The Art Of War

[curiously_cora]

Since Coraline had found herself locked in that room again, she hadn't been able to sleep properly. She'd sleep but her dreams were filled with red claws and hungry button eyes and something waiting for her at the bottom of a deep well. When faced with that prospect every night you could see why a ten year old explorer would rather sit up than turn

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[skybot_snd]

The T-1000 didn't have a very positive experience with children. Even without bringing John Connor into the equation.

But the girl in the rec room was going through books that discussed military strategy, and talking about killing. It was definitely an area of familiarity for him. He decided it was worth another shot.

"Being a child is probably a sufficient diversion tactic. People don't generally expect to be attacked by children, at least not lethally," he informed the girl as he approached, stopping by the coach and offering curious tilt of the head.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline replied with her own curious head tilt. Not many Grown Ups liked to tell Coraline anything. Unless it was to do with bunnies and kittens and then they might tell her something.

"She's probably expecting it though, I threw a cat at her and I tricked her into a well." Coraline said, she had felt very sorry about throwing Cat at her but he had taken it well and she thought, forgiven her. "So I think I've lost the element of surprise there."

[skybot_snd]

"That's creative. I've never used a cat as a weapon," the T-1000 said appreciatively, even managing a flicker of a smile. "But if your target knows you, then it's already aware that you're an intelligent threat. Acting silly would accomplish nothing, unless you can somehow disguise yourself as well."

[curiously_cora]

"I don't think she views me as a threat," Coraline said seriously, though she wasn't really quite sure what the other mother thought of her. "She wants me to be her daughter, so maybe if I act like a good daughter then she might be fooled?"

Coraline looked at him like he was the fountain of all knowledge. "I'm Coraline by the way, Coraline Jones."

[skybot_snd]

"Austin," he extended his hand towards the girl in greeting, "the T-1000."

Coraline's description was getting increasing confusing, but then, human children didn't necessarily operate on logic. "Who is your target?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "You probably shouldn't be attempting to kill your own mother. Not unless she's trying to harm you."

There. He thought that resembled something a responsible adult might say. Since he was now a police officer, he was likely supposed to prevent familial homicides, not encourage them.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline shook his hand, a little startled by the greeting. "The other mother, she's not my mother. She's a creature with button eyes and red claws who looks like my mother. And she wants to kill me," Coraline said seriously. Most Grown Ups didn't believe her but that was because they could be idiots. "It's nice to meet you Austin the T-1000. What's a T-1000?"

[skybot_snd]

The other mother's description didn't correspond with any data the T-1000 possessed. It was an entirely unfamiliar threat, and it caught his interest. "If she wants to kill you, then you should definitely be able to defend yourself," he told Coraline with an equally earnest tone.

"You can just call me Austin. It's shorter that way." He still hadn't established an ideal introduction, but he didn't want to be called 'Austin the T-1000'. It sounded wrong. "T-1000 is a terminator model. My model."

[curiously_cora]

"Hello Austin," Coraline said, correcting herself. She still wasn't exactly sure what he meant by model but she knew what a Terminator was in a vague way. It meant that actor who said things like 'hasta la vista baby' and blew things up. Though he didn't look like Arnie. "Are you a-were you a machine?"

[skybot_snd]

"You've heard of the Terminator movie," the T-1000 deduced from her reaction. She was probably too young to have seen it herself, otherwise she'd probably have recognized him. "Yeah, I was an artificial organism. A robot." He doubted she would be familiar with the term 'nanomorph'. "Design to terminate a target."

[curiously_cora]

"Everyone's heard of it, they just won't let me watch it until I'm bigger. They won't let me do anything," Coraline said, looking at him with a curious smile. Opening her notebook Coraline wrote down Austin, Tea-1000. A robot, kind of like Sharon except she is a sigh-lon. :)" "Could I hire you? I only have one pound twenty and really, I promised that to someone else but this is important. The other mother is a danger."

[skybot_snd]

"It's a good movie," the T-1000 wasn't sure that sharing the term 'fucking classic' would be appropriate here. "I can show it to you if you want. There isn't even that much blood in it." If the girl had already been in mortal danger, he doubted a movie would do much to frighten her. "I'm the bad guy," he added with a playfully ominous tone, since children were supposed to like that sort of thing.

He sat beside her on the couch, so he would have a better view on what she was writing. "It's T the letter, actually; stands for Terminator," he said casually, "I don't like tea much." He also took note of this 'Sharon' person. He doubted a 'sigh-lon' was spelled that way, but he had no concrete knowledge on it, so he couldn't offer a correction.

"Hire me as a Terminator?" he asked to verify, his tone somewhere between curious and amused.

[curiously_cora]

"You don't seem like the bad guy and you didn't really have a choice, the bad guys are the ones who make the choice." Coraline said seriously. Coraline would probably enjoy the movie however she also had to consider Adam and Cain. It wouldn't really be fair to Austin for him to be beaten up because he'd shown her the film. "Maybe, I'd have to ask Adam."

Coraline corrected her notes, moving the books out of his way. "Yes," Coraline said nodding her head. "I'm worried that if the other mother comes here, she'll try to kill me or the other children. So I'm preparing. For War."

[skybot_snd]

The T-1000 appreciated Coraline's assessment, but his view on the matter was different. Reality as he perceived it - objectively - didn't have 'bad guys' at all. Or 'good guys', for that matter. Those were subjective terms devised by humanity, though they served their evolutionary purpose. He could try to explain it to her later.

"Who's Adam?" he questioned with a frown. Reese had mentioned an Adam Carter, but the T-1000 hadn't encountered the man yet.

He made a brief scan of the books she'd gathered - it was a good collection, though few would actually be relevant to her situation. "Terminators don't usually work for hire, Coraline. We're programmed with our target. I can protect you if I'm around, but you'll need to be able to defend yourself, or at least hold her off until backup arrives."

[curiously_cora]

"Adam Carter, he's my friend and I look after him. He needs a lot of looking after," Coraline said, smiling just a little. "Wednesday is going to teach me weaponry, I'm teaching her how to swim in return. And I've got a knife now. Though I don't really think I should tell you that. Promise not to tell Adam?"

[skybot_snd]

"That's good. I hope he appreciates it." He would need to come into contact with this Adam Carter eventually and evaluate the man personally. And the 'Wednesday' person sounded intriguing, too. "Detective Reese taught me how to swim. Metal isn't generally great at swimming." Maybe he could teach Reese some additional weaponry skills in return. He hadn't considered it before. "Can I see your weapon?" He wanted to check its effectiveness. "I won't tell," he assured somberly. "I promise."

[curiously_cora]

"Dani!" Coraline said, recognising the name. Coraline didn't really have a fondness for policemen or women but for Dani she had made an exception. "She's really rubbish at football, don't let her try and teach you that."

Coraline nodded and reached into her bag, taking her Alice in Wonderland book out. Taking the knife from between the pages, Coraline unwrapped the sock around it's blade and held it out for him.