Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.40 Out of the fire

“Yes? Yes! You want  to put the vine around the transfer stone and tie it off to a tree to make a path above the hounds, right?”  Tails nodded his head while Luca wondered if they’d said that much or if it was just that obvious.

“Then I can help I can make it so the vine flies directly over and then goes taunt so it will be easy to use. I personally just can’t go past the barrier... None of the others thought of this or I might have been able to help.” The excitement in the tone was contagious and Luca found himself smiling.

[Rӓv: Trust you to go out and find a cutie mascot.] the message from Rӓv popped up over the camera display and Luca’s smile deepened. It was well dark now but Luca worried that the day/night cycle of this place was not as long as that of earth.

[Lucky: then we just need a distraction somewhere to draw the hounds away.] while Luca figured it might be possible to just get through to fast for the hounds to notice Luca would still prefer to give Tails a bit more of a safety line.

[Ghost: Give me butterfly I make distraction.] Luca felt his left eye twitch at this comment. What was he planning to do with a butterfly? While Rӓv’s engineering was excellent it definitely had limits.

[Tails: Are you sure you’ll be able to?]

[Ghost: Checked specs. No problem.]

[Rӓv: Wait when did you check the specs, Ruski you better not have been messing with my things!] The volume reached at the end was positively headache inducing, Luca’s ears rang from the double dose of the reality and the coms. On the other hand Ghost who should have been seated right next to Rӓv to be able to see anything just laughed. Once again Luca gained a profound sense as to how broken Ghost’s sense of self-preservation was.

Help was so startled that they stumbled and almost fell out from where Tails held them.                 “Um? What?”

[Tails: The others are not here physically but they can look around and do some things the same as the butterflies just like Lucky.] Tails pulled out his butterfly case as he spoke and activated a second butterfly. The butterfly immediately took off heading down towards the ground and then into the distance.

Not even two minutes later the sounds of barking and snarls and galloping of footsteps that sounded like a heard of elephants from the direction the Ghost’s butterfly had gone. There was a ruminative silence for a long moment before Tails broke it.

[Tails: So ah what did he do?] Luca personally wasn’t sure that he wanted to know the answer though. Especially when Rӓv failed to and answer promptly and instead Holly responded.

[Holly: He’s playing ah keepy off, where he’s the object being withheld.] Luca processed that for a second and then promptly shoved the visual from his head.

[Lucky: Right then while there distracted let’s get this bridge done.] Tails rose to a crouch and Luca and Help took off and moved out into the open air.

“Lucky, there is a one-off bright flash you can do as the butterfly, but it will completely fry the power of it. The flash is bright enough to blind though.” Rӓv murmured in Luca’s ear having isolated the coms briefly. Luca wondered why the segregation and then realised that she probably didn’t want Help thinking too hard about it. Luca nodded a response as he panned the butterfly in place looking for any sign of hounds near the area.

In the meantime Help held their hands out in front of them and took on a faint blue glow that spread out and  grabbed the vine rope and then tugged it out straight to the teal rick before the rope circled it firmly and tied off. At the same time the rope secured itself to the nearest tree. Tails moved quickly from his hiding spot and then out onto the vine. Tails crossed at a quick walk and Luca followed help to however above the vine just outside the barrier.

[Ghost: Butterfly nyet.] The pout in the tone had Luca opening his mouth to ask what had happened only to be cut off by a loud explosion as a portion of the forest behind Tails burst into flames. Luca re-evaluated and then decided that in fact he didn’t need to know the how or what of the distraction just that it worked.

Tails was more than halfway across as the flames died the night sky red but over the distant roar Luca heard a howl. Without hesitation Luca dove his butterfly forward as tails attempted to pick up his speed. Help didn’t react until the hounds entered the clearing.

It was what followed the hounds that gave Luca chills though nearly two metre’s tall glossy black carapace reflected in the flickering light with the sharp knife-like claws on the end of each arm. The creatures looked like cockroaches standing on their hind legs and swinging their claws sharply.

Luca dove towards the approaching pack and immediately activated the full flash burst. He hoped at the screen went white then black that it was enough time for Tails to get inside. Luca tapped his glasses twice and pulled them off his nose as he waited for the screen to re-activate to its normal display. A soft sobbing reached Luca’s ears right before a solid thump sounded from beside him. With a shift of the head Luca followed the boots up to meet the eyes of a ragged but intact Tails.

[Tails: Let’s not do that again. That last k******e though was just in the nick of time. One of the roaches cut the line but the slight delay gave me precious seconds to dive through the barrier. Grabbed this in passing since they hadn’t moved.] Tails unfurled his cupped hands to show a crying Help. Luca pushed to his feet and then leaned slightly forward.

[Lucky: What are you crying for you were a great help.] the crying cut off abruptly and Help’s head snapped around to stare up at Luca. Luca smiled in response and held out a hand.

[Lucky: Nice to meet you I’m Lucky, it seems that Tails thoroughly finished the job I started in bringing you all the way out. Though I’m not sure what you should do now. If I’m not mistaken there is one of those Roaches in the tunnel behind us. While we have no choice but to go forward.]

“Your fine? Really fine? I heard that if your hurt during spirit possession it will be really painful.” Luca tried to process that information that Help had just given it seemed there was a misunderstanding about the butterflies. “And, and, isn’t it really hard to make golems you, you lost two of them just then. I can come with you and work like the golem for scouting I’ll be very good.” Luca had to restrain a smile at the cute stutter and worried offer. He wanted to explain to Help but wasn’t really  sure how since he didn’t know  what basic understanding, they had in regard to technology. Everything they had said so far relied on magic. Luca decided to just leave it. Technically a robot could be considered something like a metal golem it just used software as opposed to magic to operate.

[Lucky: There are no side effects for using the butterflies for us and Rӓv made a lot of them so its fine to lose a couple. You’re welcome to come with us so –] Luca cut himself off mid-sentence when an awful screech sounded from behind them in conjunction with an echo of falling stone.

[Tails: Time to get through the course. You three were supposed to be studying it so after you.] Tails bowed and waved his hands slightly at Ghost, Rӓv and Holly who all nodded. Luca decided to save explanations and offers for Help for later it would be difficult for them if they just flew out at the moment anyway.