Prompt# 310 - Audience- Room for Improvement - Tekia – The Avengers/Exalted

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement 1.0
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Audience
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: After falling into a trap, the first order of business it to find out where you are. But, if where you are makes no sense, then what are you supposed to do? Traveling to the future is easy, just fall asleep, right? Waking up to a whole different world is harder. Luckily, Tony Stark can adapt to any environment.

He woke with a great gasping breath, his whole body coming alive in pain. His stomach tensed up, his knees coming up to his chest and his shoulders curling down to meet them, but a hand on his shoulder held him down. His eyes sprang open, one hand coming up, palm flat out as if he were going to shove a repulsor blast out of his bare hand. His heart was loud in his ears, beating far faster than he thought was probably safe.
The woman from the casket was leaning over him, her free hand holding a finger over her own lips to warn him into silence. Her grey hair was tied loosely away from her face, but strands fell over her shoulder and brushed his cheeks, and her eyes were hard with something fierce.
He had been right, her eyes were stunning. They were a bright, startling yellow, unnaturally bright in the shade cast by the thick canopy of trees above them. She looked down at him long enough to ensure that he was going to be silent before turning her eyes away, looking at something beyond the bushes they were hidden behind. From where he lay on the ground, he couldn’t see a thing but the woman.
So he took the time to stare at her. Her hair was more silver than grey, he thought as he watched what sunlight that could filter through the leaves make her hair shine. She wore what looked to be silk Eastern style robes and plates of leather armor. Pearl studs were shining in her ears. Her skin had a healthy glow to it that, when he had seen her last in the casket, had been absent.
She nodded once and pulled at his shoulder. Quickly, Tony got his feet under him and had to reach out to brace himself before the dizzy spell that overtook him brought him back to the ground. She wrapped strong arms around him and pulled him upright and away, her hand slipping from around his shoulder, and down his arm until their hands folded together.
They rushed through the underbrush, the armor clamoring loudly with his every step. He had lost the gauntlets, and his hands were bare, and his chest plate was still digging painfully into his ribs. He could breathe easier now, but the pace the woman had set was too much for him. He tugged her to a stop.
Panting, he propped himself up with his hands on his knees. “Who are you? I just can’t run away with you, no matter how pretty your face is.”
She turned back to him, her eyes not on him, but behind him, back the direction they had come. Her whole body was still as she looked at whatever it was that only she could see. Then she turned her eyes down to him and he almost flinched at the look she gave him. Those eyes were eerie. Not human.
She reached out and then he did flinch. One silver brow arched and made him feel stupid; she hadn’t moved quickly, and her hands were empty of any weapons. She pressed one finger to his brow and traced something he couldn’t identify.
All his aches and pains instantly vanished as something poured over him, from his head where she had touched him, down to his feet. He stood upright and gaped at her. He felt as if she had given him a shot of adrenaline. With a short nod, she took his hand again and pulled him forward. He dug his heels in.
“No.” He shook his head when she glared at him. She said something in a language that he didn’t recognize and tugged his arm. “No,” he repeated. “I have to find my team. We were underwater and now here I am. I have to find them and get back to helping them.” He tried to disentangle his hand and turn back the way they had come, but her free hand shot out and grasped him by the forearm.
She was scolding him, he thought as her words poured out in a hushed rush and her brows lowered over those cat yellow eyes. Her voice was low and tense and her words clipped as she tried to get him moving.
“For all I know, you’re the one behind this. You were in the coffin like those zombies. Is this a zombie trick? Zombie magic? Do zombies have magic? I hate magic.”
A bird whistled above them and the woman jerked about. She stepped behind Tony, her back to his and faced the direction from which they had just come. He could feel tension thrumming through her body. “What’s going on?”
The bird whistled again, and she ducked around him once more. She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. He stumbled forward a few steps.
“No, you haven’t answered anything! Tell me what’s going on.”
She hissed at him, making him blink at her, nonplussed. That was different. She began rambling off some words he had no hope of following. He shook his head and opened his mouth to protest some more.
Then something crashed in the brush behind them. Her eyes shot behind him as Tony jumped and faced the dark shadows. “What was that? I don’t like this!”
The brush began moving, but he couldn’t see a thing. “What is that?” He noticed he had a panicky edge to his voice, but hell, this situation deserved it.
She said something else, her voice a harsh whisper. Another tug at his hand, and he fell back a step, more from how the movement in the brush was moving closer than from her surprising show of strength.
And then he turned and ran with her, fear coiling in his stomach. She moved fast and, surprisingly, he kept up with her in his damaged suit. She ran through the forest as if they were on an open stretch of road, nothing hindering her. She was light on her feet while he crashed through the brush like an ox.
Whatever it was that had been behind them was now chasing them, making no effort to mask its progress. It felt massive, and Tony felt a cold chill come over him. He thought he could hear the harsh panting of a beast behind him, the hot breath fanning over the back of his neck, despite how it was currently protected by the helmet.
The woman ducked to the left, pulling him along with her. Then they were moving even faster as the trees began to thin out. They pulled away from their pursuer, and it wasn’t until he nearly tripped over an overgrown root that he realized just how fast they were running. It was inhumanly fast in this thicket. He couldn’t possibly be moving that fast!
They slowed just enough for the woman to pause and walk a quick circle around them, looking for their hunter. Tony bent in half again and panted. He pulled his face plate back down. The HUD lit up around him.
“JARVIS?”
“Sir.”
“Oh, good, you’re still with me.”
“Always, Sir. Although; I have lost all contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the satellites. It seems that we have been cut off from the rest of the world.”
Tony made a face. “Perfect. What satellites are within reach?”
“None, Sir.”
Tony cursed. And just how was that even possible?
A loud knocking startled him out of his thoughts. It took him a moment to realize that the woman was knocking on his helmet.
“Oh no, she didn’t.” He tossed up the face plate. “You do not knock on Shellhead’s face. That is so wrong. I- I don’t even know what to say that’s so wrong.”
Before he could get going, she slapped a hand over his mouth and glared. Oh, right. They were being hunted. He looked around them, expecting to see whatever beast it was that was out there just behind him, fangs and claws ready to rip them to shreds.
When they proved to be alone in the immediate vicinity, save for a little white bird cleaning its feathers in a low branch, he turned back to see her also watching the trees with a wary eye. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, she dropped her hand and motioned him forward.
He followed her for what must have been hours. They didn’t quite run the whole time, but it was enough to put a stitch in Tony’s side and sweat made jogging in the suit uncomfortable. He didn’t want to risk using the boots without the balancing gauntlets and crashing. With his current luck, he’d knock himself out and then he’d never be found and get out of this Twilight Zone.
When the sun dipped behind the distant canopy of trees and cast the forest into shadow, she finally slowed to a stop. Tony leaned heavily against a massive tree, the roots of said tree nearly as tall as him. He needed out of the suit, but how was he going to carry it?
The heat was too much, so he put that thought aside in favor of the cool breeze the night was bringing, and began dismantling the armor from his body.
The woman disappeared for maybe half a moment and when she came back, she had a handful of roots. He finished removing the armor, watching her chew on the roots. “Is that dinner? If it is, this is the worst date I’ve even been on. Exercise and salad, not my favorites. At the very least, you could have brought out a rabbit or something.”
Her frown never really went away. Her lips were thin and she stepped forward and, while he was still talking, shoved the roots in his mouth. Making a face, he thought about spitting them out, but his stomach was cramping with hunger, so he chewed them thoughtfully, ignoring the bland taste. She crouched down and began rummaging in the bag that had been tightly tied around her waist. He sank down next to her, the roots giving them a sense of protection from the night. His feet thanked him by throbbing painfully now that his weight was off them.
She unfolded an ugly brown cloak and pushed him back against the tree. Oh, sleep. Yay. His whole body felt lethargic now that they weren’t moving. The rush of panic and fear was subsiding and exhaustion was weighing him down, making his limbs feel heavy and his lids droop. “Did you drug me?” he slurred.
His eyes were closed before he thought about it and he felt her press up behind him, the cloak settling around their bodies and over their heads.
As sleep claimed him, he could feel her chest press against his back and he realized that he had been wrong this whole time.
She was a he.
When he woke, soft sunlight was filtering through the rough fabric of the cloak tossed over his head. His neck ached from where he had had it bent over his shoulder, and he could feel droop escaping his mouth. With a disgusted face, he tugged the cloak off his head and found himself seated in the crux of a pair of roots, his legs thrown out before him, and alone.
He sat for a moment, just trying to process what he was seeing, trying to make it all make sense. Because, really, there was no possible way that there was a fork sitting in the grass between his feet, bent in half, cleaning itself with a leaf. That just wasn’t possible.
He didn’t remember getting drunk last night, but how else could he explain what he was seeing? He was still drunk. That was it. As he watched, the fork moved on to cleaning the second prong, and Tony giggled. Or he had finally done it. All the great mathematicians went insane, didn’t they? It was only a matter of time. And he had reached the end of his.
Suddenly a blade came down on the fork, slicing it cleanly in half. The thing sprung apart and writhed on the ground a second before shimmering away.
The woman, no, the man from before was glaring at the remains of the fork, his bag in hand and hair tied tightly away from his face. He pulled the short sword free from the ground with a sharp jerk and tossed the bag into Tony’s lap. He started to say something, but Tony jumped to his feet, the bag falling to the ground.
“Wait, what the ever living hell was that? Where the hell am I? Who the hell are you?” He was gesturing wildly with his hands and his breath was beginning to come in short puffs as the panic that hadn’t clouded his thoughts yesterday began to do so today.
The man made a face, nearly rolling his eyes before he reached out for Tony’s head once more. Tony thought to dodge the touch, but, really, all that high speed running? It had been awesome. Tiring, but awesome.
He etched something more on Tony’s brow and then nodded. “That should work for a while.”
For half a second, Tony thought the man was suddenly speaking English before his mind caught up and he realized that the language hadn’t changed. He could understand this language he hadn’t heard before. “How’s that possible?”
“It is because he’s a demon,” a new, softer voice said. “Don’t you know anything?” They both turned to look at their audience, but Tony stayed to stare.
He hadn’t gotten a good look at the last coffin, but he knew without a doubt, this woman, and he was sure this was a woman, with her short, short shorts and low top, had been in the other body. She was leaning on a tree, her arms folded over her chest, making the eye drop to her nearly exposed breasts. Her hair was thick and wild with leaves stuck in the golden strands. Her skin wasn’t as dark as the man’s, but it was darker than Tony’s own olive complexion. Over the tan, she had a swirling tattoo in silver that stretched from her bare legs to her neck. As her body moved in the sunlight, the color of the lines and dots seemed to change color. They gleamed like chrome.
Her body was thin and lithe, her lips full.
If ever Tony had thought a woman was sex on two legs, he had been wrong. He just hadn’t seen this one yet. She pushed away from the tree and approached, her hips swaying and hair bouncing with each step.
“I-I don’t understand,” he finally got out after reclaiming his eyes. She rolled her eyes.
“He really is slow.”
“He’s not from our world,” their silver haired companion defended him. “Leave him be.”
“I’ve left him be for several hours now.”
“He was exhausted. My spells can only do so much for a human.”
“He’s-“
“He’s standing right here,” Tony finally broke in. “And would really like it if you explained what is going on.”
The man turned back toward him, then stooped to pick up the dropped bag and cloak. He held out the bag to Tony. “We are too far into the Border Marchs to dally. Put your armor in here; she will carry it.” He cast a glance upward, as if he could see the sun behind the leaves. “She was right; we have spent far too much time here.”
“Sorry for being exhausted.” He snagged the bag from him and began stuffing the pieces of armor away. “You’re going to make her carry it? She’s smaller than you. And you’re smaller than me. It’s not often I meet someone small than me. Well, shorter. You don’t know how much a pleasure it is.” He pulled the tie on the bag secure and smiled at the man. “And if you weren’t standing next to her,” a nod in her direction, “I would almost think you were a woman yourself. You’re very womanly looking.”
The man didn’t respond beyond clenching his jaw.
The woman pulled the bag from his hand and slung it over her shoulder as if it weighed nothing more than silk. “Let us be away from this place.” She stepped over the tree’s roots and disappeared from sight.
Tony felt his shoulders drop. “More running?”
The silver head shook. “No, White Song took care of our pursuer early this morning. Unless we gain a new one, we should make it deep into Creation without a worry.” They started walking after the woman.
“White Song? That’s her.” He made to motion to the woman before them, but she was no longer visible. He frowned and looked around, for she had been there just a moment ago.
“Yes.”
“What’s your name?” Because, you know, that’s something he wanted to know. He couldn’t keep calling him Silver Hair. But, after White Song, he liked that.
“Iron Dust.”
Tony grinned. “Iron Dust? Your mother give you that name?”
Iron Dust slid him a glance from the corner of his eye. “She did. She was a black smith, if you must know.”
“I didn’t ask, but sure, that makes sense. My name’s Iron Man. When I go grey, we can be twins.”
Iron Dust made a humming noise in the back of his throat, but didn’t otherwise comment. They walked a ways in silence before it became too much for Tony.
“Where are we going?”
“Great Forks.”
“Where’s that?”
Iron Dust paused and stared at him, eyes wide. “You really are not from our world. She had warned me, but I hadn’t really realized what that meant.”
“So, I’m in a different world. How am I supposed to get back to mine?”
Iron Dust continued walking. “In Great Forks, about three days journey from here, we will find help in the form of a time god.”
“Gods, great.”
“You sound displeased. I didn’t think humans could ever be displeased with gods.”
“You talk like you’re not a human.”
He shrugged. “I’m not.”
“That’s right, she called you a demon. Is it true then?” Iron Dust was setting a fast pace and it was all Tony could do to keep up. Steve liked to run miles upon miles every morning and just seeing him after his run was enough to make Tony feel tired. Iron Dust could probably give Steve a run for his money.
Well, scratch that. Iron Dust could give run circles around Steve. Hell, Tony could after he gave him that spell.
“Depends on your definition of demon, I suppose.”
“So you don’t consider yourself a demon, but she does? And you two work together. I guess I know how that is. Plenty of people have called me much worse.” Tony ducked under a low branch. “Can I ask you something?”
“I doubt my answer will sway you.”
Tony nodded. “Of course not. Am I really in a different world? All I did was touch a casket with my bare hand. Heck, Hawkeye did the same thing, why isn’t he in a different world?”
Iron Dust stopped and turned to face him. “A casket? Where was it located?”
“Underwater, in a temple.”
“Was there a body in it?”
Tony scratched at the back of his head. “Er, yeah, there was a body.” Maybe telling him that it was his body in the casket wasn’t going to be that bright of an idea. “There were others, and they turned into zombies and attacked us.”
Iron Dust stared hard at the ground. “But not all the bodies woke at your presence. Then, when you touched one, it brought you to us.” He pinched his chin between his thumb and finger in thought. “That’s a powerful spell. Something I should think only a celestial capable of.”
“What does that mean?”
Before Iron Dust could answer, White Song appeared beside them.
“Are we wanting to be caught and killed? Because if we are, you’re doing a great job of making a lot of racket and, you know, not getting a move on it.” Iron Dust nodded and immediately turned to continue their mad pace.
“Where’s my armor?” Tony called before the woman could disappear on them again.
“Elsewhere.” Then she did disappear. She was like Black Widow, fading into the shadows around them as if she were one of them. That would actually be a cool trick to learn. Maybe his next armor should have stealth settings that let him blend in with the landscape.
“That armor is like my child, I’ll have you know.”
“It’s safe,” Iron Dust said before Tony could get too far into a rant. “She’ll return it to you when you need it.”
Not long after, Tony could hear the sound of water, and they appeared to be heading toward the source. He was proven right when they emerged from the forest from hell on the banks of a river. White Song was sitting on the bank, her feet in the water, and a fishing pole in hand. Iron Dust lowered himself beside her, shrugging off his bag and motioned for Tony to join them.
Iron Dust set about skinning and preparing the fish she had already caught with deft movements. Tony watched them work, unsure for the first time in a long time, of what he should be doing. So he decided to talk. It was what he did best after all.
“How did you two know where to find me?”
“Luna came to us.”
“Us?” White Song mocked.
“Me,” Iron Dust corrected. “She came to me, and gave me the duty of seeing you back to where you have come from. She gave me a lodestone that led me right to you.”
“So, this Luna…” he prompted.
“Do you not know even Luna,” White Song nearly screeched. “What world do you live in that you naught of Luna?”
Tony arched a brow. “Uh, mine? She a god?”
“He is the god of the moon,” White Song said, pulling another fish from the river. She wound the string around her hand and handed off the fish to Iron Dust. “He is the god of all things that change like the phases of the moon.”
“She is your protector,” Iron Dust murmured as he gathered twigs and branches for a fire.
“Why?”
Iron Dust, with an ancient looking fire starter, had a nice fire going. He gazed up at Tony over the small flames. “How can we know the will of the gods? She has seen you here and has proclaimed that you are not meant to be here. It is only my duty to see you back.”
Tony nodded. “And I want to go back.”
“We go to Great Forks where many gods dwell. We’ll find a time god, as per Luna’s command, and they will see you home.”
“Why a time god? If I’m from another world…”
Iron Dust bit his lip and closed his eyes. He shrugged. “It is Luna’s command. Who am I to question?”
White Song dropped down next to him and leaned heavily on his shoulder. “You’re usually the first in line, O Blasphemous One.”
His lips curled in half a smile, but he kept his eyes closed. From where Tony sat, across the fire from them, they made a striking pair, one silver and the other gold. They were both very beautiful, almost ethereal. Tony took a deep breath and ignored the thought playing about in his head of how he would look, so dark, between them.
“Who am I that I garnered the attention of the goddess,” he hesitated a moment, eye on White Song to see if she was going to correct him. When she didn’t, he continued, “of the moon?”
Iron Dust’s eyes popped open and his small smile turned into a wicked grin. “And that’s the fun part. You’re dangerous to us, to all of Creation.”
Tony let out a puff of air. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Merchant of Death, they called me. Which was kinda catchy. What makes this world different?”
“What do you do that makes you different?” Iron Dust countered.
Tony stared at him for a long moment. There was so much on that list, even without him being immodest. “I lived when, by all rights, I should have died.”
White Song nodded. “That will get you Blessed. Have you ever eaten the raw heart of a beast?”
Tony made a disgusted face. “No!”
“Then why Luna?” White Song asked, turning to Iron Dust.
His eyes were even brighter in the glow of the fire. The sun was setting behind them, over the Forest of Doom, as Tony had silently dubbed it, and Iron Dust’s silver seemed to glow along with his eyes. He was looking into the fire as he spoke.
“Is she not the goddess of chance and fortune? Is she not the goddess of change? If he comes to us from another world, what other god would be his patron?”
“I don’t think I am from another world.” Two pairs of eyes shot to him. He shrugged. “Look,” he pointed to the darkening sky. “That’s Venus.”
White Song made an odd noise. “He knows the Maidens, but not Luna?”
Tony dropped his hand. “Well, we sometimes call the moon Luna, but she’s not, well, she’s not a god anymore. Just… a name. That’s why I think I’m not from another world, just from the future. The stars are the same.”
They stared at him for a long moment before White Song nudged Iron Dust and he turned the fish on over the fire. “If you do come from a time unknown to us, it would explain why we seek a time god. Watch the fish.” He stood and walked a ways away from them, the shadows of night encroaching until they engulfed him.
Tony turned to White Song. “What’s his problem?”
She glanced at him, then back to Tony. “He will read your stars. What Heaven has on you will help us send you back. The future, you say? Do all humans in the future wear armor like yours?”
Tony tore his eyes away from the dark shape of Iron Dust’s back. “No, that’s mine and mine alone. Well, my best friend has one too, but I built it for him. So it’s just the two of us.”
She nodded, but her attention was on the fish. She pulled them out of the flames and offered him one. Once they had eaten, White Song stretched her arms over head. “I’m covered in dust and dirt. I’m going swimming. Iron Dust,” she called, “the ferry will arrive with the dawn, don’t oversleep.”
His shadow raised a hand and waved absently, and she gracefully stood. Her tattoos glittered in the raising moonlight as she stepped away from the fire and toward the river. She shot Tony a smirk over her shoulder. “Just remember, Human, Luna may have become your guardian, but I am her Chosen.”
Then she was gone with a splash of water. Tony blinked into the night. Was she jealous? She was. It made sense, but then that would be the only thing to make sense since he woke up.
Iron Dust finally returned, his eyes lowered and shoulders weighed down. “You should sleep. Dawn comes early.”
Tony felt a cool smirk curve his lips. “What did Heaven have to say about me?”
Iron Dust pulled out his cloak and settled it around his shoulders. “That you must leave here. That you are a danger to us all.” His lips twitched in an almost smile, but it was as cool as Tony’s. “I don’t see the point, though. If you really are from the future, why should we fight so hard for something that’s already lost?”
He pulled his hood up over his head and settled down beside the fire.
“What does that mean?” Iron Dust didn’t answer save a small puff of breath and Tony realized that he had fallen asleep. And with White Song out swimming like a crazy woman, Tony was left alone without even JARVIS for company. He shivered and rubbed his hands along his arms. In the distance, he could hear the forest coming alive with night creatures, and the water was lively with ripples. The moon was gaining in brightness as it inched higher into the sky.
Tony watched it, feeling as if Luna, whoever she was, was watching him as well. “It was just a trap, but there are no such things as coincidences. So, why am I here?”