RWBY Through Worlds

89: Fight of Our Lives

Getting back out of the tunnel was a challenge because of the incline.

Neo was such a pill, she skipped right up there like a monkey and waved her scroll light at them to hurry up.

"How about some help, Twinkle Toes?" Mercury yelled.

They used the chain to drag themselves up. It was faster than crawling or using blades but still hurt their arms.

It annoyed Mercury that Oscar did better than he or Emerald did by a long shot; he was almost as fast as Neo.

"Dang, Oscar, slow down," Emerald called when he'd gotten up 25 feet at least.

"Why are you two moving so slow?" Oscar looked back, trying not to drop his scroll.

"One of us has metal feet," Emerald said. "And I didn't exactly do climbing as part of my parkour!"

Neo made some motion.

"When I get up there, you're dead," Mercury said.

Neo turned into Theo and motioned at them to shut up.

Then she turned her scroll off.

They all did too and held their breath.

The tunnels carried sound really well; they heard creaking as some panel or door slipped open and then footsteps.

Then it was quiet.

Neo turned her light back on and made some motions like feet walking away.

Oscar let out a sigh. "That was close..." he said.

Emerald muttered, "This ground isn't really stable either."

She took another step, and a big rock just gave way.

"Ow!" she yelped, as the chain cut into her arm and she hit her head on the rock wall. She lost her grip on the chain and started to slip back down.

Mercury slid a little farther down and grabbed her arm in the nick of time before she slid out of the light.

"Are you okay?" Oscar called.

"That hurt..." Emerald moaned. "A lot..." She tried to scramble up, and it made her slip more.

"Ow, stop it!" Mercury said. "This chain is digging into my hand."

"Do you need help?" Oscar called.

"Normally I could lift this much, but she's kind of at the worst possible angle to get leverage," Mercury said.

"Wait a second, I'll hold my cane out," Oscar said.

"Where's my scroll?" Emerald realized she'd dropped it again.

"I don't know. Maybe Ice Cream Girl should try calling it," Mercury said.

Neo rolled her eyes but did so. It lit up a few feet down the slope from Mercury.

Oscar was sliding back down.

"If you just let me fall I could find my way back up," Emerald said.

"That could take a while without light," Mercury said. "There's ours, but this is just faster. Geez, Em, you just had to look down, didn't you?"

"Actually, it was that I didn't look down, and this already hurts enough without your crap," Emerald said, gritting her teeth.

"Almost there." Oscar slid the rest of the way down. "Emerald, can you reach my cane?"

"A little farther." Emerald could barely see it. She tried to stand up and get some momentum. Finally she got the end of it, and Oscar yanked hard and pulled her so far up she almost tripped over Mercury, but Oscar grabbed her arm and pulled her in.