[[{{Goshuushou-samaNinomiya-kun}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_Goshuushou_sama_Ninomiya_kun_stepping_stones_in_the_sky_rocks_fall.jpg]]

A version of ColossusClimb controlled by the RuleOfCool. A character somehow jumps and runs along a rain of falling debris or projectiles -- none of which are actually attached to anything -- not only to dodge but to ''gain altitude'', sometimes to reach the area firing the things in the first place. A very good way to not only show off a character's agility but also their speed.

Technically due to Newton's Third Law of Motion this isn't actually impossible, it just requires superhuman strength and speed.

Not to be confused with {{Floating Continent}}s.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

*''ProjectAKo'', the title character on a wave of missiles.
* While not using stones, the samurai in ''[[SamuraiSeven Samurai 7]]'' tend to leap from huge flying cyborg to huge flying cyborg, slicing apart as they go.
* The last chapter of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' features [[spoiler:''Stepping Galaxies In Outer Space!'']]
* In ''{{InuYasha}}'', the character Koga, whose speed and agility are enhanced by magical jewel shards in both his legs, demonstrates the ability to run up rockslides, even while carrying another character. The title character sometimes does so, too, though it usually takes the only slightly more plausible form of leaping from one large, plummeting boulder to another.
* Similarly taken to extreme in ''{{Bleach}}'', in which Shinigami are able to use particles of [[KiAttacks spirit energy]] to stand in mid-air.
* Jiyu and Freeshia from ''{{Jubei-Chan}}'' spend a portion of their final title bout duking it out on top of a falling redwood which, for bonus points, they'd just sent flying in the first place.
* Ku-Fei found herself doing this in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' when she ''accidentally shattered the rock spire she was standing on'' while training her martial arts in the Magic World. An inversion, since she did it to get ''down'' and away safely. Also a use of FlashStep, rather than [[JumpPhysics superhuman leaping]].
* The last episode of ''{{Slayers}} Next'' has Gourry doing this. What's more remarkable is that by doing this he beats people who are simply flying their way out. The PowerOfLove is strong, indeed.
* In the ''{{Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun}}'' scene pictured above, ThoseTwoGuys not only dodge the rocks but also to cover considerable ground while climbing a cliff during a rockfall.
* Optimus Prime in ''TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' does this to stop the Predacons interfering with a race. Slapper [[LampshadeHanging complains that he's breaking the laws of physics]].

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Near the end of one episode of the short-lived ''{{Spider-Man}} Unlimited'' series, Spidey easily executes this to escape a CollapsingLair, with Venom and Carnage right behind.
** He also did a variant of this in [[{{Film/Spider-Man}} the third movie]]: he used falling rubble to go '''down''' faster.
* TheFlash can get away with this because he's not just quick, he's supersonic. Running up the side of a building is a standard Flash trick. But Barry Allen, the SilverAge Flash, didn't stop there; he took this trick (and so many others) to truly hilarious lengths. Barry would routinely run along things like smoke particles and -- no joke -- ''light beams''.
* In the Archie continuity of [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog]], the Hedgehog hero once pulled it off using sand he got out of his shoes to go from falling off a cliff to running to safety.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* Beautifully parodied in the movie ''KungFuHustle'': during the final battle, in order to gain enough height to execute his FinishingMove, the hero uses a ''bird in flight'' as a stepping stone.
* The end of the anime film ''Mind Game'' has the main characters escaping their prison in the stomach of a giant blue whale by running up the water pouring in when it surfaces. Then they run up planes, subway trains, boats, and a large amount of other things being swallowed by the whale with enough power to launch them far into the sky. Earlier the main character outruns God.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* Luke, Mara, and Tahiri perform this during the ''NewJediOrder'' series, at a point where they're fighting a Dark Jedi with the language-less mentality of a 5 year old on a ruined Coruscant. Slightly easier for them as they had the help of the Force, as well as the fact that many of the rocks they were hopping across were building size.

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[[folder: Mythology ]]

* In Irish myth it was said that Cuchulain could throw three spears at three targets, leap to the last spear thrown, from there to the second, then to the first, then to the ground to slay another opponent even as the spears hit their targets. Making this OlderThanFeudalism.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: New Media ]]

* Used in various speedruns, most notably in those for ''[[HalfLife Half Life 2]]'' and ''{{Fallout}} 3''.
** Also possible in various [=TASes=], particularly in the ''SuperMario'' series.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* A lot of 2D {{Platformer}} video games did that, either with "perpetual descending elevators" or random falling things (like logs in a waterfall in a level of ''The Lion King'').
* ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic X]]'' regularly has the titular character performing a similar action, and in his newest self-titled [=XBox=] 360 and [=PS3=] game, he performs this in the Wave Ocean stage.
** See also the opening to Sonic CD.
** See also every Sonic game ''ever''. This ranges from logs in waterfalls to the much more regular falling stepping stones. Other objects include midair springboards to floating enemies that (usually) Sonic must homing attack across.
* Dante from ''DevilMayCry'' has done this a few times in [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscenes]], and can actually do it in-game.
* ''[[SlyCooper Sly 2]]''; Sly races down the large chunks of Arpeggio's airship platform as it crashes and breaks apart, in an effort to reach and save his teammates.
* In ''FinalFantasyVII: Advent Children'' characters leap into the air and ''throw'' Cloud further upwards - and again in the final showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth, where part of the fight literally takes place on, in, and through falling rubble from a destroyed building.
* One of the bosses in ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario Land]]'' attacks Mario by throwing boulders at him, and the only way to get close enough to defeat him is to jump from boulder to boulder (in which the preceding levels have provided ample practice, but with less of the "In The Sky" factor).
** Also, way, way too many Mario World hacks do this with falling springboards, shells, P switches and keys. There's also actually a trick required in the hardest of them that actually requires Mario to continually jump upwards while pulling up the key he's standing on in mid air.
* Used in ''SkiesOfArcadia'' when [[spoiler: after Zelos was awakened, the whole lower structure of the Dangral Island complex attached to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon starts to collapse including the rail lift that took the Heroes there, so they had to run all the way up to the start of the rail lift while it was crumbling. At the end it resulted in a full BodyCatch after the last of them got off at the start of the rail lift.]]
* The Xen of ''HalfLife'' is an (annoying) embodiment of this trope.
* In ''KingdomHearts 2'', you can do this with fragments of buildings. That ''you cut into pieces yourself''.
* A boss fight in ''TheForceUnleashed'''s Jedi Temple downloadable level has [[VillainProtagonist Starkiller]] invoke this trope to gain higher ground.
* The Infocom [[InteractiveFiction text adventure]] ''Spellbreaker'' has this as a puzzle solution ... though it makes a little more sense jumping up rocks when you've ''[[TimeStandsStill stopped time in the middle of the rock collapse]].''
* With the right Schticks, characters in the ''FengShui'' game can walk on hails of ''bullets''. (It's still damn hard, just not impossible.)
* In ''SuperSmashBros Brawl'', Wario is capable of doing this by pulling his bike out of {{Hammerspace}} when in midair then immediately jumping out of it, which still allows him access to his DoubleJump. Doing this actually boosts him higher than his regular recovery move.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''TeenTitans'', using her name-implied superpowers, Terra performs a visual interpretation of the trope to get BadassNormal Robin into the face of a giant robot worm.
** Robin himself used this method several times over the course of the series.
* Tai Lung's prison break in ''KungFuPanda'' involved clawing his way out of a bottomless pit by leaping from bit to bit of the falling debris that would have crushed him.
* Sort of used in an episode of ''SpongebobSquarepants'', Spongebob and Sandy are chased by, and eventually end up riding, a huge Alaskan Bull Worm. It heads toward a cliff and after it begins to plunge off the side, they run back up the falling worm and end up safe and sound on the cliff's edge.
* ''TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' had Optimus pull this once, with the somewhat [[GagDub gaggy English dub]] having the Predacon Slapper protest Optimus's ignorance of gravity.
** Pulled of ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome epically]]'' in the third season premiere of ''TransformersAnimated'' where [[spoiler:Blurr uses craters, asteroid, planetary rings, and Thundercracker's ''face'' to run from some unknown planet ''to Cybertron'']].
** [[TransformersFilmSeries Starscream]] pulls off a variant. Using ''F-22s''.
* In the ''AeonFlux'' short "War", the sword-wielding fighter climbs by jumping off a series of enemy soldiers rappelling down from an aircraft.
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