Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.30 Mad dash

[Lucky: Why am I not surprised. Everyone watch your backs, if someone finds the exit wait there until the others regroup. DO NOT move further ahead.] Luca was more resigned than anything else. He couldn’t change what had already happened. He was just grateful that the rest of them were in pairs.

Luca stepped around the next corner and waited for the section to finish moving before stepping back out into the previous ring again. Luca calculated that if the second ring moved one more time he should be at the exit. Since the goal wasn’t to reach the centre, it made more sense to go round the edge of the maze particularly since the maze was doing the walking for him.

After the next turn Luca stepped back out into the outer ring and then took two quick turns according to the original map to find himself standing in front of an arch with a conspicuous gold symbol above it. Luca compared the symbol on the arch to the one on the map. Assured that it matched Luca called the butterflies out of the maze and sent one ahead while having the other wait with him.

[Lucky: I’m out.]

[Holly: Wha?]

[Rӓv: How?] The two spoke at nearly the same time and Luca snickered in response.

[Lucky: I walked.] Luca kept his tone deadpan while he considered the position of the other’s markers. Because the maze was moving it was awkward for the mapper to update the map. It kept refreshing lines on top of each other.

[Holly: He used the rotation of the map and stayed in the outer rings.] Holly and Tails were in the centre of the maze and Luca heard the disgust in Holly’s tone as he spoke. Luca smirked. Holly continued to mutter to himself as he led Tails out of the maze while picking Rӓv and Ghost up along the way. As they exited the maze Luca waved a hand. With a light smile. Holly smiled in return while the other three stepped back abruptly.

[Lucky: I don’t mind if people want to take turns going forward, but please remember your team rolls and pay attention if people are trying to speak.] at the start of Luca’s gentle words Tails flinched while Rӓv and Ghost desperately looked anywhere but at Luca by the end of the sentence.

[Lucky: Alright then, onward with the fun.] Luca’s dry comment had the others snapping to attention as they moved forward with sharp eyes. Luca carefully restrained his smile. This was turning into a weird balancing act, enough entertainment and adrenaline to keep fear from hampering everyone but with enough caution to avoid reckless mistakes.

The next corridor was concerningly empty and short. When they stepped into the room at the end of it stone slid down smoothly to cover both doors and a grating noise came from the relatively high ceiling. The centre of the floor was a large tile image but the pieces of the picture where all jumbled and while time was removed from the picture and sat to the side.

[Rӓv: A sliding puzzle?]

[Tails: With a pressing time limit it seems.] Luca looked up at the encroaching ceiling. Pressing indeed.

[Rӓv: No problem.] Rӓv let one of the butterflies fly over the image and then it appeared in a jumble on the glasses display before rapidly shuffling around to show a complete image. After that the image retraced itself with a series of arrows showing where to push which tile. Good naturedly Luca started pushing tiles around from one spot while the others moved around to do the other areas. They had shifted to a crouch just as they finished placing the last tile to avoid the lowering roof. As soon as the last tile was placed in a flash of light ran over the image and the picture of people moving towards a black box in worship played a story while the roof retracted. The image showed the people approaching the box with gifts and treasures. Then a group of people that looked like warriors raised hands with weird jewellery on them to their chests and bowed before entering the box. Finally the warriors came out of the box with piles of treasure in their arms.

[Ghost: Fun sucker.] Ghost muttered with a disdainful look at Rӓv.

[Rӓv: You wish. If you want to experiencing being squished, you do it by yourself.] Luca rolled his eyes and then made an executive decision to distract the pair.

[Lucky: Ghost you take lead. Rӓv check on the RAL and send the butterflies again.] With clear instructions the pair just glared at each other for a moment before they moved off to do their work.

Ghost glided down the hallway with nary a whisper of sound. Luca envied him that skill. Though he wasn’t sure if he should envy more or less when while following in Ghost’s footsteps Tails triggered an arrow trap that forced him to doge to the side which then triggered a second trap that had spears shooting from the wall. As Tails rolled forward a third trap was triggered, and a ball of fire shot at him.

Luca looked at Ghost at the end of the corridor then looked at Tails hanging from his hook wing from the ceiling before looking at Rӓv and Holly who had frozen in place when Tails had triggered the first trap.

[Lucky: Ghost, care to explain?]

[Ghost: I delicate flower. Light as a feather.]

[Lucky: Even if I hadn’t hauled your body weight around this week no sane person would believe that. Try again.]

[Ghost: Is you stomping.] Luca looked to the sky for patience. Not finding any help from the smooth black and veined ceiling look instead just shot his hook wing out. He aimed to the side of the corridor to avoid hitting the RAL and grabbed Tails as he swung past and then landed beside Ghost.

Holly and Rӓv followed closely behind. When they had landed Luca turned to Ghost intending to tell him to switch out lead position because he was no good at identifying traps for others when a flash of red flickered on the map from one of his butterflies that had moved the furthest ahead.

Luca stopped cold, the monitoring range on the butterflies was relatively large at the very least it should be more than a flicker for something to pass through its range. Then the flicker happened at the next butterfly.

[Lucky: Incoming.] Lucky barely had time to get the warning out before it was on them. It produced no sound as it approached it was just a blur of movement. Shifting to the side Luca dogged the strike aimed at his heart and pulled his daggers. There wasn’t enough room for Swords in the corridor not with the other people around. Holly pulled Rӓv aside and the thing swept past them into the corridor they’d just exited.

As a result it triggered all the traps that they had just bypassed. Because of the speed the thing moved at Luca couldn’t tell what it was. His eyes caught little more than a black blur. Luca thought he’d glimpsed some sort of armour, but he wasn’t sure. and the speed and silence of the thing increased his doubts. How could something wearing armour move that fast or that quietly

[Lucky: Move.] Luca gave the order even as he started running. Luca glanced at Ghost who waited for the others to pass and once again took the rear watch. Luca ran somewhat grateful that the path had no branches. As he moved through the corridors, he noticed that a bunch of traps in a straight line down the corridor had been triggered.