Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.39 A Little Hitch

Luca received dubious assurances that Help, and Aran would keep watch and that he should sleep. He didn’t feel that sleepy since he hadn’t done all that much that day. Still it was logical that he sleeps while he had the chance. Luca suspected that he wouldn’t have such luxury once they started saving people. If they took too much downtime it would just give people, the chance to better prepare defences.

[Lucky: Ghost have you got an update on the situation?] Luca waited for several long minutes and received no response. Luca looked out at the raging weather and then at the direction indicating Ghost’s position. He hoped he wasn’t out in the weather good constitution or not that would be damaging for anything else they needed to deal with. Luca’s eyes narrowed as in the next moment the shadows outside stretched and shifted. It reformed moments later into a human shape before the shadows peeled off to reveal Shade and Ghost.

“Is interesting way to travel.” Ghost gave a cheery wave as he entered the tent with Shade behind them. Luca looked them over and then smiled.

“No comment on my collection?” they felt like the same people to Luca, but it never hurt to check.

Ghost raised a brow as he looked around, “Trust you to make friends.” Luca laughed along with him while Shade shrugged. While they still laughed Luca lunged forward driving the Fae swords into their stomachs. They screeched as their forms wavered. The skin shifted into a weird, malnourished monkey shape before they dropped dead.

[Lucky: Ghost where the hell are you?] They should have been captured for the skinwalkers to feel comfortable impersonating them. Yet, if they had been clearly captured then Ghost should have had all the time in the world to respond.

[Ghost: Da, da. Is good. Nyet helmet.] Luca grimaced at the nonsensical dialogue. If it had been spoken, he might have bought it but typed. The i***t was doing it on purpose.

[Lucky: I will drag you to the monkey temple when we get home.] The issue with people knowing someone for a long period of time was the ability to identify weaknesses. Luca was completely willing to exploit them as well whenever necessary.

[Ghost: Is nothing. Just a slight delay.] Luca nodded, that meant that they had escaped from wherever they had been captured. Luca just hoped they’d done it in such a way as to avoid raising any hackles.

[Lucky: Ask Shade how his people tracking skill works.]

[Ghost: Da?] Luca clearly read the confusion in the response but didn’t try to explain. He needed to have an idea on what distance a skinwalker could jump versus the original since they didn’t have a tracker to conveniently tell with Shade. It was not like they could arrange it for him to only travel with someone else. While the butterfly was not a bad intermediary solution, they had the issue of the potential compromise that Rӓv still hadn’t give the all clear to which made those a risky use resource.

[Ghost: He says can follow a familiar breath over a limited distance.] Luca nodded to himself; he guesses that meant that the skinwalkers would only be able to use it at a close distance.

[Lucky: are you out from where you were held?]

[Ghost: Who said we were captured?]

[Lucky: Your recently departed look alike.]

[Ghost: Ah, was unlucky. Easy to leave. We come to you now.]

[Lucky: Good plan. Though I can confirm that the skinwalkers can’t replicate our tech, the tracking is not copied over.] Luca repeated that message to the others so that everyone had an easier way to check identity at least for their original group.

Twenty minutes later Ghost and Shade emerged from the shadows. Luca looked at the map marker and didn’t even get the chance to say anything before Ghost looked around and laughed.

“Is perfect attack force.” Luca could see the laughter in his eyes and smiled in response.

“At least they’re reliable.” Luca responded with his smile fading. Ghost expression shifted as well. Shade just looked confused.

“Declan stayed to watch over the captives. We tried to do what we could to inhibit the activities for tomorrow.” Luca c****d his head to the side as Ghost spoke. With a disgusted look Ghost clarified, “Gladiators. Free for all. Blood Sport.”

Luca closed his eyes in a fatalistic manor. Having been a part of such practices for the amusement of others he knew just what sort of mental and physical torture the group was going through. Still there was no way to just magic them out.

Luca spent the next hour going over the ins and outs of the Aviary. He would have liked more time, say month to prepare this but time was something they were short on, and it seemed that it would just getter shorter the more time progressed. In the end Luca had to settle for a cheap classic plan and just try and remove the variables.

“So tomorrow, try and interrupt the contest without making it obvious and at dusk my group will start some trouble and your group will pull them out.

[Rӓv: I have the Elder Dwarf on our side. He doesn’t agree with the Gnomes choices and has agreed to be the carrier with the ship/]

[Lucky: excellent, send it to the East side of the mountain not far from the Aviary for a pickup zone.]

[Rӓv: Got it, I have a few things I’m going to strip out of here before I leave. I’ve made a transfusion kit as well in case we need it.] Luca nodded. It was something they tended to carry on longer missions where blood loss could be an issue. Luca was a universal donor as was Tails. While the other three where all AB which meant that they normally had a compatible donor on hand. Luca would be in a bit of an issue if he got hurt before Tails was saved but as long as he wasn’t hurt then they’d be fine. Thankfully Luca was quite good at avoiding being punctured at least.

“Alright that is evac sorted. We have ideas on distractions so let’s rest. Aran has the watch. We want to leave before dawn.” Luca received nods from the pair as he sifted to the side and stretched out. Immediately Blue and Lil’ Miss who had been playing in the rain swished inside and settled down with Luca. Luca gave them both a pat before he closed his eyes and forced his mind to stillness. He needed to be on top of his game in the morning.

There was no sign of the sun on the horizon when they rose and packed up the camp. Luca ate a ration bar as he walked scoping around for a secondary evac point for them that Shade could pull them to if they needed to use a decoy process to give the larger group time to get away.

Luca hoped it wasn’t needed but he wasn’t prepared to do this already risky thing without at least that much fall-back plan. Just as they sun started to peak over the horizon Lil’ Miss found a well-hidden cavern. It was obscured by a stack or cracked boulders, difficult to spot from any one direction. Luca wouldn’t have noticed it if it were not for Lil’ Miss diving into it before popping out to scare Blue. A quick examination found it to be deep enough to hide in but not so deep that anything else was inhabiting it. With a sharp not Luca shifted the tent tarp into a cover and unloaded his extra supplies that Luca had sent. He stored anything that might slow him down, then it was time to get to work.