Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.29 Mapping People

Luca jumped down into the holding room. Lady and the others were already watching the shaft and so were not surprised by Luca’s entrance. As he landed though Luca scanned the faces there. Lady, the sisters Mio and Mi, as well as the lovers River and Lake. River and Lake were an interesting pair they both died their hair different shades of blue. When they weren’t competing, they tended to act sickly sweet together. Then when there were competing it was a mystery to everyone how they could be dating at all.

Luca had noticed that they were the only fellow competitors that had come onto the ship. Luca had thought there had been more of them in the pen, but he’d scanned the gathered people below and hadn’t seen any. The five before him were from three different teams so he wanted to check if there were more people to rescue elsewhere.

“What happened to the rest of your teams?” Luca asked as he approached.

“Zeno was given to the vampires, Jade well you should know about that, I don’t know about Sorceress and Micro.” Lady explained with a shake of the head.

“Desmond was grabbed by the Fae and the others were lost to those human Roaches before we even got out.” Mio frowned bitterly as she spoke while Mi nodded beside her with a similarly dark expression.

“Beasts.” Lake explained succinctly.

“Declan is the only one left of his group, but your team is completely intact, right?” Lady asked as she took half a step towards Luca. Luca nodded in response. Under the circumstance he would have been surprised if someone hadn’t asked about that.

“Yeah, I haven’t lost anyone yet, I think part of it is luck and part of it is our preparation –”

[Räv: Water catch is up. Hid it pretty well they Harpies probably won’t even notice. Doing a redistribution of butterflies, whose got what?] Räv’s voice through the coms cut Luca off and he paused mid-sentence. Luca quickly reached into his pouch and pulled out his butterfly case.

[Lucky: I have four, and there is the one her with Lady]

[Holly: Eight.]

[Tails: Seven.]

[Ghost: Nine.]

[Räv: I have one left. I’ve put recall on the ones that got left in the forest and centaur camp but whether they make it is anyone’s guess. So till then we need to redivide.]

[Lucky: Alright we’ll shift them around when we come back to plan our takeover, though if you can try sending some out to try and track when the Harpies are separated.]

[Holly: I’ll send some of mine out while I’m mapping then.] Holly’s tone was upbeat as he volunteered.

[Lucky: Make sure to settle them out of sight then.]  Luca responded he didn’t want to focus on issues they needed to work together. They were, as the metaphor went, not out of the woods yet and Luca had no intention of being buried here. Though he would just be keeping an eye on things. No doubt the others would have similar intentions.

[Räv: I’ll set up a motion to camera ping for my tablet from them then.] Luca nodded slightly that was a good thought. Both from a practical perspective and in the case of checking up on Holly.

[Ghost: I do other half.] Ghost piped up as a new input was added to the mapping. If Luca finished his section, they would be done in an hour and could all get some rest. Conversation with his team finished Luca refocused on the others.

“Sorry about that, we were talking about my team’s survival, right? Luck, preparation and skill.” Luca ticked points on his hands before he shrugged, he really didn’t have anything else he could say on the matter that was different from the others. Those factors had contributed to them getting three keys early which meant they had the advantage of language which Luca had used to his advantage to understand his situation and to slip past one obstacle. Although slip past was perhaps an exaggeration since they’d come close to being reptile food and then spider bait.

“No I get it now, for one you have coms that still work here. For two your still controlled, and just from your side of the conversation its clear your all planning ahead every step so you can adjust to the circumstances as it changes.” Lady laughed as she spoke while the others nodded in agreement. Luca only shrugged. He didn’t understand people that didn’t make contingency plans. The mere idea that things would go exactly as intended in all or any circumstances was as far as he was concerned a waking delusion. Every plan they’d made since they’d wound up here had needed to be adjusted as they went.

In all honestly Luca actually felt like they hadn’t prepared enough recently simply because he hadn’t had the chance to work out everything on offer from his teammates meaning he was continually asking or finding out something at what felt like the last minute. Not to mention not having enough coms for everyone. With a shake of his head Luca stopped thinking about the things he hadn’t managed to fix. Dwelling on problems he couldn’t change was a good way to make issues in the present problems that he needed to deal with.

“Thanks, at this stage we need you to stay here. Keeping the Harpies relaxed and lax on their ship so that they will feel comfortable acting alone,” Luca explained. Lady nodded slowly while Mio and Mi started to smirk.

“You want them thinking its all normal, not checking up on each other,” Mio laughed as she spoke. Luca had noticed shadows and strain around the eyes of all five of them. He really couldn’t blame them there had been nothing pleasant about the time here. they didn’t have the same chances of forced levity that Luca and his friends had managed. Even if it was a bit forced it still allowed them a moment to relax to refocus and to recentre.

“You mean if there a little distracted that’s good but if they are paranoid that would be bad.” Lake tilted his head thoughtfully as he spoke. “Pity we can’t communicate with them. Still there might be somethings that we can do to make them relax.” Lake’s eyes glimmered and he shared a smile with River. Luca looked at the diabolical expressions that spread over their faces.

“Don’t over do it.” Luca settled for just that warning after all now that they had something they could actively do they felt better about things. There was a lighter look to their eyes. Luca needed that to stay. If they got too pessimistic or resigned now, then they would be as good as done.

Declan considered things and turned to ask Declan if he had any sort of protection spells, he could put on them. As he turned, he heard a solid thumb and swearing from outside the room. Instantly Luca sprinted across the room with a quick spring he caught the ledge of the shaft then heaved himself up and rolled in. Luca stopped in a crouch just inside the shaft.

For one he didn’t want to give anything away with noise made when they moved. For another he wanted to be on hand in case there was something with Lady. After all without being able to communicate Luca couldn’t think of a single reason that one of the Harpies would come to the room when they had settled for the night.