Labyrinth

[raptorcanaria]

Here's the thing about Milliways: It's not the Real World. Dinah has a very clear delineation in her mind: there're things that happen in the bar, and there are things that happen at home, and even if people visit from one to the other, they're very different places.

Justice League, supervillains, Oliver. Those things don't follow her in. Which is good and bad, because it becomes a place to escape. And escape becomes too safe, somewhere where actual threats aren't real. That's the problem with the place. It's not home, and it doesn't touch home, and if she wanted, she could stay in the bar, rent a room, and never have to worry about outside. And that's what's so dangerous.

Not that she's thinking of danger right now, even deep in the forest where there might be demon rabbits. She's just thinking of the run, and the exercise, and also where she wants to take Ollie for dinner tonight. That's how she manages to get lost.

And how she finds herself facing a rough hewn stone wall, with a door cut into it.

Dinah stands in front of it, stretching out her warm muscles, staring at the door. Has that always been here?

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah slips into a wide stance quickly, holding a hand against the trunk for stability.

"I stopped being surprised at this place, y..."

The shaking doesn't let up and then she realizes getting close to the tree was a bad idea, because the ground beneath her foot suddenly disappears and she stumbles down.

"Voodoo!"

[boston_bruiser]

!!

You'd never think a guy that big could move that fast, but before you know it Voodoo's on his stomach, one hand latched securely onto her arm, the other grabbing a fistful of dirt for anchorage.

"I gotcha!"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah grabs his arm firmly, and starts to pulls herself up. (You wouldn't think a florist would be so adept at one armed pull ups, but he's obviously helping.)

Except the ground doesn't stop moving, and as the tree starts to fall down, so does the ground beneath him.

"Dammit."

She swings a hand up, grabs for the grass, only to have a handful of soil come away.

[boston_bruiser]

The obscenities coming out of Voodoo's mouth right now would make Shephard applaud. Really, they would. But curses don't do much when the ground underneath your feet's caving in and -

- and all of a sudden you're falling down, down, down -

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah lets go of Voodoo's arm the instant she realizes he's falling too, and hopes her does the same, so she can at least control her fall enough to turn into a three point landing.

Then she rolls away as the tree crashes around them, stand an looks around.

Well, this time they're definitely inside, in a large cave that arches over them, light flooding in from the hole in the arc above them.

But it's too far up, and the broken tree doesn't look like much of a way out.

"Well, that was one of the dumbest ideas I've had."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo groans, facedown in the dirt. "Yeah, you can say that again."

(He lacks the lithe grace of someone like Dinah - he didn't "land" so much as "faceplant", but a landing's a landing.)

He gets to his feet, brushing himself off as he looks around. "Don't suppose you brought a flashlight?"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah pats her hips, in their lightweight running pants, lacking any sort of pocket.

"I didn't even bring a walkman," she offers.

The cave's not super dark, and if she doesn't look up, her eyes adjust slightly as she peers around. There's a patch of dark on a wall that looks like it might be a doorway, so she takes a step in that direction.

And that's when she looks down at the ground.

Which appears to be strewn with bones.

[boston_bruiser]

...oh. Bones.

Lots of bones.

Lots and lots of bones.

That's...


...very very bad.

"You get the feeling we just dropped into a rancor pit?"

[raptorcanaria]

"So that's why I keep wanting to hum John Williams."

Dinah looks down at her feet long enough to confirm they are human, or at least humanoid bones, and up again to frown at the far, but flimsy ceiling.

If a rancor does turn up, she won't be able to unleash a sonic scream in here without burying themselves.

It's while she's doing that, facing Voodoo, that a small white animal lopes gently into view behind her.

[boston_bruiser]

And, you know, Voodoo'll just blink and peer around her to make sure he's not seeing things.

"Uh, Dinah? Fluffy lil' bunny rabbit on your six."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah stares at Voodoo, at first disbelieving, and then with worry. Slowly she turns around.

And sees exactly what Voodoo said. A cute little bunny rabbit loping around in the remnants of dead humans.

Beyond it is that doorway she saw earlier, the only obvious way out of this chamber.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo looks to Dinah. Then at the bunny. Then back at Dinah. Then back at the bunny.


Then, with a shrug of his shoulders:

"I don't get it."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah takes a breath, then remembers about the ceiling.

"You'd better shoot it," she says. "Before it notices we're here."

[boston_bruiser]

"Shoot a freaking bunny rabbit? Are you nuts?"

The rabbit, for its part, looks about as happy as a pig in shit as it continues to do its thing amongst the skeletons, kicking over a skull in its travels.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah opens her mouth, and realizes what she's going to say just before she says it, nevertheless being helpless to stop it.

"Did you see the bones?"

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo opens his mouth to protest, then closes it and groans. He has a losing average when it comes to arguing with women, and he's not about to drag it down further.

"Hey," he says, stepping to the side and flicking the fire selector to semiauto, "if you say so. One rabbit stew, comin' up."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah turns her head, because she does not want to see this.

'This' being the way the rabbit's head turns when the fire selector makes that click. Then there is a blur of white fur and teeth flying towards them.

[boston_bruiser]

Then there is the POPPOPPOPPOP of four gunshots echoing in the cavern.

Mr. MurderBunny is (tragically?) no more.



"Well," Voodoo says, "whaddaya know."

He takes the magazine out, checks the feed lips, then replaces it in the gun.

To Dinah: "How'd you know?"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah laughs, rather nervously, and starts towards the door, shaking her head.

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail," she said. "Thank goodness for your Holy Hand Grenade."

[boston_bruiser]

And, you know, Voodoo follows, turning around occasionally to check for any more MurderBunnies.

"'Monty Python'. That's that one British group, right?"

...look, he's not very pop-culture savvy when it comes to anything outside the Western Hemisphere is all we're saying.

[raptorcanaria]

Nearly all of Britain is in the Western Hemisphere.

"Yeah," Dinah says. "They were pretty big when I was a kid."

Her Dad liked them anyway.

She steps carefully, and slowly around the bones. Partly because she doesn't want to be taken by surprise by any more of those murder bunnies, but also because she needs time for her eyes to adjust as they move into the shadow and then towards the doorway.

"I just hope we don't run into the Beast of Aaaargh."

[boston_bruiser]

And, you know, that's sensible enough, so Voodoo does it too.

"The Beast of whatnow?"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah shakes her head.

"Same movie, different monster. Chased the knights until the animator suffered a fatal heart attack."

British people are weird.

The doorway actually doesn't go that deep. It's just a tall arch leading into an area set back from the main cavern by a couple of yards, before being cut up by a large stone wall.

In the middle, at shoulder height, is inscribed that same triangle.

Dinah looks at Voodoo and shrugs.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo grunts in response. "Ain't like we could get any more screwed, right?"

(Famous last words.)

He taps the triangle, then brings his gun up.

[raptorcanaria]

She gives him a faint smirk.

They've done pretty well so far, all things told. But when Voodoo hits the triangle, she spreads her feet into a wide stance, and takes a breath, her hands coming down to her sides.

The wall moves, stone sliding behind and into stone, as a doorway opens in front of them.

Opening out into a long, tall corridor in front of them. Stone walls stretch high towards a much sturdier stone ceiling above them, with the only markings being deep horizontal grooves carved in the side - four of them, dividing each of the long walls into five sections, about twenty feet high, each of them.

The far end of the corridor doesn't look that far away - maybe fifty feet. there certainly doesn't look to be anywhere convenient to hide, and nothing obviously threatening in front of them.

"...well, that's anticlimactic."