Heroes Of The Galaxy: The New Avenger

Chapter 8: Re-emerging

Five months later

Ezra was inside a quinjet with Stark, Steve, Daisy, and Thor. They had heard reports of drones scouting out the Raft and T'Challa, Black Panther as Ezra learned, told them he'd join them there. The quinjet landed and they exited, Stark wearing his Iron Man suit, Steve wearing his Captain America gear, Daisy with her gauntlets, and Thor holding his hammer. They saw a man in what looked like a black tire rubber suit walk towards them. The head disintegrated into the body with a purple hue, revealing T'Challa.

"It is great to see you," he said, "my friends."

"Your highness," Steve said, "are they still secure?"

"The prisoners are still locked away. There has been no activity for several days."

"What do these drones look like," Stark asked, "because the kid might be able to identify them."

"Follow me."

They soon entered a command center which had screens with all the inmates, and Ezra was awestruck. There were lots of humans, which looked harmless enough, but then there were others that creeped him out. He saw a strange droid who kept rambling about how he would cause the "Avenger Extinction", a man who was glowing orange, breathing fire, and trying to melt the walls to escape, and a being that almost looked like a Nautolan shouting about "inhumans ruling over you all". Ezra wondered how many of the others could be considered dangerous.

"Let's see these drones," Daisy said, "the sooner we're gone, the better for the guards."

Images flashed of the drones. They looked like they shouldn't even be able to fly. The drone's designs were a ball camera type object between two vertical wings.

"Ezra," Thor said, "what do you make of this?"

Ezra looked and immediately lost some of his breath.

"TIE fighters," he whispered to himself.

"Whats?" Tony asked.

"Those aren't unmanned drones," Ezra said aloud, "they're TIE fighters; the main starfighter force of the Empire."

The five others were concerned.

"Does this mean," Daisy asked, "Thrawn has come out of hiding?"

"Probably. The next time one of them comes, Stark will you follow it?"

"If it means catching this guy," he replied, "yes."

"The rest of the Avengers," Steve said, "will attack when we learn where Thrawn's camp is located."

"So, that's it then?" Daisy asked, "We're just going to wait here until--"

"We have another one incoming," interrupted somebody in the command center, "preparing defenses to ward it off."

"That was unrealistically fast," Daisy said.

"Defenses are up," another person stated, "get ready, Iron Man, it'll turn tail in 3... 2... 1..."

It continued forward.

"It's not turning around," someone said in concern, "fire a warning shot."

A bullet whizzed past the TIE, but instead of retreating, it continued onward. The techs in the command center were all in shock; they didn't know what to do. The fighter moved into attack position. They finally got over their shock too late. The TIE fired green bolts of energy into all the turret emplacements. By the time they finally brought the system to full alert there was only one gun left. It fired a volley at the TIE as it screamed towards it. It got a lucky shot and killed the pilot inside, but that meant that the fighter would crash into the gun; which it did.

"Lower the prison," T'Challa said, "I get the feeling that that wasn't the last of them."

Almost as if on cue, almost a dozen other flight craft appeared on screen. Two flew in front of the pack. A few seconds later they heard explosions from the sealed hangar. Not too long after, they heard an even louder explosion.

"STOP THE PRISON!" T'Challa shouted, "They have breached the hangar!"

The Raft stopped going down. Several craft descended into the hangar and landed.

"Make sure they don't breach the detetion center," he said in the intercom, "I will join you all shortly."

He then turned to Steve and Thor.

"You two," he said, "with me." He addressed the rest of them. "You three stay here and guard this command center."

Black Panther's helmet formed on his head again. The three left the room quickly, leaving Iron Man, Ezra, and Daisy nervously waiting. Ezra chanced a quick glance at the screens and saw the other three arrive at the hall in front of the detention cells. The hall began to fill with blaster bolts and gunfire. Steve's shield and Thor's hammer deflected the blaster bolts back to the troopers. Black Panther charged into the fray and Ezra saw purple energy pulse onto several of the troopers there, sending them flying.

The door to the command center started to crackle with energy, snapping Ezra's attention back to the here and now. The door blew up, filling the room with smoke. Stark fired a few shots into the smoke; they all heard grunts and screams as the repulsor beams hit stormtroopers. Daisy cleared the smoke quickly. Ezra pushed several of the troopers back with the Force. Only seconds after it began, it ended just as abruptly. The ships flew out of the hangar after the stormtroopers returned to the ships. Iron Man flew through the halls and followed the ships.

"Ezra," Steve said through an earpiece, "Daisy, back to the quinjet. It'll take some time for Tony to follow them to their base."

Next part coming soon.