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]

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.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Jackie had managed to cut through the ropes just enough that Chuck could wiggle his wrists free. As he saw the minion clamp the pliers on Jackie's front tooth, he screamed out, "Okay, okay! Don't! Just...I'll tell you what you wanna know!"

This got the kidnapper's attention and he removed the pliers from Jackie's mouth and made his way back to Chuck. "Really? Then start talking now!"

Chuck took a breath and concentrated for a second. His eyes glazed over as a skills flash loaded. He shot up, surprising the kidnapper who thought Chuck was still bound. He let out "How did you-" before Chuck brought him to the ground with a swift roundhouse kick.

The minion, seeing his boss on the ground, ran at Chuck. Chuck flipped over him and the minion turned to where Chuck was now standing. He growled and ran at Chuck only to be brought to the floor with a quick uppercut to the face.

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie couldn't have known what Chuck was planning but at least he got the bad guy to let go of what was probably her favorite tooth at that point in time...

But her mouth hung open as she watched Chuck flip through the air, taking down the minion guy neatly. "Holey rusted metal batman!" She blinked at Chuck "That was amazing!"

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"I've...um, taking some defense training classes. Not sure how I did the flip really," Chuck sheepishly replied.

Then noticing the minion start to stir a bit, he looked back at Jackie. "We should probably get outta here..."

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

She squirmed against her bonds. "Com'n, hurry up and untie me!" she hissed at him.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

Chuck ran over to Jackie and loosened up the ropes.

"That should do it."

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

She unties her feet hurriedly, one of the goons is starting to stir. They hurry out the door and out of the warehouse onto the street...

...which turns out to be a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. "Aw man. There's no telling where we are."

There's a helicopter parked nearby and the van that they were kidnapped in. "Don't suppose you know how to hotwire a van really quick?" Jackie asks.

[nerdherdchuck.livejournal.com]

"Well...I could try something I saw in a movie," Chuck timidly offers.

He sits in the driver's seat staring at the wheel for a moment a takes a deep breath to concentrate. Suddenly, his eyes roll back and in a flash, he knows exactly what he's doing. He quickly gets the ignition to turn over and gives a dopey smile, "Hey! That worked!"

[psychette10.livejournal.com]

Jackie was too busy keeping watch outside the van, hoping Chuck was right. When the engine turned over, she made a happy sound, jumping into the passenger side of the van. "Chuck, you're fantastic! Go quick!"

Just as they were about to pull away, the bad guys come out of the warehouse, rubbing their heads and drawing their guns. "DRIVE, HURRY!"