Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.36 Be the Butterfly

Intellectually Luca had known that Tails was very good at reconnaissance and investigation. There hadn’t however ever been an opportunity for Luca to actually watch the process. Though as he watched this time, he wasn’t sure what he was even seeing. Tails moved through amongst the trees at a leisurely pace.

There was no sense of urgency or purpose in the way he moved. Which in turn meant that his movements blended in with the rustle of the trees and was obscured by the distant cries of beasts and birds. Luca wanted to ask what he was doing. Wasn’t he trying to follow the person from before or track the other people? Luca could see no such intention when Tails moved to keep the trees between him and the path the person had taken. It was only by listening carefully that Luca could still hear the sounds of the bear moving through the underbrush.

[Lucky: Are you tracking from the sound alone?] Luca finally couldn’t resist and asked as Tails slid around another tree so that he moved further to the right and behind where the person could be expected to be.

[Tails: Correct, best way to tail someone is to not be seen, if you can’t see them then they won’t be able to see you.]

[Lucky: Doesn’t that make it hard to keep track of who you’re following though? You can hear the bear but not the person.] Luca worried that the person would circle around while Tails couldn’t see.

[Tails: That is a problem. Though I have you.] Luca almost asked how exactly he was supposed to help at the moment when Tails took out his butterfly drones. Yeah, that would help. Tails pulled one out and activated it.

“Ah? Tails activated a butterfly. That means Lucky is about to ask me to patch it through. Easy, I’ll even give him detailed steering as opposed to just general direction. Now where were we.” Luca closed his mouth without managing to get word out before Rӓv spoke. He was somewhat concerned that she’d read his mind that easily but then again it wasn’t much of a guess to determine what Luca would want given that he was essentially visually hovering over Tails.

There was an abrupt shift in perspective and Luca was staring at Tails from about  the height of his nose. Luca jerked back and smacked his head against the wall behind him. Shaking his head Luca refocused and attempted to control the butterfly. It had weird motion control. It was ridiculously sensitive, and the controls where not inverted. Thankfully Luca found a switch program that inverted the controls. Then it felt a bit lying flying something in a game. Just with the sensitivity of a fly on steroids.

Luca flew in an erratic spiral for a few seconds before he managed to level out. Feeling slightly nausea Luca swallowed before heading out from around the tree and off towards the crunching noises. The sound sensitivity on the butterfly was limited but it was enough for Luca to manage his immediate surrounds as he flew amongst the trees.

Rounding the next tree Luca banked sharply and narrowly avoided flying into the face of the bear. Moving up and past the bear which strangely didn’t snap Luca spotted a shrub with flowers not far away and headed over there to land temporarily. The bear and person had adjusted their direction moving diagonally inwards. If Tails continued his forward approach he would be easily spotted.

[Tails: They’ve adjusted angle I see. I can use you as a map marker, even though Holly’s and Rӓv ‘s mapping doesn’t work in this sort of wooded area very well it is sufficient to judge distances.] Luca agreed with that point at least and while it shouldn’t be unusual to see a butterfly in a forest. Far less strange than one in an underground lab. Luca wasn’t inclined to believe that the person in front was likely to be as carelessly unobservant as a bunch of scientists. Which meant Luca had to find a way to follow him without looking like he was following him.

[Lucky: If I’d known I was going to be a butterfly today I would have studied there movement patterns more.] the laughter that sounded from the other three told Luca that they’d noticed the comment and took great delight in his suffering. Luca would have liked to take the time to get up and deck them for it, but he needed to concentrate.

Thinking back to the butterflies he’d seen in his parents’ yard as a child Luca took off from the plant and started fluttering around. Up and down and then in one direction before turning another way. Luca noticed that the person was staring at him. Luca prepared to be swatted out of the air for his  forged impersonation, but nothing happened.

Another butterfly appeared in front of the next tree and Luca was immediately elated. He could just mirror the other one and then wouldn’t stand out too much. Just hopefully it would head in the right direction.

Luck was on Luca’s side as the butterfly moved in a meandering way along the same route as the person. As they continued more and more butterflies appeared and Luca really felt like he was just part of  the crowd.

“They’re here again they must sense a feast is coming.” The voice once again gave Luca chills and then he wondered what sort of feast the man thought would attract butterflies. Luca continued and realised at some point that Tails had circled ahead.

[Lucky: Tails what are you doing?]

[Tails I can predict where they are going based on your general movement patterns, can’t be two specific since you’re fluttering all over the place but the general direction is do able. Ah, well that’s a problem.]

[Lucky: What’s a problem?] Luca fiddled around for a bit and set the butterfly on a meandering path towards Tails before shifting back to Tails’ glasses display.

[Tails: The visual must have been a prior recording. Not a current picture.] Luca stared at the Teal obelisk surrounded by a wide sandy plane. The nearest out cropping of trees was at least thirty metres away. In the sand ten metres around the stone was a clear line though there was no visible reason for the mark.

[Lucky: I suppose that is the barrier that was mentioned?]

[Tails: I would guess so, supposedly I should be able to pass right through it.] Luca thought about that for a long moment.

[Lucky: How prepared are you to test that theory?]

[Tails: Not very.] Tails shook his head and then ever so carefully climbed high into a tree a bit back from the edge and settled in against the trunk.

[Lucky: Clear open area, no sign of anyone else around and the obvious goal right in sight. It couldn’t scream trap any louder if it tried.] Luca assumed that the spiders waiting by the enticing web were relying on the fact that by the time anyone reached the goal they’d be too desperate to use appropriate caution.

Luca checked the map overlay and realised the butterfly had approached quiet quickly and so switched back over to controlling its flight. Luca took control and then almost crashed as the view was overtaken with a veritable see of butterflies.

Luca was more or less swept along with the group until the swarm paused amongst the edge of the trees. The bear gave an inquisitive rumble and the person chuckled.

“Yes, the others are chasing them here now. It will be a feast soon.”