Prompt#320 -Sculpture- Room for Improvement - Tekia – Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement
Fandom: Exalted/The Avengers
Prompt: Sculpture
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.



They walked through the forest for a few hours before they began to smell smoke. White Song sniffed the air long before Tony caught a whiff. Tony paused when he recognized the scent.
“That’s not a campfire,” he commented.
“ No,” she said walking several paces in front of him. “That’s a battle.”
Tony was running before he thought about it, the hydraulics of his armor loud in the silent forest. White Song easily kept pace with him, overtaking him even. She let him race forward for quite a while before she jumped in his path, her body slamming into his, and his momentum taking them both to the ground.
“Wait,” she panted over him. “We can’t just go rushing in.”
“There could be people in danger.”
“There surely are, but we’ll be no help to them if we run right into a trap.” She climbed off him and offered him a hand up. Tony clasped hands with her and let her pull him up. “We go in quietly until we find out who’s there.”
“If we must.”
“We must.”
Tony took one step, paused with a sheepish grin toward White Song as the armor made too much noise to be considered quite under anyone’s definition of the word. White Song rolled her eyes. “Come on.”
He followed her through the forest, ducking under branches and sidestepping bushes until she stopped suddenly. He reached out and held her shoulders in his hands while they gazed at the sight before them.
The village that had been there was mostly destroyed now. The light they had seen hadn’t been a city hidden in the forest, but a village on fire. What was left was still burning brightly while people with shocked expressions stood around watching their homes burn.
Children were crying softly, faces covered with soot while teens tended to them, their parents off taking tending to the houses on still on fire. There was a line of bodies covered with blankets laid out near the first line of trees separating the forest from the village.
Tony swallowed hard and felt White Song lean heavily on his chest.
“We could have helped them.”
She shook her head. “No, the village was already on fire when we arrived. We were too late even then.” She pushed away. “Let’s see what we can do to help them now.” She walked forward, hands held out at her sides, clearly empty of any weapons. She called out something Tony couldn’t translate and several people froze with their wide, frightened eyes on her. A few gathered weapons and stood at the defensive.
She spoke with them until they lowered their weapons and motioned toward the still burning buildings. She nodded, waved at Tony and moved closer to help out.
Invited, Tony stepped out of the forest and approached. There was a ripple of shock going through the crowd and they all turned to stare at Tony. He stopped in place, tried a charming smile, and a little wave. The children shrank back, and the adults frowned mightily at him.
“White Song?” he called.
She turned, saw the crowd’s reaction toward him, and spoke with them some more. One man shook his head and pointed toward Tony as he growled something. They descended into an argument and Tony caught the word Dragon Blooded being thrown about.
Tony held out his gauntleted hands, palms down in his trained display of nonaggression and took a step toward White Song. The people tensed and White Song threw a hand out at him.
“Stay there, Iron Man.”
“They think I’m a Dragon Blooded. Why?”
She snorted. “You look like a Dragon Blooded in your armor.” There was no little scorn in her voice that made Tony feel insulted, almost. If he knew what to be insulted about.
“But I’m a Solar,” he protested.
White Song hissed at him, motioning violently for him to shut up, but the damage had been done. The man she had been arguing with turned contempt filled eyes in his direction.
“Anathema,” he spat and the soot stained people all exploded into action, screaming and fleeing, falling over themselves in their haste to get away.
Tony held his hands up in confusion. “What did I do?”
White Song stalked back toward him, her face twisted in to a fierce frown. “You idiot. We are demons to them.”
“I didn’t think they’d understand us.”
She rolled her eyes. “We are speaking the language of the Realm, the most common language in Creation. What in the world would make you think they couldn’t understand us?”
He opened his mouth, then snapped it closed. “Sorry.” He was becoming far too comfortable with that word.
She turned toward the nearest still burning building and rubbed her hands together. “Let’s put the fires out.”
“They won’t stop us?”
The people had disappeared. There was not a trace of them now. White Song shook her head. “They fear us. They won’t come near until we’re long gone.”
Casting a glance at the line of trees cast into sharp shadows by the fire, Tony followed. They pulled bodies from under fallen roofs and away from the hungry flames. They collapsed beams before they could fall on what structures that were still standing, and tried their best to tame the flames without a ready supply of water.
Tony paused, shoving hair out of his eyes. “Where do they get their water? There’s no well.”
White Song laid a blanket over yet another dead body. “I assume there’s a stream or river nearby.” She looked around them, heavy bags under her eyes. “We should find it.”
There was a dirt path that threaded its way around the village, and away through the forest. They followed it, Tony holding a bucket he had found on the way.
“They’re watching us,” she said, voice low.
Tony looked at her, then the forest on either side of the path. He couldn’t see anything, but now that he was paying attention, he felt his Essence warning him that there were eyes on him. He had been tense since they began on the path and now he knew why. Breathing deeply, he knelt next to the stream they found and dunked the bucket into the cool water.
White Song stood over him, eyes on the people he couldn’t see.
Once the bucket was filled, he splashed his face, removing some of the soot. When he stood, White Song took her turn while Tony guarded her.
They made their way back to the village. The fires had died down mostly, leaving only a few flames still eating away at the wood houses. Tony picked one at random and began splashing the water, killing the flames as he could. White Song found another bucket and joined him after a trip to the stream. One by one, they doused the houses and pulled the bodies away.
When the last ember was out, White Song rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll dig a grave for them.”
Tony stood from where he had dropped down on a bench that had survived. “Let me help.”
She pushed him back down. “I’ll do it. Keep an eye out. The beast men are agitated.”
“Beast men?”
She gave him an odd look before she closed her eyes and tilted her head back. “Hear the owls?”
Tony looked over at the tree tops and listened. After a moment he could pick out the hoots of owls soft on the wind. “What does it mean?”
“Those that attacked here are being hunted by the local Lunar camp.”
“Do they know who attacked?”
She shook her head. “Nobody we need to concern ourselves about. Humans, but they’re encroaching on the Lunar’s territory, and he’s angry about it.” She sighed. “He’s frustrated with the war, and he’s taking it out on humans.”
“Are we in danger?”
She laughed, and looked startled about it. “Did you really just ask that? Us, warriors of Blessed by gods, in danger?”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Will the Lunar attack us?”
“Not if I talk with him first. Hopefully we won’t have to face him at all. His camp is miles to the north still. Watch for the humans though, they may dare to shoot arrows at us when they see me burying the bodies.”
Tony nodded and turned to watch her pick out a spot for the bodies. She looked around, still cautious with Tony keeping watch, and then transformed.
Tony stood in shock as a silvery light encompassed her, as her limbs twisted and reshaped. She clothing gave way to fur and she shrank in size until she had the form of a large cat, all golden fur and blue eyes, and sharp claws. She glanced at him over her shoulder before setting to work, large claws easily tearing into the ground.
Dirt flew behind her as she dug the graves, and Tony slowly lowered himself to the bench, still dumbfounded at finally seeing her Essence at work.
Dusk was turning the sky purple and orange when she finished, her fur coated with dirt. Tony stood and together they began pulling the shrouded bodies toward the mass grave. Tony lowered the first one and turned to reach for the one White Song was dragging with her teeth when the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His heart began pounding far too rapidly and his mouth went dry.
He opened his mouth to call out a warning, but he was too late. White Song leaped into the air, her feline body twisting midair to land facing the man that had landed, sword first, where she had been standing. She crouched low, her growl curling back her lip, exposing long, sharp canines.
The man stood, swinging his sword so that it glinted with the last rays of the sun.
“Beast, I’ll not let you eat the dead.”
White Song snarled, crouched low. Tony slammed down the faceplate. JARVIS booted up with a greeting. Even without the balance of the repulsors of the hand gauntlets, the jet boots still had their full power and Tony launched himself at the man’s back from the grave.
At the last second, the man turned, but couldn’t dodge Tony’s attack. The short glimpse of his face that Tony got was enough to recognize him as the final zombie from before. The one that Hawkeye had woken first. His hair was still that same short spiky black, and his eyes still that bright blue.
He cursed as he fell under Tony’s weight. Tony tried to wrestle the sword away, but the man wriggled out from under Tony and kicked at him until Tony had to retreat. He assumed a stance that came naturally to him although he’d never really trained more than a few times a month with Steve.
The man stood opposite him, sword still firmly in hand, as still as a statue as his eyes roamed over the Iron Man armor. “Dragon,” he spat.
Tony shook his head. “No, but if that’s what you want to believe, fine. Leave her alone.”
The man’s lip curled. “I’ll not let you bring any more harm to these people than you already have.” He readjusted the grip in his hand and charged. Tony dodged, the repulsors moving him far out of the way of the sword’s reach.
“Wait!”
The man ignored him, spinning on his heel and throwing a small dagger that just seemed to appear from nowhere. Tony knocked it away with the gauntlet.
“We’re not attacking the village! We’re trying to help!”