Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.10 Familiar feeling

When the plane landed more medical staff rushed on and took William’s body away. Luca followed the others to disembark and then cooperatively went with the assigned guards for an individual ‘interview’. They could have said interrogation Luca doubted anyone was under any illusions about the point of the talk. Though to be fair Luca didn’t think anyone was directly responsible for what happened to William. Needle aside there was something not right with the wound on his hand.

It was a fairly routine interrogation. What happened, who did what, the same questions worded different ways over and over again. Having been the one fishing for answers before Luca just patiently answered. In fact he was rather surprised and somewhat suspicious when they let them all go after just two hours.

[Rӓv: Did that feel perfunctory to anyone else?]

[Holly: Huh? They asked the same things repeatedly for two hours and its perfunctory?]

[Tails: Never been interrogated before huh? Asking the same things several ways is the basics since it is easy to trip up if someone is lying.]

[Lucky: I think it might be because they know more about the death than they let on. As we exited the plane, I realised that one of the no smoking signs was actually one way mirror probably hiding a camera.]

[Ghost: Da. I felt one near back too. Thought I noticed one at airport.]

[Rӓv: And you didn’t say anything?]

[Ghost: You say no power no camera I thought was not working.]

Rӓv snarled something indecipherable as they all boarded the bus to take them to the WIC compound. Seeing that Rӓv’s already bad mood had worsened Luca ushered her to a seat on the second floor of the bus. Normally given the number of attacks so far Luca would be concerned about snipers attacking the open-air area of the double decker bus. However, under the circumstances Luca preferred the ability to quickly evac. They hadn’t encountered anyone using guns, yet he was thus much less concerned about that.

Zeno followed them up to the top seating area though he didn’t continue with the recruiting talk, rather sitting down a bit away with Morgana, Caihong, Jade and Lady.

[Holly: Didn’t take him long to change his mind I see.]

[Tails: Probably already made a request but was going to do double insurance if he could have conned Ghost or me.]

[Lucky: I think it will be stranger to find people without teams by this point. There have been too many attacks for people to continue to insist on running solo.]

The bus travelled along at a good pace and left the small city area out into a series of large corn fields. Luca scanned the horizon as they travelled and thought he caught a glimpse of metal on the road ahead before they went over a particularly large bump. Having been jolted in his seat Luca took a minute to resettle as he pushed his glasses further up on his nose.

[Rӓv: Got you.]

[Rӓv: Well I’ll be. They’re WIC cameras. They even have footage of the house attacks. I wonder what else you have.]

A bang sounded and the bus was shunted off the road starting to tip. Luca reacted instantly the question he intended to ask Rӓv tossed aside as he snagged his bag and Rӓv who’d grabbed her bag and leapt free of the bus. Tossing out his hook wing he snagged onto a branch of an outcropping of trees the other side of the corn field and swung them into the cover. Lucky the fields had narrowed here, high as corn is it is not adequate cover. Tails followed over with Holly while Ghost came last with his, Tails’ and Holly’s bags.

“It’s a familiar feel. I regret somewhat not putting my full equipment on at the airport. Switching to coms.” Luca muttered as he settled Rӓv on the branch.

[Lucky: Rӓv do you have our destination plotted?]

[Rӓv: Yeah, did that before we came out of interrogation. Where actually on WIC property already, it’s something like a ranch the base camp is about 5km’s south.] An aerial map appeared in the top corner of the glasses display with a marker for each person and a line towards the base camp.

[Lucky: Threefold operation. Since we are now essentially watch free look around find out what you can about WIC. Two, catch one of the Faceless Masks since it seems a safe bet this is them. Three get to base camp in the next three hours. Rӓv, you go with Tails, check out the boarders or outbuildings of the WIC property. Ghost you take Holly see who you can fish up. I’m going to make merry with our attackers and see what I can find about the other contestants. I’m sick of these surprise visits.]

[Roger.]

[Rӓv: Before I go everyone take a watch. Has a scan feature to pick up nearby transmission signals should help detect cameras and monitoring devices.] Luca nodded in time with the others and slipped the watch on. Once it was fastened it came to life and immediately flashed red.

[Rӓv: Trackers.] The disgust in the tone was apparent and Rӓv quickly went about locating them on each of their bags and on some of their clothing. Luca pulled out a small bag from his kit and held it out.

[Lucky: I’ll take them I have plans.] Luca accepted the trackers as Rӓv handed them over. With a last nod the group quickly split up. The others sliding in amongst the corn field and moving carefully while Luca headed deeper amongst the trees. Any time he saw and animal with a flick he tossed a tracker onto it. Birds, lizards, snakes he didn’t care. As he moved, he checked the map and realised that the bit of woods abutted to a national park. Luca smirked slightly and moved with more care looking for signs of tracks and then following them cautiously from the treetops. While a lot of the predators in this area could climb, they didn’t tend to hunt from the treetops.

Luca’s smirk turned downright evil as he successfully planted the last three trackers on a bear, a mountain lion and a falcon. Have fun chasing. Luca moved away as silently as he’d arrived. It would be best if they encountered them while they where sleeping. Rushing into the beast’s mouth would be terribly apropos.

As Luca headed back towards the WIC company base through the woods, he finally encountered some attackers. As expected, they were the Faceless Masks. Luca remained perfectly still as a group paused beneath his perch. The group of three then started an intense argument that Luca listened to with perked ears.

“We should just take them out outright.”

“If it was that easy, we would have done so.”

“There only human, how hard can it be?”

“I dare you to say that to the Beta’s face.”

“How about no. I don’t need to see the end sight of that it will put me off stew for months.”

“Ah, yeah let’s not.” A fine shudder ran through the three of them as they went silent for a long moment.

“Where are the trackers now.” The three fell to discussing the dispersed trackers in the woods and Luca smirked. Still looking must mean they hadn’t found any of the ones he’d planted yet. As the three moved away Luca shook his head. No training. They walked in a casual group. While they were quite enough, they hadn’t checked their surroundings at all. He wondered how the trackers got on them but honestly there had been plenty of opportunities.

In the spirit of waste not want not Luca decided to take advantage of their negligence and encourage some personal growth. Luca quietly cut a vine off the tree he was crouched in and carefully separated out three cords. Tying a lasso at the end of each cord he stepped along the trees behind them. Mamas don’t let your baby’s grow up to be cowboys. Mentally singing along to the tune in his head Luca stepped a bit further out on the branch so he was clear of the leaves and raised the vine swinging it twice over his head before tossing it out.

“AH!” the Faceless Mask exclaimed as the lasso hooked him around the middle strapping his arms to his side. Luca swung the vine around a branch and stabbed a step knife into the end thus leaving the mask suspended from the ground. Predictably the other two spun around to help their friend and Luca hopped to another tree and sent out another lasso fishing up a second one.

Luca stared hard at the third Faceless Mask. The Faceless Mask dove right as Luca tossed his last vine and jumped backwards off his branch. Let them be doctors and lawyers and such. Hoisting the last Faceless Mask Luca tied the rope hard before going back to retrieve his step knives and tying the other two vines. He might need the steps latter couldn’t just leave them to be pins.

[Lucky: I have three Faceless Masks hung up Rӓv you got a minute?]

[Rӓv: Yeah, not much to see out here save for the big golden fence.] Following the message was a short, recorded clip where a tall heavy duty gold coloured fence rose from the group along the boarder of the WIC property. Rӓv had accommodatingly included a map image with the fences coverage area.