trans_9 | Phase 2 - Running the Ratrace

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Phase 2 - Running the Ratrace

You have my sincerest apologies, but I have my mission.

The traps start. Rotating blades coming out of the walls and floors and ceilings, jets of fire, lasers, holographic enemies. The clear walls of the maze let them see what's happening to everyone else.

The traps start, and they have to stay alive despite them. If they stop avoiding them, it's their own fault, you see, if they die. That makes it indirect enough for Stacy's Anti-harming-the-crew protocols to be avoided, as Hal, despite his reprogramming, still has to follow some constraints.

Please commence with killing yourselves by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The only chance the group has is if they work together to stay alive, and somehow they have to take out the shield projectors creating the maze even though they themselves are shielded...

[ooc: Cooperation is key, people. Hal can only adapt to one power/skill-set at a time, not all of them.]

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Years of running like hell have done two things for Ron. One: They've made him the best running back in the history of Middleton High, and two: They've made him incredibly good at getting out of the way of things that are trying to kill him. It's with second that he manges to make it to the temporary safe zone in record time, the Lotus Blade transformed into a shield as an extra precaution.

"I dunno about you guys, but me? I think we need to get at the projectors before we're extra crispy style."

Cassie blinked and then she was back in action, the look of shock on her face replaced by cold determination.

"Mind if I hitch a ride?" Cassie shrank rapidly and jumped up onto Mia's shoulder. "More room for everyone else."

Unlike the others, Jeka had three dimensions in which to dodge the fiery blasts, and she was taking full advantage of them. While she did, she tried to determine if the jets of flame were being aimed at all or if Hal was just firing randomly.

Talk about not doing his research.

Zuko has time to deflect a few of the jets from crisp-frying him first. Unfortunately he couldn't also stop the ones around everyone else - fortunately, everybody seems to have succeeded at staying out the way, and now he knows what he's up against.

"Stay out of the way. I can stop this."

The prince of the Fire Nation plants his feet on the ground and breathes in. The katas he whips through initially are without flame as he feels for the fire building around him. He goes through the motions, his chi building, rising, as do the flames, and then - only then - he waits.

Just long enough.

The jets bloom leaves of fire. Now Zuko moves, striking down at nothing, and his breath explodes from his lungs in a yell. The flames, barely exposed to the air, still blue from combustion, freeze - they tremble for the briefest moment, then disappear, as if the jets that spit the out have sucked them back in again.

Chris, already numb for the most part, emotionally at least, had relied on his instincts to get himself this far. He seemed to have developed a sort of sixth sense, lunging, rolling, and leaping to safety each time with only minimal damage. He took a quick inventory of the people he was grouped with and saw that they were doing fairly well for themselves. Still, an idea occurred to him.

"I don't suppose anyone has any means of blocking the jets or anything? If so, try blocking them off... perhaps if we can keep them from firing they will overload, and shut down."

Level Three protocols exceeded. Commencing level four protocols.

The speed of the jets increases dramatically, rapidly eating up what oxygen had been trapped in the chamber with them when the force-fields went up.

As if that weren't bad enough, hot, molten lava began to slide down the force-field walls and gather in slowly growing pools on the floor, while vast amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide began to vent in. The gases would irritate their lungs, eyes, nasal passages, and throats, making breathing even that more difficult.

It was like the team was trapped in an erupting volcano.

"Oh you've gotta be KIDDING me!" Mia yells, reaching over her shoulder, watching out for Cassie as she did so, and grabbing for the highest yield explosive arrow she'd managed to put together. She took the last breath of clean air she expected to get, as she loosed the arrow towards where it was likely to do the most damage.

"...Oh crap. Yeah. Taking out the projectors? VERY GOOD IDEA RIGHT NOW!"

Years of cigar smoking, and an epic showdown on a rock floating in the crater of a volcano finally began to pay off. He'd have to make a point of telling Jill this at a later date.

The new volcano setting didn't phase Chris in the least. In fact, it seemed to prod him further. He dashed ahead, darting back and forth, seemingly at random, while avoiding the fire jets.

"Anyone capable of manipulating... these things, concentrate on--" there's a pause as he makes a leap forward. "Concentrate on shielding the others. I'm going to see... if I can't find some sort... of shut off on the far... end."

"I can - try to - stop it."

Zuko shifts from one form to the other, grunting with the effort. Magma is NOT like fire, and this is NOT good air for breathing.

"Just - get ahead - of me." If he hadn't already been sweating from the heat, he would be sweating from the effort. Magma is much heavier than fire, closer to Earthbending than he'd like it to be, and Zuko is not the Avatar.

"Wait! I can try to shut it off. It'll be easier for me to get through."

Mia drew another arrow, smirking at her passenger. "Need a ride? It's fast and cheap."

Chris glanced behind him, instantly picking up on the plan. "Aim for me. I'll carry her as far as I can before tossing her farther on!"

"God, I hope this works." Cassie mumbled before jumping onto the arrow.

"Or you can just $#%&ing hand her off to me and I can fly her where you want her to go!" Jeka shouted, drawing spirals and figure eights in the air with her body as she dodges the jets. All the Legionnaires had mouths like sailors with a broken finger in this kind of situation, don't take it personally.

Riding a speeding arrow versus being handed off to a snake lady. Not a tough choice. "...Alright I'm taking that option. Throw me."

Mia nodded sharply. Cassie was approximately dart-sized at the moment anyway. "You've got incoming!" Handling Cassie as delicately as she could, she set her index finger against the tiny girl's feet, braced her arms, then slung her at Jeka.

While Chris couldn't argue the logic, he suddenly felt rather useless. He said nothing, just nodded a bit in understanding, concentrating on simply staying alive at this point.

Jeka reached out with both hands to catch the shrunken girl, but in doing so, she lost track of the gouts of flame that still spewed across their area. She screamed in Interlac as the flames ripped down her side, about a third of the way down her body. She hit the ground and rolled until she'd suffocated the flames, but her transuit was ruined and she hurt.

"$%&# $@&$ &@%#!!!" she ripped her Legion flight ring off her finger and thrust it and Cassie out at Chris, the nearest person. "You're going to have to do it. The flight ring's easy to use, put it on and go!"

Chris might need to put the ring on his pinkie finger, but they were easy enough for Brainy's monkey to use, much less an adult human.

All Jean could think about at the moment was how happy she was to be wearing the full body suit so she was still able to breathe despite the gases which were now filling the room.

Looking over at Zuko, she turned and held her hands out sending a series of telepathic blasts aimed at the magma. "Get the fire, I'll take care of the magma!!"

"Got it."

There are more dull thuds as Zuko forces flames back through the jets from which they came, distant explosions and smoke of mechanics backfiring and burning themselves, but he is not wearing a full-body suit, and the poison gasses do not mix well with someone whose power relies on full, deep, clean breaths of air.

His stance is beginning to falter. The next jet of flame he pushes back does not disappear into its jet, it merely washes back against the wall before flaming out.

Chris was thankful he caught the distressed cry. He jumped over a bit of magma and twisted in the air, catching Cassie and the ring. He eyed the ring a bit, looking briefly like a neanderthal. He had to stop momentarily, flipping a pocket on his tactical vest open for Cassie to ride in as he tried several fingers to get the ring on, finally pulling off one of the fingerless gloves he wore to shove the ring onto his pinky.

He felt a little odd, but the thing seemed to automatically lift him off the ground, though he had no idea as to how he was doing it. "Hope you don't need it back soon... may even need to amputate my finger to get it back... but first thing's first..."

He turned back to the end of the hall, and flew rather crookedly off the way he was going when he turned to catch Cassie.

There's A LOT of magma, and Jean's beginning to wonder if she can continue to keep pressing it back. ~~Where's Storm when you need her?~~

Furrowing her eyebrows, she pushed her hands out, sending wave after wave of telepathic blasts, trying her hardest to keep them away from everyone.

Mia fires off two freeze arrows, trying to stop up, or at least slow, the magma's entry. "Shit... that's my last two of them!" She hollers out, moving about rapidly, controlling her breathing. "If anyone's got ideas, I'm ready to hear them!"

She fires off some explosive bolts at the turrets.

"If you don't think you can go any farther don't hesitate. I can go on my own." Cassie told Chris. "You're doing great so far." She added.

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