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]

Ninja with a katana! Good thing he's got a gu-

-wait. Dinah said no killing.

Well, that's okay, if he just aims for the kneecaps he can-

-oh, who the fuck is he kidding, he'll never make that shot with the way this guy moves!

"Goddammit!" he yells, dropping his MP5 to hang by the sling as he raises his fists.

(Do you see the burden your rules put on him, Dinah? Do you see?)

When the ninja makes for a sweeping horizontal slash, Voodoo steps to their outside, grabs their wrist, and slams an elbow into their throat. From there it's a simple matter of fracturing their hand, disarming them, and sweeping their feet out from under them. The katana is broken on his thigh, and Voodoo hopes to God this one's male, because the coup de grace is a stomp to their groin with the heel of his boot.

[raptorcanaria]

He's male, and he's on the floor in seconds, silent in the pain. Dinah is on him the instant he hits the ground, and with one strike finds a point to put him out cold.

She looks up, face flushed with the effort, mouth set in concentration, and nods approval of Voodoo's actions.

Then she spins around and sweep kicks the poor ninja coming up behind her.

[boston_bruiser]

Another ninja dashes up, nunchucks in hand. Voodoo's judo is a little rusty (he's more of a Krav Maga guy), but he still knows enough that the fight goes something like this:

- one high parry
- one kick to the balls
- one Harai Goshi
- one arm lock
- and an arm broken in two places that, from the sounds of it, will take months to heal.

The finishing touch for this one is a kick to the head - the guy's out like a light. Voodoo looks back up and ducks as a handful of shurikens embed themselves in the wall above his head.

"Remind me again why we ain't killing these assholes?"

Because, you know, the ninjas are not playing by the same rules.

[raptorcanaria]

"Because we..."

Dinah is a few yards away, surrounded by a circle of four.

Three.

Two.

"Are better than they are."

The final two rush her at once, and she cartwheels out of the way towards Voodoo, bringing both hands up and dispatching them at the same time.

"And you need to save your ammunition for actual threats."

[boston_bruiser]

"Actual threats?" Voodoo asks, dispatching two that come running at him, "you mean like that itty-bitty bunny rabbit a little ways back?" Another nina grabs him in a bear hug from behind, and he slams an elbow into their temple before throwing them over his shoulder and breaking their arm.

[raptorcanaria]

"Exactly like that."

She would be keeping an eye on him, but she spins and raises a hand to deflect in incoming shuriken, forgetting that she's not wearing her gloves.

It slices her hand, but she's not implaed so she's calling that a plus.

"I can't take a psycho monty python bunny."

She grabs the nearest ninja by his shoulders, and flips over him, kicking his friend behind him in the face on her way down.

"Ninja, I've got. Can you find the way forward?"

[boston_bruiser]

"Yeah, but-"

-another ninja gets their balls stomped and leg fractured, in that order, and Voodoo pivots to engage the next one-

"-it'd be a whole lot easier if I could use my freaking gun!"

Srsly. No guns. What the fuck.

[raptorcanaria]

"All that SEAL training and you can't make non- lethal shots?"

Dinah crosses the distance between them, and inserts herself between Voodoo and the ninja nearest him. She's rushed, and she dispatches him.

"Do you need a distraction?"

It's an honest question. She can take the heat off him if she needs to.

[boston_bruiser]

Sometime Voodoo's going to have to sit Dinah down and explain to her that using a firearm in self defense does not work like that.

Now is not the time. Now is the furthest possible moment from that time.

"Yeah," Voodoo says, putting his back to the wall, "distract away."

[raptorcanaria]

She nods, and squares off against the now growing group of ninja, regretting her own edict.

Because it'd be so easy to bring them all down with a scream, but that would kill so many.

Instead she rushes the nearest, grabs a katana and spins around, using him as a shield as she sweeps low, keeping his colleagues back.

She knocks him out with one strike and takes out two more before he lands, stealing a shuriken from another and inserting it into someone's shoulder.

She just amped up the difficulty setting.

[boston_bruiser]

But can she run Crysis?

Voodoo dashes out of the fight, feeling his way along the wall. None of it feels familiar, until -

- he reaches a corner and his hand comes across a triangle indentation in the wall. He pounds it with his fist.

"Dinah!" he yells, "door's open!"

[raptorcanaria]

"Got it!"

She whips out her hands and one foot in three different directions into three different necks.

"This was a great time, boys. But my friend and I have to get out of here. Stay crazy!"

She leaps over a prone body and races towards Voodoo and the door.

[boston_bruiser]

Better hurry, Dinah - Voodoo's preparing a nasty-looking stun grenade. Once she's close enough, he lets it fly toward the closest bunch of ninjas.

"Banger out!"

(He's still irked over how he has to let them all live, but what're you gonna do.)

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah leaps past the grenade and flies through the door, hitting the ground in a roll as it closes behind her.

And then they're outside, in what looks like a forest.

"Did we make it out?"

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo gets up and looks around. Sure, it looks like the forest out back, but....

"I don't know."

He unslings his gun.

"I'm guessing not."

Because something like this doesn't end that easily.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah stands up, and rubs the back of her neck, tiredly. Her shoulder is aching from being used so soon after being reset, and there's a nasty cut on her hand. Other than that, she's exhausted.

"Well, I guess if we find the bar, we're home free."

Ahead of them, in the forest, there's movement. And then there's a pale woman with silver eyes in grey armor, picking her way towards them.

"Oh," she says pleasantly. "Hello."

[boston_bruiser]

"Uh - hey," Voodoo echoes, waving. "We're - pretty fuckin' lost. Does the name 'Milliways' mean anything to you?"

[raptorcanaria]

The blonde tilts her head to one side. After a moment, her silver eyes widen in recognition and she nods.

"Yes! I came from there. But I got lost in this forest."

Dinah looks at Voodoo and back at the girl and grins.

"Oh thank god," she says, walking forward.

[boston_bruiser]

:D!

"How long you been out here?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Oh," says the girl, "about two hours. It's not really a big deal, you know that we Claymores are used to living out in the wilds."

"Claymores?" Dinah looks confused, and glances at Voodoo to see if he recognizes the name.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo glances back and shrugs. The only Claymores he knows of are the antipersonnel mines. And the Scottish longswords.

"You found anything besides us? Booby traps, ninjas...


...homicidal rabbits?"

[raptorcanaria]

Obviously confused, she looks from Voodoo to Dinah - who is closer - and back again.

"No. But I can protect you from them if we do meet any."

[boston_bruiser]

Cue shrug.

"Ain't gonna argue that."

She doesn't look like a total fuckup, at least. +3 Trust.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah exhales out, and rubs her sore shoulder as she walks towards the girl, extending a hand out.

"I'm Dinah."

It happens quicker than Dinah can react to. One second the blonde is smiling sweetly, reaching a hand in its gauntlet towards Dinah's extended hand.

The next second, she's grabbed that hand, and is pulling her towards her fast enough to pop out Dinah's shoulder again. At the same time, her face changes - silver eyes turning gold, veins darkening on her face with a faint biki biki sound as they start to pop out.

Dinah draws in a breath, but the girl's other hand is on her upper arm, and when she squeezes there's a loud snap, and Dinah's scream is lost.

[boston_bruiser]

SHIT. -9,000 Trust.

Voodoo steps to the side, lines up the sights on the Claymore's head, and flicks the fire selector to semiauto.

"Drop her and put your hands on your head! Do it now!"