these knots are top notch."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"Hang in there, Jackie," Chuck sympathetically replied.

"As to where we are," he began, "No idea. Probably not too far from Comic Con though. I kinda doubt our captor would drive too far in case we were telling the truth about giving the painting to a friend. Which we did so...yeah."

He wiggled his wrists and realized Jackie was right about the knots. "You're right about these knots though. No way to get out of 'em..."

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie elbows Chuck as best as she can, "Wish you hadn't have told him we did that. Blabbermouth." She was worried about her friend Ricky. Sighing down at her tied feet....

...and starts to smile. "Wait a minute, I'm still in costume." Her Kira costume that she worked on so hard to make authentic. Leaning over, she said, "Can you see? There's a little knife behind the strap on my shirt...if you could get it with your teeth..."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"Hey! I never said who, " Chuck protested. "I thought maybe they'd go after the person we described or let us try to lead them to the painting and then we could have led them on a wild goose chase." He gave a sigh as well.

But when Jackie mentioned the knife, Chuck beamed. He looked as she said and could see the knife. Nodding he replied, "I can and I'll try."

He then leaned over and attempted to recover the knife with his teeth.

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

"Great plan. So now when we give up the name, we're expendable. And my friend is toast. Would have been better if they didn't know anything."

Jackie tries to roll her shoulder closer to give him a better chance. "....yeah...careful.....little bit left..."

If and when he does get it, he's going to find out it's not technically a knife...it's a letter opener.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck manages to get his teeth on the handle of what he thinks is a knife. He slowly starts to pull it towards him, hoping not to nick Jackie in the process.

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

"Good...good...great!" Jackie grins, seeing Chuck holding her letter opener between his teeth.

"Now...we gotta get that down near our hands. Um..." The smile fades, uncertain how to do that, trying to see around her shoulder where the ropes are. "Dropping it would be a bad idea, I don't think I could catch it."

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"Cahn woo liff yor hanfz uppa bit?" Chuck asks with the knife still in his mouth. His speech is muffled by the knife. "Mayfe I lean ofer 'n you could take it outta my mouff?"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

"Good idea...if you said what I think you said.." Jackie leans forward as far as she can go, exposing her hands more and trying to reach up with her fingers.

A door closes nearby. "Hurry....they might come back any minute." Jackie hisses under her breath.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck bites on the knife a little harder as he leans forward, hoping not to drop it as he delivers it to Jackie. He thinks he feels Jackie start to reach it and whispers a muffled, "Ooo gawt it?"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

"Little bit....there, THERE, got it!" Jackie grabs ahold of the knife tightly with one of her hands.

And just in time too, she straightens up as another door is slammed closer to them and their kidnapper shows himself again...

Nice to see you kids are awake again.

One of his minions is carrying something in behind him, laying out on the table a nice assortment of torture implements...that ironically look like they came from some giants dentist.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck winces. He doesn't have a high pain tolerance. He kinda hopes there's a way out of this that won't involve a severed finger or a missing tooth.

The kidnapper turns to his minion, examining the tools of torture for a moment. Chuck looks over at Jackie, hoping that she is making a little progress on the ropes.

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie had been busy staring at the bad guy and all of his toys...and trying to not look like she's got a knife behind her back. When Chuck looks over, she mentally facepalms and starts trying to rub it against his ropes unobtrusively. She gives Chuck a "com'n, keep him busy!" look as she works.

The kidnapper lights a cigarette to start, letting out a cloud of smoke at them. Where is the painting? As if this is the last time he's going to ask nicely.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck turned to face forward before the kidnapper had a chance to see him glance towards Jackie. Now that the kidnapper had turned around and blown a smoke ring in his face, he couldn't help coughing for a moment.

As Chuck caught his breath, the kidnapper continued to glare at him, waiting for an answer to his question. "We don't have it on us. It's back at the convention, honest. We thought it was a nifty poster. If we had known how much it really meant, we'd have never bidded on it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the kidnapper growled.

"Well, we just wanted a show prop. We're sci-fi fans, really. This Comic-Con is a big deal, you know?" He then let out a nervous chuckle, but the kidnapper continued to glare at him. "Okay, maybe not, but that's the real truth, honest! I'm dressed up in a classic Star Wars costume and my friend is dressed up as a character from the Chronicles of Riddick movies."

A blank stare crossed the kidnapper's face. "Yeah, I knew who you were supposed to be," he growled, motioning to Chuck. "But I have no idea about your friend."

"Oh, the character's name is Kira and-"

A grunt this time silenced Chuck. "I may not know who she is, but I don't need the history of your sci-fi...fandoms or whatever."

He goes over to his minion and takes a pair of pliers from him. "Now," the kidnapper begins. "Maybe you'll be more willing to talk if you knew I'd start taking out a tooth if you didn't."

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

There's a really weird soft high pitched sound. It takes a minute before Jackie realizes it came from her the minute she saw that pair of pliers. She clears her throat. "Um...I'm pretty sure it would be physically more difficult to talk with less teeth. Perhaps if you started with toenails or something? ...maybe individual hairs?" She was leaning back, talking as she did as the kidnapper was coming towards her purposefully.

Behind her back, she was scraping away like crazy, trying to make some headway with Chuck's ropes. She couldn't even see how far it had cut through but she didn't get a chance to finish. "Hold her," one of the minions was directed to come around, taking her head with his big hands. Jackie squeaked out, "Please don't..." as the pliers were coming for her.