Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.19 Hidden hands

Luca thought for a moment before deciding to keep the coms quite for now and so spoke deliberately louder when dividing teams. “Tails, Rӓv and Holly will do trios, Ghost and Holly will do Duos and I’ll do solo.” It was better for Holly to have the opportunities to practice with the others. Luca’s team normally all acted individually but Luca had worked with most of them enough that they could co-operate and not get in each other’s way. For the first few matches Luca could observe how Holly worked and then decide how he’d work best when they did the actual team comp. Luca had been resigned to having to make it up on the fly which was his normal MO but he wouldn’t turn down any practice runs.

[Holly: Great God are you sure its best for me to be in two comps? Wouldn’t it be better for normal groups to go together?] Luca blinked at the whispered comment over the coms and the emergence of the fan title again but then shook his head.

[Lucky: Better to practice while the situation is controlled. Just do your best and we’ll work around you as necessary we’re all good enough that adapting shouldn’t take long.] slightly louder again Luca said, “poor performer is buying dinner when we finish this comp.” Rӓv and Ghost instantly locked eyes as the fierce competitiveness was prodded.

Tails looked to the sky and then gave Lucas a disgusted grimace behind Rӓv’s back. Holly just straightened his back further and stared fiercely at the obstacle course. Luca went forward to do the lottery draw to match groups and pulled number 7 meaning they was facing group 5. It took a while longer for group 5 to be determined but when they where Luca looked them over. The only one with a bit of reputation was Gary the ‘Red’.

Luca had done one competition with him. Solid enough foundation in combat but his on spot strategy was average. Luca watched as Red directed a blonde and a heavily tattooed man to gather round with him while a women with a shaved head and a women with a crew cut talked to the side. guess that made it clear enough who was doing what then. Luca sat on the ground and stretched his legs out. It would be trios, duos and then the solo so Luca wouldn’t even have to participate if the others one the first two matches. He might have a relaxing afternoon. Not likely. But hey a he could dream.

Rӓv, Tails and Holly moved to the blue side of the course while Red’s group of three moved to the red side. Luca wondered ideally if the colour co-ordination was deliberate or accidental. He didn’t feel like the WIC suits would have enough humour to do that, but you never know.

As Rӓv settled in on the left had side giving herself room to her left which she favoured in striking from. What Luca found interesting was the way Red’s team focused on Rӓv. It was as if they thought Rӓv was the weakest link. Luca noticed the moment Holly and Tails realised Rӓv was likely to be targeted. Holly who was standing in the middle shifted to a slight guard position on his left. While Tails moved more to the right.

Luca restrained a smirk when Red’s team grinned. He could guess exactly what they were thinking. Holly wanted to guard the weaker teammate while Tails wanted to ignore the weaker link. Luca perused the other groups and saw some of them nodding as they muttered amongst themselves. Luca somewhat hopped that Tails raced through quickly and Holly defended it would be shame to shatter peoples’ illusions so early. The success would depend on Rӓv’s patience she would normally be sure to hammer home the point of her competence which was why the assumptions other were making was strange.

“Yeah, this will be simple. Take out the tech head then it will be three on two.” The smug conversation from the group to the side answered Luca’s question. Even if the answer was based on a mistaken assumption. Though maybe if Rӓv just doesn’t push to hard others might just assume that Red’s team wasn’t good enough and that they could do the job better. Luca somewhat regretted getting Rӓv all fired up beforehand  now.

The match started and Tails went straight up onto the top of the course. Which is to say they he went up the support beam for the swing over the mud pit. He slid down the other side and started to hop over the top of the barbwire crawl space jumping from one support spike to the other.

Rӓv and Holly followed the more typical path. Grabbing the ropes they swung easily over the pit and landed. Holly dove straight under the wire and went through at a quick clip while Rӓv followed Tails over the top. Though Rӓv moved slower than Tails. Luca relaxed then. It seemed Rӓv was willing to hand out rope for people to hang themselves. It was ridiculous to thin someone who constantly competed with Ghost would be slow at such a simple course.

By the time Rӓv and Holly scaled the climbing fence Tails was stepping across the top of the swinging poles that marked the centre of the course. Red’s team reached the centre at the same time as Holly and Rӓv and immediately charged at Rӓv. Holly slid forward intercepting one but the other two ignored Holly to continue to attack Rӓv. Rӓv in turn started to use the field.

Rӓv slid around one of the poles and grasped the waste turning the pole sharply to clip Red in the shoulder. She then swung the other way to clip the second man in the waist. As Red moved round the pole Rӓv shifted back and sideways around another pole. Rӓv didn’t do anything fancy just kept the pair tied up. It looked like she was running scared which kept the pair in hot pursuit.

Too bad that tunnel vision was deadly. Holly managed to take down the third man and turned back towards Rӓv just as Tails strolled out the other end of the course. The match was declared and the shocked look on Red’s face was priceless. No point in ignoring the win condition and focusing on fight.

Rӓv disengaged and walked out the side of the course with a smile. Holly trailed after her talking quietly. Luca listened absently over the coms to Holly’s concerns and Rӓv’s agreements and wondered at what point Holly would realise that Rӓv was baiting.

From the sounds of it not anytime soon. Ghost moved forward and snagged Holly around the neck before he proceeded to drag Holly to the starting line again. [Ghost: just be distracting they two focused is easy.] Red’s three came over to the side and looked hard at Luca/ Luca offered a light smile not even bothering to get up.

The second match started and Holly charge in jumping hard at the rope and rushing to the middle of the course. The two girls cooperated easily moving through the field smoothly. They encountered Holly on the blue side of the centre poles being slightly fast through the course with the cooperation. Holly on the other hand made a big show of intercepting the pair.

Red called out, “Come on just take him out and get through there is only the one of him.” Luca glanced at him and waited for the realisation to come. If you only spotted one person in a duos match you should be asking where the other man is. Red didn’t make the connection but the group on Luca’s other side did.

“Where is the Russian?” just as the question was asked though the buzzer sounded to announce the end of the match when Ghost appeared across the red sides ditch and then strolled across the exit line. Even though Luca had no idea how he’d crossed the field it was a result Luca had expected the course really had far too many sight blockers to let Ghost just go through as he pleased.

Luca shook his head at the vicious cursing Red loosed before he approached the referee. “They should be disqualified since Lucky didn’t participate.”

“The team arrangements are submitted before hand the rule is that no one is allowed to sit out of all three matches. The fat that you failed to reach the solo is not the winning teams fault.” Luca nodded at the rational there he would have complained otherwise.

Though to be fair Luca wouldn’t mind too much getting disqualified since that would give them a clear excuse to leave. Luca couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong in the later part of the afternoon.

As the match continued with a few other teams taking the sneak through approach some successful some not. Zero’s team took  different approach waiting near their entrance until the other team appeared. They took them out quickly and then strolled through the course.

Luca didn’t get a match at all until the teams were whittled down to just sixteen remaining. Luca’s team was matched up against Desmond’s team. What was interesting was that despite the fact that Desmond should have known better they still tried to target Rӓv letting one person tie Holly and Tails down. Unfortunately Rӓv was no longer amused by the idea of tricking people up and went at them instead.

The follow up was as brutal as expected. Rӓv struck out with fierce kicks at any soft spots they offered up swing around, over and through the centre poles like a jungle gym. Luca admired the wide eyed horror that settled on the features of the other players as Rӓv dismantled what little offense Desmond and his partners attempted to put up.

To add insult to injury after Rӓv had dealt with the two targeting her she went up over the top of the poles and struck straight down at the last man catching him off guard and putting him out. Then with smooth grace Rӓv trounced Tails and Holly in making it through the rest of the course the only indication that she’d done anything but take a stroll being a few wispy gits of hair that had sprung loose of her braid.

Luca glanced around and confirmed that none of the remaining teams would be attempting that strategy. It was the second match that was interesting. It showed that someone had been paying attention. Desmond had apparently decided to participate in the trios and duos while leaving the solo to his final team member. So when the duos match started Desmond dragged his partner through the opening and then bodily tossed him to the top of the blue wall before tackling Holly to the ground. The partner showed that he was fast as he raced through the reaming course to reach the end moments before ghost managed the same.

Others had tried the method, but no one had been faster than Ghost, but it seemed the addition of that boosted through was just enough to get the job done. Luca stood up and stretched slowly as  Ghost and Holly left the field. Holly looked dejected at having failed to tie the other side down but for once Ghost took the time to talk it over with him. Still Luca suspected Holly wouldn’t feel confident in the next match so he might have to change the pairings up a bit. It was about time Luca did a bit more than spectate anyway.

The man sent from Desmond’s team was familiar to Luca at least by reputation. With a call sign of Crusher he had a severe preference for brute force. Tall and solidly built it was a matter of crushed ribs if he got a hold of you. Luca had seen some people use weapons in the matches, but the obstacle course actually made it difficult to give full effect to most weapons save for knives. However Luca wanted to avoid doing permanent harm to someone when there was other trouble lurking.

For the last hour Luca had felt an itch between his shoulders as if someone stared at him. It would be nice if it was just WIC or some of the other participants.