middleofsomewhere | Let it Snow: Red Start

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Let it Snow: Red Start

The doors slam shut, the train moves. Through the snow this time but the shuddering is almost worse that entering the void. "Red team to doors." The visibility out of the window is low but they are moving further up the mountain.

The doors open, allowing red team to jump. The snow here is thick, there is little protection from the howling winds and biting cold.

Their SCA shows a route, following it will, presumably lead them to the gang that caused these problems. Here on the low slopes of the mountain there are some homesteads. Much fewer than in the town itself but cottages and small farm houses. All seem abandoned.

For now there is not much to do but to walk, forge a path through the snow. Fight the snow and ice monsters that attack and do their best to survive as they follow the map towards their goal.

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Now she had Lightning's grav-con she was doing a lot better. She was still mostly walking, but it meant she could navigate the larger snowdrifts without it being terrible. It sometimes didn't work. She thought it was because of the cold. She understood, her whole body didn't want to work because of the cold either. But she forced it to continue.

She looked up at Tony when he approached, used to his metal man suit by now. She shook her head instinctively at the question, though she wasn't too insulted. He said she was strong after all.

"I can be walking." She managed a half grin. "I do be thanking you though."

"You're welcome, kid." He looked up the mountain side they were traveling up. "This reminds me of that mountain we climbed during the training mission. Remember?" Obviously this was much worse than that one was. He'd take some grumpy birds over this bitter cold any day.

"What weapons did you bring?" He knew she would've brought her dagger, but he was hoping she had a backup weapon or two. "Don't forget what we went over. Going behind the enemy will be your best bet."

"I do be remembering." She nodded. That mountain had not been so stupid cold though. Even if it had stupid eagles.

"I do be having some knives." Her dagger was her best weapon, but the other knives were at least sharp, if not balanced for fighting.

"I will be going behind and I will be getting them before they do be knowing I do be being there."

It was how she was trained, but she was happy to let him believe he had been the one to teach her it.

Buttercup was so nice (and brilliant) to let him think he taught her these skills. It made him feel like in some way he'd permanently given her some level of protection that she could carry on with her wherever she went. He would rather be the one to take and make those attacks for her, but if he couldn't..

"Ever kill someone before?" He asked. It was a hard subject for them to talk about but she might be put in a situation where it's her life or one of these thug's life. She needed to know it was okay to make the selfish decision. That being said, he had noticed she had a very healthy dose of self-preservation so this was likely just as redundant and pointless as the other thing he said.

The question brings her up short, she actually stopped walking for a moment as she looked at him. Was this a trick? It is always the question with Tony. What did he want from her? He had threatened her but except that one time he had never been anything but kind. It was confusing and stupid and she didn't understand.

He had taught her to fight, so he clearly wanted her to kill. Would he be angry that she already had? Would he be upset that he was not the one to teach her first?

But also she didn't want to be thought of as a baby. She had killed, many times. She didn't need talked through it. If she was to do this mission properly then Tony, as team leader, had to be aware of her skills.

She shrugged. "Yes. I did be killing before." Her voice was light and casual.

Sometimes truth was better, if he was mad then he was mad. She could deal with that.

She was correct on a few points there. Sometimes he asked dumb questions that in hindsight might not have been the best ones to ask a child- like this one. He did need (or want) to know what she was capable of and if she had said no, then he might have babied her. However, he really hadn't expected her to say yes.

What was he supposed to say to that? They didn't really go into this at parenting school (not that that was a thing). He needed to think of a response because this wasn't helping anyone just staring at her surprised...

"No wonder you're such a tough little cookie." Yeah, he was sure that was the right response (not).

He wasn't mad. That was the important thing. He was looking at her like he was surprised, and she takes it that she is doing a good job of pretending. Interesting. She thought she had made a thousand mistakes since arriving on the platform three months ago.

She just shrugged and smiled, keeping her voice light. "Exactly. I did be telling you I did no be being a baby."

Tony shook his head. "I never thought you were." Okay so that might not be entirely true, but he'd always known she had a strong will despite her vulnerable age.

"So this training you've had, it's been to learn how to kill people?" He asked, now curious about this obvious gap in his knowledge of her. "What kind of priestess is the woman you were going to work for?"

She watched him very warily. Because of course he had more questions. Nosy and dangerous. She shrugged again, killing was definitely part of her training. "Do that no be being what all warriors do be training for?"

She knows that Tony has killed. He has to have had. He couldn't be a hero, even one of light, without doing so.

"I did no be going to work for anyone." She wrinkled her nose, though she continued quickly in case he thought she had deceived him. "I would be going to be training, at a temple. I would be working for a priestess when I did be being older. But we would no be choosing, until I did be being older."

Well.. he couldn't really argue with that. Mostly.

"Many warriors train to protect. They learn to fight and.. kill people only if they need to do it. Their purpose is to prevent death or abuse of those they're protecting. Like we're here to defeat Professor Chill since he's causing pain and chaos. Does that sound like the kind of training you've had?"

She nodded as she walked in the snow. "It do be sounding exactly like that." She was not Peter. She had been taught to lie almost as soon as she had learned to talk.

They were to kill Professor Chill because they had been told to. Because he was causing pain and chaos. He was not someone she should be against but she would fight with the void treckers because she had no choice. None she could think of anyways.

In a way it wasn't even a lie, eventually when she was a warrior her purpose would indeed to be to prevent death or abuse of her priest or priestess. To make sure their enemies never even reached them.

"You did be training Peter for it too, right?"

Whether he should or not, Tony accepted that answer readily. Hell, he wanted to believe that was the truth. It was for his own sake as well as Buttercup's even if she never saw it that way too.

The question about Peter had Tony barking a laugh, though it wasn't at her expense (more like Peter's). "I'm trying, but he's young. He still believes in some ideals I've long given up on. He wouldn't be able to kill anyone. Defeat them, yes, but not kill them. I hope that part of him never changes, but.. it's unlikely given the way the world is. I'm sorry you have already been taught that lesson and you're younger than he is. Your world is very different than mine, but I'm trying to support you as best I can." Even if he hates her world if an eleven year old was killed many times before.

"You do be being too soft on him." She pointed out with a nose wrinkle. Talking about Peter was safer, to take the spotlight off herself. "If he do no be killing then his enemies will be killing him. He do be knowing that, he do just be being..."

Scared isn't the right word. Peter is very brave but at the same time... He panics so much, his words come too fast, he is never still. "He do be being too Peter."

Because she was pretty sure there was no one else quite like him.

"I did be trying to be teaching him the emptiness and he did be thinking it did be being a sickness and going all leaky eyed."

He frowned at her advice, feeling a new wave of cold that had nothing to do with the temperature. She'd put her finger on the exact problem he was struggling with when it came to Peter and his innocence. That kind of ignorance was a luxury and he wanted to preserve that in the kid as long as possible but he was also aware it was dangerous and foolish.

After a moment of thought, he pulled his thoughts back to her. "What is the emptiness and what would you recommend I do?" He was curious about how her world would handle things, not that he would really consider doing them to Peter.

"The emptiness do be being a warrior trick." She told him with a shrug, "No an illness." Despite what Peter thought.

She frowned. The problem of Peter was not one that was to easy to solve and it is no surprise that Tony was stuck with what to do with him.

"I do no be knowing. You probably did be needing to be training him better when he did be being small."

He was an adult now, much harder to train. Probably.

"How do you do this trick?" He asked, unsure of what she was referring to. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Peter called it an illness?" That just seemed strange to him, although he knew he didn't have all the facts yet.

"He wasn't born to be a warrior," Tony explained, hoping this might help Buttercup understand Peter better. "I only met him a couple years before he.. well, he goes away for about five years in my time. I think we talked about this before." If nothing else, she knew of how many nightmares he'd had where Peter dies.

"What were your lessons like? Maybe I can get some ideas for him." Hardly. He was pretty sure whatever she described was going make him sick to his stomach and ready to blow up her planet.

She nodded, she did know of his night scares and she had pieced together enough from Tony and Peter to understand that Peter had disappeared and Tony had died five years later even though Peter didn't remember that somehow.

"You do be learning it through meditation. That's what I did be trying to be teaching him but he did be going all leaky eyed and scrunch faced mad. But when you do be being good at it you can be doing in anywhere. Even in stupid snow."

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath, emptying her mind and her emotions, forcing them into the storm. It was actually a little easier to visualise when she was in the middle of an actual storm. A moment later she was still, she was still walking beside him but all the small twitches and movements were stilled, her breath was even and her eyes were blank. It was how he had found her in the clutches of the eagles.

"This do be being the emptiness. I can be teaching you, but probably no right now." Walking up a mountain in the snow was not a good place for a first attempt.

Tony's interest grew as he watched what Buttercup was doing. He wasn't a psychology expert, so he's not quite sure what is happening there. He does know something seems very messed up about it, but he can't deny how useful it seems too. He might need to take some time to think about what he was looking at.

"I've seen you do this before, but I didn't know what it was." He watches for another moment or two. "Are you able to pull out of it okay?"

"You did be seeing it before." She nodded, her voice was still complete blank. She nodded again and let the bubble around her burst, grimacing a little as the effects of the biting cold hit her once more.

"It do be being easy. For me anyways, I did be practising a lot."

It wasn't an easy trick to learn, but once you knew it it wasn't so difficult any more.

Tony winced when he realized she hadn't been feeling the cold until she'd stepped out of the emptiness. Oops.

"I've done some work with meditation, but never quite like what you did." He wasn't convinced if anyone should be doing that meditation, but it was tempting if it could block everything else out but the immediate danger.

He was quiet for a few minutes as they continued to trudge up the snowy slope. "I've underestimated you." He'd also underestimated how screwed up the world she was from. He decided to go for humor since this was awkward with a capital everything. "Guess you're our tiny secret weapon."

Yes he had. But that had sort of been deliberate on her part. But it's hard to hide what she can do, when she also needs to be useful in missions. So it is perhaps a good thing he knows she is stronger than he thought.

The situation is still in her control, not half as much as she would like it to be but she's not completely out of her debth.

"I do be guessing I do be." She grinned. "Professor Chill will never be expecting it."

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Let it Snow: Red Start

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I'm so sorry I lost this notif

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