Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome back to another chapter! So, I think the site is working again? Its all very strange. Thank you for sticking it out! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, as it has a lot of lore about the Danger Watch universe packed into it. I've also done something pretty interesting with a character you might know... Like I've said before, I am doing a sort of MCU twist on everything with DWU. That means some characters might not be exactly how you expect or remember, but thats part of the fun! I always try to stay close to the spirit of the character, though.
Anyway, that's a lot from me. Thanks for tuning in, be sure to leave a Favorite and Follow if you haven't, and enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 05
Somewhere in Earth's Solar System…
As the Ruby captain pushed the controls of their red, teardrop ship further, they shifted beyond the obscuring rubble of the asteroid belt, and, for the first time, got a glimpse of the Megacruiser.
It was an enormous ship, much bigger than a gem Hand Ship, with countless decks, lit up like the sides of a cruise ship. It had a slick, black exterior that made it look like it was swimming through the endless night of space, and the lights that illuminated it were an eerie red color. As their comparatively miniscule vessel continued its approach, the Ruby with a gemstone in her arm spoke up.
"I don't like it," she said. "Bounty hunters? He shoulda just gave us another try. We never even tussled with the pyronite."
"Yeah, and, aren't we… immune to fire?" The one with the gemstone naval said.
The Ruby with the gem for an eye piped up to shut them down.
"We're following orders, and that's that. Right, captain?" She said, turning to the pilot, who grimaced, focusing on her task.
"Correct," she said, "it's not our job to question our Diamo- I mean. Vilgax's orders. We will retrieve these bounty hunters for him, and there will be no more complaints. Understood?"
"Yes, Ruby," her subordinates said in unison.
After that, there was no more conversation until they were within docking range of the Megacruiser. There was an energy shield protecting the docking bay, and they knew it would slice their ship in two if they tried to just fly in unannounced. As they approached, there was an incoming transmission to the Ruby ship. The captain answered it.
"State your business on the Megacruiser," a voice said on the other end.
"We're under direct orders from Vilgax. Picking up some bounty hunters," the captain said.
There was a distinct pause, long enough for the Rubies to start looking at each other nervously. Then, there was a shuffling on the other end, and another voice came through. This one was robotic and terrifying, with the words sounding like they had been put through some demonic text-to-speech program.
"You Will. Enter." The voice said.
The Rubies let out a collective sigh of relief, and the captain brought the ship in towards the docking bay. They watched as the ray shield was brought down, and their teardrop shaped ship slowly hovered to a landing position. Then, there was snap-zapping sound as the ray shield was brought back up. The small troop of gems climbed out of their ship, and looked around with looks of wonder at all of the other vessels there. They were used to gem ships only, and the spacefaring ships that lined the docking bay of the Megacruiser were anything but. They saw imposing Lorwardian hunter-ships, shiny Akiridion speeders, and even a regal Tetramand battle-wing, just to name a few. They left the hangar, led by the captain, and entered the main area of the ship.
They were instantly met with loud, alien music, and a raucous chorus of applause. The main area was built like a colosseum, with a huge battle arena dominating the center of the ship, with stands lining the sides like bleachers, which were filled with every kind of alien imaginable. Then, at the very top, where the Rubies now found themselves walking in, was a long cantina, with tables and bar tops lining the entire ring around the battle arena. In the pit there were two creatures fighting. There was a powerfully built, humanoid being with the features of a triceratops, with a huge head plate, forehead horns, a beak, and a long, thick, tail. He was clad in rudimentary armor and a shield, and armed only with a heavy, metal bludgeon. The alien's opponent was a huge beast, that slobbered and spit from its enormous, fanged maw. It had no eyes, only shaggy orange fur, and a strange set of slits running down its side that could only be described as gills. The two were locked in combat, and the crowd in the stands was deafening as they egged them on.
As the Rubies waded through the cantina, they were met with many suspicious glances. This was to be expected: most gems didn't leave their Homeworld, and when they did, it usually meant that they were creating a new colony. However, as were the strictly enforced rules on the Megacruiser, there was not to be any violence. Anybody who wanted to break these rules could duke it out in the arena. The little red aliens, thus, were undisturbed, though many people gave them the stink eye, including a man who wore a wide-brimmed hat. It was almost like something an Earth samurai would wear, but heavy and metal. He was flanked by a variety of armed soldiers, and as the Rubies walked past, he seemed to let his beady, red eyes linger on them for a while.
In the pit, the shaggy monster pounced towards the dinosaur man, and, standing his ground, he used the shield as leverage to flip the beast over. Then, he dashed forward, and went to deliver a finishing blow to its throat. However, the monster scrabbled up once again, and the two took to a vicious scuffle in the dirt. The Ruby with a gem in her arm couldn't help but watch the variety of floating viewing screens that showed the fight below, and she even put on a wide grin and pumped her fist as the two aliens hit the ground.
"Yeah! Get 'em!" She said under her breath. One of the other Rubies glanced sidelong at her, but said nothing. At the head of the pack, the gemstone eyed Ruby leaned in to murmur to the captain.
"Ruby," she said, pointing towards an occupied table, "I think I spotted our targets."
The captain followed her finger. The table she was gesturing to had three occupants. The largest and most obvious was a strange, bronze, creature, standing at nearly 8 hulking feet in height. It stood stooped, with some sort of biomechanical faceplate covering what was no doubt a horrifying mouth. He stood on wide, segmented legs, like those of a crab or spider, and his torso was almost human, giving him a sort of centaurian stature. One of his arms was entirely human looking, save for cybernetic enhancement, but the other was completely unrecognizable as such. It was like a massive, biomechanical claw. When the claw was open, there could be seen some kind of cylindrical protrusion, like the barrel of a laser cannon.
His two companions were of much more manageable size. One was slender at the waist, but with broad shoulders, mounted on which was some kind of holster for short, metal javelins. Also sticking off of this person's shoulders was an extra set of mechanical arms. It was hard to tell what species he was, due to the mask that he wore as a part of his armor.
There was no such problem with the last bounty hunter.
Her skin was a pastel grey color. She had long, black hair, full, dark lips, and a smokey pattern around her eyes that made it look as though she had heavy, grungy make-up on. She wore shimmering, obsidian armor, that seemed to be as much a part of her skin as it was clothing. On the table in front of her sat her helmet, which, if she had worn it, might have covered the shining, black gemstone embedded in her forehead. As the Rubies took her in, they each gasped in turn.
She was a gem.
She was a Tektite.
As they walked over to the table, there was a roar of excitement as apparently, the match was won. A voice came shouting over a loudspeaker.
"Traximus the Triceraton has done it! He's bested a vulpimancer in single combat! That means he lives to fight another day in the Battle Nexus!"
Watching a nearby floating screen-bot, the tektite bounty hunter pumped her fist. She liked Traximus. She'd bet a lot of space money on Traximus. As her purple-armored companion begrudgingly handed a pouch of money over, the tektite squinted through the shifting crowd as she spotted something red out of the corner of her eye. Sure enough, as a hulking, four-armed Tetramand moved out of the way, she saw a quintet of smaller red beings moving towards her table. They each sported gemstones protruding from their bodies, similar to her. However, while the tektite wore cobbled together spacer armor, these 5 wore matching uniforms. Uniforms with a v-cut in the center that was patterned to form a diamond.
The bounty hunter didn't hesitate.
Leaping to her feet, she grabbed her chair by the back rest and whipped it across the room at the approaching Rubies, who, startled, scattered in multiple directions. Then, the tektite seized the moment of confusion, shoving past a few random onlookers and dashing away into the crowd. Recovering swiftly from the confusion of the chair, one Ruby, who had her gemstone in the side of her thigh, pointed out which direction the tektite was running, and then the chase was on. All 5 of the red aliens went sprinting after the fleeing gem. Glancing at each other, the large, bronze, crab monster and the purple-clad warrior shrugged, picked up their weapons, and then went dashing after the Rubies.
The tektite glanced over her shoulder.
"Damnit," she muttered, as she noticed the Rubies on her tail. Then, the turned to face where she was running.
Just in time! A pair of serving bots were fast approaching, carrying between them a huge platter of food, apparently for the hungry Lorwardians seated nearby. The gem, like any sensible spacer, knew that a hungry Lorwardian was not a foe to be reckoned with, and so, in order to avoid interrupting their dinner, dropped into a power slide. She skidded, with practiced ease, across the sleek, space-velvet floor, before vaulting back up into a running stance on the other side. She glanced back again, a confident grin on her face. Then, her grin melted as she watched the Rubies, with their short statures, simply run beneath the tray of food with no inconvenience.
Her companions, however, were not as lucky. The other two bounty hunters shoved bar patrons out of the way, struggling to keep up with the surprisingly nimble little red gems. They were moving so quickly and furiously that they didn't see the tray of food coming, and the large, bronze alien tumbled headfirst into one of the two serving droids, bringing the entire fiasco down on top of himself. The bounty hunter in purple paused, and then took a step back, vanishing into the crowd as the two Lorwardians approached the fallen hunter. They were both towering, muscular aliens, with scaly green skin and reptilian yellow eyes One of them, apparently the male, had a growth of red spines running up his chest, neck, and eyes.
"That was my dinner," he said, cracking his knuckles as he loomed over the crab-like alien.
Meanwhile, the tektite was running out of room. She was reaching the cantina wall, and she didn't want to take the chase below deck, for risk of violating Slix's rules. Biting her lip furiously, she suddenly stopped on a dime, hedging her bets and turning around to face the oncoming Rubies with a determined look. The gem in her forehead began to glow, and with a swift motion, she drew from it some kind of energy weapon, a gun. She pointed it towards the leader, the little gem that bore the translucent yellow visor. There were a few audible gasps from nearby bar-goers, and the crowd parted swiftly, leaving only the Rubies, who stood in a defensive formation, and the lone tektite facing off. The Ruby captain held a hand out for her troops to stand down. The tektite held her weapon steady.
"What does she want?" She said, blowing a long strand of black hair out of her face.
"Who are you talking about?" The Ruby captain asked, genuinely. The tektite squinted, as if that were an obvious question.
"Your Diamond," she said, "what does she want?"
There was a hushed murmur among the nearby crowd. A crew of gems was an odd sight indeed, but the Megacruiser was full of those. A crew of gems that were in active service of a Diamond… Did not sit well with many of the resident aliens. Several of the species present no longer had habitable homeworlds, thanks to the actions of the Diamond Authority. The Rubies knew this, and the captain began to sweat nervously.
"We… uh…" she said, her cheeks turning a deep, brick red. "We aren't here… on behalf of a Diamond."
The tektite seemed completely thrown off.
"Wait… you're not with the Authority?" She said. At the clarification, a large part of the crowd had returned to their drink, music, and revelry. A new bout was beginning in the Battle Nexus, and that was much more important than some business between rogue gems.
The Ruby captain shook her head, looking around nervously, holding up placating hands until most of the crowd had gone back to business as usual. Then, she cleared her throat, and looked at the bounty hunter, eye to eye (as well as she could manage, anyway.) She started to put her hands together into the traditional gem greeting, but then smartly decided against it, and awkwardly bowed instead.
"Hello, Tektite," she said. "What um… is your designation?"
The tektite snorted.
"My name is Tetrax. Tetrax Shard," she said.
The Ruby captain squirmed, as did most of her crew. To them, it was odd for a gem to give themselves a "name". Taboo, even, as the Diamonds assigned gems their designations upon being cut, a process which predated even the Kindergarten stage of gem birth. Despite her discomfort, the captain decided it was wise to continue with formality, and so addressed her as she pleased.
"Yes. Well. Tektite Tetrax Shard," she said, somewhat butchering the name. Textrax couldn't be bothered to correct her. She knew how Rubies were. "We come on behalf of one called Vilgax."
At the mention of the name, Tetrax's eyebrow twitched. She grimaced, her gun still trained on the Ruby.
"What does he want?" She said.
"He says... " The Ruby said, glancing at the barrel of the weapon, and gulping. "He says he's calling in your debts."
"He just sent for me?" Tetrax asked skeptically. The captain shook her head.
"You and your companions," she said.
As if summoned by her mention, the large, crab-like alien arrived. The Lordwardians were nowhere in sight. He walked over to stand beside Tetrax. Seconds later, the warrior in purple emerged, seemingly appearing out of thin air, materializing from the bustling cantina crowd. Tetrax turned to them.
"Looks like Vilgax finally wants us to make good on what we owe him," she said, holstering her gun at her hip. She purposely didn't return it to her gem, in case she needed it again soon..
The large, bronze alien made a clicking, snorting sound.
"Good. I can finally get the slimy squid off my back," he said. "I'm tired of worrying about that damned favor."
The other hunter was silent, and Tetrax turned back to the Ruby.
"So, you jumped ship and found a more reasonable master huh? Well, 'more' being relative," she said. The Ruby with the gemstone eye clutched a fist, but remained silent. Tetrax noticed, and smirked a little, a small indent forming in her cheek. "If you ever do go back to your Diamonds, I recommend convincing them to stop trying to colonize Terra. The natives will never budge, and the Rebels will go down tooth and nail for it."
"Traitor!" The bulky Ruby with the gem in her arm said, gritting her teeth with rage. The captain held up a hand to silence her. They were traitors too, after all.
The alien in purple armor grew impatient.
"Enough of this gem nonsense," he said, turning to the Rubies, faceless beneath his mask. "Who's our target?"