Prompt# 317- Booby Trap - Room for Improvement excerpt - Tekia - Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room For Improvement excerpt
Fandom: Exalted/the Avengers
Prompt: Booby Trap
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: cut out of order from Room for Improvement.

They couldn’t see the temple, sorry, the manse from where they were, the floating island hovering high above them. Tony shaded his eyes with his hand and narrowed his eyes against the glare of the setting sun. He couldn’t see the engines that kept the island afloat, but he was sure they had to be there.
He nodded, lowered his hand, and turned to others. “I want one.”
White Song rolled her eyes. Iron Dust appeared not to have heard him, his own gaze intent on the island.
“I don’t think you guys understand. These things don’t exist in my time, and if I had one, I’d be, well, I’d be even more popular than I am now. Then.”
They trooped after Iron Dust as he threaded his way through the forest path that was many years overgrown.
“Do you have a plan of how to get up there? I mean, I don’t see a ladder, so unless one of you can fly, I don’t know how we’re supposed to get up there.” He climbed over a large log laying over the path. “If my suit was working properly, I’d be able to fly up there, but it’s not, so I can’t.”
“I can.”
Tony’s head whipped up to White Song as she watched him with a smirk playing on her lips. “What?”
“I could fly up there and leave you two to find your own way up.” She flashed a smug smile toward Iron Dust, who grinned at her.
“If you much, but don’t forget there are booby traps all over the place up there. Don’t come crying to me when you get hurt. And keep an eye out for the Hunt. If they’re as close as I suspect, then we don’t have much time.”
“Are they close,” Tony asked, suddenly nervous. He’d been loud and chatty, and if the Hunt were onto them he could have been leading them right to them.
“Close enough. They’re being led by a Sidereal.”
“Someone you know?”
“I haven’t looked; been too busy fleeing.”
Tony caught Iron Dust’s arm with his elbow so they could walk together. “What does that mean for us?”
“It means that we can’t really hide from them. Unless we don’t use any essence, which is impossible with the mission we’re undertaking.”
White Song wrapped her arms around Iron Dust’s waist and propped her chin on his shoulder between him and Tony. “I could lead them away. You know they would follow me.”
Iron Dust stopped walking and closed his eyes. “There is an Air Dragon, and there’s a Sidereal, plus who knows what else in that Hunt. It’s dangerous.”
“I’ll do it.” She pulled away and looked around them. They had lost all sight of the sky through the leaves, and the shadows made it appear nearly dusk. She took a moment to study the path from which they had come.
“I don’t sense anyone close. Let’s give them something to follow.” She pulled Tony’s armor out of Elsewhere and deposited it at his feet. Tony immediately began pulling it on. She then grabbed Iron Dust, her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She pressed a kiss to his lips, and for once, Iron Dust didn’t fight her. Tony grinned, feeling not unlike a child watching his parents kiss goodbye.
White Song broke the kiss and turned away, her body shimmering with silver until her form changed into a massive beast. Tony jumped to his feet, mouth agape.
“I didn’t know she could do that!” He pointed. “Since when could she do that?”
She turned toward them. She was massive, nearly ten feet tall, standing on legs that looked more like a cat’s legs than humans, a fine layer of silver fur covering them. Her skirt had stretched and still clung to her hips, and Tony was suddenly reminded of the Hulk wearing Bruce’s pants as shorts. She had a muzzle tipped with a pink nose, and silver fur that covered her face. Her eyes were still blue, piercing and intelligent.
It was a beast man, but it was still White Song.
She grinned and her fangs glittered in the low light. “I am Lunar,” she said, her voice lower and hinting at a growl. “I can do more than just this.” With that, she turned away and charged into the forest, the brush and bushes crashing under her weight and mass. Tony blinked after her and slowly turned toward Iron Dust.
“I really haven’t seen her use her Essence, have I?” Iron Dust shook his head. Tony narrowed his eyes. “What about you? Do you turn into a bastard child of a man and kitty cat too?”
Iron Dust smiled. “That’s the domain of Lunars. You saw what I can change into.”
“Right. You change into someone else.” Tony stalked away, following the overgrown path. “She’s a beast man. That makes so much more sense, her family being those beast men.”
“Indeed.” Iron Dust kept pace with him, eyes glancing up at the small breaks in the trees. Tony followed his gaze and realized that it wasn’t the leaf cover that was blocking the sun from them, but the bottom of the island. He grinned and jogged toward a tree. He easily climbed it, his Essence making his body light and allowing his feet to find the perfect holds. When he broke through the canopy, the bottom of the island was still several hundred feet above him, but he could see it better, and he still couldn’t find the engines that powered it.
He looked down at Iron Dust. “What makes it fly?”
“Essence,” he called up. “The same thing that makes everything work here.”
Tony looked back up at the underside, vines hanging off the edges, and grass and moss growing thick above him. He wondered what the topside looked like. Aside from the temple, he wondered what other buildings were crowded on the small island. Something as grandiose as a temple in Great Forks, or another manse to equal the Air one?
What mechanical wonders were hidden there?
He almost felt a bite of guilt at that thought, but he was a product of his age, and he came from a time after the mechanical god had already won the war.