Hey, guys. Bad news, for me at least. My wifi is getting cut tomorrow since my mom won't pay for it anymore. As a result, I'm gonna have to be a lot more sparing in my postings, as I am now running off of my parents' hotspots.
this also means, sadly, that I won't be able to watch new RWBY episodes on Sundays like I have been. I have to wait until they're out on YouTube. Thankfully, however, I now no longer have social media to distract me and spoil the new episodes, which I think is a plus.
Also, as for the stories themselves, the website is being a little weird. It won't let me add line breaks, which is really messing with the flow of the stories. Other than those two things, I think I'm fine. I fixed the Starlord ship thing and updated the first chapter so the ship's name is now the Milano. Other than those things, I have nothing else to say, so feel free to enjoy this chapter of Gods Among Women!
P.S. I did not intend to sound sexist when I made the title of this story, it's just exactly that: a convenient title. No more, no less, so please don't get offended.
"I do not like that feeling at all, Tony," Bruce Banner turned to his friend and fellow scientist, warning the man of the very close encounter everyone on the ship almost had with "the other guy."
Stark, of course, being the pragmatic and confident man he was, knew that the sensation of passing through the portal wouldn't be enough to break Bruce's hold on Hulk, and smiled as the massive planet loomed in front of their very eyes as they left the portal behind.
"My God..." Bruce whispered, staring in disbelief, clearly not recognizing the giant rock before his very eyes.
"Stark, you—"
Tony looked at the Captain as he walked into the cockpit and his jaw dropped to the floor. The soldier had never seen other planets before—he wasn't even awake when the U.S. first landed on the moon; this must be an amazing way to start off.
"Hey, Cap," the philanthropist wandered to the large window at the front of the cockpit and turned his back to the planet, arms outstretched, "Welcome to Remnant, our Jurassic, inhabited cousin."
"Actually, sir," the feminine, young-sounding AI known as Friday corrected with cheer, "Whatever you saw from a telescope of this planet was actually light from over sixty million years ago, finally being received by your retina after the light bounced off millions of years ago. I am picking up radio transmissions and even encrypted chatter from the northern hemisphere of the planet. This planet is inhabited by hominids, just like Earth!"
Captain Rogers shot Stark a look that said, "You just got told," and the multibillionaire inventor chuckled.
"Thank you for that information, Friday," Tony said as the ship drew slowly nearer to the atmosphere, "Now, get the three Veronica satellites prepped for launch. I don't know I'll need the Big One, but I need to be prepared, just in case."
"Did you bring those along...for me?" Bruce wondered suspiciously, to which Tony replied, "No, not really. Honestly, I wanted to fight dinosaurs. Looks like those aren't here anymore, so I'll have to settle for something else. Those pods ready, Friday?"
"Yes, sir. Launch them now?"
"That'd be nice, yes."
"Launching satellites!"
A moment later, three large pods about four times the size of trucks appeared around the ship, positioning themselves automatically in the atmosphere and priming for launching parts when the Iron Man needed them.
"Alright, everybody buckle in," Stark said, turning to the control panels operated by the Friday AI and sitting crosslegged in a chair in front of them, "We're coming into the atmosphere."
The ship began to shake and rock, the turbulence somewhat forcing the behemoth to fall off balance in midair, but it righted itself soon enough, and the ship floated evenly among the clouds, high above the true surface of the planet. Tony smiled to himself.
"Friday, thank you for making modifications to the ship design. A modified SHIELD Helicarrier is exactly what we needed."
"You're welcome, sir!" Friday cheerfully replied, "I am at your service when you need me!"
He stood back up and wandered to the door out of the bridge, then descended the elevator there and entered the sealed hangar, where the other Avengers waited.
"Well, we've arrived all in one piece," Tony bragged, the airlock opening to show the expansive ocean of clouds around the Quincarrier, and continued, saying, "I've also made sure we arrived in just hours, when we should have arrived a millenium from now. You're welcome."
"So who's the landing party?" Hawkeye asked in boredom, cleaning his bow.
"Just Stark and Thor for now," Captain Rogers answered the question with authority, knowing some might like to tag along against the plan, "We need our two fastest guys down there."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Quicksilver held up his hands in mock betrayal.
"The two fastest flyers. No offense, Pietro."
"What about me? Or Vision?" Sam Wilson, the Falcon, asked.
"We need somebody to bail out the others in case Thor can't handle it himself or Stark makes one of the locals angry."
Wilson nodded understandingly and fell quiet.
"Stark and Thor will fly down and try to track down the Infinity Stone. We already have the building we need, thanks to Doctor Banner. Should there be an altercation—and as long as Stark is with us, there will be..."
Tony rolled his eyes but knew it was true; he was a troublemaker and he was damn proud of it.
"We will deploy myself, Agent Romanoff, Clint, and Sam to handle the situation. Wanda, Pietro, Banner, and Vision will stay on the ship until it's time to go or we need your help. Any questions?"
No response came, so the Captain continued.
"Alright. Avengers, move out!"
"That Rael lady rubs me the wrong way," Rocket made no attempt to lower his voice as the group of Guardians walked back to the ship.
"Rocket, everything rubs you the wrong way," Peter replied, stepping into his ship and heading to the cockpit.
"Hey, that's only half true and you know it!"
Irani Rael, the current Nova Prime, had just explained to the group what their mission was: acquire the Infinity Stone from a planet in another galaxy altogether. Because it needed to be in another galaxy, Peter had explained that his ship just could not handle going that far. The Nova Prime had a new warp drive installed in the Milano, and now it was ready to take the trip.
"Do you believe they will protect the Stone, Peter Quill?" Gamora asked, sliding into the co-pilot seat and showing off a serious expression.
"God, I hope so. They did pretty well with the Orb, but this one might just help decide what the Nova Corps will do with all that power."
Priming the engines as the ship lifted from the landing pad, Quill shot a glance at Gamora, donning a serious expression simultaneously.
"Drax, Rocket, when we get there, be prepared to kick some ass, 'cause whatever this planet is, it has to be dangerous if somebody chose it of all places to put the Stone. Got it?"
"Got it!" Rocket echoed.
"I understand completely, though I am not sure I understand what an "ass" is, nor why I would be kicking it," Drax mused aloud, and Quill sighed.
"Metaphor, dude."
"Ah, yes. Metaphor. Is the ass, however, a small, defenseless creature? I find no honor in attacking a defenseless creature."
The ship reached the stratosphere, where Quill set the ship's coordinates and stood up, stretching.
"In this case, buddy, the ass would be somebody's backside. The part they sit on."
"Oh. Then Gamora has a very attractive ass."
Quill didn't need to look to see the daggers Gamora was glaring into Drax's head.
"Uh...Drax-man? Don't say those kinds of things."
"Why? It is a compliment. I believe she has a very attractive ass."
Quill rubbed his temples. This was going to be a long trip.
The clearly-insulted Gamora huffed and strutted away, ironically showing off that which Drax had exactly been talking about—not really noticing when Drax and Quill both snuck subtle looks at her rump—and disappeared.
"Why does she react so negatively? I mentioned something I would find to be positive." Drax wondered curiously, not understanding the anger Gamora had just displayed.
"Women are weird creatures," Quill sighed, returning to the pilot seat and looking out the cockpit as it went to warp speed, "I'll just leave it at that."
"Hmm." Drax grunted, settling himself into his own seat, "I can agree with that."
The rest of the trip remained largely uneventful, granting everybody the much-needed mental preparation time needed before the mission began.
"I can feel it. It's getting stronger."
Weiss pointed this out despite Yang already knowing what she was talking about. The deeper they went into the temple, the stronger the pulsating waves became.
Of course, it was an odd feeling; alien, even. She couldn't sense it with touch, sight, hearing...she could feel it with her soul. And it beckoned to her, called her name in the back of her mind. But, yet, it was not her name that was being called, but she knew it was hers all the same. Strange, like a sixth sense. She didn't know her soul could feel anything.
"It's near. I can tell, it's...here!"
Weiss turned to a wall and set a hand against it. Yang raised an eyebrow, but could not deny that she too felt its proximity to her. But the problem with the wall was that it was a wall.
"Is there some hidden door?" Yang wondered, secretly wanting one to appear somewhere. It would be so cool to see one!
"No, of course not!" Weiss looked at Yang as if she were a fool, eyes squinting and scoffing, "Are you daft? This isn't some action adventure story! We will likely need to knock the wall down."
"Oh," Yang said, momentarily disappointed before perking back up at the thought that she was gonna punch something so hard it would shatter, "How are we gonna break it?"
"Simple: I use my Semblance to create a glyph to harness the energy of the gem, and when you stand on it, it should grant you and your projectiles the strength to break the wall down. Understand?"
Yang nodded, cracking her knuckles. "Let's do it."
Weiss flicked two fingers and the glyph appeared beneath Yang's feet, glowing red and resembling a massive snowflake before suddenly shifting into the form of a train wheel. The shape of a gear formed in the center, and suddenly Yang felt a surge of power that almost felt like too much, and she felt the urge to expel it. She looked at the wall and reared back, moving to punch it, and swung at it.
Her fist connected and a shell launched, and before she knew it, the wall no longer existed in the shape of a wall and looked more like the result of a pile of bricks being hit by a tornado made of fire. Charred stone lay all across the floor, and before her was a set of stairs descending into the temple. Strange amber-colored light illuminated the base of the steps, and it was also weirdly enticing.
"C'mon, let's go!" Weiss rushed past, headed rapidly down the steps, and Yang trailed her friend down the stairway.
At the bottom, the pair encountered a small, circular chamber, lit only by a pedestal at the center, radiating golden light from its spire.
This was it, Yang knew, this is the legendary gem!
"Oh, Dust," Weiss said, stepping slowly toward the gemstone, "It's beautiful..."
Weiss reached toward it, but a sudden sense of alertness and danger overwhelmed Yang, and she reached toward Weiss.
"Weiss, no!" She cried, but by the time the words left her lips, it was too late.
Weiss's fingertips brushed against the surface of the stone, and then she was screaming at a higher pitch than Yang could ever imagine, and at an amplified volume that filled the chamber with echoes of itself. Orange-glowing cracks appeared across Weiss's skin, and light poured from her eyes and mouth.
"Weiss!"
In a hasty attempt to save her friend's life, Yang gripped Weiss's hand as tight as she possibly could and immediately regretted it.
The power. The raw, unbridled power. She could feel it. And she didn't like how it felt.
Even as it crawled up into her body, into her core, she resisted its power. Her body shook, tore itself apart, ripped every atom to shreds, but she forced herself to get a hold on Weiss, and in one final, desperate attempt to save them both, threw herself atop the heiress and separated her from the gemstone.
Darkness surrounded them. The only sounds were Yang's labored breathing and Weiss's gasping, ragged sobs of pain. The larger girl rolled off the smaller, coughing and finding it incredibly difficult to breathe for the first time in a long time. Despite this, she got onto all fours and set herself above Weiss, putting a hand on the exhausted heiress's cheek and talking through her excessive panting.
"Weiss...Weiss...! Weiss...wake up...! Are you okay...?!" Yang's trembling voice could not hold steady, her throat sore and dry. She must have been screaming, too. "Weiss!"
The white-haired girl managed to open her unscarred eye, but that took a monumental effort. "Y-y-yeah...I'm alive..."
Yang couldn't help herself from picking her friend up and hugging her closely, fully realizing she could have lost Weiss to this stupid rock. She also really, really needed to hug someone right now.
"I...I can't see..." Weiss rasped, "My eye...my eye is too blurry..."
Yang laid her against the wall in a sitting position and took a few deep breaths, letting her shaking resolve itself, and pulling out her Scroll. She hit the button and waved it in front of Weiss's eyes, but her scarred eye remained shut. Ruby and Blake would be on the way to help soon, too.
"Can you see this?"
"Just...just...barely..." Weiss replied, "My other eye...it hurts...I can't to open it..."
"Just rest," Yang ordered softly and rose to her feet, her whole body sore. She looked toward the gemstone.
It now glowed faintly, its rough, jagged shape an orange hue, but the center was bright as a miniature star. It beckoned to her still, but she knew better. She didn't dare touch it lest it destroy her this time.
"This stone...this is too dangerous," Yang huffed, gauntlet unfolding over one fist, "It needs to be destroyed."
She lifted her fist over her head, trying to muster the strength to smash it. She looked back at her friend, coughing and struggling to maintain even her breathing. She couldn't let this happen to anybody, not even a Fanger.
Or worse, let somebody who could withstand it utilize its power.
Yang brought her fist down, feeling a newfound strength coursing through her muscles, and nearly connected with the stone...
And then she was hitting the wall, but she felt no pain and no strain on her body.
She opened her eyes and watched as a humanoid figure made of red and gold metal and glowing blue eyes walked in and drew a small container. It held a hand out and the stone levitated above the pedestal before it transferred itself into the container. The machine began to ascend the stairs.
"No!" Yang cried, but she instead rushed to Weiss's side.
"Just...go..." Weiss hacked, "I'll be fine...don't let him have it..."
Yang nodded and rushed to the stairs, but not before taking one last look at the heiress and rushing after the metal man.