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

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo doesn't respond - more to the point he doesn't hear her, busy as he is patting out the nascent flame. For an oil fire, it dies fast, and he squeezes the affected arm. Pain jolts up his arm like a lance.

"Just a burn. No bone. I'll be fine."

He presses his head to the deck as the pipes spit fire again, then hops to his feet when they die out.

"C'mon, move!"

[raptorcanaria]

"Three seconds," though it's hard to hear her say that because she says it as the fire is spurting.

As soon as it is out, she rolls to her feet, grabs a pipe (and scowls because it's hot) and swings herself up, putting a foot on another one and rolling on to the next level.

When the fire spits again, she's above it.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo follows suit - he's not quite as lithe or acrobatic as Dinah, so it takes him a little while longer, but soon he's above the fire.

"What's next?" he hollers. "Ninjas? Pirates? Poison gas? Low-yield nuclear bombs?"

Someone doesn't know when to stop tempting fate.

[raptorcanaria]

Ye-ah, Dinah noticed that.

"Please let it be ninja," she mutters dryly, staying low. She nudges Voodoo in the foot now and indicates the narrow wall at the far end of the hall. At the top, she can now make out another triangle.

It's still way out of their reach, vertically and horizontally, but she starts to address the latter by running in that direction, along the still-moving floor.

[boston_bruiser]

And, you know, Voodoo'll follow suit, sprinting as best he can.

"If this don't net me a fedora an' a bullwhip by the end, me 'n whoever runs this place? We're gonna have words."

[raptorcanaria]

"Ask Mike."

Mike will totally do it.

As the floor they're on closes, Dinah stops and looks at the walls now starting to close.

There doesn't seem to be any fire coming out of the, but there's also no convenient handholds. Just one shallow groove running along one side at five feet, and on the opposite wall at fifteen.

[boston_bruiser]

"Okay, this one? This one's actually pretty well-designed."

He steps back.


"How high you think you can jump if I boost you?"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah smiles, appreciating a man who appreciates a well designed death trap.

"With a running start, I could get the top one. Clearing it would be a push."

[boston_bruiser]

"Don't need you to clear it, just need you to reach it."

He positions himself close to the wall, making his hands into a stirrup as before. "Ready when you are."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah nods, and turns her back on him, just to jog to the other closing wall, spin and race at him.

As she approaches, she counts her steps:

"Three! Two!" On one she plants the ball of her foot into his stirrup and leaps up.

She easily grabs the uppermost ridge and jams her fingers in, pulling her feet up to the same ridge.

Oh, for a bat-grapple.

[boston_bruiser]

"How're you doin' up there?"

Not to pressure you, Dinah, but WALLS MAKING FOR SQUISHY-SQUISHY ACTION PRETTY DAMN FAST.

[raptorcanaria]

"Really wishing I was an acrobat, here," she says. But she manages to turn around, so she's facing downwards holding on by one hand and her feet, and nods towards the approaching opposite wall.

"Come join me."

[boston_bruiser]

"Up there? Me, an itty-bitty blanco niño?"

He shakes his head, grabs hold of the groove on the opposite wall, then sticks a foot in and jumps before sinking his tomahawk into the wall. The blade slips, and he turns, jumps to the opposite wall-

- and just barely grabs the groove.

"Okay," he says, scrambling into position, "what now, we wait for only half of us to get squished?"

[raptorcanaria]

"No," Dinah says, reaching out across the gap, towards him.

"Now I complain loudly about hos you need to go on a diet and shed that bulk, machoman."

In other words - grab her hand and do it now.

[boston_bruiser]

He does.

"You try humpin' a ruck up 'n down a coupla fuckin' mountains every goddamn day, see if you don't bulk up."

In other words - whatever, just don't kill them.

[raptorcanaria]

"Yeah, yeah," she says.

Though right now she's wishing they were Batman and Robin, this'd be so much easier.

"You're gonna have to jump, OK? I've got you."

And if she can get him to her level, they're good.

"On three."

[boston_bruiser]

"One-"

His grip slips and he clenches his fist -

"-two-"

- his knuckles are turning white, turning numb -

"-three!"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah grins at him cheerfully as he counts, and on three she puts all her effort into her legs and core, hauling his weight up alongside hers.

There's an ugly popping sound, and she squeaks in pain, but the only thing she says is: "Grab hold and get yourself up."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo does, squeezing himself into the groove.

"You good?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Up!" she repeats curtly, nodding to the level above them. the gap is getting tight now.

Without waiting for him, she turns upwards and grabs the top of the wall with her one good arm, flipping herself over as she goes so she lands on her feet.

[boston_bruiser]

And Voodoo follows suit. He's not limber enough to roll to his feet, but he's plenty limber enough to roll far, far away from the edge.

"Lord, if you're listening, I will trade my right nut if it means we don't gotta do no more'a these walls."

Beat.

"You know. After I kick it. Not - asking you t'pluck it right now."

[raptorcanaria]

"Come here," Dinah says, reaching out a hand for his. When she gets it, she puts his hand on her shoulder to steady her as she guides her dislocated shoulder back into place.

Then winces pops it back in, as if she's done it a dozen times before.

(Not quite that many.)

Just as she's doing that, the next set of walls open a set of holes like before with the flamethrowers only further apart. Except this time, it's an arrow that hits the ground right by Dinah's feet.

"Oh for heaven's sake!"

[boston_bruiser]

There's a thwip, and an arrow buries itself in Voodoo's -

- well, let's just say he curses, reaches behind him, and breaks off the shaft, but he's not gonna get to sit until he gets the arrowhead removed.

"If there ain't a pot of Aztec gold at the end of all this," he shouts to the ceiling as he runs to the wall, climbing like he did before, "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah, meanwhile is beginning to laugh.

"Really? Arrows?" she yells at the room. "You know who my boyfriend is, right?"

She throws herself forward, flipping onto her good hand and over again, turning cartwheels between the flight of the arrows.

But she also heads towards the wall, and starts to climb.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo's already halfway up, reaching for another handhold when all of a sudden -


- he feels really, really woozy. His head feels like it's been pumped full of helium and taken on a merry-go-round, his muscles feel like rubber, and his vision is- is-


- he closes his eyes and hits the deck with a CRUMP.