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 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?"

[raptorcanaria]

"Mmm-hmmm."

Just ignore how white her face is and the tears streaming from her eyes. She is.

With one functional arm, she clears the shirt away from his wound, and quickly moves to applying pressure.

"Oh, this isn't bad at all," she white-lies. "Nothing Guppy can't stitch up when we get back to the bar."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo nods. His head is starting to get fuzzy, and that old pins-and-needles feeling begins to creep up his arms.

(Of all the days to forget his blowout kit...)

"Long way to go. Long way."

[raptorcanaria]

"Yeah."

Possibly.

"Lie down for me, okay?"

She keeps the pressure down with her right arm, looking around for something to use as a field dressing. Then she grabs his hands, puts them on his wound, and stands, walking towards the Claymore's body.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo keeps up the pressure on the wound as Dinah gets up, his gloves slicking with blood.

"Careful," he warns. "For booby traps."

He lets his head fall back to the grass as he focuses on taking big, deep breaths. Then his tactical sense pops in and he unfastens his helmet before setting it beneath his head, propping the front grip of his MP5 on his opposing forearm as he scans the forest ahead of them.

His index finger is light on the trigger. Just in case there's more than one.

[raptorcanaria]

"Yeah."

She's being careful as she approaches the inhuman looking corpse, holding her left arm carefully in front of her as she uses her foot to push the body over.

She grabs the thing's gray cape with her right hand and using a foot against its shoulder she rips the cape from the body before coming back to him.

"Well, this is dirty as hell, but it'll do."

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo takes it before bandaging up his wound. The fuzzy-headedness isn't going away. Neither are the pins and needles.

He looks up at Dinah before pulling his Sig out of his chest holster and offering it to her, gripfirst.

"Here. Take it."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's reassuring smile vanishes and it replaced with a stubborn frown.

But she takes it anyway, tucking it into the front of her running shorts.

She's not going to use it, but it'll make him feel better to know she has it.