Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.2 Roach Round Two

Luca checked the map and noticed that Ghost and Rӓv were approximately two thirds of the way towards the exit while Holly and Tails had gone barely a third of the way. Luca headed into his own tunnel. At a trot as he checked on Help. He peered into his pocket to find them slowly waking up. Well that was positive. Since Luca suspected that his group was transported somewhere else and not that the cube changed colour and brought 90 monsters in. Hopefully Help would have some ideas on what the hell happened and how to unhappen it.

[Lucky: Does anyone need support?] Luca asked as he calculated the branching tunnels and the likelihood of encountering the others in the joining rooms such as the maze or the obstacle course.

[Ghost: Nyet, they chasing and so get stuck in triggered rooms, slowing them down.] There was a distinct pause before Ghost spoke again.

[Ghost: You’re back?]

[Lucky: head above water and treading hard.] Luca joked as he jogged through the challenge halls. Luca had turned on the recording feature on his glasses before he’d left the main hall. Having given the main hall a solid sweep Luca made sure to pan every puzzle room he passed on the way out. He didn’t like the thought but was fairly certain they’d have to come back through the god forsaken cube to get home.

[Tails: We’re fine… Mostly. Few scratches but we met up with two more teams and like Ghost the monsters are getting trapped behind us.]

[Lucky: Alright then first ones out pick a visible landmark and call it out. Once the others get out, we meet there. Don’t get dead.]

Luca picked up his pace. He didn’t have any pesky interference at he moved much faster than the others since now he could just move. So all the things he went through with them he just went over, under or around. Even the maze he tossed a step knife and went straight over the top. The few laser shots didn’t track fast enough to make a difference before he slipped out one of the entrances.

In no time at all Luca had overtaken Tail’s position. He suspected part of that was the other teams they had met. Luca occasionally caught bits of conversation from them but nothing really relevant to him, so he just monitored it for anything strange. He hadn’t forgotten that the monsters they were currently facing weren’t the only ones they’d encountered so far, and the betrayal of human monsters now would be more than just lethal.

Luca found in interesting that the arrangement of rooms or rather the order was greatly varied on either side of the main hall in the cube. Where his team had encountered the maze then the obstacle course going out the other side Luca met the opposite.

When he reached the obstacle course, he found an additional obstacle. The Roach from this area was still active. It was in fact in the process of killing two beasts when Luca reached the course. Luca looked down at the two fae swords he was carrying and considered his options. He hadn’t thought to grab extra sheaths for them. His own swords had been unfortunately broken during the fight he’d had in the main chamber and unfortunate incident of collision angle. Luca suspected it was also because of damage suffered from killing the last Roach. Unfortunately his new acquisitions didn’t fit into the sheaths he had properly.

He had made do with holding them in one hand when he’d tossed his step knife earlier. That wouldn’t work against a roach though. Which meant Luca couldn’t use the puncture and inject method this time since he had no way to easily get the step knife and then the needle out. Not to mention Luca wanted to keep that needle for dire needs. Luca might have tried going through one of the other passages to avoid the Roach but that would mean letting the thing freely chase him.

Help chose that moment to climb out of Luca’s pocket. “What?” the question was sleepy as Help peered around. “No how are we in the Sol Box.” Luca realised that this was probably going to be important information about where they were but that it might also prove to be very distracting for the others running for their lives right now. Thus Luca shifted the setting his coms to receive but not send audio messages.

“Soul box?” Luca asked as he kept a warry eye on the Roach he didn’t actually have the time to stop and chat right now but he didn’t want to miss this opportunity to get some information while it was fresh in the mind.

“Yes, the box of the sun that is the door on the Twilight land side. We were clearly in the Luna box in the Dawn land side.” Luca had about a hundred questions about that sentence when the Roach turned away from its victims towards them. Luca was halfway through the course standing on a revolving turntable with its flicking baton arms attempting to dislodge him. Luca looked at the approaching Roach. He had one the fight with the other monsters, but it clearly wasn’t cost free as he didn’t move with lightning speed.

“Help hold that though I just need to deal with something real quick.”

Luca considered the turntable he stood on and then the  movements of the Roach. Actually this was good. Even if it wanted to it couldn’t be fast in this, with that hard shell it was most definitely not flexible. Though if he wanted to fight flexibly, he’d really need a spare hand. Luca really should have thought a bit harder and grabbed sheaths from the fae whose swords he’d taken. Ah well improvise improvise.

“I’ll help.” Help called determination in his voice. Luca nodded slightly as he waited. When he felt that the Roach had moved close enough over open ground Luca raised his hand and tossed the left sword. He expected the blade to be avoided or to bounce of the carapace and clatter to the floor. He did not expect for the creature to shriek and attempt to dodge and for the blade to hit the side of the Roach and pass straight through the shell.

He’d grabbed the swords because those in an uneasy truce often brought weapons to slay those with which they were uncertain. Thus Luca had felt sure that the fae weapons would be excellent for killing the vampires and shifters.

Now it seemed that they had indeed been specially crafted even without the fancy fae flame. Luca had liked the balance of them, but they were after all some one else’s originally. Now after looking at the effectiveness against roaches Luca wanted all the blades. All. They were officially his most valuable spoils of war.

“I think Help, you can save your magic for a greater need.” Luca smirked in a way that would have given his friends chills as he stretched out his other sword and then slowly lowered his centre of gravity. In moments he vanished amongst the batons. The Roach made a screech that sounded both angry and puzzled before it lunged onto the turntable.