Owls

[shufti]

The next room is a dark outside twilight, in a forest.

Shufti sits down on tree stump for a moment, getting her breath back, but keeping an eye out for the next danger.

Comments

[a1enzo]

"Are we out? It doesn't look like the Milliways woods..."

He has learnt about the many shapes User trees can take. These are not the right ones.

[shufti]

"I don't think we're out." Shufti says.

"You got anything that makes a light?"

[a1enzo]

Enzo fingers a control on his gauntlet, activating the flashlight. "Not a big one..."

[shufti]

"Maybe we'd be better off with night vision then." Shufti says.

She takes a deep breath and gets up.

"We're going to need to navigate again."

[a1enzo]

Enzo looks around and grimaces before switching the light back off. "Sticking to a wall isn't really gonna work here, is it?"

[shufti]

"We could mark the trees? Or do you have any string?"

A tiny owl flutters down and lands in front of her.

"What is this thing?" she asks suspiciously.

[a1enzo]

"Sorry, no, I..."

Huh.

"It's a bird. I'd say it's cute, but under the circumstances..."

[shufti]

The bird hoots.

Two more owls fly in, bigger ones this time, and settle on the stumps in front of them.

"I dislike animals, let's go." Shufti says, drawing her sword and chipping a small piece of bark off each tree as she passes in as straight a line as she can.

The owls hoot.

Four owls fly in front of her.

[a1enzo]

Enzo pauses in his own marking.

1
11
111

"Iiiii'm not liking this pattern."

[shufti]

"Are these birds dangerous?" Shufti asks.

The owls hoot.

Eight owls appear, and this time two of them fly straight for Shufti's head. She screams and fights them off.

[a1enzo]

"It doesn't matter if they're dangerous! I take it back, they're not birds, they're wabbits!"

He produces his stunner and sweeps it around, set to maximum.

[shufti]

The owls drop, lucky for them, because they were about to get decapitated.

"Thanks. I think we better move quickly." Shufti says. chipping trees.

The owls hoot.

Sixteen owls appear.

[a1enzo]

Enzo flails the stun beam at the newcomers and sets off at a jog. "No kidding. Wabbits can crash an entire system if they're not stopped. I'll stun, you slice."

[shufti]

Shufti has no idea what a wabbit is, other than that she has a general distrust of animals that aren't eaten.

She sets off at a fast pace, and as the owls attack, jumps, spins and herds them with her sword towards Enzo's stunner.

[a1enzo]

Basically? They are things that do this.

The owls drop as they pass, unable to do very much more than summon their brethren, but when they're increasing exponentiowlly*, that is more than enough. In between sweeps, Enzo stares around frantically for anything that might constitute an exit from what is technically an open space.


*The mun apologizes. Ha ha, no she doesn't.

[shufti]

"Look!" Shufti points to something that looks like a gate.

As she does so, thirty two owls appear and a number swoop down, grabbing them both with their talons and trying to pull them into the air.

Shufti grabs onto the branch of a tree as she is pulled up.

[a1enzo]

The fastest-moving of the owls bounce off of Enzo's force field, but the more slowly swooping ones get through, and some of them are big.

"Oh, frag no!" Enzo snarls. He wrenches his left arm in the direction of the tree trunk near Shufti's branch and fires. The grapnel seizes the bark, and he reels in. Most of the talons scrape against his armoured jumpsuit, more or less harmlessly, but some slice skin. He grits his teeth. Just because sprites don't bleed doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

It also hurts when he slams into the trunk, but he manages to get a hold of the branch and then of Shufti. "Hang onto me tight, okay?" he says, releasing the grapnel from the tree and preparing to fire again.

[shufti]

Shufti grabs his hand, the owls scratching at her limbs and body but losing their grip. With her other hand she decapitates a couple.

"Thanks! Aim for the gate!" she holds on tight.

[a1enzo]

"You read my mind," he says through clenched teeth, and fires. The two of them are yanked through the air straight at the gate; Enzo twists so that his feet hit first, bursting it open.