Omega Woman Presents: Two-Minute Cliffhangers!

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Disciple
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Howdy there, folks and folkettes.

This here's something of an experiment in my short but successful (stop laughing, you!) career of superheroine writing. See, I've got dozens, maybe hundreds, of ideas bouncing around in my head, but I've so little time to write them all out into the stories they deserve. Heck, I've already got a good deal of unfinished stories floating around on this site, and I'd rather not add to the pile.

Hence, the concept of this new series. From now on, I'll be pumping out a short little superheroine-in-peril piece with little setup and even less resolution for the sheer hell of it. Like the name says, it'll (hopefully) be a gripping cliffhanger, but the whole thing should be finished in two, maybe three minutes.

If any of these get popular enough, I may spin them off into full stories later on (and if anyone's interested, I've certainly got no issue with people "adopting" them), but for now, the main focus is on testing out various different kinds of plots, characters, and concepts.

So if you will, watch this space for the first installment - a little drabble featuring everyone's favorite Amazing Amazon Princess! Coming soon!
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Sounds like a cool idea - specially because it works with your schedule, and at least that way you get to keep writing something.

That being said, *please* do persist with the seducer story and the 'no turning back' story - or even just one of them. They're both already set up and ready to fly even if you just want to chisel away at them in three minute chunks.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
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TWO-MINUTE CLIFFHANGERS PROUDLY PRESENTS:
The Amazing Amazon Princess WONDER WOMAN
in
"On the Ropes"

XOXOXOXO

Wonder Woman strode down Ross Street with purpose, fists at her sides and head held high. In the light of day, the raven-maned, blue-eyed Amazon cast quite an imposing figure. Her gods-given physique, a mix of beauty and power that only an Amazon could possess, was impressive enough. When it was clad in her signature costume, consisting of red-and-gold satin bustier, star-spangled blue shorts, golden tiara, red boots (each with a white stripe up the front), Amazonian bracers, and golden "power belt", it often stopped onlookers dead in their tracks.

Not that the super heroine had encountered many onlookers today. She was patrolling a rather dilapidated section of town, one where the inhabitants - law-abiding or otherwise - often preferred to keep out of the way of law enforcement. That saddened her a bit; she'd always believed in strengthening relations between protectors and protected, but it seemed like the feeling wasn't mutual.

The Amazon suddenly stopped when a particular piece of graffiti caught her eye. Some kind of message, hastily written on the faded brick in red spray-paint. It didn't even seem to have finished drying.

Out of curiosity as much as anything else, she read it aloud:

"Too often, you have thwarted me. Too often, you have took my glee.
And now, upon my dying breath, I damn you to a painful death.
May the tools you trust most of all... lead you down to your final fall!"


Wonder Woman's face grew increasingly puzzled as she pronounced each word. No sooner had the entire passage left her mouth, however, did she gasp in horror.

"What the...?!"

She felt her golden power belt unclasping itself from behind, before dropping to the sidewalk. With a shiver, the super heroine felt all of her superhuman abilities draining out of her body, leaving her no more powerful than an ordinary woman.

It had happened to her more times than she cared to recall, but the belt had never unclasped by itself.

As she reached down, a look of disquiet on her face, something even worse happened.

Quick as a viper, her trusty golden lasso reared up, as if it had a mind of its own. Before Wonder Woman even knew what was happening, the magical, unbreakable rope had coiled itself countless times around her body. It was meticulous, too; her booted feet were bound together first, sending her crashing onto the side walk. Then the lasso worked its way up her body, making sure that her arms and hands were bound behind her back.

Once the lasso was finished, Wonder Woman looked remarkably like a trussed turkey ready for the oven.

"Great Hera!" Wonder Woman cried helplessly as she struggled in vain. The Lasso of Truth would have been unbreakable even if she were in full possession of her super strength. Now that she didn't even have her power belt, she was truly as helpless as a newborn babe.

What's going on...?!

"That poem!" she realized. "It must have been some kind of magical curse! And I fell right into it!"

While she came to this horrifying conclusion, Wonder Woman continued her fruitless struggles. The magical rope dug into her skin, her costume, and every pull only seemed to tighten its grip. But the heroine had few other options; she needed to escape.

After a few moments, her lasso began to do something else. To Wonder Woman's confusion, it began to pull her trussed-up body sideways, inch by inch, almost rolling her.

The confusion soon turned to renewed fear once Wonder Woman realized that it was tugging her right into the street.

"No! Stop!"

But once the cursed lasso had got her into the middle of the street, nothing she did could make it release its grip. She couldn't even roll an inch to the left or right. All she could do was turn her head a little.

Then, she felt a rumbling of wheels on the asphalt.

And heard a series of horn blares behind her head.

And smelled the odor of diesel exhaust.

And though she couldn't see it, she knew that there was a sizable vehicle - a delivery truck, perhaps - barreling down toward her helpless body, far too late to change its course or stop in time.
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Definitely a cliffhanger there OW!

I like this idea a lot, you wouldn't mind me doing maybe something similar in the future? A short scene of peril for a superheroine.
Yes Supergirl, that's right its a necklace for you....What's the matter you don't like Kryptonite?
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TWO-MINUTE CLIFFHANGERS PROUDLY PRESENTS:
The Dominoed Daredoll BATGIRL
in
"Taking Stock"

XOXOXOXO

The lights snapped on with a small but clear click, chasing away all darkness inside the main display room of the Gotham City Museum of Antiquities. Two women stood facing each other inside that room, surrounded by countless treasures of the past.

One was a rather small woman, around five-foot-five or five-foot-six. She was, however, quite shapely for her size; the skintight purple bodysuit that she wore was testament to that, especially with the bright yellow bat-like emblem that was emblazoned directly over her chest. On her hands and feet, she wore gloves and boots of a slightly lighter shade of purple. A bright yellow utility belt encircled her slim waist, carrying with it a multitude of rectangular pouches. And last, but not least, her beautiful face was well-disguised under the famous cape-and-cowl combination that Gotham's underworld had so learned to fear. A shock of red hair could be seen trailing out from the base of that cowl; few knew that it was a wig.

The other woman was larger, standing nearly five-foot-ten (and with a proportionally larger bust, to boot). Her costume was more monochrome: a tight black bodysuit, black gloves, black boots sheathed her entire body below the neck, with her golden belt and necklace being the only splashes of color. Her face was almost entirely bare; there was only a black domino mask stretching over her eyes, and two little cat-like ears poking up from her brown hair. In her right hand was a dangerous-looking whip with nine lashes - a cat-o'-nine-tails.

"Well, well, well," Batgirl chuckled, fisted hands on hips. "It looks like someone doesn't have much of an appreciation for history!"

Catwoman hissed in response as she raised her her claws. "On the contrary, Bat-Bimbo, I appreciate it so much that I can't bear the thought of it languishing in this dusty building."

"Save it for the cops," Batgirl sneered as she slowly, confidently approached the infamous cat burglar. Surreptitiously, the purple-clad heroine reached one hand into her utility belt.

Catwoman smiled arrogantly. "You'll not be finding much in the way of backup, my dear. I've planned this heist for months, slowly circumventing every security measure under this roof. Right now, the guards are all sleeping off an extra-strength dose of my Catnap Gas, and every single alarm has been cut."

"So it's just you and me," Batgirl summed up as she drew out a Batarang. "Perfect."

With that, the heroine hurled the bat-shaped throwing weapon at Catwoman. With a snarl, Catwoman ducked aside and lashed at it with her whip, making the batarange explode into a cloud of white gas.

"Knockout gas?" Catwoman raised an eyebrow. "I thought your kind played fair."

Batgirl lunged at the beautiful thief. "Keep thinking that. It makes our job a lot easier."

Eyes narrowed, Catwoman dodged the lunging heroine and retaliated with a sweep kick. Batgirl expertly jumped over it, and the two of them traded quick, violent blows for a few moments.

Then, without warning, Catwoman turned and ran out of a random door. With a scowl, Batgirl followed, boot heels clacking on the museum's tiled floor and cape flowing behind her.

"You can run, but you can't hide, Catwoman!"

After a few heart-pounding minutes, the chase finally led Batgirl into the Middle Ages exhibit. She couldn't see Catwoman anymore, but that hardly mattered. This was a room that, if her memory of the museum's floor plans served, happened to be a dead end. Even the fire door was under repair, and thus unable to open.

Batgirl had to smirk at the irony; Catwoman was truly trapped now, and in a room that didn't even have anything shiny for her to steal. All she could see were various medieval armors, weapons, and punishment devices.

"C'mon out, Kitty Cat!" Batgirl taunted in a sing-song voice. As she slowly looked over each item on display, a set of wooden stocks caught her eye. "You better be a good little girl and surrender, or we're gonna have to stick you in the stocks~!"

"Thanks. I'll pass."

Batgirl's head whipped around and up at the voice. Too late.

Catwoman wasn't hiding behind any of the displays. She had been clinging to the ceiling.

In one lightning-quick motion, the lovely thief swung down from her perch and slammed her booted foot right into Batgirl's stomach. The sexy super heroine stumbled back, all the wind knocked out of her.

Catwoman showed no mercy; while Batgirl struggled to recover, the thief dipped low and swept her leg right into Batgirl's booted feet. As Batgirl was knocked off-balance, Catwoman grabbed her...

... and thrust her right into the stocks.

Clack.

"Hey! What the...?!"

Catwoman didn't waste any time. As soon as the top board had been clapped down on Batgirl's head and arms, she reached over and locked it into place. Silently, she gave her thanks to whichever idiot curator had decided to supply the stocks with a fully-functioning lock.

Batgirl, on the other hand, only goggled in horror.

"Nooooooo!!!"

"Yeeeeesss!" Catwoman mocked the young heroine, laughing triumphantly.

"Ooooh... you... you bitch!" Batgirl cried, desperately kicking out at her enemy. Her situation, however, made her range very limited, and Catwoman easily dodged every kick.

"Now, now, little girl," Catwoman chuckled as she reached out and grabbed one of the flailing legs. With a bit of effort, she maneuvered it into one of the stocks' leg-locks. She soon did the same with the other foot. "This is what you get for trying to take on a woman."

Batgirl seethed, her face reddening with rage and humiliation. She was now totally immobile, at an arch-criminal's mercy, with her body bent over and her rear sticking out. As if to add insult to injury, her utility belt was still around her waist, but totally useless to her now.

"You'd better let me out of here or-"

"Or what?" Catwoman sneered boldly. She slapped Batgirl with a gloved hand. "You're in no position to be making demands right now, little girl."

Batgirl opened her mouth to fire off another retort, only to stop when she saw a look of hungry curiosity coming over Catwoman's face. For some reason, it sent an icy stab of fear into her.

The fear only intensified when Catwoman began stroking her heated cheek with that hand, fingers creeping up against her cowl. Batgirl felt every one of her hairs rising up as she figured out exactly what Catwoman was up to.

"No... no... no..." she stammered. "Y-you can't... not..."

"Why not?" Catwoman cooed. "I am a thief, after all. I'd planned to loot this place at my leisure tonight, but first..."

Both of the cat burglar's hands seized Batgirl's cowl. Batgirl's eyes widened in pure terror when she felt them tugging. Slowly at first, just to stretch out her terror even longer.

"No! No! No!" Batgirl cried. She could already feel the double-sided tape that held the mask to her face beginning to break. "I-If you do this, I'll-"

"You'll stand there and keep spouting meaningless threats at me," Catwoman cut her off. "You know, I've always wanted to know who Batman was under that mask... but I guess this is a good enough substitute...

"No..." Batgirl whimpered as she felt the tape finally coming loose.

"Yesss..." Catwoman hissed as she began to lift the mask up.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" Batgirl screamed as that mask was lifted up, up, up, past her nose... past her eyes...
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Very nice :)

Love the cliffhanger there, and such a interesting trap for Batgirl OW.

Can't wait to see which heroine next falls into a cliffhanger peril!
Yes Supergirl, that's right its a necklace for you....What's the matter you don't like Kryptonite?
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TWO-MINUTE CLIFFHANGERS PROUDLY PRESENTS:
The Maid of Might SUPERGIRL
in
"Going Down"

XOXOXOXO

Supergirl narrowed her soft blue eyes, an authoritative scowl on her young face. Her young, female body, contained in a skintight blue top (with, naturally, the red-and-gold "S" shield over her chest), red miniskirt, red cape, and red boots, might not have looked as intimidating as her more well-known cousin, but she liked to think that her posture (the fruit of weeks of rehearsing) made up for it.

In one hand, the blond Kryptonian held a warped chunk of metal that had, a few hours ago, been a fearsome war-bot about to be sold to Qurac insurgents. With the other, she pointed accusingly at the bald man in the black Armani suit sitting behind the mahogany desk before her: Lex Luthor, Metropolis' second-favorite son.

"Anything to say for yourself, Luthor?"

Luthor merely steepled his fingers together and shot her one of his trademark condescending glares. "Yes, I'm sure that that... thing you're holding used to be a fine piece of craftsmanship, Miss Supergirl."

"Don't play dumb, Luthor," Supergirl sneered, dropping the chunk of metal onto the billionaire's (expensive-looking) rug. "I know this thing came from your R&D department!"

"Indeed?" Luthor didn't look even a little worried. "I don't make a policy of blindly trusting the word of unappointed vigilantes, but I assure you that if the authorities bear your words out, I can corroborate them with a report that several prototypes were stolen from LexCorp Labs two weeks ago."

Supergirl marched over to the billionaire's desk and slammed her fists onto it, and looked Luthor straight in the eye. "You think you've got an answer for everything, don't you?"

Luthor's eyes didn't waver one bit. "Not everything. Just everything you aliens can think of."

The lovely Kryptonian was practically shaking with anger now. But there was nothing she could do. Once again, she'd jumped the gun with Kal-El's greatest foe.

"Now," Luthor said coldly. "Kindly leave my office so I can get some work done. Take the elevator this time, won't you? Your cousin is at least capable of that much."

Supergirl threw the well-dressed slimeball one last dirty look, and trudged toward the elevator that he'd pointed out. It opened immediately at her touch; mercifully, there was no one inside.

Arms crossed, the Girl of Steel leaned against the back wall as the elevator's doors hissed to a close. Her eyes idly settled on the floor-button display: fifty-nine more floors to go...

Then, as if on cue, the music started playing.

Supergirl groaned and closed her eyes. For a self-made genius billionaire, Lex Luthor had some pretty lame tastes in elevator music. Someone like him probably could've devoted an entire market research panel to the thing.

The song didn't even have any lyrics; it was just a wordless melody of vaguely pleasant sounds that was nevertheless impossible to drown out. She would've even taken the horrible country music that Ma and Pa Kent loved so much over this.

She thought to check the floor count again. Fifty-one floors to go...

(Why had she even taken the elevator?!)

She tried to fill her head with happy thoughts. Exciting thoughts. Luthor being exposed. Luthor going to jail for life. Superman finally regarding her as a full-fledged superheroine worthy of the name Superwoman...

Those thoughts kept her happy for a bit. But all too soon, the elevator music sprang back up.

She glanced at the floor count again. Forty-two floors to go.

With a frustrated groan, she thought about her fellow heroines instead. Batgirl, with her strangely spacious utility belt and that mean roundhouse kick. Wonder Girl, with her boundless enthusiasm and admiration for her own mentor. Wonder Woman, the first and still-greatest of the nation's superheroines...

But eventually, she grew bored with these thoughts as well. And when she did, the music was there for her.

(Somehow, it felt a little less irritating this time. Almost... soothing. Almost)

Then, just for the hell of it, she began to think about the worst-case scenario. What would happen in Luthor actually won, got everything he'd ever wanted?

Well, Superman would have to be dead. No doubt about that. Him and all the other heroes who'd opposed Glorious God-Emperor Luthor over the years. LexCorp... would probably be bigger than it already was (something that Supergirl admittedly had a hard time envisioning). Luthor might actually be named President of the United States (or whatever new title he'd come up with for himself, the egoist), but not necessarily. In many ways, he was already America's de facto ruler...

And what about her?

Luthor might kill her, just to spite Superman before killing him as well. But then again... she was a sexy young thing, and her sassy attitude had turned quite a few heads over the years. Maybe Luthor would actually look for a way to turn her into his plaything, serving his every whim with her killer body and a mind empty of anything but the thought of obeying Luthor.

She laughed. Ridiculous.

The music seemed to agree.

But it would be nice, though...

Wouldn't it?

Yes, she thought. It would be very, very nice.

Too bad it would be impossible.

Unless... it wasn't?

She felt a little uncomfortable at the thought, but only a little. Serving Luthor hand and foot, no need to think for herself, just obeying the most powerful man in Metropolis...

If she didn't know any better, she'd say that the thought...

Turned...

Her...

On...

The music continued to play. She heard it and smiled.

By now, her body had stopped all its fidgets and movements completely. Someone who looked inside the elevator would've been mildly horrified to see a blank-eyed, drooling girl inside, looking at best catatonic and at worst dead.

That, however, would never have happened. For Lex Luthor had specially ordered that elevator cordoned off to everyone else in the building. A private present for Supergirl, he'd meant it to be.

And of course, by now, the nearly-mindless Kryptonian couldn't see that the elevator was heading back up instead of down. All the way to Luthor's office at the very top.

When the doors opened again, she stalked out into Luthor's office, zombie-like. The smile was still on her face, faint but artificial.

"Mmm," Luthor mused. "Impressive. You managed to resist the music for almost two whole minutes. The Research & Development Team estimated that you would be overwhelmed inside of one."

The bald billionaire came out from behind his desk, and took Supergirl's unresisting hand in his own.

"Come now, my dear... I've a whole array of plans for you..."

And Supergirl, still hearing the music in her head, could do little but nod.
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SGWriter
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Ohhhh nice!

What a unique trap, with Supergirl OW, I liked that a lot.
Yes Supergirl, that's right its a necklace for you....What's the matter you don't like Kryptonite?
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These are great! This is turning out to be a winning idea.
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valugi
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Short story but very interesting
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