Peter left the spider suit up on the roof to make sure it was fully charged along with the phone so that it could charge. He would crawl up there and collect it at dusk. He really couldn't tell what was going on with him and the Emilia stuff. His tingle hadn't worked for some of that, maybe it was because she used his own body to attack him. Though in the past it had worked when he was threatened by just about anything.

He had laid back on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head lost in thought when there was a knock at the door. The footsteps were petty heavy from the feel of them on the floor. When he was actually thinking about it and paying attention his fine tuned senses expanded beyond that weird tingle.

"Cap, that you?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, can I come in, Queens?"

"Sure."

Steve opened the door and stepped in, closing the door behind himself and leaning on the wall. He glanced around at the place and let out as sigh. "I bet back home your room is covered in posters of the kind of stuff you like, huh?" Asked Steve.

"There was, like, an old academic decathlon poster next to this pretty shitty computer I built from parts…" Peter moved his hands above himself in the bed as he spoke until he trailed off.

"Pete," Steve said.

"Look, I know what you're going to say: I shouldn't be out there leading her on when I'm not planning to be here to…you know," Peter said, sitting up and putting his hands on his knees.

"That's not what I'm going to say, kid," said Steve.

"You're ri—wait you're not?"

Steve came over and sat on the bed next to him and shook his head. "I'm not going to say that because I don't really think you're leading her on," Steve said. "You care about Emilia."

"How can I when I'm not going to be here?" Peter said.

"Peter, we're not even sure that we can leave this place. We don't know how we got here or where here is," Steve said.

For the first time he was hearing Steve really admit this. It was something that he wondered himself and worried about. There was so much scary about being stuck in this world without May or without Ned or any of the other friends. Or without the creature comforts that he had come to be used to.

"What about you and Rem," Peter said. "Like, she really does like you."

Steve stared down at the floor for a moment. "She's a sweetheart and a looker. You know, when I was overseas back in forty-four with the Howling Commandos one of the boys had this crinkled up picture of Betty Page dressed as a French Maid pinned to the wall. I think I never thought about it again until I got here, but there's something about that outfit."

"Who's Betty Page?" Peter asked. "Do you…need the bed to yourself or…?"

Steve pointed a finger in his face. "Hey, I'm here trying to help you." He couldn't keep a straight face though.

"I know," Peter said smiling. "Even if I like Emilia, she's not like Rem and I'm definitely not…you."

"Let me ask you a question, did the girls at your school know you were Spider-Man?" Steve asked.

"Of course not."

"There you go," Steve said slapping him on the back. "One of the hardest things about being you was this huge looming secret that you had hanging over your head that you had to keep bottled up, at least at first. Emilia already knows your biggest secret. So all you gotta do is make sure that she doesn't find out you wet the bed."

"Low blow," Peter said.

"I was getting you back for the bed comment," said Steve. "You deserved that."

Peter glanced him up and down. "Maybe if I can talk to Emilia then you can talk to you Rem, see what it is she expects or wants. Maybe ask to take her to town—oh I might need to travel back to the capital and I was going to ask, um, Emilia if she wanted to come."

Steve pointed to the window. "If the temperature keeps dropping like this we might have to postpone the trip, though." The panes of glass on Peter's window had frosted over.

"Do you think they have weird, like, Game of Thrones seasons here?" Peter asked.

"Not sure what that means, but this seemed to come on out of nowhere," Steve said.

"Maybe it'll pass soon?" Peter said.

Steve got up and headed for the room door. "Maybe, but I've got a plan to beat the cold. I'm going to hit the baths. You want to come?"

"I think I'll hang back and think some of this over," Peter said. "You go ahead."

Steve shrugged. "I was actually kind of hoping to use you as a buffer against Roswaal."

There was ice forming in the corners of the room when Steve awoke the next. His body was durable, but he could judge that it was far too cold inside the mansion. When he went to get out of the bed his feet touched the carpet the fibers were sold frigid that they almost felt wet underfoot. It took him a moment to recognize it wasn't that at all.

"What the…"

He looked out of the window of his room to see that it was raining hard. The sky was grayed out with storm clouds and in the distance he could hear thunder. It didn't make sense as the rain wasn't freezing to the ground. It looked to have been raining for some time now and at these temperatures it should either be frozen or not raining at all.

Steve dressed quickly and headed out of his room into the hall. Beatrice was walking along aimlessly with her hand out in front of her. Steve walked up behind her slowly. "Miss Beatrice," Steve said.

"Oh, it's you," she said, her blue eyes looking him up and down. "What do you want? I'm very busy, I suppose."

"It's freezing in here, aren't you cold?" Steve asked.

"My body doesn't work like yours, in fact, I know it's cold but it doesn't affect me the same. Nor do I know what's going on," Beatrice said.

Steve stooped down in front of her, looking her in the eyes. "That makes sense, except that you're outside of your library."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beatrice asked.

"Well, someone usually have to drag you out here to be with us," Steve said. "I was starting to think we smelled bad."

"Grrr, it's not like anybody asked you anything, anyway." She walked around him, heading for a door, he thought so that she could do whatever it was that allowed her to cross over from any door into her library again. Instead she threw open the door to reveal the kitchens. Inside the maid twins were chopping vegetables and placing them aside for whatever it was that they were making.

Beatrice walked through the room and looked toward the wall, as if she were looking past the maids. As she moved behind them, they glanced down in turn, but said nothing. It was then that Steve noticed something, Ram had bunched up in a scarf and was wearing earmuffs. Her hands were bare, though he imagined that if she had wrapped them up from the cold it would be harder for her to perform her duties.

"Miss Rem, you're not cold?" Steve asked.

Rem's cheeks and shoulders turned bright pink. "It's nothing that I'm not used to, really. I have a high tolerance for it."

Steve nodded and then turned to Beatrice. "At least I know I'm not going crazy." He followed her out of the room and shut the door behind himself.

"Where do you think you're going?" Beatrice spat as she glanced back over her shoulder at him following her.

"I just thought I'd accompany you on your rounds. You know we've hardly spoken since I got here." Steve said. "So, do you collect dolls or…"

"I'm too old for you, in fact," Beatrice replied. "Why don't you go talk to the blue maid, I suppose. You could ask her about that compartment in the floor where Roswaal's grandmother kept her booze."

The first statement she made stopped Steve mid-stride. "Wait, how old are you?" Steve asked.

Beatrice whirled around, her blonde twin tails whipping around her small body as she glared at him. Then she opened the door nearest to where she was and dashed inside to slam it. Before it was even fully closed Steve figured what had happened. She had used her door crossing magic.

Another door opened behind him opened and there was a loud sneeze before the sound of footsteps coming from down the hall. He turned to look and spotted Peter dressed in the full spider suit with the mask and all.

Peter sniffled. "Excuse me," he said, his voice muffled because of how congested he was.

"You okay, Pete?" Steve asked. "Why are you in the suit."

"M-m-mister Stark put a warmer in it," Peter explained.

"How did it get cold so fast?" asked Steve.

"No idea," Peter said, his teeth chattering. "Why aren't you as bad off?"

Steve shrugged. "It maybe the serum or it might just be having lived through the Great Depression."

"Oh, right," Peter said. "Have you seen Emilia yet?" Because of how stopped up his nose was the word 'Emilia' sounded more like 'Mi-millia'.

"Not yet," Steve shook his head. The cold was almost too much for even Steve. Outside of the manor it was still raining just as hard as before and there didn't even seem to be ice on the outside of the window. "I think we really need to go find Roswaal—pretty sure that he's going to have some answers."

Otto Suwen drew the tarp up over the top of the cart and tied it securely down at the corner. He had to cover up his latest disaster of an investment, at least, as long as he had something he could sell it for a price. If it was stolen or damaged beyond use Otto stood to lose even more money than he had already.

Priestella had been a bust, but he was lucky to leave here with his carriage, the ground dragon, and the clothes on his back. He had made a deal to carry some small manufacturing goods, lumber, and medicine to the capital, but it would barely cover the operating cost for hauling all of this oil around.

Straightening up his hat, Otto closed the doors on the little stall where his cart was being kept. He had been here a few times before and the weird Priestella intricacies of the city weren't completely alien to him.

The Water Gate City of Priestella itself was built like a bowl divided like a pie into four districts with a deep basin in the center in case there was a flood. While there were some walking paths, a lot of the citizenry here gets around by Water Dragon and, since the city is build on a lake, there was always water. Through some form of Metia that was located in the towers at the cardinal points of the city the flow of the water could be controlled to even push one water way in a direction while pushing another one in the opposite.

He headed into the inn, though these were not the types of Inn that he was used to. The ones in the rest of the Kingdom were of a very specific type and really they seemed to be the only kind of inn that there should be, but the ones here often had much larger meeting and social areas and no tavern. It was customary for you to come out in formal dress and speak with the owner some.

There were normal inns too and those were the cheaper variety. But the good thing about the strange type of inns that they had here was that meals were included. In most cases Otto had even asked them to pack food up for the road. He had just gone out to check on the cart before he started bringing his things down.

Inside of the lobby and the halls it was crisp and warm. Otto could smell the smoke from the hearth wafting through the air. He slid the door to his room open and stepped onto the tatami of its floor. The wet-faced wave of the material was oddly comforting to walk on. He couldn't deny that there was something to this style of inn.

To the east he had heard they were more common, but he didn't have any need to do any dealing within he Kingdom of Kararagi. Obviously some of its culture had leaked into the west. Sure, there could be some ideas there worth incorporating into his business dealings, but they would come to him if he was ready.

Things usually did.

When he was packed and ready to go he headed out to pick up the food that was waiting for him. There was a dark haired woman with her cloak pulled up over her head, her face was almost concealed from view, but her brown eyes caught the light as she followed Otto on his path through the room.

He brushed back his ash colored hair and flashed her a bright smile. A lot of the other guests that were coming through here were people that he had seen previously, but this woman he didn't recognize at all. Best to keep moving.

As he headed outside lugging his back with him, he chirped at a nearby bird to keep an eye on his the door using his Divine Protection of Soul Language. He pressed a hand to the top of his hat to better situate it on his head before he jogged around the outside of the building next to the waterway the bisected this part of the city. His bags bashing against the side of his leg as he ran.

"I was ready to be rid of this place, anyway," Otto muttered.

He rounded the corner into the stables and ran into the toned chest of a man with his red hair done up in a topknot ponytail. There was a curved sword shoved into the rope tied around his waist, Otto spotted it as he stumbled back and fell to the ground dropping his bags (though he did manage to hold onto his food).

There were eight of them gathered around his cart, all of them looked prepared to end him. The Priestellan Council of Ten had much more to worry about than small time crime, after all. One dead merchant wouldn't deter too much business.

"We just thought it looked like you had something pretty important in there," the large man in the middle of the group said.

"Rum luck again," Otto hissed.

A slender woman, who looked to be mostly skin and bones but had a wild look in her eyes stepped over and kicked Otto in the chest, putting her foot on him to hold him down. "What was that?"

He tried to push back and then to grab for his wound, but she regained her balanced and pushed her foot down harder. This time there was more weight on it and he was forced to stop struggling.

The others were going through the carriage, cutting at and tearing through the cover to see what was inside.

"Come on, there's medicine and supplies in there. The rest is just oil. I swear!" Otto yelled.

"Doesn't matter to us, it'll fetch a few Sages for us," one of them said.

"Wait just a minute, this stuff is way more valuable than just a couple of silver. First you steal my stuff, then you're going to sell it at a loss!" Otto screamed as the woman who had been holding him down kicked him.

"Maybe you let me gut him," came a low grumble of a voice from a bearded man. He brandished his hand and in place of where it should have been there was a sharpened metal hook. "Let me dig out his insides real good like!"

Otto went to squirm against the ground, not sure what he could do. There was really no reason for these people not to kill him and dump him in the canals with a belly full of bricks if all they wanted was a little extra money from what they were stealing.

"How about I help you sell the stuff—get you a better asking price?" Otto suggested. He had always been a rather impressive negotiator, especially when it came to his life. If it was money they cared about, they could keep him around tied up until they hit the next town. They wouldn't know the value of the oil so he could sell it and convince them to leave him be wherever so that he could just claw his way back out of the hole.

Most of his life had gone like that anyway.

"Nah, you think we're some sort of fools who are gonna let you take advantage of us," said the hook handed man. "Metti there," he added pointing his hook to the woman who was towering over Otto, "she used to be a merchant's daughter—so you're shit outta luck."

An ear splitting crackle ripped through the air followed by a flash of heat that Otto could feel on his chest. Something red and glowing tore through the air ripped through the middle of the woman that hook hand had just called Metti. She flopped back onto the stable floor, but just before she did Otto could see that the hole went completely through and seared the flesh closed as it did.

Otto let out a startled cry, back peddling away from the body until he was pressed to the column near the door of the stable.

"Holy shit! It was only supposed to push her down," said a gruff voiced Demi-Human that had stepped into view in the door of the stable and pushed the goggles on his face up. The Demi-Human was short and much more animal than human from the look of things, it wasn't uncommon, but Otto thought that this one looked more like a rodent that had been given sentience than anything else.

The dark haired woman who had stared Otto down inside of the inn stepped out with longbow in hand that was almost as tall as she was. She drew nocked an arrow and aimed it at the people surrounding Otto's cart, seven of which were left.

"I told you that wasn't going to work," said the dark haired woman.

The Demi-Human was holding an object it was not something that Otto could readily identify the function of. He guessed that it had been the thing that had killed the bandit. "Well, you were wrong. It worked too well," said the Demi-Human.

The hook-handed man shuffled forward and raised his hand. "You'll pay—," he shouted.

"Eh, there's a million ways to die in the world and your friend down there just discovered a new one. I'm guessing you wanna follow her," the Demi-Human said.

Otto didn't move, he didn't want there to be any chance that whatever happened to that woman to happen to him. The bandits stood frozen staring down the Demi-Human and dark haired woman at the door. For a long while there was a kind of hush over the room that seemed to draw tighter like a line put under tension.

"Katie," the Demi-Human said in a low voice. "I can't do that again, I only had one of those," he said.

With a guttural yell that rang out through the stables the men rushed, drawing knives and short swords as they charged the two people at the door. Before they could get too close, the dark haired woman with the bow, Katie, loosed an arrow, drew another, loosed it, and drew and loosed another all in a manner of fractions of a second or so it seemed. The arrows hit their mark, dropping three of the bandits to the ground.

At that same time, the Demi-Human dropped the weapon that he had just said was spent and reached down to his belt for a little ball that was attached to his belt. He flung the ball past Otto's face right into the room to burst in the air between the leader of the group and another of the men. There was a flash of cold and the two of them were frozen solid like statues.

There was one of the bandits left. He dropped his sword and held his hands up as he paced around them. "Whoa, I'm sorry. J-j-just let me go. Please."

"You really dropped the tough guy act fast," said Katie.

The bandit looked them over and then broke out running down the side of the canal as fast as he could. The Demi-Human picked up the weapon that it had dropped earlier and began to fiddle with a red canister on the side of it. There was a slot at the top where something about the size and shape of the canister could be dropped in and when he loaded in, he glanced back toward Katie and Otto as he walked into the street.

"Remember when I said that I couldn't do that again? I lied," he said right before he aimed up at a slight angle and fired the canister down toward the final bandit. The canister popped in the air behind the bandit and there was a conclusive burst of air the swirled outward, picking up the man and tossing him into the canal to be washed away.

The Demi-Human looked down at the remaining canisters. "Huh, you put the red tape on the wind one?" I told you red was fire, green was wind."

The dark haired woman nodded. "Yeah, that does make more sense. Oops."

The Demi-Human trotted into the stable and stood near the two frozen me that were left. "And look at this," he climbed up them trying to remove the man's hook hand, though it was buried in ice. "His hook hand is frozen on. I needed that!"

"No, Rocket, you don't."

"You're not the boss of me and hey, I'm older than you. Listen to your elders, Katie," Rocket said.

"Stop calling me Katie. My name is Kate, you—you capybara!" Kate shouted at him.

"I'm not a crappy bear," Rocket screamed, his voice going hoarse. "Take that back, now!"

Otto climbed out from his hiding place and got to his feet and picked up his hat. He placed it back on his head straightening it out and then began to dust himself off as his saviors turned to him and fell silent and then turned back toward each other. "Sorry about that," he said. "Wouldn't want your first impression of me to be one where I'm all grungy."

Rocket pointed to the spot where he had been laying with a gloved hand. "My first impression of you is you getting the shit kicked out of you over there on the ground," the the Demi-Human said.

"Well, then Sir, let's start over. I'm Otto Suwen," he said as he dusted off his hands and offered one of them out to be shook.

"Rocket," said the Demi-Human rodent.

The dark haired woman moved in a little closer and stowed her bow over her shoulder and went to shake his hand. "Kate Bishop, World's Greatest Archer. But you can just call me Kate," she said.

"No one's calling you that," said Rocket. "It's a stupid title."

Kate stuck her tongue out at him.

"It's good to meet you both," Otto said a little unsure of why they had helped him in the first place. Was this his luck turning around to save him or some kind of deeper grift he had been dug into?

Rocket and Kate smiled at each other and then at him.

"Look, there's no way around it: you two just saved me a lot of money," Otto said. "As a thank you…" Otto ran back to the side of the cart and pulled the tarp away so that he could lift of one of the jars of oil. "How about I sell you some of this fabulous oil at cost?"

He held the oil up into the air, waving his free hand with a flourish to accentuate the oil.

"What kind of oil are we talking about?" Kate asked. "Is it sex oil?" She asked in a whisper."

Rocket shook his head and sighed. "Nah, we're going to pass on whatever kind of perverted grease scheme you got going here, but we did overhear you saying back that you were headed West," he said.

Otto placed the jar back into the cart and slung the tarp over to cover it. "Yeah," he said. "I've had nothing but bad luck since I came to Priestella, so I'm heading back the Capital."

"Then take us with you," Rocket suggested.

"But I just watched you burrow a hole through a woman's chest and freeze two people solid all in the middle of town," Otto said pointing across the room at the remaining three bandits.

Rocket had already walked over to the cart and was tossing his things into. He began to climb over into the back. "Yeah, all the more reason for us to get the Hell out of town."

"Look, you could think of us as your…security," Kate said. "I have security experience," Kate added.

Otto thought it over for a bit, he was taking on two more people. More mouths to feed, but by the same right he had been robbed before and he was sure that this wasn't going to be the last time that someone attempted to steal his cargo.

"I obviously need it." Otto said finally.

Kate put her hands on her hips. "Right, you need us and we need a ride."

"How long it take to get to this, uh, capital place?" Rocket asked.

Otto folded his arms. "About two weeks if we don't push too hard. The Ground Dragon needs rest and all," he said.

"Then for the next two weeks: we work for Otto," said Kate. "We can guarantee no one is going mess with you again."

Rocket nodded and poked his paw at Otto. "Because we'll kick their asses."

"Yeah, Rocket, that was kind of what I was trying to imply," Kate said.

"I wanted to make sure that he understood. You keep telling me I need to be clearer." Rocket shrugged.

"Alright then," Otto said offering out his. "You've got yourselves a deal."