Even though I yeeted (yote?) Garnet into space, I promise these two will interact again. Eventually, I’ll digitize this and make it the banner of this blog :3
Hello! No chapter this week, but I did do a ref of the first stone to be reformed. It’s - surprise surprise - Mind Stone! She’s going to appear really soon so I thought I’d give y’all a visual of her ;3c
I know she looks oddly human but you could write that off as a nod to Vision, but in all honesty, it’s the color palette I had to work with. There are more deliberate easter eggs in here too just so you know wink.
I’ll do other refs as it gets closer to other stones reforming.
Sorry for my unintentional 2-week hiatus, as you can see, between school, work, learning to drive, and turning 18, I’ve been busy. Updates should resume next weekend! For now, have this *throws confetti*
A side note under the cut about rating and violence concerns~
No, there will be no smut in A Goddess Called Infinity (AGCI). The rating will remain teen (on AO3) unless a) violence increases drastically b) foul language increases drastically c) there is sexual humor/innuendo. If any of these are present, the rating will go up to mature on AO3 and I’ll tag chapters with warnings. I promise the rating will never reach explicit and achieve warnings will not apply (except for perhaps violence or major character death, but as the outline stands now I doubt it).
As violence stands, I tagged it as “canon typical violence” on AO3 referring to Marvel violence, which is, of course, more violent than Steven Universe. Even light stuff (ie. Bruce defeating Cull Obsidian in chapter 4) will be tagged here, but it will have to be really descriptive to warrant an archive warning.
This is mostly targeted to the SU fans that stumble across this fic, as I know some of you are youngins (I mean...its a cartoon). But anyway, message me for concerns and stay safe kiddos!
Synopsis: We cut to Lapis and what she was doing all the way up to the Blast. In this part two of three prologue, she makes a new friend and a startling discovery.
Words: 1801
AO3 link here
previous - next - beginning
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Lapis ascends through the caverns in search of a way out. It didn’t help that she was purposely avoiding the trains, something about them seemed negative to her. She was thinking about how she’d group back up with the others when she felt a familiar pull.
Water.
A stream from somewhere in the cave sang to her, its churning tendrils silently but desperately summoning her being. It was wild and soft and pristine all at the same time. Her attraction to water was as expressionless as the subject itself.
She eventually finds it; a spring gushing with life, flowing down through the caverns to form a river. Lapis realizes this was her way out. She flies low enough to run a hand through the water as she went. It was her way of silently thanking the water for leading her this way. It playfully reaches back and races along with her. Soon, she sees sunlight and the water bursts from the cave like an open wound. Being newly born, it sprays free from its confinement in the darkness of the caverns. Down, down, down, it went, cascading—even flying—for a moment before recollecting at the ground. There, it was calmer and more peaceful. It flows majestically down the rocky slope towards the greater river.
Lapis’s appreciation of the water was interrupted by the ongoing spoils of war that unfurled in the distance. She quickly flies on to find the others. She suddenly halts as she hears a loud crash behind her. A large, armored alien was fighting a person in bulky red and golden armor.
“Guys, Vision need back up now!” The armored Bruce Banner calls out. Once he gets up he struggles with Cull Obsidian as the brute tosses him around. Obsidian picks up his ax, lodges it into Banner’s shoulder armor, and swings over him. The arm snaps clean off as the armor crumbles at the joint. Banner yells out in frustration.
After staring perplexed at the scene, Lapis decides she needs to act. She may have been reluctant to fight before, but she was needed. She brings up her hand and the water begins to collect and rise behind her at will. The two fighting don’t seem to notice as they continue on.
Banner begins to get a few punches in, but Obsidian is able to catch Banner’s good arm. With a hard punch, Banner goes flying back and causes water to spray up around him. Banner remains there groaning as Obsidian approaches him with a blade in hand.
“Hey!”
The two turn their attention to the blue gem. Subsequently, they notice the huge pillar of water she has lifted. She throws her hand forward and the water forms a fist as it shoots out towards them. Banner braces himself, but the water hits only Obsidian at full force. He is launched back all the way to the waterfall. At that time, Banner is able to get back up. Who was this stranger? Another of Cap’s friends he has yet to be introduced to?
The formalities would have to wait as Obsidian is back on his feet and very pissed off. He roars in anger as he charges the two of them. Banner catches him with his one arm but Obsidian easily backhands Banner away. Lapis throws up both of her hands as he approaches her, creating a wall of water underneath him. The brute was launched straight up into the air. Without hesitating, Lapis throws her hands back down with a slight circular motion. The water forms above Obsidian and slams him down at full force. That only seemed to make him angrier.
Obsidian defiantly got up again and was close enough to the gem to swing at her. Lapis only has time to create a small wall of ice to protect herself, but it was insufficient. The ice shatters as his fist passes through it and the small gem is thrown violently onto the bank of the river.
Obsidian goes to finish her when Banner fires several repulsor shots at him. He successfully distracts him from Lapis as Obsidian turns to fight. They trade several swings. By now, Banner has gotten used to fighting with one arm and avoids Obsidian’s heavier blows and grabs by momentarily propelling himself in the air. This, in turn, allows himself to deal more devastating blows as he slams his fist down onto Obsidian each time he descends. This alone won’t defeat the massive warrior though.
Lapis rises back onto her feet. They need a more permanent method of subduing him. She once again lifts her hand. Water begins to coil around Obsidian, creeping and edging forth like vines overtaking a massive structure. He doesn’t notice until the water is at his waist. While still fighting Banner, the brute growls and thrashes his legs to free himself. He isn’t completely immobilized, but the water holds strong. Lapis adds her other hand for added strength. Banner steps back as Obsidian is soon encased in a layer of water. Lapis’s hands shake as she struggles to keep the angry and trashing brute trapped. Banner could guess what she was trying to do, but at this rate, it wasn’t going to work.
“Freeze him!” He quickly suggests. He didn’t know the full extent of her powers but he saw her make that small ice wall earlier. Lapis shoots him a wary glance before slowly closing her fists. The water instantly freezes and Obsidian can no longer move.
Lapis could still feel him continue to fight. She felt every molecule of water surrounding the alien warrior. She felt every minuscule movement, every twitch, every heartbeat. It was like when she was trapped with Jasper as Malachite, minus the fact that there was no mental torture involved.
“What’s wrong?” Banner asks, seeing as she had yet to put her hands down.
“I can’t let go,” She replies simply yet direly. Small cracks form within the ice within.
Banner scanned around for a solution and spots Obsidian’s discarded ax. In one fluid movement, he brings it up and swings down with all the force he could muster. The ice shatters but the giant is easily cleaved down the middle. Lapis falls to her knees after the deed was done.
Banner took a moment to scan over his strange, new companion. She definitely wasn’t completely human judging from both her water manipulation powers (hydrokinesis) and her abnormally blue skin. Where did she even come from?
Banner allows his helmet to recede, exposing his head and neck.
“So uh, what’s your name kid?” He asks awkwardly. He assumes she’s kind of young because she looked youthful and was, well, quite small.
“Lapis Lazuli.”
“As in… the blue rock?” Banner questions. He was no geologist but…
“We prefer the term ‘gem’,” she replies, laughing dryly.
“We?” Banner echoes.
Lapis gasps, “The others! I just remembered, I need to regroup with them!” She says suddenly as she summons her water wings.
“Whoa whoa, slow down, you have friends here?”
“Yes! We came to help once we heard of the attack,” she explains. She turns to fly away.
“Hold on a minute, I’ll help you once the dust settles, but right now we’re in a tight spot and could use anything we can get,” he says, trying to put on a friendly tone despite his underlying fear and desperation. He’d just got a message from Steve to form up on his position. Lapis considers it and decides she can trust him. She was normally distrusting, but they helped each other take down Obsidian. Besides, if they have to go away from the water she won’t be as viable in battle.
She turns back to him and offers a nod. Banner puts his helmet back up and leads the way.
Soon they join up with Steve, Natasha, T’Challa, Okoye, and Sam. Blue clouds of a portal appear and Thanos walks out, scanning his surroundings. Banner’s gut twists up with varieties of anger and fear.
“Cap. That’s him.”
“Eyes up. Stay Sharp,” Steve replies. None of them really have time to question Lapis’s presence, not with their greatest enemy standing right there.
Banner is the first to lunge at him, but all Thanos has to do is raise his gauntlet and Banner phases through him. Once he’s halfway inside of the cliff face Thanos leaves him there, immobilized. Lapis quickly flies over to him as the other Avengers take turns fighting Thanos.
“That went well,” Banner comments, his voice laced with sarcasm and frustration. All he could do was helplessly watch the others get swatted away by the titan. Hopefully, Wanda pulls through for them.
“I’m going to try to get you out,” Lapis says once she reaches him. She changes her wings to fists and repeatedly strikes the cliff face. Progress is slow.
“Hurry hurry,” Banner urges, still looking on as Thanos approaches Wanda and Vision. She doesn’t reply as she gradually chips away at the cliff. Suddenly there’s a huge blast of power and Lapis is thrown forward. Banner sighs with relief as Wanda had successfully destroyed the Mind Stone.
The relief was short-lived.
“Lapis get back up!” he says, panicking as Thanos reformed the Mind Stone and added it to his gauntlet. He was sure there was little he could do even if she freed him, but he had to do something.
It takes a while for her to get up, but once she did she couldn’t get back to the task of freeing Banner. She starts hearing… Voices? She turns to the scene behind her. Her eyes lock onto the gauntlet.
“Those… They’re gems!” she gasps. It looks like they were forced to be in that gauntlet. Flashbacks came forth of her being trapped in that mirror for all those millennia, of her being trapped in Malachite. Her heart ached for them. Their screams resonated in her whole being.
“Wanda, what’s going on?” Banner asks over the commlink. There was no answer. At one point Thor flies in and strikes Thanos, but the surging power and the wailing doesn’t stop. Finally, there is a huge blast of power and four of the stones are launched high into the atmosphere.
The blast is so great that Lapis’s body gives out. She disappears in a blue puff of smoke, leaving only her tear-drop shaped gem.
“Lapis?” Banner asks. He’d witnessed her poof and didn’t know what to make of it. He uses all of his strength and manages to get out of the cliff just enough to open up the armor. He delicately picked up her gem once he hopped out. Did she die? He looks up. Where was Thanos? And the Infinity Stones?
Banner sighs and jogs over to the others with Lapis in hand.
Coronavirus, rischio collasso per le cooperative sociali della Toscana
Coronavirus, rischio collasso per le cooperative sociali della Toscana
Servizi prima infanzia, assistenza domiciliare, servizi complementari come quelli di pulizia e ristorazione e tutto l’ambito del turismo sociale. Sono tutti i settori della cooperazione di tipo A e tipo B che coinvolgono circa 30mila lavoratori in Toscana, che rischiano di essere duramente colpiti dagli effetti dell’allarme Coronavirus. Un sistema che rischia il collasso, se la Regione Toscana…
