Author's Note:
Hello everyone! Here's the next chapter for Earth's Mightiest Huntsmen. But first, let's answer some reveiws.
Blackmetalzane22: Oh, trust me. The next few chapters are going to be filled with carnage thanks to the chaos that the Guardians and Yang can cause.
Red Scorpion: Doom is one of the most powerful villains ever in Marvel Comics, and I wanted to show that here. As for the Guardians, Agent Venom is certainly a nice surprise for fans him to see him here, since his tenure on the Guardians wasn't very long. And there's certainly going to be a lot of combat over the next few chapters.
Shadowhunter36: Glad that issue was resolved!
Thank you all for your continued support. Now, let's get back to the story.
The Milano—October 14th (Earth Time)
Sleep did not come easily for Yang. The beds on board the Milano were far less comfortable than her cot back at Starlin's, and there were a lot of things on her mind. The Guardians. The pursuing Chitauri. The Sun Shredder. Titus. And, of course, her continued inability to recall her past.
When she finally was able to close her eyes and drift off to sleep, it was a restless sleep, filled with nothing but fire and an encroaching darkness all around her. Everywhere she turned, the fire was being extinguished as the darkness closed in, swallowing up everything in its path. She tried to move back, but black tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs, forcing her in place.
A single face emerged from the darkness: the girl with silver eyes. Yang struggled in the grip of the tendrils, trying to free herself. "Who are you?!" she yelled. "What do you want from me?!"
The girl didn't answer, her face melting back into the darkness, only to be replaced by the head of a black wolf with red eyes. Its mouth opened wide, reaching in to bite down—
Yang sat bolt upright, panting heavily. Trying to calm her racing heart, she took several deep breaths. "What…the hell…was that?" she thought.
She turned her head towards the small viewport near her bed and still saw the stars flying by outside. They were still at warp speed. She then turned her head in the other direction and frowned. Her gauntlets and her MP3 player were not where she had left them.
She slid out of the bed and wandered out into the next room, where she quickly found Flash leaning against the wall, his symbiote mask folded back as he sipped on a cup of coffee. "Morning, Yang," he greeted.
"Have you seen my gauntlets?" she asked.
Flash thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I think I saw Rocket working on them earlier."
Yang clenched her fists. "That stupid raccoon." She spun on her heel and marched through the ship, heading to Rocket's workshop near the starboard side of the ship. Sure enough, the racoon was there, using a welding torch to weld a piece of her gauntlet back on.
"Hey, fur face," Yang said, crossing her arms, "what the hell are you doing to my weapons?"
"Making them better," Rocket answered, not even turning around.
"They're perfectly fine the way they are."
Rocket snorted. "As if. Whoever last 'upgraded' them was lucky that he was even able to put them back together again. I've never seen such a shoddy job. But, that's what you get when you take weapons to an amateur on Knowhere."
Yang put a hand on her hip. "And you think you can do better?"
"I did do better." Rocket finished his work on the gauntlets and tossed them to her. "I doubled the power and recoil on both gauntlets and took that poor excuse for laser generator out of both gauntlets. Your weapon was already set up to take ammo rounds; I just modified it to take my special kind of ammo."
"And what kinds of ammo do you have?" Yang questioned, slipping the gauntlets back on her arms.
Rocket gave her a toothy grin. "Take your pick. Incendiary rounds, armor piercing rounds, energy rounds, cluster rounds—"
"What the hell are cluster rounds?"
"Rounds that separate into multiple tiny fragments to hit more targets at once. And of course, I've also got these." Rocket walked over to one of the crates and opened it up, pulling out a bandolier of what looked like small missiles.
"What are these?" Yang asked.
"Missile rounds," Rocket announced. "Small enough to fit inside most handheld weapons, but explosive enough to blow through just about anything."
"Sweet," Yang commented. "What else did you do to them? And where the hell is my MP3 player?"
"Oh yeah, that." Rocket reached up and pressed a button on the side of Yang's left gauntlet. A slot opened up, revealing the MP3 player tucked within. "I modified your gauntlets to be able to also produce sonic blasts using the power of your music player."
"And I would need this…why?"
"Well, sonic blasts are one of the few things that can effectively hurt symbiotes. And it works really well if you need to inflict some extra confusion, or punch with a little more force than usual."
Yang nodded slowly as she slowly looked around the workshop, noting all the various weapons and bombs lying around. "Did you make all of these?"
"More or less." Rocket hopped back up on a crate. "Can't be effective Guardians of the Galaxy without the best, most destructive weapons. And this is one of the biggest guns in my arsenal." He picked up a large, chest mounted cannon from the table next to the crate. "I call it the Hadron Enforcer. It's for when things get really hardcore…or if you want to blow up moons."
"Still don't know why you would want to blow up a moon," Yang commented.
"Anyway," Rocket went on. "What kind of ammo do you want?"
Yang thought about it for a moment. "I'll take…all of them."
Rocket blinked. "All of the ammo types?"
"Yeah. I'll take all of them. Load them all up."
Rocket started to laugh. "I think I'm actually starting to like you, kid."
"Just don't take my stuff again," Yang warned. "Or I'll use your ammo against you."
"Oh, and there's one more thing." Rocket jumped off the crate and walked to the far wall, where he grabbed something blue off another crate and tossed it to Yang. "You're gonna want to put this on."
Yang unfolded what she had been given, seeing that it was a Guardians uniform. "Am I being inducted into the group or something?"
The raccoon let out a laugh. "Ha! No flarcking way! We haven't even seen you fight yet! The suit's just for fighting in the vacuum of space. There's a chance that the life support systems on the Sun Shredder are going to be offline, and there aint no way we're going to be fixing them since we're just blowing it up. These suits can keep you from freezing to death." He then grabbed a pair of blue boots. "And these will let you get a magnetic lock on the ground, since the gravity systems will also be offline."
"And do I just hold my breath?" Yang asked.
Rocket let out a small grumble, but grabbed a helmet and tossed it to her. "Here. One of Quill's old helmets. Should work out fine. Now, get the hell out of here and get changed. Won't be much longer until we reach our destination."
The uniform clung to Yang's body tightly, but it was better than dying in the cold vacuum of space. She finished fastening the gloves around her hands before slipping her gauntlets down over her arms. She felt the weight of them once more, slightly impressed that Rocket had made all sorts of improvements and kept the weight down.
She stared down at the helmet last, looking down into the silver plated, red eyed helmet. "If I get to keep this, I'm definitely making some changes," she thought before raising the helmet up and placing it over her face. The inner HUD instantly sprang to life, making everything around her tinted red before the tint faded away to normal colors.
She looked around briefly, breathing heavily through the helmet before reaching a hand up and unfolding it. No sense in keeping the helmet on when she didn't need it.
As she prepared to leave the room, she happened to pass by where she had hung up her old jacket, the one that she had first arrived on Knowhere with. After a brief moment of hesitation, she grabbed the jacket and slung it on. As she did, Star-Lord's voice suddenly came over the intercom. "Attention everyone," he announced. "We're about to exit warp speed. Stand by."
"Well then," Yang thought, cracking her knuckles. "Guess the fight's about to begin."
The Milano exited warp speed. Immediately, Star-Lord did a scan of the nearby area, checking for any signals that would indicate nearby ships. "No sign of Titus or the Chitauri yet," he reported through the ship's intercom. "But they'll be here soon, no doubt about it. We need to get this done ASAP."
"There it is." Yondu pointed out into the distance. Floating out in the middle of empty space was a large object that looked like a space station. Multiple rings surrounded it, connecting multiple sections of the station together. Everything culminated in a large point at one end of it. "Looks like it's still in one piece."
"Not for long," Star-Lord said. He activated another scanner, getting a scan of the station. "Let's see if we can get some scans of the layout."
"Quill, are you seeing this?" Yondu pointed at the scanner.
"Yeah." Star-Lord's hands tightened slightly. "Life signs aboard the Sun Shredder."
"Survivors?"
"Or worse." He stood up, activating the intercom. "Everyone to the ready room. We've got some things to discuss."
"As we expected, most of the Sun Shredder's systems are offline," Star-Lord reported, showing a hologram of the massive weapon. "But this appears to be an accurate layout of the weapon."
Flash whistled. "That's one mother of a superweapon. So how do we blow it up?"
"The Sun Shredder's got enough power in it to vaporize just about everything if we just blow up the reactor," Rocket announced. "That includes several nearby star systems."
"Won't do us any good either," Richard added. "No way we can clear its blast radius in time."
"Actually, I gotta solution for that," Rocket announced, using the holo table to show three separate rooms on the map of the Sun Shredder. "If we can drain the reactor completely, the blast radius will be significantly reduced."
"How do we do that?" Yang questioned.
"It can only be done from the control room," Rocket explained. "Unfortunately, that means we also need to restore minimal power to the Sun Shredder to get the control room up and running, and that has to be done from the complete other side of the station."
"So, we've got three different places to go to just to destroy this thing?" Gamora asked.
"Three targets," Star-Lord confirmed. "Three teams." He looked around the room. "Rocket, you take Groot and Agent Venom and place whatever doomsday device you have to blow the reactor. Gamora, you, me, and Drax and head to the main power controls. Restore as little power as you can to the control room. Richard, you head straight to the control room with Yondu and Yang to initiate the reactor drain."
"Where's our point of entry?" Flash asked.
"Here." Yondu pulled up another image of a hanger bay. "This hanger is the closest accessible one to each of our objectives. We land here, then split up."
"Sounds like a plan," Rocket declared. "Welp, I always do like starting the morning off with a bang."
"I like starting my mornings off with a Yang," Yang joked.
"That literally makes no sense."
"Be on your guard," Star-Lord warned. "We detected life signs on board the station. Apparently, the place has minimal life support operational still."
"Survivors?" Flash asked. "How is that possible?"
"We don't know for sure what's on there," Star-Lord told him. "If it's survivors, then we need to get them out of there. If it's something else, then be ready for a fight."
"Or just be ready for a fight anyway," Rocket added. "Because it's always something else."
Yang finished loading up all the ammo she could carry as she waited in the cargo hold with the other Guardians for Star-Lord to land the ship. She tapped her foot in anticipation for the potential of a coming battle. She didn't know why, but the thought of being able to punch something or someone excited her.
"You ready for this, Miss Xiao Long?" Yang looked up as Yondu approached.
"Sure," she answered.
"Just stay close to me and Richard and you'll be fine."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "Are you that concerned for my safety?"
"What we are about to do will be dangerous. Titus and the Chitauri will be arriving soon. We may have to fight them to ensure the Sun Shredder's destruction. And that doesn't even take into account what we might find on the weapon itself."
"You mean the survivors?"
"I don't think these are survivors," Yondu answered. "I have a theory on what they might be. Pray that I'm wrong."
Yang was about to ask him what he meant when the Milano suddenly rocked as it landed in the hanger. A second later, Star-Lord arrived, his mask folding over his face as he twirled his twin pistols and attached them to his belt. "Open it up, Drax," he ordered.
Drax, who was standing near the controls to lower the boarding ramp, slammed his fist against a button, which caused the ramp to lower. "Move out," Star-Lord commanded, heading down the ramp. The rest of the Guardians followed, with Yang bringing up the rear.
The hanger that they had landed in was empty, with no sign of anyone or anything. Flash trained his rifle around the room. "Clear," he announced.
"Keep it moving," Star-Lord responded as the group continued on, heading towards the door to the connecting passageway.
"Something's not right," Richard said.
"Agreed," Gamora agreed with him, "Where are the bodies?"
"Maybe ejected by the survivors?" Flash guessed.
"I don't think so," Star-Lord responded, pulling out his twin pistols. "I've got a feeling it's something far worse."
A skittering sound came to Yang's ears. She whirled around, aiming her gauntlets around at the space behind her, but didn't see anything. "Anybody else hear that?" she asked.
"Yeah…I've got a bad feeling about this," Rocket answered, powering up his massive rifle.
"I am Groot," Groot agreed.
As Yang scanned the empty hanger, something wet and slimy dripped down onto her shoulder. "Uh oh," she thought. "It's right above me, isn't it." Slowly, she raised her gauntlet up before quickly looking up and firing a blast. The round struck the first of the two insect-like creatures that was hanging on the ceiling, blowing it to bits.
The second one instantly flew down with a screech, crashing into Yang and pinning her to the ground. Its tail swung around, trying to stab into her. She caught the tail instantly, forcing it back as the creature tried to break away.
A sword sliced through the air, decapitating the creature and spraying its blood into Yang's face. She sputtered slightly as she let go of the dead creature's tail, wiping the blood from her face. "Thanks," she thanked Gamora, who simply sheathed her sword without another word.
"Just as I feared," Yondu said, a look of concern on his face. "Brood."
Yang clenched her fists slightly. The Brood, as Yondu had told her, were one of the most dangerous races in the galaxy, able to infect other beings with their embryos and, eventually, turn their victims into more Brood. They had been a scourge on the galaxy for longer than anyone could remember.
"How the flarck did the Brood wind up here?" Rocket asked.
"They probably stumbled on the crew early on," Star-Lord guessed. "Soon enough that there would still be enough alive for them to fully set up a hive."
"And they didn't repair the weapon to use themselves?" Flash questioned.
"The Brood aint going to use a weapon like the Sun Shredder," Rocket told him. "They want to infect worlds, not blow their suns to smithereens."
"It doesn't matter why they're here," Star-Lord decided. "What matters is that they are here, and they're standing in our way. This place is infested with Brood."
"What do we do?" Richard asked.
"Stick to the plan," Star-Lord responded. "We move on our targets. Cut through any Brood in your path."
Rocket grinned, hefting his rifle. Gamora drew her sword again. Drax twirled his knives. Richard's hands glowed with energy. Flash's symbiote seemed to form two more guns in his hands. Groot grunted, several smaller branches extending from his body. Yondu drew his bow and nocked one of his arrows.
Yang reloaded her gauntlets as the door to the hanger suddenly burst open and a horde of Brood flew in. "Invanderssssss of the hive," one of the Brood hissed. "Sssssslay them!"
Star-Lord aimed his guns and pulled the trigger. Twin plumes of fire shot from them, incinerating the first line of Brood. "Move in, Guardians!" he ordered.
The Guardians let out a battle cry and charged. Yang swung her arms behind her and fired twin shots, propelling herself forward. She swung her fist down and slammed it into the first Brood she saw, smashing it to gooey bits. Another Brood stabbed at her with its tail, but she blocked the strike with her gauntlets before extending her blades, slicing the tail off and stabbing it in the face.
A barrage of rounds flew past her head, mowing down another few Brood. Flash moved in, guns blazing, taking down multiple enemies at once. When a few Brood flew at him, multiple tendrils shot from his body, impaling the creatures one by one and throwing them aside.
Gamora and Drax ran past Yang, blades flashing, and began cutting through the Brood quickly and efficiently. Each had their own style of fighting; while Gamora aimed for weak points, going for quick, easy kills, Drax went for a more berserker approach, hacking and slashing with his twin knives, taking down foes with sheer brute force.
Groot extended his arms and whacked Brood aside one after the other, all the while yelling, "I am Groot!" On his shoulder was Rocket, who was blasting down any Brood that took to the air, laughing the entire time.
"Everyone get down!" Richard yelled, raising his glowing hands in front of him. Yang was barely able to duck in time as beams shot out from him, tearing through and incinerating everything in his path. In seconds, all the Brood that had entered the hanger had been vaporized.
"You can be sure that's not all of them," Star-Lord warned as everyone climbed back to their feet. "There were hundreds of crew on the Sun-Shredder. Every single one of them have been turned by now."
"They surely pop easier than most Brood," Rocket noted.
"They've been starving for months without any fresh food," Yondu guessed. "No doubt all the Brood here are half dead."
"Makes things easier for us," Flash decided, crossing his arms. "The quicker we get through these Brood, the quicker we can get the hell out of here."
"Then let's not waste any more time with talking." Star-Lord started moving to the door the Brood had just flowed through. "You have your assignments. Get it done, Guardians."
Flash aimed his rifle down the dimly lit passage. "Clear," he reported. He started moving down the corridor, Rocket and Groot close behind him. Rocket, in particular, was fiddling with a small bomb, muttering under his breath.
"Okay, I have to ask," Flash said after a few moments. "How much power is in that bomb?"
"Do you really want to know?" Rocket asked, finishing his modifications and slipping the bomb back onto his belt.
"I am Groot," Groot commented.
"That much, huh?" Flash asked. "Just try not to blow us up before we get to the reactor."
"What do I look like to you, a flarcking amateur?!"
"Okay, okay. Jeez."
"All teams, report in," Star-Lord's voice came over the comms.
"We're closing in on the control room," Richard reported. "No sign of any other Brood so far."
"Same here," Rocket piped in. "Some general damage, but no sign of the Brood."
"I don't like this," Flash muttered. "Where the hell are they?"
"Maybe we scared them off?" Yang asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we aint that lucky, blondie," Rocket told her.
"Report in at the first sign of trouble," Star-Lord ordered.
"Yeah, yeah, we all know what to do, Quill."
The group walked in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Flash asked, "So, uh…what do you think of the kid?"
"Who, blondie?" Rocket chuckled. "She can really put up a fight when she has to. Doesn't back down from a challenge either. All in all, more tolerable than most humans."
"Where do you think she's from? Earth, maybe?"
Rocket snorted. "If she is, and we have to drop her off there, I say we fly there and kick her out the airlock. I aint sticking around on Earth longer than I have to."
"Come on, Earth isn't that bad," Flash argued.
"Oh, please, it's horrible. Out of all the worlds we've been to, Earth's one of the worst."
"I am Groot," Groot pointed out.
"So what if they've got pretty forests?!" Rocket shot back.
"Regardless of where she's from, I hope we can find her home and help her regain her memories," Flash interjected.
"Once this mission is done, she's probably going back to Knowhere with Yondu," Rocket guessed.
"Yeah, but…we still should keep an eye out for her world, you know?"
"We don't even know what to look for! Now pipe down and pay attention before we get torn to shreds by a Brood swarm!"
Flash sighed slightly. "Fine. You're right. Let's focus on the mission."
Yang swung around at the slight noise behind her, aiming her gauntlets, but seeing nothing there. "Easy, Yang," Richard told her. "We're clear for the moment."
She slowly lowered her arms, still on edge, but still oddly anticipating a good fight. The brief skirmish in the hanger had energized her more than anything else. She didn't know why, but she wanted more.
They soon reached the end of the passage, where a large metal tube, obviously an elevator, stretched through the ceiling and the floor. "According to the schematics, the control room's at the top of this lift," Richard announced, reaching out and forcing the doors open.
"How are we supposed to get up there?" Yang asked. "The lifts don't have power."
"The direct way." Nova grabbed both Yang and Yondu and stepped into the shaft, flying up while carrying the two behind him. Yang looked up towards the top of the shaft and saw, to her horror, the bottom of a lift at the top.
"We've got trouble up there!" she called.
"Hang on!" A blast of energy shot from Richard's eyes, blasting through the bottom of the lift. He tore through the hole and let go of his passengers, letting them land safely on the remainder of the floor. He then grabbed the doors and forced them open, revealing the interior of the control room, along with a dozen or so more Brood.
"Careful when fighting in here!" Richard warned. "We still need this equipment to finish the mission!"
Yang aimed her gauntlets, but Yondu stepped in front of her. "Better let me handle this, Miss Xiao Long," he advised. "My weapon is more precise."
The Brood surged forward. Yondu aimed his bow and fired an arrow before giving out a loud whistle. The arrow sped forward and around the control room at Yondu's command, tearing through each Brood one by one. When it was done, the arrow flew back into Yondu's waiting hand.
"You haven't lost your touch, Yondu," Richard complemented. He then activated his comm again. "Quill, we've made it to the control room."
"Copy that, Richard," Star-Lord answered. "We should be reach power control in a few minutes. Stand by."
As they talked, Yang crossed the room to stare out the window and the void of space behind it. She stood there in silence, looking at the stars. "Somewhere, near one of those stars, is my home," she thought quietly. "Am I ever going to figure out which one? Am I going ever going to get my memories back?"
Suddenly, there was a face pressed against the other side of the window—the girl with silver eyes. She stared directly at her, floating in the vacuum, not saying a word. Yang stumbled back in shock, aiming her gauntlets at the window. But in that same instant, the girl was gone.
"Yang?" Richard asked. "You okay?"
Yang crossed her arms after a moment's hesitation. "Fine," she answered.
"Keep your head in the game, kid. It's almost over." He suddenly jerked his head up. "Uh oh."
"What is it?" Yang asked.
"Milano's sensors are picking up incoming ships."
"How do you know?"
Richard tapped his helmet. "My helmet's linked with the ship's systems. I just got an alert. Multiple contacts entering the system."
"What does that mean?" Yang questioned.
Richard gave her a dead serious look. "It means we've got an even bigger fight on our hands than a few half-dead Brood. It means Titus and the Chitauri are here."
Well, that sure was a blast. If you thought this chapter had some cool combat, just wait until next chapter when we get an all-out fight between the Guardians, the Chitauri, Titus and his crew, and the Brood! And there just might be a few more surprises in store.
When it comes to the Brood, their inclusion was a more recent decision. I knew I wanted there to be some sort of challenge for the Guardians to implement their plan, and the Brood stumbling upon the Sun Shredder and infecting the crew so that the entire station would be infested seemed like a good, yet simple challenge to get through. It will certainly make things interesting next chapter once the big battles start.
And now Yang's weapons have been modified again, this time by Rocket, who now has her using all sorts of ammo types. Since these different types of ammo also come from Rocket, you can imagine just what kind of destructive power she now has.
My goal is to hopefully have this arc (1-2 chapters left) done by the end of the month. This is because I will once again be participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year, which takes place during November, and will be focusing more on my own, original novel during that time. Though I will try to get work done on this story during that time, my focus will be on my novel.
But anywho, that's all from me. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, signing off.