Challenge #3, the vote

The challenge has been cast. The gauntlet thrown down. Many have been called, few have answered. On the planet Hacknor... On Fire Island D, brave contestants will compete. Who will falter? Who will thrive? Who will be

Well Malfians you all did pretty good work building your better space mouse trap but one of you has to go.





Who's the dirty rat?






Who's Bogarting all the space cheese?







Captain Koma from the good dimension, you are not the Last Gladiator Standing, goodbye.


And don't let the dimensional portal hit you on the way out.



Stay tuned for the next challenge.

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LGS #3: Heeeeeere Mousie, Mousie, Mousie...

I arrived late for the group briefing. Xavier and Kon both looked at me as I stepped in.


”Ah good,” Xavier began; “Now we’re only missing one of the team.”

I coughed and cleared my throat as I took my seat. “Oh,” I piped up, “Erifia told me that she wasn’t going to make it and to start without her.”

Xavier looked at me and squinted. “Nepharia, I sense that you are not telling the entire truth.”

”You’re right,” I answered. “That’s not anywhere near the truth.”

”So where is Erifia?” Kon asked, sitting forward in his chair.

”Well, to be totally honest, I’m not sure,” I answered. “I told her to meet us at Fire Island near the house – but that we weren’t going to be getting started until later today.” I smiled cheerfully.

Xavier covered his eyes with his hand momentarily in what appeared to be despair. Kon actually laughed out loud, but quickly stifled it when Xavier shot him a sharp glance.

Xavier looked at me, not a little unhappy. “Fine,” he said, “Let’s get started then.”

We began a brainstorming session on how to manage the rodent problem at the house. I personally would have loved to just set the entire place on fire, but Xavier reminded me that we were supposed to build a mousetrap to capture them while keeping the house intact. Although I’m not exactly sure that was a stipulation of the challenge.

Kon suggested several great things, of which my favorite was, giant space cats or something to that effect.

”The challenge is to build a trap to capture them, Kon, not have them eaten,” Xavier corrected.

”It’s all semantics,” I said. “Jon wants the mice gone, does it matter how we do it? Besides,” I continued, “I’ve seen some of the traps that were left out there by others, and they didn’t have the intended results either.”

Xavier pulled out the paper with the challenge on it. “It clearly says here ‘Your job is to invent a new space mousetrap, catch all those little buggers that you can!’ “

He looked up at me, shaking the paper in my face. “We will not have you attempting to cheat again this round,” he glared at me. “Especially when it can potentially harm the other contestants – is that clear?”

I was rather surprised by his reaction, but figured I might have been a little too rough with him during our post-challenge #2 festivities.

”Ok, fine,” I said, putting my hands up defensively. “So do you have any ideas?” I asked finally.

”Well, it just so happens that I think we can create a small worm hole that will suck them all in,” he said. “Here are the parts we will need,” and he passed us another paper with a short parts lists.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “So if you had this idea already, why didn’t you bring it up before you shot down ours?”

”Well,” he said, “I wanted you both to think you could intelligently contribute to the conversation.”

I rolled my eyes and looked back at him. “Fine,” I said in disgust. “What is it you want me to get?”

”You can get the anti-matter that we’ll need,” he directed. I shook my head and headed out the door.

Where the hell am I going to find anti-matter? I thought. We haven’t used anti-matter in over a millennium.

Then it occurred to me: the Starship Enterprise uses anti-matter in its engines. Bingo! I would have to go back to the future to obtain a small sample.

Pulling out my portable flux capacitor, I installed it on my ship and set the time and coordinates for the year 2153. While the Enterprise of that era had lower grade antimatter and less of it than later iterations of the ship with the same name, they were also less capable of detecting my activities in their engine room.

After the required pleasantries of meeting the officers, dinner, and a complete tour of the ship, I was showed guest quarters and left alone. I donned a stealth field generator and slipped from my cabin.

After getting lost several times around the ship, I did manage to finally find the engine room. I discovered the anti-matter containment area and figured these humans have never had their fuel siphoned before; otherwise, they would have kept a locked fuel cap.

I managed to get a better part of their anti-matter and place it in a secret panel upon my ship. I returned to my quarters and finished out the night with some sleep.

Then next “day” I went to the bridge to thank my hosts and bid them goodbye when I found the captain rather upset.

Captain Archer was leaning over a panel and tapping the anti-matter gauge. “Gees, guys, we just filled up! I can’t afford to fill up every time you go joy riding about the galaxy.”

I whispered to Commander Tucker, “He seems to be rather unhappy today.”

“Yeah, it seems all this starting and stopping is affecting our mileage,” he mumbled back.

”I believe it is time that I leave,” I responded. “Please let your captain know I appreciate his hospitality.”

I made a quick beeline back to the landing bay and a quick escape before they could figure out where their fuel had gone. Making a quick landing back on Hacknor I met the others at the house on Fire Island.

”Why didn’t you just go to the Hacknor Space Academy?” Kon asked me. “They keep plenty of it there.”

I smacked my head then threw the container to Xavier.

Challenge #3 - Ciera's attempt

How did this happen? I confuse Republicans with Lobsters? {see Koma's earlier post} It must be from being cloistered with all these guys during the challenges. I mean, I’m the only girl on the team! Well, Sylar’s kind of girly…since he’s a teenage girl inside of a serial killer’s body. Even worse, it took three challenges for me to realize it! I think Bennett’s idea of turning the mice into breast implants is what tipped me off. Do men think of nothing else?!?!

Frustrated, I decide to go back to my ship for a brief respite. I meander through the Old Gladiator’s Home, saddened by the sight of these crusty mice intermingling with the retired gladiators. The mice haven’t shown any signs of aggression, but they’re obviously disease ridden as some of the old gladiators have already started showing signs of Space Tourrets Syndrome…like the old man in the corner that keeps crying out “Fire phasers!” over and over again interspersed with “Khan!!!”

How the mighty have fallen. And all because of these filthy rodents!

Inside my ship, making sure the doors are firmly locked, my sidekick Kirk greets me.

He brings me a cup of the blueberry tea I like as I curl up on the couch in the ships lounge area.

“How’d the team meeting go?” Kirk asks me.

“Don’t ask,” I reply grouchily.

“Tough challenge, huh?”

“Yeah. I don’t like mice to start with. And these are like the Horta, well, sorta.”

At least the mice don’t leave burn trails behind them…though their waste products are reported to be quite heavy.

“Remember that time with the mouse in the paper bag?”

“Do I ever! If I hadn’t hesitated, I would have had him for sure. Too bad I screamed like a girl when he jumped out at me.”

“Uhm…you are a girl.”

“Thanks so much for noticing!”

“Anyway,” he continued. “You didn’t let discouragement stop you then, did it?”

“Of course not. I kept on until I caught the bugger.” I see his point. Keep on trying to defeat these crusty mice no matter what. I take a deep sip of my tea…

Hmmmmm....

“They have to eat, right? Or drink?”

“Yes,” he answers even as I dart up from my seat and go to the computer consoles. He follows after me and ever worried about liquids near the computers, Kirk takes the cup away from me even as I set it down. “We don’t want another short like last time.”

“Right.” The computers were down for days and we were also stranded as well…although that did have its perks. With one hand, I start my computer database searching for traceable radioactive isotopes, hopefully one that isn’t harmful to the mice or people and call Koma on my comm unit. “Koma?”

There was no reply. I went through the list of the men on my team, and the only reply I got was from HotStuff saying that he was busy and couldn’t talk.

I turn to Kirk and said, “I guess I’m on my own!”

“Looks it.”

“Ok, I need to find out these mice eat. Other than wiring and power couplings.” I link my ships’ computer to the one we used for our initial research. “Hmm, regardless of their silicon base, they’re still mice and they still like to eat cheese. So.” I turn to my small replicator, thinking that I’m about to tax it to the extreme. I type in a recipe for cheese laced with traced amounts of iron and small amounts of Akarian, a rare element that is mildly radioactive and relatively harmless to humans and mice. Even though he’s watching over my shoulder, I explain to Kirk what I’m up to. “What I’m going to do, is feed them this treat, and then lock onto them with my transporter and just beam them out. In the future, we can make a smaller scaled version so a ship isn’t needed.”

“Where are you going to beam them to?” Kirk asked me.

Oh. Great question!

“I don’t know,” I tell him. “I’ll think about that as we’re reconfiguring the transporter.”

“Sounds like fun.”

It usually is…for reasons that have nothing to do with the transporter. But we have a mission so we’re done relatively quickly. Ok, there might have been a little kissing and fooling around… I need to get this place updated – it still looks like something out of the sixties.

Later, after that’s done, I call up an old friend on the comm unit, audio only.

“Picard?”

“Err, hello, Lieutenant Commander,” came the reply. He only ever calls me that when there’s someone listening. He's probably on the Bridge. “I’ll have you transferred to my ready room.” Yep, he was.

I wait a moment, and then he comes back. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call, Ciera?”

“Jean-Luc…I need a favor.”

I can hear his hesitation across the light-years. “The last favor you asked for required me to have the ship decontaminated.”

“Oh, yeah.” I’d forgotten about that. “ Well, if you don’t put up the proper force fields, you’d have to do that again this time. We’ve got space mice here on Hacknor, in the Old Gladiator’s Home.”

“Space mice? That does sound like a problem. What is it you’d like me to do?”

“Let me beam them to your ship and then you can take them home.”

“Take them home?!”

“Sure, they have to have a planet of origin. Maybe they’re from Janus VI?”

“Ciera…”

“Aw, come on Jean-Luc. Pleeeeze?”

He sighs deeply. “I’ll be there shortly. In the meantime, I’ll confer with Mr. Data as to a possible home world for the mice.”

“Great!” I answer. “Oh and Jean-Luc…speed is of the essence.”

“I’ll see if I can’t get La Forge to coax the engines a little.”

While I wait for him to show up, I pile my replicated cheese into baskets and fine-tune my remote activation device for the transporters.

I have more cheese than I can carry, so I pull out my trusty hover sled and load that up as well.

“I can carry some,” offers Kirk.

“Naw, I have to do this on my own.”

“All right. I’ll at least monitor the transporters, and keep an eye on you.”

“You’re so sweet.” I give him smoking hot kiss before I go. With pleasant thoughts of later, I take off and head back to the Old Gladiator’s home. Talk about mayhem. There’s so much going on, I can’t even describe it all! I head out back, dropping bits of cheese here and there. I am pleased to see that the vermin come running for what is to them a tasty treat. It’s going to work!!

Not half an hour later, my comm badge chirps as Jean-Luc calls me back. “We are in transporter range.”

“Did you find their home world?” I ask as I push buttons on my remote device and begin to beam the first batch up. Here and there I see shimmers of mice disappearing.

“They are originally from a lab based on the far side of Hacknor.”

“Imagine that. So, what are you going to do with them? We can’t leave them here.” I beam up the second batch. More mice shimmer away. “We have sick gladiators already!”

“Err…We’re taking them to Janus VI. We’ve been in contact with the Horta, and they’re glad to take the mice off our hands. It ought to make for an interesting mix.”

“I would think so.” I beam up another batch…and another. I end up beaming away several dozen mice, every one that had eaten our tainted cheese. I see no more in the vicinity and all the cheese is gone. “That’s all I can find, Jean-Luc.”

“Thank goodness,” he replies. “Our holds are quite full.”

“I won’t keep you.”

“I think La Forge will be coaxing even more speed out of the engines,” the captain commented. “And Ciera…you owe me one.”

“I have no doubt. Thanks Jean-Luc.” I sigh. I return to my ship, plop on the couch and wonder aloud. “I wonder how I did?”

“I think you were fabulous,” Kirk comments.

“You always do.” Just as we begin to get cozy Jean-Luc calls me again.

“Ah, Ciera… have a small problem.”

“What is it?” I ask. Kirk must have fixed the visual on the comm, because Jean-Luc is on my screen. I'm a little embarrassed to have him see me with my mussed up hair and red face from smooching.

He doesn’t seem to notice as he answers, “It seems that there is a retired gladiator amongst the mice you beamed up.”

The view on my screen changed. It was the gladiator with Space Tourrets that I saw earlier! He looks happy though.

“He must have eaten some of the cheese...maybe I’ve discovered a cure for Space Tourrets?”

“Perhaps. Shall I bring him back?”

“He’s not causing any problems is he?”

“Not exactly.”

“Sweet. Better drop him off at StarFleet Medical then and have him checked out. Would you be able to do that for me?” I make sure to bat my eyelashes at him.

He sighs. “Now you owe me two.”

“I’m ok with that.” I give him an incorrigible grin. “Thanks Jean-Luc.” I sign off before he can say anymore.

“I wonder what he meant by ‘not exactly’?” Kirk commented, pulling me back to the couch.

“He’s probably chasing the nurses.” I snuggle close to him. “Now, where were we?”

I'm glad I locked the doors.

A little Cat and Mouse?

Jon gave the challenge. While my other teammates planned and tried to strategically come up with something I was thinking about when Magdalena was on LSG. It was the second challenge and they had to race...

I remember that a lot of the contestants had some problems at this OLD Gladiators home...

"What was it that Jon said just before the 2nd challenge of the original LSG?" I mumbled but no one heard, " I think it was, ' then meet the most horrifying obstacle imaginable -- The Old Gladiator's Home. You will need to avoid a legion of retired combatants who want to tackle you and tell you about the good ol' days.'.


This couldn't be good...

"Gee there's six species of cute little space mice and six of us. Like thats so N'synch." chirped Sylar.

"Your right Sylar. You could almost think that it was some kind of plot device." I stated, I disagree with the whole N'synch thing but he did have a point. 6 species and 6 of us....

I mean what are the odds... Surely there was something going on here.

So we each got assigned a silicon space mouse to try and capture.

Koma was mentioning where each one was and there was one that had made the Ol Gladiator home it's happy home...

I crossed my fingers and whispered to myself with my eyes closed, "Don't pick me, dont pick me. I don't want to loose this competition because I was stuck talking about the good old days with some guy that smells like ben-gay."

Just then Koma handed me a folder, "You got the one in the ..."

"NO!!!!!" I yelled as I saw that he gave me the one from the home... Well at least I got the small one.

So I bulked up the courage to go to the home...

As soon as I got there it started...

"Look I am really sorry, but there is a space mouse infestation and I have to build a better mouse-trap." I explain...

One smiled, "Oh I will help. Let me get my..." Before I knew it. He was standing before me...

What was I to do?

I then had an Idea... Ever heard of snipe hunting?

"OK take this bag and wait way over there. When I blow fire they will run and you can catch them." I smile


He looked at me. "Do you have anything to eat?"

I couldn't leave him there, so I ran quickly and made him some cabbage soup.. I can't cook so I just added anything... "Here."


While he waited I went to find my mouse... Another old Gladiator came to me this one creepier...
"I am sorry but.." He interrupted me..
He smiled, "you are the exterminator, you are here to get rid of my friends and I can't let you do that."

He then picked up a space mouse, "My name is Willard. The others always tease on me because they say I am the lamest but now I will get even."

The space mouse hissed at me..




I saw my mouse... He looked at Willard and Willard shook his head and then Willard pulled a lever.

I was so busy studying a weired metal band on the mouse's left ear that I didn't see the old emo Gladiator pull it..

The sidewalk dropped and I went free falling. I could see the the large jagged and spiked rocks under me...




Willard had under estimated the fact I could fly... So after flying out of the hole I flew to a near by internet cafe. I was sure that this space mouse wasn't your ordinary space mouse.

It seem to talk to Willard telepathically. Perhaps it was special. To build a mouse trap, I needed to know my mouse.

I would have to find out about that metal band with numbers.

I logged on to Capsule Corp with my User name and password...

Papa Wolfgang was working late but was able to tell me that the band belonged to Tri-ex.

I did some Google research and learned that Tri-EX was a government funded organization...
After furthur research I discovered that the police was called by a security guard. When the Police got there they claimed some kids got in the security booth outside and made the call.. All was well...

Something didn't seem right...

I managed to get a hold of the security guard that called. "It was a cover up. They don't want anyone knowing that the specimens have escaped..."

I continued to listen. He coughed, "It was the lab with the area 51 experiments."

"What are the area 51 experiments?" I asked

"Ever heard of area 51?" He paused and then continued, "well Tri-Ex has a Government grant. They test on all kinds of animal. Everyone knows this.. They test make up products to vaccinations. What people don't know is that all the illegal experiments that aren't sanctioned are done in a special lab called Area 51."

"go on."

"Anything from Bio-warfare testing to genetic resequencing .. You name it they have it in there. The animal activist stumble on it by accident. They were killed my some of the space mice that were in the lab being experimented on and then the mice.. they got loose."


After confirming that my space mouse was one of the altered one from one of these Nasty experiments, I realized a simple mouse trap would not work.

The mouse was intelligent, telepathic and horny, so with the infestation of available space mice in the retirement home this littler bugger found himself a harem and breed himself an army.

It must have been using Willard. First I had to deal with Willard, then build a trap that could capture my mouse and the offspring... and I had to do it by Friday

and today was...


I needed a way to get a smart telepathic space mouse into the trap.. cheese? no peanut butter?
I could use my breath of fire, if it worked I could build a flame thrower - mouse trap. No that is lame.

I was building a cage when I saw a commercial for a microchip cat flap. The light bulb went off...
I got several and fixed the doors (which were the size for the mice) with these flaps..

My cage had several doors each programmed to a chip and every cat got the same chip. I then gathered up my cats.

I returned to the home where I saw that old gladiator still standing there with a bag... I shook my head and continued...

I set my cages with a cat at every entrance of the home.... Now how to deal with Willard? I saw the Old Gladiator still standing with the bag... Why not let One old guy take the other one...

I carried my trap over to where he stood...

"Where is the mice?" he yelled...

I smiled, "Change of plan.. Willard has gone bad and needs to be secured.."

He shook his head and went after Willard.. I set my cage in the center of the Retirement home..
I hope this works...
Just as I was about to press the button and let the cats loose. The Mouse approach speaking to me telepathically...

"You can't win..." He hissed

The old Gladiator came barging in and smiled, "We got WILLARD!"

I smiled and answered, "and now we get our Mouse!" I pressed the button and called, "here Kitty kitty kitties!" I saw it in my head, the cats are released and run chasing the mice.. They chase them toward the trap, the cats' collars open the door the mice go inside...

I heard telepathic laughter... The cats all ran the opposite way.. Looks like they were 'fraidy cats.

The sinister Space Mouse approached and spit out the chip.. ewww He had already eaten one of the cats...

I watched as the chip bounced to my feet and all the doors of my cage opened up... "get in." it stated as hordes of space mice surrounded me.

Just then the old Gladiator made a sound... PFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTttttttttttttttttttttttt

The Gladiator chuckled, "Sorry, its the cabbage, I had for lunch... It was really good to."

I braced myself, trying hard not to loose consciousness.. Suddenly all the mice.. including the Large ugly one ran in the cage... I heard it screaming telepathically, "shut the doors please.."

I smiled... "Stay right here."


Koma sat waiting for me to present my mouse trap... I closed all the doors and windows in the old retirement home...

I handed him and everyone a gas mask... I set my cage in the center I opened the doors to it, then I escorted in the old fellas... Fed them some of that weird cabbage soup I made and gave Koma the recipe then ...

pfttttttt...................


all the space mice ran into the cage...

okay I built the cage and made the soup... but Hacknor supplied the old farts...

Challenge #3

The challenge has been cast. The gauntlet thrown down. Many have been called, few have answered. On the planet Hacknor... On Fire Island D, brave contestants will compete. Who will falter? Who will thrive? Who will be

I’ve got good news and bad news, gladiators.

The good news is that you get to visit the Old Gladiator’s Home on Fire Island V2, the bad news is that the place is infested with space mice.

Yes, space mice, those little creatures that seem to thrive in the oddest places. Though they typically aren’t harmful and are occasionally friendly towards humans, these wily and hardy silicon-based rodents have been known to survive the harshest conditions, chew through wiring, power conduits, and couplers, and carry diseases like the dreaded Space Tourrets Syndrome, the Blue Flu, and the Robot Blues. So be careful!

Your job is to invent a new space mousetrap, catch all those little buggers that you can! Work alone or with teammates, it’s up to you, but the important thing to remember is that these rodents are more than meets the eye (well not literally, they’re not going to transform into a jet plane or a boom box or anything).

Also remember, if you build a better space mousetrap, then the universe will beat a space bath, er space path to your space door.

Good luck and good hunting.

Last Gladiator Standing III was brought to you in part by Magneto Tea.




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