Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.28 A change in mindset

Luca moved cautiously down the tunnel entrance scanning the floor each wall and then the roof regularly. They had ended up choosing a tunnel with traps in the first corridor because  they determined it would be better to get used to the rhythm early moreover if they couldn’t pass the first string of traps well then, they would be destined to die anyway.

Luca stepped forward avoid a slight imperfection in the floor only to hear a snick. Immediately Luca dropped to the floor as if his feet were cut off. He had moved ahead so that if a trap was triggered it wouldn’t affect the others. As soon as Luca hit the floor,  he rolled right pressing his back against the wall. It wasn’t the time to be worrying about touching or not touching so Luca just had to respond and hope for the best.

Thankfully the wall didn’t eat him, and he avoided the rain of arrows that stuck the position where he had triggered the trap. As Luca flipped to his feet, he examined the trap result and frowned. It was a pinpoint accurate trap result. It targeted only where the trap was triggered and did no damage to the area around. It was quite different from the normal traps that when triggered attempted to prevent anyone from moving further down a passage.

Luca had been thinking this would be more like tomb raiding with mixed traps and puzzles but now it really seemed more like a targeted challenge. With yet more question mounting Luca looked back and checked the team. Assured that they where fine he continued forward. From ahead a vague shush shush sound could be heard. Rounding the corner Luca found the source and had to smile.

[Lucky: Rӓv your butterflies need a promotion.] in front was a beam of light that cross the entire corridor it would be impossible to pass without disrupting the light. On the other side of the light three large blades swung back and forth across the corridor. The light poring into an enclosed structure inside a mountain couldn’t be anything other than a trap. Though it seemed the butterflies passing through had triggered this trap early. Though that degree of sensitivity in the trap was concerning.

[Rӓv: Apparently, looking at the height of those things it seems its lucky that I had them deliberately fly towards the corners of the corridor area. Though a pity that they had apparently passed before they could actually notice the motion.]

[Tails: If they hadn’t, they might have become sliced flies.] Rӓv hummed in agreement as Luca examined the blades. If they had just been swinging one way across the corridor it would have been fine but rather the first blade swung left to right the second blade swung forward and back and the third swung across the first two at a diagonal.

[Holly: I want to be super impressed with timing and design of this thing it would be really pretty –]

[Tails: if it wasn’t essentially a blender in our way?]

[Holly: Yeah that.]

[Ghost: Is fun place like amusement park.] Luca had been about to turn around to check on the back given Ghost peculiar silence but relaxed again at the comment. Okay his resident crazy was still here it was fine. Out of the people Luca was the closest to Ghost since they had done some work and play together before their parent’s passed it was just that Rӓv normally required more attention and Tails was easier to work with. Still if Luca were to be asked who he worked best with it would be Ghost every time they had a little bit of the same sort to them after all. It was only at Ghost’s comment though that Luca remembered how he’d started competing the thrill of the challenge and the fun of the ride.

Luca recalled why they all wanted out and then considered his attitude to approaching this. he had started to let his fear overtake him which would be no different than the life he  wanted out of. With a deep breathe Luca slowly relaxed and felt a slight smile curve his lips. Right, he couldn’t change this so he might as well have good time while it lasted.

[Lucky: think of it like gym practice. With a shiny twist.] Luca’s tone lightened the more he spoke at he felt the atmosphere behind him change.

[Tails: hey you know the rest of us didn’t like gym?]

[Rӓv: Speak for yourself I always thought it was fun I just lacked the talent.]

[Lucky: Specialised demo and lift with every class.] Luca had gotten the rhythm and figured out the best way to approach the steps by now and so headed forward and a brisk trot. Moving to the diagonal not target by the third blade Luca passed through the light and jumped lightly pushing off the wall to grab the pole of the forward blade he swung himself around the blade and hooked his legs on the pole of the right lift blade.

Pulling his body close to the pole he let the diagonal blade pass him before he abdominal crunched up and tossed out a step knife into the top of the diagonal blade fixing it in place. The other two blades swung back and jammed against the diagonal. Placing his hands on the pole Luca twisted around to stand carefully on the back of the blade.

[Lucky: So who wants a lift first?] With the trap neutralised it was relatively easy to move past, but Luca looked regrettably at the step knife that had to be left behind after all they needed to be able to get out and it would be easier to not have to re-disarm the trap.

With a little moue of regret Luca turned back only to find that Holly had moved to the front and everyone else had moved up one more place. With synced smiles the grinned at him.

[Holly: Can’t let you have all the fun and glory.] Luca chocked on a laugh at the immediate change in atmosphere so what if it was a death trap trying to eat them, they’d play it to death and come out on top. Not very often you can try a full set of challenges on hard difficulty without the clues. Yeah, it was time to have fun with it after all what was the point of any life it you couldn’t enjoy it.

Weirdly enough with the lightened atmosphere Luca actually felt like it was cooler than it had been and the veins on the walls seemed less disturbing. The elevator music that Rӓv had been playing on low in the coms shifted to a more upbeat tune. It took Luca a minute to recognise the tune but when he did, he burst out laughing.

[Lucky: Video game themes is it?]

[Rӓv: we are now the might adventures protagonists of a story so naturally we should have appropriate theme music.] Luca was impressed not only at the fast response but at the fact that Rӓv managed to say that with a straight face. He felt better about this if they were going to be stuck facing unknown dangers with their life hanging in the balance then he preferred they laugh in the face of death instead of cower in fear of the monsters.