thearena | Four Blocks, Run and Hide

Who| Lyle, Brainy, Signless, Rokk
What| The first Hellrena really sucks for the Legion
Where| All over town
When| Backdated waaaaay back to the first Hellrena
Warnings/Notes| Monsters, acrophobia, mauling, and death.

Holing up somewhere safe wasn't really an option when the building rotted around you as you watched.

Lyle moved from shadow to sweltering shadow, going slow enough that Brainy could hang onto the back of his shirt. Getting his invisibility back had been more of a disappointment than a boon -- he couldn't extend it beyond himself and his clothing, couldn't even cover his bag of survival gear much less Brainy too. Brainy's force fields weren't as versatile either, but he could at least cover both of them if they didn't mind sharing space. Wouldn't be the first time they'd gotten up close and personal for the sake of survival, though it would be the first since they both admitted having other-than-platonic feelings about each other. Still, they were professionals, so any awkwardness as a result of that was minimal.

Now he just had to keep the two of them alive long enough for Cos to find them again. Or, failing that, set them up to die dramatically enough that they'd be brought back even if they hadn't confessed their feelings on camera.

"Keep an eye out behind us, Brainy," he whispered, "this is going to be fun for literally no one here."

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Lyle swallowed the sarcastic response that came to his mouth -- it wasn't Brainy's fault he was like this. Lyle wasn't going to make it worse.

Sprock, he hated these sentients.

"Yeah, it might be," he whispered. "What kind of hallucinations?"

Brainy looked behind them.

"Right now, for instance, I think I'm imagining a swam of those spiders and insects moving towards us from that alley."

The skittering sounds hit Lyle's ears the moment Brainy finished his sentence.

Not a hallucination. Not a hallucination.

Edited 2014-07-28 04:01 (UTC)

"Ahh, fuck! Run, Brainy!"

Lyle didn't even bother to look behind him, he just headed for the nearest building that looked as thought it might offer even partial shelter against the swarm.

It was like Tangleweb all over again, only this time there was no Cosmic Boy, no Andromeda, no heavy-hitters to help out.

He wished he had a free hand to grab Brainy with, but one was busy holding a weapon and the other was still broken from fighting Brainiac 4.

This sprocking place.

"Ah," said Brainy mildly as they ran. "I had thought it was a particularly detailed hallucination."

More starting pouring in on them from up the street they were running down. They were surrounded.

"We're going to have to go through one of the buildings and try to find a way out the other side. I can shield us but I don't think I have the concentration to maintain it for long."

They had a better chance at surviving by escaping rather than winding up besieged.

"Sounds like a plan, let's go go go!"

Lyle aimed them for the nearest building with an intact-but-open door. No door wouldn't slow the bugs down, a closed door might be locked, and anything further away would leave them with that much less energy to continue escaping.

"Come on, up ahead!"

Death by being eaten by insects: Not something he was looking forward to.

One of the houses had an open, mostly intact, door and the moment they were through and the door was shut, Brainy used his forcefield to shove a nearby bookcase in front of it as a barricade. The shield was very obviously weak and patchy. It had always taken tremendous concentration and complex thought to control his forcefield power, to the point that no one else could have used his original shield belt because of the intelligence and dexterity required.

Even with the power having been internalized several years back, it wasn't as instinctive as powers were for some of the other members of the Legion.

As the insects skittered outside the house, trying to bore their way in, Brainy surveyed the interior. The inside of the house did not look like a house. It was shifting, starting to look almost more like an abandoned industrial complex. Some of the walls even seemed to have shifted so that the spaces inside multiple houses had been joined up somehow.

"Keep moving," Brainy huffed, "and stay close. I don't have as much range as usual."

"Ah-heet dees-pless," Lyle hissed, as much for the comfort of the old joke as the sentiment was true. He hated this place. "You stay close -- I'll go first."

He was the one with the weapon, after all.

He began moving forward, testing the floor boards before putting his full weight on them as carefully as he dared. Couldn't be too careful after all, not unless he wanted to risk them getting caught out in the open when the bugs turned up again.

It was too sprocking hot in here, and the air so still and dead that he wasn't sure if he was breathing it or that it was smothering him.

Brainiac 5's mouth quirked ever so slightly at the reference. In the early days, it had been Cham's go-to phrase whenever a mission looked like it was going awry, until he'd learned proper Interlac - or at least until he admitted that he'd learned proper Interlac.

The smile faded as they walked into a strange shifting room, where the walls were melting away. The room seemed empty, other than some rubbish at the far end.

"I don't see any other viable hallways." There was one to the side but as it was melting it probably wasn't safe to use. "This is our only option to find an exit. Pruning. Pruning branches. This is all they're leaving us."

That wasn't a good thing.

As they ran across the room, Brainy in front, there was a terrifying groan and terrible clatter, and suddenly the floor started to fall away in chunks into a horrible black pit all around them, leaving then standing on a thin and creaking beam that went across to the other side. From underneath them echoed up noises that sounded metal grinding against metal or broken chainsaws motoring away.

The beam was narrow and the vibrations nearly shook them off their feet but Brainiac managed to throw down his shield, widening the walkway out from the beam so they had more surface area to step on if they made a misstep. The way his shield flickered and the way it drained away from his body made it clear exactly how difficult it was for him to maintain. He had to lower away from himself and dedicate all of his concentration on giving them slightly more ground to stand on.

His back was facing their (possible) exit and his hands were held out as he concentrated feverishly on maintaining their walkway - the flimsy, thin beam would be impossible to traverse otherwise.

Lyle windmilled his arms frantically to stay upright, only barely keeping hold of the crowbar, eyes transfixed on the blackness below them. Distantly, he knew that he needed to do something, to move, to spread his weight out on the flimsy beam instead of concentrating it all under his feet, but it was all but drowned out by the roar of metal and the pounding of blood in his ears.

Not again. He couldn't die by falling again, sprock sprock sprock sprock...

"Lyle," Brainy said, sweat beading and stared to drip down his face from the strain of using his forcefields to strengthen what little they had and provide some extra ground to stand on. "Lyle, I need you to move. Even if you crawl, I need you to move towards me."

He caught Lyle's eyes and his own were suddenly far more focused.

Lyle's eyes locked onto Brainy's and he tried to swallow around the way his lungs were spasming in his chest. Brainy's lips were moving, but Lyle couldn't hear him over the noise of whatever was below them and the blood rushing in his own ears. It takes him a few endless moments, but he gathers himself enough to sink down (it's slow, so very slow, so very unlike falling) to his hands and knees so that he can crawl.

He just needed to keep his eyes on Brainy's. He could do that.

The bar they were walking on creaked ominously.

"Focus on my voice. Just keep moving towards me. You have the ground at your feet Lyle. You have the ground I've made."

Would he let you fall?

Would Brainy let him fall? No. Not unless he had no choice.

Lyle crawled toward Brainy, eyes locked onto his to keep him from looking down again.

Brainy wouldn't let him fall. Not unless Lyle stood there long enough that Brainy broke first.

The bar collapsed and the entire floor rest of the floor that was intact collapsed with, sending them plummeting - several feet.

Brainy caught them both before that fell any farther, his shield powers suddenly expanding out in a walk way that braced against both sides of the chasm.

"Lyle, move."

He wasn't going to be able to hold this for long but they were both almost there...

Four Blocks, Run and Hide

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