Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.41 Into the Firing Line

The obstacle course was comprised of a bunch of different parts; Monkey bars, climbing wall, swinging bridge, pit, crawl area, turntable floor and a set of hurdles. However from the brief glance Luca had taken at the course before the incident with Tails it didn’t seem like it was necessary to go through all the parts to cross the course. Still it was hard to tell clearly due to the lack of good lighting. Luca’s vision was reliant on the spotlight being directed around from the RAL which had shifted to Rӓv’s head at some point given that the roof was too high for lighting there to be of any use. The course was not the same one that the academics team had gone through. Though Luca was concerned that like that course there would be lasers or some such.

[Rӓv: I sent a butterfly through earlier, it passed straight through the barrier. Not sure why, anyway it seems there are laser traps that trigger if you try to go around the climbing wall or under the hurdles or bypass the pit or swinging bridge but nothing for going over the top of things.]

[Tails: Oh? Praise be for that lack of insight.] Holly offered a smile before he led the way. To get over to the main part of the course it was necessary to cross an arch of monkey bars. The arch was quite long and so it would likely cause severe strain on the arms to cross it in its entirety. Thus they simply didn’t cross it with their arms. Instead they grabbed the first bar and swung their legs up on the second before folding up and pulling themselves through to the top of the arch. It was a relatively simple solution as it didn’t require too much skill. They crouch walked across the bars and then swung down to land on the other side.

[Holly: Order was bars, wall, bridge, table, hurdles and then door.] Luca raised a brow at the muttered words as he swung down to the ground. Help hovered between Tails and Luca seemingly not sure where to go. Luca reached out a hand as they jogged towards the climbing wall and snagged help around the middle and settling him on his shoulder.

[Lucky: Just hang on to my collar for the moment we’ll plan a bit more after we’re free of the course.]

“I can scout though.” Help fluttered up a bit but settled down when Luca placed a finger gently on their head.

[Tails: Its fine we know roughly what is with this course and are planning to do it pretty regularly we don’t want you getting hit by a surprise laser.] They reached the wall and fired our hook wing at the top and then ran up the wall as the lines retracted. It was such a benign course that Luca felt it was almost a consolation after the ‘punishment’ Level. Though Luca could only say that their luck was holding at this point since no one had been injured yet.

[Ghost: Oops.] Luca jerked his head to the right to see that Ghost had slipped at some point and had swung to the side Holly had lunged sideways to pull him back, but a steady stream of lasers now shot past the edge of the wall.

Ghost managed to straighten himself out and the pair continued climbing. Luca turned his attention back up and continued to trail after Tails. A change in the pitch of the laser caused Luca to look back over to the right and he promptly started swearing.

[Lucky: We best stop dawdling and get a move on it seems that the wall may not be here much longer.] The neat holes pierced through the wall were gradually widening as the lasers pierced through right next to a previous shot. The straight shots Luca was okay with you just needed to not get in front of them the moving he was not okay with. Moving lasers that moved towards you were not fun in fact he would call them anti fun.

They reached the top and then rather than climbing down they abseiled. Luca quickly overtook the others in the down run dropping the last two meters as he disconnected his hook and retracted it. As Luca landed searing pain brushed the side of his neck. Rolling to his left on reflex Luca came back up and raised a hand to check on Help.

“I’m fine, but your hurt.” Help shifted and Luca could tell they were trying to move to check the other side of his neck. Luca raised a hand to stop them instead. They didn’t have the time to treat it now. The lasers were still running in and they would essentially be chasing them through the rest of the course if they kept firing. The others dropped down rolling left and keeping low as they landed.

[Lucky: Speed run time.] Tails accepted the urgency behind that comment and wasted no time. Assuming a standard running posture and raced for the swinging bridge.

[Rӓv: Hey!] Rӓv took off after Tails and overtook him in a moment with a faster sprint. Luca didn’t think it was a matter of competitiveness just that Rӓv wasn’t confident running on a bridge sent swinging by the person before. Luca chuckled a bit as he waited for the others to move out ahead of him and then trailed behind. He personally felt they would just miss all the fun. By the time Luca stepped onto the bridge it was swinging quite excessive.

“Ah, should you be going this fast on that?” Helps voice got higher at the end of their sentence which was impressive considering how high the normal tone of their voice was. Luca just laughed as he sprung on to the bridge and then jumped up into a flip as the bridge swung wildly underneath. Luca stuck the landing as the bridge swung back into place and then lumped and rolled to land evenly on the other side. Luca was laughing as he landed while the others just shook their heads.

The had gained a little time ahead of the lasers as the reached the turntable. A yell from behind them caused Luca to glance over at the starting platforms. Standing on the far-left starting platform was Red’s team. Luca started to wave but then his arm froze as from the tunnel that Luca’s team had exited appeared a two-metre-tall cockroach man doing the insect equivalent of frothing at the mouth. Luca stopped for a horrified second as he stepped onto the turntable and the Roach turned its head and spotted Red’s team.

Luca raised and hand to point in warning, but the others were focused on his team. A beam of light flashed in front of Luca’s eyes, and he jerked back forced to turn away and move through the turntable to avoid the lasers. The others had moved ahead, and Luca focused on clearing the last of the course before he turned back. The Roach stood amongst the Red’s downed team with Red impaled on the three prongs of its hand while its head turned to look towards Luca’s team.

[Lucky: Move now.] Luca resolutely turned away they couldn’t help now, and it would be the height of foolishness to wait around to join them.