Crossword Riddle (Open to all who can solve)

[Deleted]

Edward opened up the Gotham Times to the comic section. As expected his homemade crossword puzzle was printed between the pages. It was easy to trick the editor into printing it. He even signed it with his name to tease those to solve it...if they could.
Across
18. Why did the boy bring ladder to school?
15. What did the ocean say to the beach?
12. What did one mountain say to another?
2. What is found at the end, but changes what's before it?
16. What is it that has bottom at the top of them?
1. When you do not know what I am then I am something, but when you know what I am I am nothing, what am I?
11. What time is when an elephant sits on a fence?
5. Where are the hands pointed to the ground?
21. What's another name for a grandfather clock?
6. An word for a riddle
3. Query
10. What has a bark, but no bite?
21. What do mermaids have on toast?

Down
14. What would you call a short, sunburned outlaw riding a horse?
13. Which month do monkeys play baseball?
17. How can you make seven even?
8. Mixing yellow and blue
4. Four letter word that comes back
7. It is an old game played in Siberia
20. What do you call a Indian hitchhiker in October?
9. Rhyme rats

Miss Stenet, can you figure it out? If you cannot you better hope Batman can solve it for you, he thought to himself with a confident smirk. Let's start this game of chess.

The Crossword puzzle is in every issue of the Gotham Times easily available to anyone.

[sincereagape]

OOC ::::

((Is there a mix up on some of the questions? I don't see a nine down and there are two 21 across questions, amongst others.))

Other then that. It's fun

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2011 20:19:42 GMT -5 @sincereagape said:

OOC ::::

((Is there a mix up on some of the questions? I don't see a nine down and there are two 21 across questions, amongst others.))

Other then that. It's fun

OOC: Yes, I did that on purpose. Hint: Everything that can be seen as a mistake was done on purpose lol. Remember I make my riddles almost impossible, but that hint should help a lot. And I'm glad it's fun! Thanks

[Nina Stenet]

Oddly enough, though her day off hadn't been nearly as restful as Nina had wanted it did accomplish what she'd needed it to: after leaving the museum behind Nina found that her thoughts had become very clear indeed. Why having a gun pointed at her the first time had thrown her mind into disarray whereas the second cleared it up again isn't immediately apparent to even Nina, but after some pondering she realized just how different the situations were despite that one similarity.

Her first encounter with a gun had been because she had something that the one with the gun wanted; it hadn't really been about her at all. And she'd had so much more than herself to worry about, very little time for thought - her actions there had been nearly instinctive.

Everything about what happened with The Riddler had been pretty much the opposite; perhaps when he'd initially pointed the gun in her direction it had been just, well, because he points his gun at people. But after that it really had become about her, personally. About a woman who could literally have a gun held by a sadist on her forehead without terror. Sure her gift meant that she'd been in as much risk as, perhaps, a skydiver, but that didn't mean that she'd known before that moment that she could do that.

And it was a powerful thing to know about oneself - as if she'd discovered her gift for a second time. Though of course, the logical step after discovering that you have power is to decide how to use it. But Nina had already made that decision, years ago: she felt that she'd been given this gift to be as much of a benefit to mankind as she could. But what that experience has taught her is just how little stands between her and that goal. It gave her a renewed determination to get that job done and not worry about every last detail of the trying situations she's been in lately.

It was with this mindset that she found out about the riddle in the newspaper. It's not her normal practice to pay much attention to the papers, but she's still anxious about the idea that The Riddler might not leave her alone - being powerful enough to face him and powerful enough to be unconcerned by him are on two separate levels, after all. So when the crossword was first brought to her attention she started picking at it, hoping that it could tell her whether his latest game had anything to do with her or would show that he'd moved on to something else.

However, it wasn't easily solved, and when she realized that it was taking precious time away from her work, her copy of it found its way into the trash before she'd gotten any but the easiest of answers. That crossword makes no difference anyway, she noted to herself, Either it's about me or it isn't, if it isn't it's a waste of time, and if it is, well, would solving one riddle convince The Riddler to leave me alone if he's taken enough of an interest in what I'm hiding to come after me now? I think not! If he's arrogant enough to ignore the possible danger I could pose to him, he's certainly arrogant enough to justify doing whatever he wants. The only solution is to make him not want to play these games with me.

[2741953]

It is well accepted that the owner of every apartment will adapt his residence to suit his own tastes. In this sense, the apartment registered to John Jones was unusual only in its utter ordinariness. Save for two paintings, works of earthly art he admired, there was no customization of it, and no mess was allowed long enough to even show that a person lived there. The apartment had a neat, orderly atmosphere and a degree of perfectionism typically associated only with army barracks- which was all the more unusual because Jones himself had never been part of any military organization. Even the posture in which the tenet himself now sat was stereotypical, to say the least. Legs stiffly crossed, newspaper neatly open before him, the scene was missing only a breakfast plate carefully pushed aside and a cup from which coffee was occasionally consumed.

But given that Jones himself was an alien who did not require daily sustenance, keeping food on hand only for the sake of guests, and his opinion that coffee was a vile beverage, it is hardly surprising that these were absent. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, gave these things not a moment's thought, however, for his attention was consumed by the pattern in the paper before him.

The puzzle itself was interesting in that it was the only strange thing in that apartment on that morning- not counting Jones himself, of course, and his strangeness was far less readily apparent. But the text above the puzzle promised to be more interesting still. Specifically, a single word, emblazoned like a beacon above the puzzle proper, called out to him, elevating that page of the Gothom Times from a section dedicated to mere diversion to a challenge fully worthy of his attentions.

Riddler.

It was easy for J'onn to call up in his mind a list of the connotations of that name. A criminal, yes, but more than a criminal; a mastermind who demonstrated his own superiority by outsmarting others. A person form whom riddles were not amusement but a serious and necessary endeavor, a man who would use the power of these riddles to reshape the world.

Such a public proclamation of one could constitute only one thing. A challenge. A taunt, a jeering smirk towards the heroes of Gothom City, a gloating way of saying that they were powerless to stop his crimes.

A plan. He must have one in the works, some mad scheme for his own profit. Nothing less would require such a brazen thumbing of the nose to the city's heroes; nothing less would be worthy of a mind such as Edward Nigma's. In a way, the Martian Manhunter expected it of him, and even respected his goal to use his own talents well while at the same time decrying the debauched manner in which they were applied. If only the Riddler and those like him would turn their attentions to more productive matters, how much benefit would the people of Earth gain! It was a day MM looked reverently forward to; a day when heroes could at last hang up their capes and join the throng of humanity in advancement towards a better era.

That day might yet come. But for now there was the immediate, looming threat of a criminal master plan. And for the sake of that day, the Martian Manhunter would strive to stop it.

He placed the paper on the table. Pulled out a pen. “If it is a challenge you want, Riddler,” he said. “It is a challenge you shall have.”