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]

"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!"

[raptorcanaria]

The Claymore looks up at Voodoo, her face looking less like a pretty young woman and more like a shark all graying skin and a mouth full of teeth. She pulls Dinah to herself, whipping her around by her broken arm.

(She bites her lip, tears form in her eyes. The pain is too much to even scream.)

"That doesn't even have a blade," she says, mockingly. "It's not going to stop me eating both of you."

Then she throws Dinah to the side like an uninteresting toy and lunges forward with inhuman speed, one hand reaching forward and extending into claws which it tries to plunge into his midsection.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo's too slow. The SAPIs are like tissue paper against the blades, and they plunge into his torso with a sickening SHICK. Pain lances up his body, and for a few precious moments he's in shock, staring at the blades going into his gut.

Then he looks up into the creature's eyes and takes a shaky breath.

"Nah. No blade."

He jams the muzzle up underneath her chin.

"Just a trigger."

Three pounds of pressure, and-

BANG

[raptorcanaria]

She looks surprised - and then she looks like nothing at all as her head explodes into blood and brains and shards of bone. The the rest of the body, grey and clawed under the white armor, slumps down, lifeless.

Dinah landed against a tree when she was flung, hard enough to hear a crack but right now she has no idea whether it was wood or bone. Now, she scrambles up, one arm dislocated at the shoulder, the other snapped in the humerus, and hurries towards him.

"Voodoo," she says breathlessly, apology for being an idiot and concern for him all in one word.

[boston_bruiser]

He's doubled over, clutching at his abdomen. Blood spreads across his sleeve as his other arm hangs limp at his side. His breaths are shaky are irregular as he looks down at the corpse of the Claymore.

At Dinah's voice, he looks up and nods. "Hey," he says.


Slowly, he takes his arm away from the wound, revealing a massive blotch of blood spreading fast over his abdomen.

He looks at Dinah again, his eyes blank from shock.

"I think it's pretty bad."

[raptorcanaria]

"Okay."

Dinah drops to her knees beside him and tries to move, squeaking when she realizes she can't use her arms.

"Okay, Voodoo. I need your help first, please. Right shoulder."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo nods, puts his hands in just the right places, and pushes-

-and then there's a loud POP.

"That better?"