middleofsomewhere | Mission End: Day 12/13

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Mission End: Day 12/13

Return of the Void Trecker.

By the sixth day since being dropped off at the foot of Ciyesia hopefully everyone has reached the summit. For those at the the top of the mountain there is an almighty gust of wind and a roar as the Void Trecker Express appears in the sky above them and comes down to land on the mountain. The doors open. "Welcome back heroes."

For those on top of the mountain already there Safety Control Apparatus flashes with the colour of the void. A screen pops up in front of them Congratulations on completing practice mission #43. The Void Trecker Express will remain on Ciyesia until tomorrow morning where we will depart. Please enjoy your last evening on Hub World#5739.

The doors remain unlocked throughout the evening and so you can chose whether to board the train once more or spend one last night out under the stars.

Back to the Void

The next morning, a few hours after sunrise the horn of the Void Trecker sounds, it seems it is time to depart once more. There is about ten minutes to gather all your things before the horn sounds again and the doors begin to close.

Once everyone is on board the train begins to move, driving straight off the shear edge of the crag, climbing higher and higher as if following invisible tracks to the clouds. Higher and higher until the mountain is a tiny molehill below you.

"Entrance into Voidspace imminent." Hopefully you all learned from last time and hold on tight. A jerk, a jolt, a flash of light and once again the ever changing void swirls outside the windows.

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Tony's hands had gone back to Buttercup's braid while Peter tried to convince them he was fine. He just rolls his eyes and thinks about how Peter made walking disasters look almost cute. How did he do that?

However, all warm fuzzies come to a screeching halt at that unexpected comeback. Tony was up on his feet within a second and turning on Peter with a sharp glare. "Bold of me to assume you were capable of not getting injured, acting like a moron, and wasting one of our potions that I've just made for real emergencies? How about you take this seriously and think about the fact you could've gotten yourself or someone else killed because you want to be some smart ass? What if Gwen had gotten hurt or Buttercup? I actually had been bold enough to assume you were able to get to the summit without getting any percent of you eaten by a goat. I didn't really think you'd try to prove me wrong like an incredible brain dead baby! With everything else we're dealing with, I have to watch you like a child too? If you're going to act like a child, I'll treat you like one."

Her eyes had flickered up in concern way before Tony even got to his feet. Sure Peter hadn't gotten angry at her own brattiness but he knew mister Stark. He had warned her about his temper and yet here he was, being a brat when he was already pushing it by not listening, by getting himself injured when he had been ordered to be careful.

She had been worried Tony would be angry at her about the owl and he had been but he had not so much as raised his voice. Instead offering to be a guardian of hers... She hadn't figured out what he wanted from her yet and that was one of the reasons she had been interested to see the two of them together. To see how he was with those who did work for him.

He's angry but he's not yelling. He's not hit Peter, not even the cuff round the ear that such cheek definitely deserved. But he is still angry. It makes her feel a little weird, because she had also wasted one of the potions. She hadn't even needed it but he had ordered her to drink it. She's not a child and she doesn't need watched like one.

She acts a lot more grown up than Peter. She watched silently, warily in the shadow of the rock. She's not worried, the ire is all on Peter not her. But it's all information and important.

Oh shit, Peter thinks as Tony is suddenly up close and personal. Shit, shit. Shit! He's really done it now. It's like the fair all over again and he is in very dangerous territory. He swallows hard and takes a few, stumbling steps back. He knows that Tony's not gonna hurt him but he's still really mad and that is enough reason to cower in Peter's opinion.

"Wait-! I didn't mean-I made sure there wasn't anyone-I'm fine I don't need the potion-" Words are spilling out his mouth in his attempt to keep himself out of trouble but very few of them are complete sentences. "It wasn't like I-It was just a joke!" He finally confesses, still backing away from Tony. "Uh... a bad one. But it was a joke."

How dare Peter act like this in front of Buttercup? Tony was livid at himself as well as at the boy. He had failed to watch either kid and they'd both been hurt because of his carelessness. However, Buttercup had a much better excuse than Peter. She was eleven. Peter was old enough to know better and he should know to back his mentor up when he needed it.

"So I'm supposed to just let you bleed out while you wait for your powers to heal you?" Tony asks, like this was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. He put a hand to his temple and rubbed it to push away the sudden headache he was getting. "Nope. I'm not having it. Peter, your actions can hurt other people and you're not using your brain. So, hand them over. Your webshooters. Now! And drink the damn potion." He takes out the other potion he had and nearly breaks the glass jar as he puts it hard into Peter's hand.

Peter retreats further back, his posture even going small as the older man was clearly pissed at him and nothing good happens when Mr Stark is this mad. He starts to open his mouth to-heaven help him-argue and insist they don't even know if the potion as Tony called it, would even work on him. There's a chance it won't and if it doesn't than it really is a waste of the potion-better to save it for someone that it will definitely work on. However, as his mouth opens to protest, Tony rubs at his temple and demands the webshooters back.

It really is the ferry all over again.

"What? Why?" The words fall out of Peter's mouth before he can stop them. "I didn't mean it like that! I meant it-" Well, he meant it to just be a light heart jibe to try and keep himself out of trouble but somehow that backfired spectacularly. "Mr Stark, you can't take my webshooters, I need them!"

The bottle is shoved over and Peter jumps as it finds its way into his hand, his fingers closing around it a little too tightly before the glass just breaks. The potion is now all over the ground, there's glass all over, some of it, lodged painfully Peter's hand.

If he hadn't done it before, he's really, really done it this time. His eyes widen immediately, face paling before he backs away even more.

"fuck!" He curses, biting his lip and looking at the glass in his as he backs away. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry-I didn't mean to-You were just-you're so mad and I just-holy shit, this hurts-oh god-I didn't mean-I meant damn-shit-fuck-no!" There are a lot of curse words spilling out his mouth and he really needs them to stop. "Sorry!" He states, now pulling glass from his hand.

Edited 2019-08-01 03:24 (UTC)

What. The. Hell. Parker.

He put a hand to his face and groans. There was a part of him that felt bad he'd made Peter so nervous he was backing away from him and broke the potion. However, the much larger part wanted to toss the boy off the mountain- not literally.

He reaches out and grabs Peter's hand. "Shut it! Not one more word. Bite your lip if you have to." He looks at the wound and sighs. "Buttercup, sweetie, would you mind getting into my bag there and finding the tweezers?"

He looks back at Peter and meets his gaze. "Listen to me. In case you were confused on the matter, I'm in charge here and you listen to me and do what I ask. Gwen's not here so I'm allowed to treat you like the kid you're acting like. Got it?" See? He listened to the talk. "As far as your web shooters, you don't need them. We're getting back on the train and you're done with anything here. I mean it. Don't even go sniffing flowers level done. You're staying on this rock until we board the train. You're giving me both of your web shooters. You're grounded. Got it? That's for mouthing off to me and cursing in front of Buttercup like you don't have any sense in your head. The jar.. well, I think it just punished you enough for that. Now hold still while I get this glass out of your hand."

She goes stock still as Tony orders Peter to hand over the webshooters. The emptiness is close and tempting but then Peter is panicking and the glass is breaking and Tony seems to still care that Peter is hurt, even if he is angry.

She didn't need to bite her own lip to be silent. She was good at silence. Really mister Stark was partially to blame here, Peter was very very badly trained. But she's not going to offer that opinion, or any at all as she scrambles to the bag to find the tweezers. He might still be using a soft voice on her but that could all change quickly. She's not seen him angry before. She's sort of glad that she is witnessing it before it is turned on her.

Grounded. That was the punishment Peter had told her about, what would happen if she cursed in front of mister Stark. It doesn't seem like mister Stark is planning to use the weapons on Peter so...

She still is not sure what grounding is. She is still silent as she offers the tweezers to Tony, watching them both warily. She has Peter's webshooter in her bag, she had taken it off for the final climb as she figured he would be very angry if she had broken it. She says nothing though, just watches.

Peter jumps when Tony suddenly grabs his arm to look at the glass now in his hand. It hurts a lot and there is still a steady stream of curses running through his head. He bites down on his bottom lip as Tony lays down the law in that firm, no room to even think about arguing, tone of voice of his. All the fight Peter had in him over the situation drains out the bottom of his hiking boots once he sees the look in Mr Stark's eyes and he seems to visibly deflate.

"Y-yes sir, I'm sorry sir..." He mutters as he looks down at the ground. He can't really take the webshooter off at the moment though with Tony holding on to his wrist. However, Tony made this version of the webshooters so he probably knows how to get them off.

But there's another problem in that he only has one at the moment. The other he'd given to Buttercup to try and give her some semblance of defense while she trekked up the mountain.

He doesn't think that Buttercup will be the one in trouble for that decision, especially since it was Peter's idea but Mr Stark is mad right now and that might not stop him from yelling at the little girl too. His eyes flicker over to her for a second as he tries to figure out what he should do before internally wincing at what's about to come.

"Um... actually Mr Stark, I uh.. I kinda... uh... l-lost one of the webshooters..." He lies right through his teeth, not daring to look at Tony's face.

"Hey, just focus on breathing, kid. That's all you can do when it hurts like this," Tony advised in a slightly gentler tone. He could tell Peter was in pain and he hated that. The kid had sort of done it to himself while the other part of the blame was on his own head. How could he be so hot headed that he'd scared that kid that bad? That was something his dad would've done. "I know." He could at least give the boy that much credit. It was obvious this had been a big mistake and nothing done intentionally. There wasn't a malicious bone in the boy's body after all.

He took the tweezers with a quick thanks and was examining the cuts when Peter reveals he's lost the webshooters. Tony stops, his hand hovering right over a shard of glass impaled in Peter's thumb. He looks up and feels his jaw tighten and eyes narrow sharply again. In truth, it hurt. He didn't understand what had gotten into his intern or why he was choosing to do this in front of Buttercup when he'd been enjoying the moment with the girl. Instead, he was having to deal with this crap. And it was crap and nothing else. "Why are you lying to me, kid? What have I done to deserve that from you, of all people?"

Edited 2019-08-02 01:35 (UTC)

He didn't know how to enter the emptiness. That was interesting. Alright so the temple didn't even exist where they were from but surely the emptiness did. They were both fighters and yet still used only breathing to work through pain?

She retreated back to the shadow of the rock, still watching. Peter lied. It was maybe smart, claim he lost the webshooter so he could take it later and still have a weapon. But it seemed Tony was not fooled so easily.

She remains silent, wondering how he's going to get out of this one. Peter needs lessons in lying as well, he's pretty terrible at it.

Peter watches the tweezers with apprehension. It's not a needle but this is gonna hurt and he knows it. He bites his lip again, Tony can probably feel his muscles tense in his hand and Peter even takes a tiny step away.

And then Tony catches his lie. He shouldn't have lied. He's awful at lying. He sucks in a breath and looks back at Buttercup. If he's honest and tell Tony the truth how much trouble is that going to land him in and how much trouble will Buttercup get in? And will he be able to shield her from it.

"Okay, I didn't lose it." He admits. "But I did give it-it was my idea Mr Stark, so if you're mad, then be mad at me-but I gave it to Buttercup-cause all she had was a knife and that didn't seem like a great defense against the goats-and she had to get to the top so I just figured it was better than nothing, right?" He spits out at a speed only Peter Parer could ever be capable of.

"I know I shouldn't have but-but it seemed like the best option-so I insisted-so really, if you're gonna be mad, be mad at me, okay? It's all on me."

Edited 2019-08-02 06:35 (UTC)

Tony follows Peter's gaze over to Buttercup and his eyebrows go up in surprise. There were two things he saw. One, he saw how scared Buttercup looked and immediately felt the guilt and two, Peter was trying to protect her? Well, crap. How was he supposed to be mad about that?

His expression when he looks back at Peter this time was more confusion than anger. "Why didn't you show her how to use it then? She could've saved herself from nearly being dropped by that bird if you'd explained it to her correctly." Had Peter just completely lost his mind today?

She is alright with Peter getting grounded, he's mostly gotten himself into trouble because he can't be silent... But then he tries to protect her. He was nice to her and taught her things and lent her his weapons. Maybe she shouldn't let him take all the blame. Especially when he was trying to take the blame.

She knew that tactic, taking all the blame on yourself to save the smaller one from trouble. Not that she had been the bigger one, they had been exactly the same size.

She's not thinking about that. Mind in the present. She doesn't need protecting. She's not a baby.

"He did be showing me sir." She focused on a piece of ground not too far away. "He did be showing me how it did be working so do no be blaming him for that. I did no be wearing it when I did be snatched."

Peter's not too sure what's going on now and how things had taken such a sudden turn. He bites his lip again, fighting himself to not try and pull his hand away from Mr Stark while he's distracted.

"Wh-what? I did-" Why wasn't she wearing it? He gave it to her to her for a reason and his eyes widen when he hears what had happened to her. Why did he leave her by herself? He knows everything finds a way to blow up in his face. A little girl almost got hurt because he was more concerned about the bitey goats.

"I-I told her to use it sparingly since there's no refills-that's my fault too." He winces as his hand twitches and he looks down at his hand.

"C-Can you-?"

Tony sighed and nodded. "Alright. I get it." His focus went back to Peter's hand. He guided the two kids a few steps away from the broken glass and then gestured for Peter to sit down. It would be just their luck for Peter to get faint and crack his head open like an egg.

He pulls out a handkerchief from his pocket and rolls it up. "It's clean, don't worry. Bite on this. It'll keep your mouth full so you can't cuss and get in more trouble." With that, he went to work on Peter's hand. As carefully and as gently as he could, he pulls the first piece of glass. He partially winces himself, knowing how much that has to hurt. To keep his mind off of it, he addresses the girl. "You know, Peter's going to need to get his web shooter back to give to me while he's grounded. Buttercup, you should extort some candy or something from him." He smirks at Peter, intending the remark as humor and not a real suggestion.

The bleeding was getting worse and there was also the goat bite to think about. "We're going to need one of the first aid kits too. Buttercup do you mind getting that for us? Get one with a suture pack in it."

She stays silent again, she doesn't know what candy is or why she should extort it and doesn't want to ask too many questions. She doesn't know how open to questions Tony is right now. She also isn't too sure what a suture pack is but she figures she can find one easy enough. She nods and runs back to the train, silent on bare feet. She avoids the glass and doesn't step on it because she's not an idiot.

Unlike Peter. She finds a first aid kit easily enough and opens it, surely enough there is a pack with the word suture on it. She closes the kit and picks it up, scrambling back down off the train and handing it over silently.

Peter doesn't like where this is going at all. He does bite down on the handkerchief as he's asked and has to look away as Tony starts to pull the glass out. His hand twitches and tries to jerk back with each shard that comes out as Peter fights hard with himself to just let Tony do what needs to be done.

He can feel the blood coming out of his hand and makes the mistake of looking down at it. Immediately his face pales because he's pretty sure he's not supposed to be bleeding that much.

"What?" Peter's face pales even more, his eyes going wide as he hears there word 'suture.' The handkerchief falling out of his mouth.

Nope.

Staying still to have glass taken out of his hand is hard enough-now Mr Stark wants to stitch him up?

Like with a needle?

Oh Hell no!

"No! I don't need that!" Peter freaks, yanking his hand away with more strength. "It'll just heal-there's not point in stitches-it'll heal in a few hours!"

"Just relax, kid," Tony was saying softly to Peter when Buttercup comes back.

He picks up the kit with a quick thanks to the young girl only to get Peter's hand yanked out of his own a moment later. Tony glares at him. "Peter! Stop that! You're being ridiculous. The cuts on your hand and side are bad enough you need something to stabilize them while they heal."

He holds out his hand, ready for Peter to simply give it back and let him go back to work.

Hadn't Peter said he had had a building dropped on him once? Yet here he is being scared of a pokey stick. He is a strange one, all panic and sharp movements and strange words that make no sense.

She has retreated to a safe distance again but is watching. It's clear he doesn't know how to be still. He doesn't know the emptiness but he also doesn't know how to be still through pain. She would have been in tremendous trouble if she had pulled away from the idea of pain like that.

She's never given much thought really to how those who follow the light god were trained. There were those that just... lived their lives and said they followed the light. But people like Tony and Peter were fighters, they fought for the light just as she fought for the dark.

She supposed she had thought that the training and discipline was similar, but now it seems... It's not. Peter is showing weakness and Tony is getting impatient but he's not white hot angry. She continues watching.

Peter knows that Tony has a point but the idea of a needle going in and out of his skin like that is enough to churn his stomach. He's dealt with enough needles in his life, thank you very much.

He lets out a small noise as he looks at Tony's out stretched hand, debating if thinks he can even make himself sit still for this.

"I don't-we could just like... tie a cloth around it-y-you know to keep pressure on it? No needles needed." He says hurriedly then looks down at his hand-it's still bleeding pretty badly and so is the goat bite-though the blood on that one has at least slowed down.

He makes a face as he can see his hand starting to shake and more blood coming out. Gross.

Tony's going to need an aspirin after this headache.

He opens his mouth to respond to that suggestion before noticing Peter was distracted. As fast as he can (which to Peter might not be fast enough) he grabs Peter's wrist and tries to tuck it under his arm, pinning it between his own arm and torso.

At this rate he was going to bleed to death before Tony could actually sew up his hand. She continued watching, still amazed at how anyone like him could survive. Had he never been hurt before? But he had said he had had a building dropped on him and a boy tried to run him down with a cart every day. Had he been lying?

He's very confusing. She watched as Tony tried to grab him, standing nearby in case they needed anything else.

Unfortunately for Peter, he's distracted by his own shaking just long enough that Tony has enough time to grab and pin his hand.

Peter's initial instinct is to try and yank his hand away again. He knows what's coming and he doesn't want any part of that, but now if he were to do that he could accidentally hurt Tony and he really doesn't want to do that.

"No. Nonononono, Please Mr Stark, you know how I feel about needles and there's noting to numb the pain and even if there was it probably wouldn't work 'cause I'd just metabolize it-and oh my god this is gonna suck." He spits out faster than anyone should ever be able to talk.

"Knock it off!"

Tony wasn't going to respond to any of that. He has to harden his resolve and carefully threads the needle. After that, he braces, ready for Peter to freak when that first prick hit his skin.

This would determine if he needed to get his suit on or not.

She is still watching, still silent, still wondering how on earth Peter can be a hero, never mind the super one he claims to be. Did he grumble this much when the building fell on him?

She watches Tony carefully, wondering how angry he was going to get? Peter is being useful for guaging Tony's anger points at least. Even if not for anything else.

Mission End: Day 12/13

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Skipping ahead in line

After this back to Buttercup

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