Furtiva
An Avengers Fanfic.
Adventure/mystery/humor/romance
Co-write with Sketchbook Pianist
It all started with the nightmare.
It's a similar nightmare to the nightmare that Jupiter had nearly every night; they all start the same.
Jupiter stood, her sword bared at Saturn's throat, dirt and ash caking her face, blood and gore clinging to her hands. Tears stung her cheeks as her father, the Titan, the god of all gods, lay on the ground with a scowl on his face. Neptune stood beside Jupiter, golden trident also pointed at their father's larynx.
"Pluto, now…" Jupiter snarled at her sister. The black haired goddess stood still and looked to her sister before she pulled the dagger from her chest plate. The small, jagged, black blade glistened in Jupiter's golden eyes as her sister knelt beside their father.
"Go ahead, kill me! Send me to the underworld… I will return with a harsh blood lust that will only be quenched with the blood and tears of you three!" Saturn snapped, the mix of blond and black hair coating and sticking to his face with the ash and gore of everything around him.
Then the ground begins to shake and Saturn's face turns up with a grin that sickens the blonde, youngest sister. That grin, the grin he bore when she watched him rip their people apart for their 'infidelity'. The people he demanded praise from and destroyed out of mere boredom. Then a scream tore Jupiter's attention from her father to a woman behind them.
A woman from the village hung from a stone, too far off the ground to survive.
"So…what is your choice? My daughters… catch her and I'm free…let her fall, and you caused her death… all their deaths!"
They were surrounded by civilians, appearing through the shadows and the smoke of their wasted kingdom.
"CHOOSE!"
"NO!"
"WHOA! Okay! Sorry… just, you're the woman who crashed into my tower and I would rather not be electrocuted again!"
Jupiter's eyes adjusted to the dark, stormy sky that was lit up by irregular stars. Only, as the blur in her eyes cleared up, she realized that they weren't stars. They were lights attached to long silver poles, such as one would light a home with candles, but the lights were contained within bulbs. Jupiter pressed her soft hand to her forehead as she attempted to lift herself.
"No, please; shock him again! Seeing him shoot out of the building was great!"
Jupiter's honey eyes set on a red-headed woman in a pair of tight, unusual clothing. Her shoes clacked against the uncomfortable ground that Jupiter was laying on. There were cracks in the stone-like surface, and she lay in the middle of a small crater. The red-headed woman stretched out a hand, but a man shot into her eyesight. His appearance almost pushed Jupiter over her edge. His chest was glowing with a deep blue light that unnerved the blonde, still dazed and dizzy from her fall.
Had she traveled too fast? Did the skies not fare well on this planet anymore? Jupiter could not remember how her trip to Earth rendered her unconscious. The whole entrance through the skies was not a pleasant one. Jupiter would have to remember that when she returned next. All her mind could tell her was that one moment, she was passing through a cloud, and the next, a giant, metallic bird-thing smashed into her. The storm outside growled as Jupiter stood on her own. She flinched as her bare feet hit the cold floor.
Thunder roared as Jupiter felt the electric tension in her body grow.
The rain began to fall.
"Damn-it! First she rips the tarp, now she's making it rain," the man with the chest that glowed growled.
"Don't you dare speak to me like that, Mortal!" Jupiter snapped.
"…Mortal…" The man froze in place, and the red head woman's eyebrows rose high up on her forehead.
"You cannot speak to a goddess that way, especially me! I am the ruler of the gods!" Jupiter continued, seething. A lightning bolt broke through the darkness. It wasn't a great day for Jupiter, and it hadn't been since the last full moon.
Jupiter narrowed her eyes and clenched her fist around the hilt of her blade. The man looked to the woman and his hand shot out to grab the woman's wrist.
"She's just like Thor. Great…"
"Tony, if she's like Thor, you can't pick a fight with her!" the woman hissed.
"I can take her."
"She shot you thirty feet in the air and almost short-circuited you. You are not touching her!" the woman screeched as the man let go of her and took a few steps back. "Tony, No! Please! I'm your CEO and your girlfriend, and I told you no!" the woman scolded, but the man wasn't listening.
As a woman herself, Jupiter felt infuriated at the idea that this man wouldn't listen. Jupiter felt the need to scold him more and show him exactly what would happen if a mortal attempted to fight a god, but as more lightening split the sky, a door on the opposite side of the room slid open with a ding, and a new man stepped through.
He stood there with wide eyes and an armful of parchment that almost fell from his grasp.
"Tony… I didn't know you were expecting guests," the newcomer spoke.
"I wasn't… and she's not a guest, she's a 'goddess'," the man named Tony remarked with a rude tone that scratched at Jupiter's pride far too much.
"I AM JUPITER, GODDESS OF THE SKIES, OF LIGHTINING, AND THE QUEEN OF GODS! DO NOT TEST ME HUMAN!"
A bolt struck down to the middle of the building and neither of the humans moved. Their eyes were filled with fear as they watched Jupiter grab the bolt-shaped sword on her hip and rip it free from its sheath. She pointed the blade in the direction of the sky. Two more bolts of electricity struck the blade as Jupiter glared fiercely at the humans.
"I have come here with no anger, but do not mistake my gentle attitude for weakness. I am not above striking down a few mortals!" Jupiter snarled, her whole body aching with rage and frustration. She did not come here for a fight. She came here for answers. She came here for information and possible aide!
Jupiter was the leader of gods and men, and she was never to be spoken to in the tone that human had. If she had been on Olympus, the man would have been taken straight to the gallows and would have rotten produce thrown at him at for even trying to contradict Jupiter. This man would have surely been slain where he stood. Who was he to think so highly of himself?
This world had become vain in the years the gods were no longer worshiped and thought of on this Earth.
"Tony, please, for the love of my sanity, just… shut up!" the woman groaned, her eyes still swimming with terror as she looked at the goddess.
Jupiter stood the tallest among them, and she was heavily muscled. Her golden, red-tinted locks were silky and long, and the gentle clink of rain falling on her armor was the only thing that interrupted the silence that had fallen. The thunder began to ease and the storm slowly began to pass. The man had stopped, and Jupiter's temper simmered down.
"So…you say you're the ruler of the gods, Jupiter, the all-mighty leader of everyone?" Tony asked with as little attitude as he could muster. The strain on his face was priceless. Jupiter nodded to him before she looked to the sky that had quickly cleared. The nightly stars began to shine upon a city full of metallic objects and people that moved every which-way.
"Why are you here?" the unnamed man in the suit added.
Jupiter kept her lips sealed as the doors behind the unnamed man opened with another ding again. This time, it was a familiar face that stepped from the doorway. It was the shortest of the siblings, the brunette that walked like water. Neptune glided into the room.
Jupiter sighed with relief and pushed through the trio of humans to her sister.
"Neptune! What are you doing here? I thought you had wanted to search another planet?" Jupiter spoke in a hush. That's when the grim face of her sister registered in Jupiter's mind. With an expression full of uncertainty, Jupiter asked the question that danced on her tongue. "Sister, who has been taken?"
Fear settled into her stomach as the word from Neptune's lips stabbed her with even more guilt and pain.
"Pluto."