(Author's Note: Hello there my loyal readers and welcome to the next chapter of Skywalker's Return. Unfortunately, it's still in a "set-up" phase. Don't worry, we'll get to some really good stuff soon. Enjoy :)
Chapter One: Meeting a Legend
"Here you go sir."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Quite the reader aren't we?
Anakin smiled, "Yeah, learned that it's more important than I originally thought." The sith-turned-jedi was at a library, using the money Ashla gave him to buy as many books as he could about Earth's history. Needless to say, that it was a very time consuming process. But, he needed to know everything he possibly could about this planet if it's where he's going to be living.
During his training, his jedi mentor would make him spend a few days researching a planet whenever they were assigned a mission. Back then, Anakin truly hated it. He was more of a man of action. But now, he was glad that he'd taken the time. This world was quite different than anything he'd experienced before.
He learned that it has existed for a long time. The planet itself has been around for more than four billion years. He must be really far off in the outer rim if the jedi hadn't heard of this place. Like, he might be on the very edge of the galaxy.
With the books he got in a bag, Anakin began a trek back to his living quarters. He'd moved into a hotel so he'd have somewhere to rest and study. He'd been on Earth for about a week and a half and his days usually consisted of him getting a ridiculous amount of history books from the city's library, returning to his hotel room, and just reading them for hours.
This planet was much more primitive than what he was used to, a lesson he'd learned at his first day on it. There were a few worlds he'd been to that might be similar to Earth, but this place may not had any technology when compared to Corusant or Naboo.
Hours later, Anakin was reading book number sixty or sixty-five (he'd lost count by this point). Reading the last word, he set the book down and rubbed his eyes. He'd been cooped in his room for hours, he looked at his phone (he bought one for himself after seeing how tech-orientated this world was) and saw that it was past two in the afternoon. "Maybe it'll be good for me to get out and stretch my legs a little bit."
Taking up his bag, he left the hotel. He'd placed the Khyber crystal that the gods gave him on a necklace until he could find the proper materials to construct his new lightsaber. And given the fact that no technology he was familiar with to build his previous lightsabers were here, he suspected that it would be a while before he'd have his weapon back. And he wasn't exactly a fan of that. He never liked being without a lightsaber for long. He felt almost naked without it. He'd been going to multiple stores to see the parts that were available on the earth, but none were advanced enough to be able to contain the power of a Khyber crystal.
A little while later, Anakin was walking through the city he now resided in and was observing the people as they pass by. He couldn't help but notice how…peaceful this world seemed. He also can't help but wonder why this was the world that the gods sent him to. He would've assumed that he'd be placed somewhere closer to any of the galaxy's current struggles. This world was not involved in any of the combat or bloodshed he knew of. He looked through the history books of the planet and found nothing he recognized over the last half a century.
He kept his pack with him along with the remains of his "Vader" armor. A very large majority of it had been destroyed thanks to those criminals he'd encountered when he first arrived so what remained wasn't too useful on its own. He held on to what he supposed was a naïve hope that they could still be useful. Somehow.
The young man couldn't help but smile as he watched the people. He enjoyed the peace that this world offered, such a drastic change of pace to the last twenty-one years of his life. With his old mindset, he would have viewed these people as weak and easy to conquer. But now, he was glad at the condition of this world.
…That feeling of happiness was ruined when he started to hear the sound of gunfire and screaming. Quickly turning his head, Anakin saw a group of men wearing all black firing machine guns (learned from one of his readings) in every direction. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a scarf which he wrapped around his face and pull his hoodie over his head. Seeing one of them aim their gun at a small family, Anakin used a force push to send the man flying. He then telekinetically lifted multiple cars before throwing the vehicles towards the men. Some of them saw the one attacking them and began to open fire on Anakin.
Using the force to amplify his speed and agility, Anakin raced over behind cover. He began using the force to throw some of the guys into the buildings next to them, wanting to make them all focus their firepower on him instead of innocents. This turned out to work as all remaining criminals began firing on Anakin's current location. Remembering a trick that he'd used before his turn, Anakin shut his eyes and placed his hand (the non-artificial one) on the ground beneath him. As the criminals began to move in, Anakin shot a burst of force energy through the ground which caused them all to go slamming into any and all things around them. Anyone caught in his attack was immediately knocked unconscious.
Just as he went up to restrain them, he felt something sharp fly into his neck. As he pulled it out, the object was revealed to be a dart of some kind. He felt weak and feel to one knee.
"Just couldn't mind your own business, could you? Everyone wants to be a hero nowadays," turning to the sound of the voice, Anakin only got smacked with the end of a gun. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the criminals retreating.
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"Uhhhhh," Anakin woke up with an extreme pain in his head, no doubt from where he took a gun to it. In spite of it, Anakin found the strength to stand up.
When he did, he noticed that his arms felt like they were being pulled back to the ground. Opening his eyes, he saw that there were chains wrapped around his arms. He tried to use the force to break the chains, but he felt too weak to do so. Looking around, he found himself in an empty, steel grey room. He forcefully pulled on his chains, but they didn't rupture. Taking in a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down as he tried to examine the situation that he found himself in.
Those men who attacked the city were (most likely) some form of terrorist organization. After he opposed them, he was captured. The question is why did they capture him instead of just putting a bullet in his head and being done with it? He was willing to bet that he prevented, or at least delayed, them from accomplishing their goal and him being a telekinetic (he didn't need anyone to know what he really was right now) you'd think that they would want someone like him out of the way. No, there must have been a reason as to why they kept him alive. Unfortunately, all he could do right now was wait until his full strength had returned to him.
He leaned against the cold steel wall before sitting down and shutting his eyes to think. During his fight with them, the attack he used through the ground left him more than a little surprised. He'd performed the move before, during the Clone Wars, but he'd never done it with such devastation. It was almost difficult to control. Guess he'd forgotten how strong he was before he got placed in that damn suit. That's not surprising, considering that it's been more than forty years since he's been in his prime.
He'd been so preoccupied with learning about the Earth's culture and history, that he'd neglected training and getting used to being back in his full body. First he needed to find a way out of here, and then he would start putting more effort into his training.
He let out a calming breath and opened his eyes, his brain working on overdrive for a way to free himself. Seeing as how there's no way he'd be able to break through these chains with his own strength, it seemed as though his best bet would be to wait for his energy to return and use the force to escape. "(Sighs), now is a time where I really wished that I had a lightsaber." Anakin then heard a stomping sound and a muffled voice. If he was right, someone was coming his way! "This could work."
Two figures walked into the room, both of them wore all black with goggles to cover their eyes on their masks. One of them (Anakin could only assume this one to be the leader) stepped forward and laughed, "Ah, kids these days. Trying too hard to imitate those costume-wearing freaks," his statement caught Anakin's attention. He'd learned (very quickly in fact) that this planets has multiple groups of guardians, or "heroes".
"Oh, you'll find out that I'm much more different than the heroes that you're familiar with."
"Oh, is that a fact?" The leader stepped forward, with his hand "ever so subtlety" reaching to the gun in his holster in a poor attempt to intimidate Anakin. Oh if only he had any clue as to who he was truly dealing with.
"Actually, it is," Anakin wore his signature arrogant smirk, the very same one that had gotten on the nerves of his friends hundreds upon hundreds of times during the Clone Wars. It actually felt good to do it, maybe given to how his life has been in the last twenty-one years of his life.
"I see that we've got ourselves a smartass here," without any hesitation, the leader smacked Anakin which caused the jedi to fall to the ground, "I'm not a big fan of smartasses."
"Aw, does that mean we can't be friends?" Anakin's comment received another blow to the head. As he looked back at the leader while smirking, he noticed something sparkling on his chest, "What is that? A necklace?"
The leader looked down at where the young man was referring to, "Oh yeah. I saw this little gem on you when my men brought you in and it looked like it cost a pretty penny," closer examination revealed that he was wearing Anakin's necklace with his khyber crystal!
The jedi suddenly lunged forward, but was stopped inches away by the chains, "Give that back!"
The leader smirked as he motioned for his man to lower his gun, "Aw, what's wrong? Did I take a family heirloom? A treasure you discovered? Or maybe a gift from that special lady in your life."
Anakin's face darkened immensely, "If you knew anything about me and my past, you wouldn't have said that you son of a bitch."
The leader shot Anakin a hateful glare (though not nearly as hateful as the man in front of him), "If there's one thing that I really don't tolerate, it's disrespect boy," he raised his fist with the attention of a few teeth loose this time, but suddenly a noise came from his walkie talkie. He walked away and talked on it for a few seconds before walking back and turning to the other man in the room, "I've gotta go deal with an issue in our defenses, you stay here. Get some information out of this punk and figure out if there's any of freak friends of his that we need to worry about, using any means necessary," the man nodded almost happily at his leader's last statement. The leader shot one dirtier look at Anakin before walking out of the room.
The remaining goon walked closer to Anakin, "Tell us what we what to know, and I can promise that your death won't be as painful."
Feeling a little more energized, Anakin decided to use an old trick that he hadn't used in a while. The young jedi looked the goon right in his eyes (or goggles in this case), "You will release me from these chains," he spoke in a monotone voice as he waved his hands.
Endless seconds seemed to tick by until, "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WHAT, WHAT WAS THAT?! YOU WILL RELEASE ME FROM THESE CHAINS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Anakin glared at the laughing goon with immense hatred, maybe he wasn't as empowered as he thought.
Allowing himself a calming breath, Anakin tried again, "You will release me from these chains." Anakin put more power into his words, and this didn't go unnoticed by the man.
"W-What?"
"You will release me from these chains!"
If Anakin could see the man's eyes, he would have seen their vacant look, "I will release you from those chains." Pulling a key from his belt, the man walked over to the imprisoned jedi and freed him from the chains around his arms. Anakin couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as the metal came undone from his arms.
After Anakin stood up, he used the force to reach into the man's mind in an attempt to obtain some useful information. After finding what he was looking for, he proceeded to knock the man unconscious with a single punch from his artificial hand, "Thanks." Anakin then opened the door and, once he made sure that the coast was clear, began making his way through the structure. As he came to an intersection, he could have sworn that he heard a woman's voice. Shutting his eyes and using the force to enhance his hearing, he listened.
"Please, let my children go. They don't deserve this."
"Cry me a river, you whiny little bitch." His eyes shot open as he heard a smacking sound. Moving based on memory, Anakin turned left to reach the source of these voices.
He needed to hurry, though. He couldn't let that leader do anything to damage his khyber crystal. He was light-years away from any others and he doubted that the gods would give him another one, if they somehow knew. But, he couldn't abandon people who needed help, that wasn't the jedi way.
As he moved closer to his destination, he heard the sounds of fighting, yelling, and gunfire. Increasing his speed, Anakin raced to the room where he heard the noises. As he opened the door, he saw the goons in the room where unconscious, other prisoners out of their cells...and what may be the strangest man Anakin had ever seen.
He wore a suit that was primarily blue with a white star on his chest and red and white stripes that ran vertically from the top of his stomach to his waist. He wore red boots and gloves and white on most of his arms. He had on a blue mask that left only his lower face and eyes uncovered. It had two small white wings on the sides of his head and a large white "A" on his forehead. In his right hand he held a shield. The shield was circular with red and white stripes that wrapped around it. In the center was a large white star in dark blue circle.
Anakin barely had enough time to prevent his head from being lopped off as the mysterious man threw his shield about three seconds after their eyes met. As he looked up, he saw the man racing toward him at (what seemed to be) inhuman speeds. He managed to dodge the first punch, but wasn't quick enough to avoid the leg that slammed into his gut quickly after.
The jedi responded by using the force to slam the man into one of the walls. He then telekinetically lifted him into the air and held his body in place, "Who are you? Are you in league with these men?"
"I'm Captain America, I received word that a group of terrorists had kidnapped dozens of innocent people and came here to rescue them."
Anakin looked at the man with squinted eyes. He believed that he had heard of someone who went by the name of "Captain America", but he was still hesitant about the costumed man. Although the prisoners looked relieved to see him when he first came into the room and looked scared when it seemed as though he was beaten, so he'd give this man the benefit of the doubt. For now.
Keeping his eyes on the man, Anakin slowly lowered him until his feet touched the ground. He walked over to the multicolored shield on the floor, picked it up, and handed it back to the captain.
"Who are you?"
"The name's Anakin. I saw these men attacking and tried to stop them, but was captured as a result."
"Why?"
"Don't know, not particularly keen on finding out."
The captain seemed to think for a minute, "Well, if you and I are on the same side, we need to get ourselves and these civilians out of here."
"I managed to figure out something that might help. A hanger not too far from here, planes that'll definitely be big enough to fit everybody. A right from this door, two more rights, and then a left." Nodding, the captain began to lead the civilians out of the room.
Once everyone was out, he noticed that Anakin was moving in the opposite direction, "Where are you going?"
"The leader of whoever these people are has something very important to me, and I can't leave without. You lead the civilians and escape in one of the planes. I'll get what's stolen from me, and then I'm out too. Don't wait for me."
"You shouldn't go alone."
"I'm have too. You need to lead them out of here. I can handle myself just fine. More than you could possibly know," Anakin muttered that last part under his breath. Captain America nodded before he continued his trek with the rest of the civilians. Anakin took in a calming breath before turning around, "Alright, let's do this."
Anakin spent the next few minutes navigating his way through the compound, avoiding all soldiers there were and knocking out any ones that spotted him. He was growing more and more pissed off as he continued failing in finding the leader, but he forced himself to calm down. Being in enemy territory with all directions having hostile soldiers who had him outnumbered and outgunned, he was at a massive disadvantage and his anger would only end up getting him killed if he can't keep it under control.
"What the hell do you mean they got out?! Well, go look for 'em you brainless morons!" Recognizing that screaming voice, Anakin followed it to an open room. Peaking his head from behind the corner, Anakin saw the leader from before standing in the middle of the room and screaming his head off at his troops. He was very easy to identify, given the bright glow that was radiating from the khyber crystal.
As much as he wanted to rush in there and rip it from around the leader's neck, he knew that he needed a plan. Looking around, he saw that the troopers were racing out of the room in their attempts to search for Captain America and the rest of the civilians. Although he hoped that they would all make it out of here in time, this gave him the perfect opportunity to get his crystal.
Moving as silently as possible, Anakin began making his way closer and closer to the leader until he was merely a few feet away, "Hey!" The leader turned at the sound of his voice, "I think you have something that belongs to me."
"So, you got out too? Looks like I need some better prisons."
"No, you need to be careful who you challenge." With a force push, Anakin launched the leader into the wall. As he walked closer, pain suddenly exploded in his soldier. Seeing the man wielding a pistol, Anakin dove out of the way of another bullet and took cover behind some boxes.
"Come on boy! What happened to all that confidence a moment ago? Surely a super powered freak like you can't be scared of a little toy like this!" Anakin could barely focus on this guy's rambling as the pain in his shoulder was growing more intense. It didn't burn as much as a shot from a blaster rifle but, because it had never happened before, a new feeling a pain was flowing through his system.
Seeing some barrels to the far right of him, Anakin chucked them in the leader's direction in hopes of hitting him. The grunt of pain told him that he did. Quickly standing up, Anakin used the force and pulled the necklace from the leader's neck and into his hand. Hearing the sounds of thumping and yelling, he turned to see more than a dozen soldiers running in his direction. He leaped behind the boxes again as they opened fired.
Even though he got his crystal back, Anakin found himself in a very bad situation. He was outnumbered fifteen to one and even if he knocked away a few, the rest would kill him less than a second later. Even worse, he didn't have the energy to perform the same "force wave" from under their feet that he did in the city. Come on Anakin, think!
Apparently, though, he didn't have to. In the corner of his eye, he saw a projectile being thrown at the soldiers. After witnessing two of them being knocked unconscious, he turned to see Captain America racing into the room. He leaped into the air and kicked one of the soldiers in the chest with both of his feet before showing great speed by upper cutting another about two seconds later.
The hero quickly picked up his shield to defend himself as the remaining soldiers opened fired. He bravely charged forward, blocking every shot they fired, before he leapt into the air and chucked his shield at them. They were stunned by the shockwave for a few seconds, but it was more than enough for him. He punched another soldier in the face before grabbing one and tossing him into another. As a fourth soldier raised his gun, Captain America kicked it from his hand before picking up his shield and bashing him in the head.
He raised his shield just in time to deflect the shots of the remaining soldiers. He jumped into the air again but this time he landed on a soldier, his shield smashing into his chest. He knocked out the legs of one soldier and then threw his shield into another. He knocked the fallen soldier unconscious with a single punch before blocking another soldier as he swung his gun at the superhero. He punched the soldier three times in the face before sending him away with a kick to the chest.
He picked up his shield and leaped behind one of the remaining soldiers. He slammed him in the side with the front of his shield before throwing it to the chest of another. He then jumped and grabbed it in midair as the remaining two fired. He ran toward them, blocking their shots, and used his shield to lift one of them in the air and throw him into boxes in the room. The superhero then raced forward and slammed the final soldier in between his shield and the wall.
Taking a few steps back, Captain America then looked and saw Anakin standing up, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Where are the others?"
"I took out the guards in the hanger and took them to hide in one of the aircrafts. I left them with some of the terrorist's guns as a last resort should I not get back in time or at all," the superhero saw something glowing in Anakin's hand, "Is that what you came back for?"
Opening his hand, Anakin stared at the khyber crystal, "Yeah. I know it might not look like much, but this is very important to me and my future. Where's the leader?" The two of them looked around, but there was no trace of him.
"Looks like he got away in the conflict. I contacted some people I know who will be here soon to arrest the terrorists and search the base. They'll find him."
Anakin nodded and the two began their trek to the hanger. When the finally got there, the captain put his hand on Anakin's shoulder, "What?"
"I just wanted that I'm a little impressed by your commitment to getting your crystal. Some wouldn't say that it was the smartest decision."
"Well, I'm not exactly the smartest guy," the two share a laugh.
"You're something special, kid. If you're ever in New York City, come by Avengers Mansion. I know a few people would might want to meet you."
"I'll keep that in mind." The two boarded the aircraft along with the rest of the civilians and Captain America flew them out of the base. This whole experience made Anakin certain about two things. One: he needed to put more focus into his training. And two: he's gonna have to take a look into the superheroes of this world. With what the gods told him about the new sith army, it'll help to have a few allies on this planet.
Maybe more than a few.
(Author's Note: And there ends our first real chapter. Really hoped that you guys enjoyed. So, Anakin has met Captain America? Cool. I haven't read many comics so I based the captain's personality mostly on the MCU. If you still have a problem with how he's written, it's my first time writing these characters and I need some practice to get their personalities right. Just be patient. Next time, we'll see Anakin meet another popular marvel character (I don't know their exact popularity so don't hold me to that statement). Though that meeting won't go as smoothly as this one? But, who knows what that means?
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Well, I know but you guys have to wait and find out next time. FYI, the terrorist leader may return in the story. It's something I'll think about. Anyway, review, favorite, follow, and I'll see you guys next time :)