2 - Fics I Read 2.0

FanFiction.Net

Just In

Community

Forum

Godhood: For Dummies by intata

Movies » Avengers Rated: M, English, Adventure, OC, Words: 121k+, Favs: 8k+, Follows: 10k+, Published: Oct 6, 2018 Updated: Sep 5

2,390Chapter 2

A/N

Intro - Part 2

Alright guys, cool it. You're freaking me out here. I only put the story up like seven hours ago and we already have six reviews and twelve favorites?

Seriously though, thanks for looking this over, and for the insightful reviews (Already! I'm used to just getting insulted off the bat. You guys are great! I mean, I've already gotten constructive criticism, and a couple ideas!).

Nathan sighed in relief as he finally came upon the Great Blue Dot: Earth. It had taken him six months to travel from the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way. There was a series of Jump Gates that he had to navigate without sparking Ravager interest, who were definitely still looking for him. He did take Alice with him when he left, after all. From there it only took a week and some change to get into the Sol system. Somewhere along the trip, it had occurred to him that he had actually turned seventeen while he was on Morag, so he threw a little party when he realized; creating some colorful confetti and blasting it around the cabin of his ship with a little bit of his Celestial powers.

He also said, "Wooo" enthusiastically.

Party of the century.

Before Nathan left Morag, he returned the closed Puzzle orb back down to the shrine in case someone came looking for it. If there was nothing to find down there at all, certain parties would go nuts. Hopefully, he would return and be able to help his brother through his adventures, but until then, he would be taking the Power Stone. The stone now had a home in a small, silver metal locket that Nathan fashioned out of his Celestial energy, and hung around his neck. He would hopefully never be forced to use it, but having it readily available was just prudent.

Pulling into Earth's orbit, Nathan paused for a minute. He had options; there were a few organizations that he wouldn't mind joining up with for the moment, or he could leg-it himself; get super rich by just making a bunch of resources with his Celestial energy, and build up a reserve of financial power that he could throw at problems. There were two issues with the 'leg-it' option, though. Those being that people would notice an influx of resources, people he didn't have the skill set to hide from, and the fact that he wasn't practiced enough in using his powers to be efficient with creation. He was pretty good with the telekinetic aspect, but molding and changing, or straight up creating matter took entirely too long on a larger scale. Oh he could do some small-scale stuff relatively quickly, having gotten a lot of practice in the past six months of travel time, but he wouldn't be able to do much more until he learned how to protect himself better. The Ravagers taught him how to fight, but that wasn't even remotely passable against anyone of note.

As for organizations; SHIELD was an option, a Hydra infested option, but an option that would guarantee training - if based off of his powers alone, but at this point in time, they were more likely to dissect him instead. He could also fuck off to Wakanda and get a taste of their super-advanced tech, but they were unlikely to let him in at all, regardless of his intentions.

Then there were the Masters of the Mystic Arts. He really had no idea what their requirements were, but he had always bore respect for those who followed the monk lifestyle. Not to mention that they were probably the only group on earth that knew about the Infinity Stones and had protected one for millennia. He might lose his own stone to them, but if they trained him and he made sure that they knew he was on their side… well they let Strange walk around with the Time Stone around his neck, didn't they? It's not like he wanted to use the damn thing anyway, just keeping it away from Thanos would be enough, especially if he got to learn magic!

Welp, that was his mind made up. The possibility of learning magic was even more attractive than using the Power Stone. It's magic! Come on!

Yep; off to Nepal, but there was a little bit of a conundrum.

Nathan didn't want to leave his ship just anywhere, so he ended up having to park it underwater off the north-eastern coast of India. Being a spaceship, it would have garnered a lot of attention, and he wanted to avoid as much of that as possible.

Under the cover of night, he dove the ship underwater a couple miles offshore and carefully parked it on the seabed. Taking a moment, he lifted his hands from the controls and looked around the small cabin. This ship had been his home for nearly a year, and he wanted to savor the moment. Oh he would be coming back to it later, but that might not be for a bunch of years yet.

He sighed and stood up from the pilot's seat. Heading back towards the airlock, he donned a pressure suit and punched the button that opened the door out to open waters. It took him about twenty minutes to reach the coast, using his energy to propel himself through the water. When he arrived, he quickly ditched the pressure suit into a nearby trash barge, and made his way inland. By the time he wanted to use his ship again, he was expecting that he wouldn't even need a pressure suit to get back to it; hoping to have developed his abilities well enough by then. Maybe he would be able to create a constant air bubble or something.

The trip to Kathmandu took about two days from there. His first stop on the morning he landed was at a pawn shop, where he traded a little more than half a pound of conjured gold for the local currency. Due to it being 1997, the value of an ounce of gold was at a little less than 20,000 rupees. He had absolutely no idea what that was in USD, or Euro, but it allowed him to stay a night at a decent hotel, and get a taxi up to the capital of Nepal. All with about 90k left over. Of course, he had to take more than one taxi, as he had to cross the border. Doing so wasn't actually that difficult, as he could fly using his energy in the same way that he propelled himself underwater. It was much more difficult than it was in the water, extremely tiring, and he couldn't go very fast, but he hopped the fence without much difficulty.

Once in Nepal; however, he ran into a pretty annoying problem. He might have been able to remember the name of the planet Morag, and other seemingly useless pieces of information, like the fact that the Masters of the Mystic Arts were located in Kathmandu, but for the life of him he could not place the name of their sanctuary.

Tama-Kuji? No.

Karma-Gag? No.

Diggy-Vaj? Ha! No.

He knew it was hyphenated, at least. People kept looking at him weird when he would ask them about it, too. The guy following him seemed to be getting pretty pissed about it, though.

"Lemur-Pug? No?" Nathan asked one passerby, then turned to the dude's friend and asked, "Rama-Dan?"

"Okay, now you're not even trying! Ramadan's a holiday!"

Nathan turned to face the man who was following him, and now marching toward him angrily. "Huh, you speak English. No comment on the 'Lemur-Pug' bit, though? Those are animals." The man was a few inches short of six feet tall, and wore a grey set of hooded monk robes, hiding his face in the shadows of his hood.

"So you admit that you were just screwing with me?!" the man sounded frustrated, lowering his hood to reveal the face of a black teenager, wearing a scowl.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Nathan commented. "Though… Care to explain why you've been following me for the past half-hour?"

The teenager looked smug for a second before visibly schooling his features. "I've been following you for quite a bit longer than that."

He might not look smug anymore, but he still sounded it.

"Uh-huh. That's creepy." Nathan replied, looking very unimpressed. Nathan did only notice him a half-hour ago, he could have been following for longer. He didn't really care either way, though.

"You lead quite an interesting life." Nathan continued, "Following strangers around… wait, are you going to mug me?"

"What?! No!"

"Then the only other logical conclusion is that you know something about Pooty-Tang-"

The teen blew up. "It's Kamar-Taj, you imbecile!"

Nathan snapped his fingers and pointed at the teen. "Right, that." He paused for a second. "You know, I'm actually kind of impressed that you knew what I was looking for even though I was just spouting nonsense."

The teen took a deep breath, obviously bringing himself back under control before responding. "It wasn't that hard, really. You are a white male in a setting that is predominantly shades of brown. You stick out like a sore thumb," He looked Nathan up and down, "especially while wearing that red leather monstrosity."

Nathan looked down at the Ravager jacket he currently wore. "I take offence to that. I like this jacket." He had been through a lot in this jacket. Not to mention how comfortable it was. He'd give the Ravagers props on that one.

The teen ignored him though. "As for how I knew what you were looking for? You've visited nearly every major shrine and temple in Kathmandu, asking random passerby about various forms of a two-part word. It was obvious." He seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, speaking more evenly now. "Kamar-Taj is not advertised. How did you hear about it?"

Nathan grinned. "I am an inter-dimensional being, born on this plane as a demigod. My original dimension had stores of knowledge that just so happened to include Kimchi-Tag-"

"Kamar-Taj!"

Nathan's grin just grew.

The teen took another deep breath. One would think that Nathan was annoying him if he wasn't careful. "Please do not lie to me."

"Hey, you asked." The grin left his face. "Suffice it to say, I want to learn how to protect something, and I believe Kamar-Taj is one of the few places that could help me do that."

The teen reached up a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, well it's not up to me, really. Let's go."

"Adventure!" Nathan exclaimed. "I'm Nathan, by the way."

"Karl." the teen sighed.

Kamar-Taj was absolutely beautiful. He couldn't help but stare as he was lead through the complex and up to the third floor of one of the buildings. The architecture was exquisite; reminding Nathan of a couple ancient Hindu temples he had the pleasure of seeing in his past life. There were no statues, but the columns and reliefs were expertly crafted.

Karl and Nathan had been waiting for about five minutes outside of the main room entrance. Neither had started any small-talk; Karl was trying to avoid it, and Nathan was busy admiring the overall structure of the place.

"The Ancient One will see you now." A short Indian man said softly, stepping through the doors and to the side, allowing them entrance.

Nathan turned to Karl. "Does everyone here speak English?"

Karl just huffed. "You'll find the study of languages quite common here, but as for Rahul… well he was born in Seattle."

"Ah." Nathan intoned eloquently.

The first person that Nathan saw as he walked in was a very old Indian man. Nearly the spitting image of Gandhi, if Gandhi was four hundred years old. The man was sitting behind a desk reading from a papyrus scroll.

What Nathan wanted to say was, 'Wow, you're really hamming up the 'Ancient One' thing, aren't you?', but he was going to at least try to be respectful. Living with the Ravagers for eight years did not do his manners any favors.

Instead, he simply said, "Thank you for seeing me," to the room, and accepted a cup of tea from a bald woman in a yellow robe.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Quill." The bald woman said with a slight smile. Having known about who she was thanks to a movie, Nathan could see the little charade they were pulling; grabbing the oldest looking motherfucker in the complex, sticking him behind a desk, and judging Nathan's reaction upon the realization that he wasn't the Ancient One.

Nathan blinked a few times, staring up at the woman in front of him. He hadn't told anyone his last name, and was honestly a little scared at what else she might know.

Maybe this wasn't the best place to come to after all.

The woman leaned to the side, looking past Nathan back towards the door. "Thank you Karl," then turned to the table, where the old guy was getting up and leaving, "Thank you Master Bodhi."

Both nodded and left the room, leaving Nathan alone with the Ancient One, who walked over to the table and began pouring herself a cup of tea. "So tell me, Mr. Quill, what brings you to Kamar-Taj?" She asked, adding a little honey to her cup.

Nathan dry-swallowed, noticing that he was suddenly a little parched, and took a sip from his own cup before answering. "I feel as if answering that question would be redundant. You already seem to know my name."

The woman smiled a bit more broadly, picking up a nearby book. "Ah, but just because you know the title, it doesn't mean you know the story."

"But by knowing the title, means you have access to the book. Who's to say you haven't read it?"

If it was possible, her smile grew. "Nonetheless, I'd like to hear it from you."

That sentence had done absolutely nothing to appease his worries, so he took a second to take another sip of tea.

He should have thought this out a little more. "Well alright. There's an object that I'm trying to protect, and I believe I can better protect it using knowledge that I can learn here."

"I assume you speak of the Infinity Stone hidden away in that locket around your neck?"

Nathan sighed and downed the rest of his cup. "This is good tea," he said lamely. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from the people here for very long, but having it thrown in his face almost immediately... well it kinda sucked.

"Thank you." She said with another smile. "The trick is in how you dry the leaves. Come, sit. I believe we may be here for a time." She moved out an extra chair for Nathan, getting him situated before going back behind the desk and sitting down herself.

As Nathan sat, he placed his empty cup on the nearby tray and removed the locket from around his neck, while the Ancient One watched him with interest.

"To answer your question, yes; I want to protect the stone, and am very aware of the forces that would try to take it from me, and how outmatched I am."

She cocked her head. "You have an Infinity Stone. What powers could possibly stand against that?"

Nathan looked up from the locket, unimpressed. "Really? You, for one."

She chuckled. "Such confidence in my abilities. I'm flattered."

He rolled his eyes, then opened the locket, allowing the room to be cast in a deep purple light. "The Power Stone." He began. "An ingot representing control over the four fundamental forces of the universe." He tilted the locket, allowing the stone to fall into his other hand.

"No!" The Ancient One started, but before she could do anything the stone was in Nathan's grasp.

And nothing happened, outside of Karl barging into the room.

Nathan couldn't help smirking slightly. This meant that the woman didn't know everything about him, otherwise she would have known how he had been pulling ambient energy from it for a while. "What?"

The woman gaped for a few seconds before regaining control. "Thank you, Karl." She said, her eyes still glued to the stone in Nathan's hand.

Karl just glanced between the other two occupants of the room before slowly leaving again, shutting the door behind him.

Another minute or so passed before either of the two said anything.

"You surprise me, Mr. Quill. Infinity stones are known to be extremely hazardous to the touch."

Nathan chuckled. "I find it comforting that you can still be surprised, but believe me, I know. The first time I picked this thing up, I nearly exploded." He shook his head, holding the stone up and rolling it between two fingers. "I've built up a resistance to it since then."

The Ancient One blinked. "One can build a… resistance to such a thing?"

"Well," Nathan made an 'Ehh' face, "No, but I have rather special circumstances."

"They must be truly special indeed." She sat back in her chair, folding her hands together in her lap. "To be able to wield an Infinity Stone directly, not having to work through a medium to access its abilities… That must be quite the incredible experience."

Nathan shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Haven't used it."

She leaned forward. "You mean to say that you've had one of the most powerful objects in the cosmos in your possession, for what I assume has been a decent time, and haven't used it?"

"Nope." He said, then paused. "Or 'Yep'." He paused again and shrugged. "Whichever means I haven't used it."

The Ancient One sat back again in her chair, looking confused for a second, then impressed. Nathan wasn't about to tell her that he was simply too afraid to use it. Let her draw her own conclusions for now.

"And you simply wish to protect the stone? To be honest, I find that doubtful." Her skepticism didn't show on her face, though.

Nathan shrugged again and decided to change the subject. "How much do you actually know about me?"

She rose an eyebrow, but allowed the conversation to move with the silent caveat of returning to that topic later. "I know everything about your life up until the point you were abducted, and then again the last few days since you've been back."

Nathan nodded. "I'm guessing my arrival with the stone set off some warning alarms, then?"

It was her turn to nod. "Indeed it did. We have a barrier of sorts around Earth, and once you breached the atmosphere, we were notified via one of the objects we have here." The barrier held up by the Sanctums doesn't only shield from Dormammu, then? Nathan also had a pretty good idea what that 'object' was, as well.

"Which is when you performed an information gathering spell of some sort, correct?"

"Many, actually. One proved your intentions to be non hostile, another gave your history with the planet, and quite frankly, the others did nothing at all. Considering that most of those are catered to non-humans and extra-dimensional beings, this makes some amount of sense."

"Some amount?"

She gestured to the purple gem in Nathan's hand. "No human can hold an Infinity Stone without 'exploding', Mr. Quill." She said, referencing his earlier use of the term with finger quotes.

Nathan laughed. "I guess you have me there."

"Care to share with the class?" She mock asked with a slight smirk.

Nathan's lips twitched, then sobered. "Tell me, how many futures have you seen? Am I in any of them?"

Her smirk died, and there was a pregnant pause. "You know, as this conversation continues, I find that your presence unnerves me more and more." She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and criss-crossing her hands in front of her nose. "You come back to Earth wielding an Infinity Stone of all things, and claim to have not used it. I do believe you in this case, because it is very difficult to lie within this room." A lie detector spell? Huh. "Then you park your spaceship in the Bay of Bengal and make a beeline straight for Kathmandu. You seem to understand what we do here and the threats that we fight, yet none of that information should be accessible in the deep reaches of space. And now you seem to be aware that the Time Stone is held here, regardless of the Sanctum shields.

"You are an enigma, Mr. Quill." She continued. "I don't much like enigmas. They tend to cause problems."

Nathan gulped. For all of his supposed bravado walking in here and talking with such a person as the Ancient One, the woman sitting across the table could wipe the fucking floor with him. Power Stone or no. Still, he had a goal, and there were more efficient ways to get there than spilling the beans right now.

Nathan sat back, placing the Power Stone back into the locket, clicking it shut, and laying it on the table. "Do you have a pen and paper?" He asked.

Her eyes narrowed, but nodded. She then took out what he asked for from a drawer in the desk and slid them over.

He nodded in thanks, taking up the pen and starting to write.

"How about this," he began, "I leave as soon as we're done talking and go grab a hotel for a couple days. While you," He stopped writing, and pointed the pen at her; which in hindsight was really rude, but his mind was split a couple ways here, so some slack would be appreciated. "Go look at some possible futures using the Eye of Agamatron. I imagine that you haven't done so in a while. I'll even hand over the glowy rock. The thing honestly terrifies me and you can protect it better than I can at the moment. I would like it back later, though; when I can better protect it. Now, as for what my father is… I would honestly prefer to not say. He's a dick, though, and killed my mom. Stabbing him in the face would make my day." He waved the pen around in a small circle and continued to write.

"Your mother died of a brain tumor," she interjected.

He ignored her in favor of jotting a couple more words down.

At this point, he put the pen down on the piece of paper and moved the locket on top of it, then slid the whole package over to the yellow robed woman.

"As for my goals, well…" He finished, gestured to the slip of paper, and sat back in his chair.

The Ancient one sat there for a minute, just analyzing the teenager in front of her. He was remarkably well spoken for one so young, and held himself with a certain blasé attitude that probably pissed a lot of people off. Even though she was a major threat to his well-being, he still lead the conversation with almost no regard to the consequences. Then he just hands over his biggest bargaining chip. The only thing that made him a threat in the first place.

'Well,' she thought, 'this does make him a little more trustworthy. If only slightly.'

"You're right in assuming I haven't examined possible futures lately. In the past, I've found that events don't tend to change much the more you examine them. I have studied them profusely, though, and noted where I wanted to make changes. The last time I looked was roughly twenty years ago, and not once was your presence made known to me."

Nathan smirked. "Well, I was born only seventeen years ago. Maybe something fundamental has changed?"

She studied him further. "Perhaps." There was a pregnant pause. "Very well. Come back in two day's time. I'll admit; you've intrigued me, Mr. Quill."

He gave her a tired smile and got up to leave.

Though before he could, "It's called the Eye of Agamotto, by the way. Not 'Agamatron'. The founder of the Masters of the Mystic Arts wasn't a Deceptacon"

Nathan blinked before turning around slowly. "Did you just throw a Transformers joke at me?" He asked incredulously. "You did, didn't you?"

She smiled and drew a small circle on the desk with her finger, opening a portal directly under Nathan's feet, depositing him just outside Kamar-Taj's front door.

It was only then that she glanced down at the paper he had given her earlier.

Goals:

1. Learn magic.

2. Find Dad.

3. Kill Dad.

4. Help keep the Earth in one piece.

5. Prevent Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones.

6. Profit?

What a useless waste of paper. Also, who the hell was Thanos?

A/N

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.

Chapter 895 - 2