damned_institute | Night 49: Room of Earth

Dean was gonna go with a nice what the hell himself but sure, what summed it up pretty well too. Sweet and to the point.

He stared.

No way. No. Way. He'd gone this way plenty of times and they should be out on the field, not...here.

It was still there, this whacked out scene totally stolen out of Raiders of the Lost Ark and amped up on steroids. And then some. Dean scrubbed at his eyes with one hand, half-hoping he was roofied again - seriously, pretty lame when that was the best option - and glancing sidelong at the Doctor to make sure, again, that they were on the same page here. He couldn't tell if the other patient was just plain impressed or shocked or what. Man, Dean wasn't even sure himself. It took a long couple of seconds to get past the fact that the boulders were rolling from one hole to another along the walls, and actually see past 'em. Dean squinted, frowning.

Another door on the other side. Cute. Except he wasn't going for that carrot, so screw that. No thanks on a friggen roadkill death.

Dean turned right around and tried the door they'd just come through. The doorknob jiggled but didn't open.

"You're kidding me," Dean said. He backed up, motioning for the Doctor to give him some space, and aimed a kick above the doorknob. A few more, enough to get his foot smarting despite his boots, and the door was still standing. That was one stubborn sonuvabitch. "Looks like this way's a no-go."

Which left juking past the Indy Obstacle Course back there. Awesome.

Edited 2010-05-19 15:08 (UTC)

The initial shock of the unexpected change in locale was fading, and the Doctor took a moment to assess the situation. On the one hand, the teleport (or else dimensional transport, though that seemed somewhat less likely) through one door and out another was fascinating to have encountered here, and potentially gave one, tiny clue towards the capabilities of the Institute. On the other hand... he had no idea where they had ended up.

He moved away from the door when Dean motioned for room, looking between the door the man was trying to break down and the boulders coming out of the walls and rolling across the room.

Dean's efforts against the door proved futile, so the Doctor focused on the boulders and the door beyond them. "Then it looks like that's our only way out..." he said, indicating the far door. "We'll just have to hope that door is unlocked."

He mentally counted off the amount of time in between the boulders coming from the nearest of the holes once, and then twice to be sure... and then a third time when the intervals didn't match up. He frowned, still gauging the times; not only was the time between boulders sporadic, but their speeds (and therefore the time it took them to move across the room itself) were apparently variable as well.

This would be tricky, but as long as he could judge and time the gaps between boulders... Honestly, it might even be a bit fun.

But there was also Dean to consider. While the Doctor was certain he himself would be able to get past without too much trouble, he wasn't sure if the same could be said for his companion. "Alright?"

Dean snorted. "Man, you make it sound so easy."

There was always waiting until day rolled around but that was spending hours in a death trap and banking on the fact that they'd get pulled to their rooms like before. Dean ran his hand over his mouth, jaw working as he stared at the Raiders set-up there. If the door on the other side was locked, they were kinda screwed, way he saw it. Basically back to where they'd started, except they'd risked getting turned into meat pancakes for no good reason.

But this place was real oddball, even for Landels Institute.

If all the patterns were getting thrown out the window here, then he shouldn't even be assuming that they could wake up tomorrow in the patient beds if they waited it out.

Glaring at the boulders rumbling out each hole and into the next, Dean figured it was either try to ninja past those and hope today wasn't a good day to die or wait here. And hope.

...Yeah, he wasn't that Carebear. If they didn't find a way out and this place didn't pull them back to the beds, they could die of dehydration or starve or one of the spirits could come ghosting in and make things even more difficult. Dean turned toward the Doctor.

"Okay, let's try it," Dean said. He nodded at the guy's jacket. It was damn cool but it was also a major trip hazard there. "You want me to carry that?"

At least the Doc had some good running shoes there. Then again, judging by that cool customer way he'd just looked at those boulders right now, Dean figured he probably wasn't some panicking civilian. Normally that'd be pretty awesome. Right now it was just asking some weird questions, like why the guy was insisting he was the Doctor and did he make it a hobby to dodge death traps or something?

The Doctor grinned at Dean. "Easy? No... But it's a lucky thing you're here with me," he said confidently. Tricky or not, he had a distinct advantage over humans when it came to time.

He considered Dean's offer to carry his coat, and pulled it off. On the chance it were to be pinned under or between anything, it would be a danger... both for them and for the coat itself. He bundled it up and held it out for Dean to put in his bag. "Thank you. Take care of it, alright? I love that coat."

With that, the Doctor turned his attention back to the boulders, looking down first one side of the room and then the other to confirm the directions the boulders would be coming from.

Going the whole way together would potentially be more dangerous than going individually, but without knowing how good Dean's reflexes were, it would be a risk to try guiding him verbally: one slow reaction and that would be the end of it.

"I think it'll be better if we cross together," the Doctor said. He moved close to Dean, clamping a firm hand on his shoulder. He kept a careful eye on the first of the holes, mindful of the ones beyond it. "And..."

He had to do this right. He could always regenerate if this proved fatal, but Dean... humans didn't have that luxury. He had to concentrate, focus on the timing, and do this right.

One boulder passed in front of them, coming in a bit too quickly with not enough time before the next, and then the second passed.

"Forward."

He stepped forward into the recently-vacated space, guiding Dean to do the same both verbally and through the hand on his shoulder. Another boulder and few more hurried steps forward, a mass of rolling rock zooming behind them. The timing was wrong to go forward now, so the Doctor backpedaled, pulling Dean along with him until the next boulder had passed in front of them. It was forward again from there, hurrying past the spot they'd been in before and pulling into a sudden stop as one boulder rolled in front of them and another behind. A step too slow and they might have been clipped.

They had a second to gather their wits and breath before it was time to move again, dashing forward across several boulder-paths until a brief pause to let one pass behind them. An approaching boulder ahead of them was too close, so the Doctor pulled Dean back again to buy time.

Frankly, Dean was just surprised they were still alive. He wasn't real keen on arguing when the Doctor had got them this far and it'd not even been a minute.

Dean could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face as he did exactly as the Doctor prodded him to. They should be dead. All of these looked random as hell to him and several times he could feel the rush of air as one of those huge boulders came barreling past with only inches to spare. Every time he thought they'd hit a safe zone, he'd spot the Doctor looking at something else, almost sidelong, and then he was prodding him forward again. Normally Dean wouldn't be cool with some random dude pushing him around but getting stuck in some freak obstacle course with a guy who had some downright crazy observational skills there tended to kinda change things. No point wasting time bitching when the Doc had got them this far.

Although he was wondering if the guy had eyes in the back of his head there.

Dude's gotta rock at video games.

It was one of those stupid thoughts that really didn't have anything to do with the present, the kind that kinda hit you outta nowhere when you were looking death in the face. The Doctor caught him just as he was about to step forward, jerking him back. Two boulders collided right where he'd been less than a second before. The impact was deafening, his ears ringing.

They hustled through the rubble of the two boulders, Dean stepping over the larger stones, boots slipping and sliding over the smaller ones. The Doctor wasn't even letting him get a feel for where the door was, instead pushing him to gun it that last chunk of the death trap before he got distracted by any hope.

And suddenly they were on the other side.

Dean felt horribly off-balance.

Kinda felt anti-climatic that they'd actually made it. Dean turned toward the Doctor, reaching up to rub at one ear - they were still ringing from those boulders slamming into each other - and grinned.

"You got some serious balls, Doctor," Dean slapped him on the shoulder, still smiling in relief. He wheeled around to watch the Indy Obstacle Course they'd juked their way through, the boulders still spitting out each hole and rumbling their way across. "Christ. How'd you even do that?"

Dean wiped at the thin layer of dust he'd got on his face, feeling his legs starting to get all loose on him. He locked his knees. Fine, so he was gonna pop off the adrenaline sooner than later, but he wasn't gonna go all weak-kneed just 'cause he almost ended up roadkill tonight. That was a fast death. Sucky, but fast. Had that going for it. Even if his body was freaking out about this, Dean knew perfectly well that there were worse things, more evil things, than that death trap. Plenty of things out there that not only would kill you, but would also drag it out just for their sick kicks.

Edited 2010-05-21 13:45 (UTC)

It was a relief to reach the other side. He released his grip on the man's shoulder once they were safe, glancing back at the boulders still speed across the course.

They'd managed to make it across in one piece, but the Doctor felt there had been a few close calls—too close for his own comfort, honestly, especially being so close to that unlucky collision; beyond the noise, a fragment of rock that had shot by nicked his shoulder. He was alright, but his suit was worse for wear from it; he felt fortunate that it hadn't been his coat in the line of fire... or himself. If the Doctor had been shaken by those near-misses, however, he didn't show it as he smiled at Dean.

"I'm good at... lots of things, actually, but especially anything to do with time. Or timing," he said. "Even if I couldn't predict when the boulders would be coming out, once they appeared, well... It was just a matter of calculating where they would be when. Nothing to it."

He slipped his hands into his pockets, nodding towards the door. Now that they were here, it was time to see if it had been worth the risk. "Moment of truth. Would you like to try, or should I?"

"I'll do it," Dean turned toward the door.

He threw a last glance at the death trap behind them, and then back at the door. Seemed like they'd just been at this party and if it wasn't for the crushed boulder and the fresh tear on the Doc's clothing, he would've almost thought they hadn't made any progress. All the rumbling and crash of the boulders made it real hard to get some quiet time to just think.

Dean reached out and tried the doorknob.

[To HERE]

Edited 2010-05-23 03:33 (UTC)

"Hopefully--Hoooly...." The remains of her grin fell from her face and her words were drowned out by the sound of a rampaging army. Her eyes grew in awe of the giant room they had wandered into. And the humongous boulders that rolled back and forth from crevices in the wall. The sound was close to deafening and, making sure she didn't miss any comments from Logan, she turned around, but he was just as speechless as she.

Really?

What purpose did this room serve? How--This was just getting ridiculous, who the hell installed something like this in an institute, anywhere for that matter? Tifa corrected herself. It wouldn't surprise her if Rufus had built something in the basement of ShinRa like this. She'd ask Rude about it later.

The most obvious option was to go back through the door they had come from. Hopefully it would teleport them somewhere better--Nope. Locked. Setting the beer and rolls down and put both hands on the doorknob, twisting as hard as she could. "Shit..." The noise ate up her curse.

Edited 2010-05-24 05:44 (UTC)

Logan had been about to point out that he could carry a lot more than what she'd left him with when that same sense of vertigo cut him off.

It took him a second, when his eyes had adjusted, to wrap his head around the fact that he was in a room designed like the set of an action movie. With boulders. And he had gotten to that room from the pantry.

He watched Tifa try the door. Big surprise that it didn't work; that would've been too easy.

He was pretty sure he could do this - hell, he could do it carrying all that crap in her sweatshirt, probably (sort of a big probably, since he couldn't just drag himself off to the side and wait to heal up if he was wrong, but he wasn't worried about it). Either that or they'd have to make themselves comfortable and wait for morning. Going by the rest of the night, it was anybody's guess where they'd end up once they got through the other door, anyway.

Doing nothing didn't sit right with Logan, but Tifa, as far as he could tell, was normal enough to die here. And because she was the kind of girl who thought she was real tough, she'd say, let's go for it. He could argue against it, but the risks were obvious, and if she was brave enough to want to try, he already knew he was going to let her.

"Think you can make it?" he said, over the sound of the boulders.

"I think that's my line..." Tifa shouted back. Taking a few steps away from Logan, she shifted her weight on the tips of her feet from left to right, left to right. Her hands were balled as she brought them up to chest. A few quick jabs were unleashed before a roundhouse kick finished off her warm up. The young woman's arms fell to her side with a few jiggles and a roll of her neck.

"There doesn't seem to be any pattern with these boulders, so I guess we'll just wing it..." Her words remained even and calm despite a bit of anxiety that crept into her stomach. If she was at her full strength, this would be no problem. Unfortunately, she wasn't and Tifa had yet to truly find the limit of her speed. Maybe it was practically nonexistent?

No use crying over something I can't change.

Tying an extra knot into her sweatshirt sleeves, the brunette stuffed the bread into the pseudo supply bag and picked up Logan's bottle. She would like both her hands free, but if she put the beer in her sweatshirt, it would probably go flat and that was just not acceptable. "Okay, beer takes priority...!" Tifa joked. Well, half joked. She'd rather lose potential alcohol than true alcohol.

Logan almost shot back that he was pretty sure he had an edge over a tough-talking girl who took aikido, but she knew almost as little about him as he did about her. The Q&A session could happen later; for now, she wasn't scared, and if they ran together, that was good enough for Logan. She looked lightweight enough to pick up fast, if it came to that.

The stuff around her waist would make it awkward for her to run. "Leave that here," he said, gesturing to the sweatshirt. "Take this one." He held out one of the things he'd been carrying. "I'll get the rest."

Tifa complied without argument. If Logan needed to be a man, she would let him. The knot around her waist took a few pulls before it loosened up to slip down her legs. She grabbed it by the sleeves and held it out for Logan while she grabbed the fruit juice from him. It would be a bit harder to keep a grip on than a a bag of sugar, but if he was determined to carry most of the burden she would at least take the one most slippery item.

Well now or never.

Tifa didn't wait for Logan. If they started together, she would lose concentration making sure he didn't get swept under and would just ultimately get taken out herself. Waiting for the first one to past, she darted forward, but the second boulder was coming down faster than she expected. There was nothing to do but leap over the next barreling stone before it caught her in the legs. It continued on like this, unpredictable and fast. All Tifa could do was keep a keen eye searching in all directions as she made her way to the other side.

Logan had been in the process of slinging all the stuff over his shoulder when she took off. He shouted something that was supposed to be Get back here but came out like Wh-- HEY, and by then he had to wait for a boulder to grind past before he could even start.

It wasn't all that hard, despite the things he was carrying. He had decades of experience dealing with this kind of crap, and in worse conditions; but normally he did that either by himself or with people he trusted not to die. Here, he was keeping one eye on the boulders coming to smash him and the other on Tifa.

As soon as she was safe on the other side it was that much easier to make it the rest of the way. He shot her a look when he'd caught up: not bad. He wanted to ask what exactly she did, but that could wait. He went for the door. Anywhere but the basement - damned if he was going to lug all this crap around only to have to drop it.

[from here]

...She shouldn't be surprised. She really shouldn't. Renamon had no idea why she was. A room made of earth and peppered with holes. Yes. This was something perfectly normal in this place. She shouldn't question. It was no better or worse than the Digital World in this regard. The institute had monsters and other things to weaken--Why, then, wouldn't it take you elsewhere when you attempted to go somewhere?

She reached behind her to the door but it refused to open. The grip around the knuckle tightened, and again, she exhaled a breath. No matter, it seemed. There was a door on the opposite side. Like a trial, then. One door shuts behind you and you move forward to the second. This, wasn't as reassuring as she would have liked.

Two steps in, her feelings became justified. The boulder sped down the incline of the room, and the Digimon's eyes widened, leaping right and back as it came. What...-- So a trial it was. Albeit not by fire. Renamon eyed the holes near the top suspiciously, enough to catch the second begin its descent. Standing still was no longer an option.

She was thankful that her reactions were not entirely dulled. Crossing the room as a true human would have been more unwanted. Even as it was, she was careful, watching the timing and speed before darting between. At the end, there was a duplicate door while behind her, the rocks still fell. She spared a beat to wonder if this would lead to another chamber, then pressed the door open.

[to here]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/890954.html?thread=69753418#t69753418)]

"...you have got to be kidding me."

So of course, right after Wally managed to get his hands on some free food, they wind up some place where he couldn't eat it. Or at least, not without a lot of problems. He watched the boulders tumble down from... wherever they were coming from, since he didn't have the first clue where they were,

It probably said a lot that his first concern after finding himself in a room that was apparently raining rocks was how he was going to manage to eat his cake and ice cream now.

He took another bite of the chocolate cake - which was pretty delicious and moist for having been in the fridge without a cover - and turned to his companion.

"So, is it just me, or is it raining rocks in here? Because if it's just me, I'm going to have to wonder what they put in this cake, and if it's really raining rocks..." He glanced back at the rocks tumbling down. "Well that isn't going to be a lot of fun."

Scar had been busy with growing annoyed at these dizzy sensations that kept overwhelming him. They didn't do wonders for his throbbing head for that matter. What also didn't do wonders were the loud rumbling that filled the entire room.

"Rumbling? Where could this possibly--"

Any further words that would have formed were soon cut short when he saw what sort of area they had actually entered. He wasn't even going to ask where, as the what took most of his attention. A large room, with holes. From these holes, giant boulders rained down and rolled from one side to the other before disappearing into a different hole.

Scar stared, trying to wrap his mind around the scene that lay before him. On the other hand, there was also a part of him that was wondering why he was even surprised to begin with; a large room with giant boulders rolling over the ground and crushing everything unfortunate enough to stand there. This was, after all, Landel's Institute. It made perfect sense!

At the very least, it was all the more reason to head back, an idea that Scar would immediately put into practice. Or, he would...

"Locked. Gee, why am I not even surprised?!"

Edited 2010-06-04 20:30 (UTC)

"You're kidding, right?" Wally asked, though it was more from a very faint (more like rapidly disappearing) hope that Scar had some sort of hidden love of pranks and that the next comment would be something along the lines of 'haha, fooled you!'. But considering how the guy had been acting so far? Wally wasn't going to hold his breath.

He stared hopefully at the door for a moment in case it decided to magically unlock itself or turned out to be stuck or something instead, but, when both options failed to happen, sighed and looked back at the other door that could just be made out on the other side of the room.

"Right, so all we have to do is... make it over there. Past the obstacle course of rolling, bone-breaking death. Noooo problem at all, right?" He forced a smile and glanced over at Scar. He could carry the other patient that distance well enough, since Scar didn't seem like he'd weigh that much, but the problem was how well his powers would hold out. But they hadn't been that much of a problem lately, so maybe he was overreacting.

But either way, there was only really one way to tell for sure. "Okay, I think I can get us across if you can trust me? I'm, uh, going to have to carry you though."

"Of course I am joking," Scar muttered, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "I simply love making jokes when faced with the possibility of being squashed by giant boulders." Ignoring the other man's hopeful stares towards the door as if the door was going to unlock itself when asked nicely, Scar turned and glared at the infuriating yet out-of-reach door on the other side of the room.

It suddenly seemed tempting to just wait here until the night would end, but with every rumbling sound it began looking like as if his head would explode from the worsening headache. No option, then. But the prospect of being likely squashed to death wasn't too appealing either; Scar happened to find his own life rather valuable.

Until Wally voiced an option that was nearly too good to be true. But the former lion couldn't help but to be skeptical. Before he would allow himself to be carried (trust was a different thing altogether. After all, he had only just met this individual), he had to ask:

"You can get us across? How?" Scar said with a raised eyebrow. What did he intend to do? Simply fly over the boulders?

"Okay, geez, just asking," Wally said, raising his hands defensively. Trust him to meet someone with not only a sense of humour that rivalled Batman's, but more sarcasm than he'd gotten from anyone in a long time. Fortunately sarcasm or not, Scar was willing to at least hear him out about his plan. Now Wally just had to hope that the explanation didn't raise too many more questions.

"I can run us through it," he said, skipping straight to the point. "I'm really fast when I want to be. Faster than any other human I've met anyway." Superman didn't count, since he wasn't human and all. "I could get us across to the other side and avoid the boulders too. When I run that fast, it's like everything's standing still, so it wouldn't even be that hard..."

This was all assuming his powers didn't decide to not work again, but Wally figured it might not be best to tell Scar that part just yet. "So, what do you think?"

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/881968.html?thread=69584176#t69584176)].

Kenshin was ready for cold rain to hit his face and an angry swordsman to drop the ruse and attack him, but what he got instead was deafening noise. They seemed to be in a tunnel, somehow, and the rumbling was so loud and intense that the rurouni feared he might never be able to hear normally again. As his eyes adjusted to the light he realized where the sound was coming from: boulders, rolling randomly along the tunnel and blocking the way.

“What on earth…?”

This was an impossible place. The door at the end of the hallway was supposed to lead outside, not into a room where rocks rolled up hill and smashed the unwary. “ORO!” Another dull roar, closer this time, and Kenshin darted to the side, avoiding the boulder that had seemingly come out of nowhere and almost flattened them both. He glanced at Okita and noticed with relief that the other swordsman was also unhurt.

“This isn’t as it should be,” he insisted, as if he could argue with a room. “Where is this?”

As they moved out through the door, Okita shifted slightly to the side, ready to grab his sword and bolt for wherever he thought he saw movement. Instead he felt his stomach lurch like the floor gave way under him suddenly and his ears were deafened by a rumbling unlike anything he'd heard before. At first he might have thought it was thunder that was far too close combining with the driving force of the rain, but when his senses returned to him, he realized that was wrong. It was something else entirely - something quite...impossible.

All thoughts of revenge tumbled out of his head like rice spilling from a cut bag as he stared incredulously at the scene in front of them. Rocks were raining from the sky. They were-- Oh hell! When Kenshin jumped to avoid the boulder, so did Okita, doublestepping out of the way. He stared at the thing like he couldn't believe it was real, and yet there it was. If they hadn't moved, they would have been crushed.

"...I don't know." He had no idea. None at all. Nothing could have prepared him for this. Staring at the tunnel ahead of him, Okita noticed a door at the far end and felt his stomach drop for a second time. A quick glance behind him confirmed what he feared. "But there is only one way out."

“Another one of Landel’s tricks, then,” Kenshin sighed, glancing at the door at the end of the tunnel. The way they’d come had vanished behind them, so that door really was the only way out. He sheathed his sword, trusting that, until they reached the other side, Okita would not draw his and attack them. Stopping long enough to fight would, after all, get them both crushed. They had to work together on this, at least to the end.

“We’ll have to play the game,” he said. “Stay close.”

With all that noise it was hard to tell if there was any sort of pattern to the boulders, but the increased rumbling a split second before one came charging towards them was all the rurouni needed to avoid it. All right, that was two down, but he still couldn’t seem to sense a pattern. Kenshin crouched against the wall and closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to figure out how long it took between boulders.

A trick that might just kill them if Okita didn't set aside his distaste for the rurouni and what he'd just done in order to work together. He could potentially leave the man to die, but there was a higher risk that whatever lay beyond the door was far worse and would require even more teamwork. There was, however, one thing he could not stand and when Kenshin almost ordered him around. The swordsman couldn't help but give Himura a glance that said 'Strike one' and then took a step back, listening to the boulders crashing down and rolling through the room.

A moment later, he sensed something approaching and darted to the side, watching as another came through where they'd just been.

There didn't seem to be a pattern, but there were certainly warnings. This would require speed and working together to call out when one heard a boulder coming. Speed being the key. Okita quickly tied his sleeves back with the white string looped around his chest and cleared his throat. "Move when the sound comes, just try not to get crushed. Sound like a plan?"

“Sounds like a plan,” Kenshin agreed, and just in time. There was a roar and another boulder came hurtling at them. He dashed out of harm’s way, trusting that Okita would do the same. Timing the rocks was impossible, and listening for the rumble was leaving them only a little time to dart further up the tunnel, closer to the door. They were a little more than halfway now.

He didn’t say anything else about what Okita should or should not do. He hadn’t missed the look the other swordsman had given him, and while he seriously doubted Okita was anywhere near suicidal enough to want to continue their fight here, he didn’t want to risk testing that theory.

"Sounds like a plan."

A rumbling came from overhead and Okita dashed forward, feeling the wind from the boulder brush his hair as it went on past. He hesitated only for a moment, watching from the corner of his eye as it continued on its way up the other side of the round tunnel and then turned his attention back to following and keeping pace with Himura. The things were smashing in from all sides, coming at them at all angles and the only indication they had was a rumbling noise that sounded a bit louder than the rest of the cacophony. It took time and several near misses as they ran across the room, but eventually - carefully - they reached the midway point.

And that was when things started getting tricky. From here they had to beware of things coming at them from all over and there was no chance to rest or even call out when Okita heard something coming. The rate was too fast and it took all his concentration just to dodge and move forward rather than back. Bit by bit the two of them threaded through the rolling boulders with Okita thinking this entire setup was absolutely impossible the entire time. It wasn't until they were three-fourths of the way through and he felt a boulder clip his katana, sending the hilt hard into his gut that he realized it was entirely possible they really could die here.

Putting one hand on the hilt of his sword to keep it closer to his body, Okita kept moving, envying Kenshin's speed for once. He seemed to be having an easier time at this. Seemed, at least. Dodging to the side, Okita grunted slightly when another rock brushed his shoulder. They were close though. So close. Taking one step back, the swordsman launched forward again and starting weaving through what seemed like the last leg of the journey. "Whoever reaches the door first, just open it and go!"

If anything, the rumbling seemed to get louder the further through the tunnel they got. Kenshin’s senses, heightened through a lifetime of training and battles, were assaulted from all sides by noise until everything had joined together into an endless roar. The only indication that another boulder was coming was that the roar grew louder for a few moments before it rolled towards them. At one point he thought that he might try leaping off the walls for momentum, but they were too curved and smooth to give him any traction and the stunt resulted in an even closer shave than the others. A boulder rolled over the part of the wall where his leg had been a fraction of a second before, trapping the hem of his hakama and ripping it as he tried to get free. It was a small price to pay for his poor judgment.

Still, it had put him in a position closer to the door than Okita was. He nodded at the other swordsman—not that he was even sure that Okita could see it—and put on a last burst of speed, dodging two more boulders as he did. He was sweating now, breathing hard with the effort. They had run from one boulder to the next without stopping, and maybe that had not been the right way to approach this room.

He was almost to the door now. Just a few more feet…

Okita was almost disappointed when Kenshin's move didn't work. It was a conflict though - whether he wanted the rock to kill the bothersome rurouni or whether he was upset that the move didn't take the man any closer to the door and survival. This was why he didn't like working with Kenshin very much. It put his conscience in conflict. On one hand, he wanted his partner to survive. On the other, he had a kneejerk reaction to want to kill him. As it was, Kenshin's new hakama were only ripped as he sped off toward the door.

Unlike Kenshin who had almost unbelievable speed and agility on his side to help him with such moves, Okita had to take it a little more cautiously. His lungs were already burning at having run this far without stopping and he could feel his body rebelling against the effort. He was sweating, his breath was short and shallow, and he could feel it creeping up on him.

But like hell if he was going to start coughing in front of Kenshin again.

Somersaulting out of the path of another boulder as it rolled right over where he'd just been, Okita popped up and glanced to the side to confirm where Himura was. Just a few paces ahead of him and in position to get the door first if nothing got in his way. However, with the way the boulders were going, who knew would happen in those last few feet? Dodging to the side, Okita let his hand hit the floor, pushing off as he launched himself full tilt at the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see another boulder coming leaving not but a hair's width between it and the door itself. Not good. Not good at all.

Jumping ahead of the other samurai, Okita kicked the door open and held a hand out for Kenshin. "Come on!"

Kenshin never even hesitated. Okita was holding out his hand for him and risking his life to do so; there was another boulder coming and if he stopped to think about it now they would both be killed. He grasped Okita’s hand and pushed off with his right foot, adding his momentum to the other samurai’s. If it bowled both of them over, at least they would be out of the path of the last of the boulders and ready for what other obstacles Landel saw fit to throw in their direction.

That last bit of energy was all they needed, it seemed. Together the two swordsmen toppled through the door and into the darkness that lay beyond, just as a familiar voice began to filter through the tunnel…

Night 49: Room of Earth

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