Chapter 4: Shooting Stars:
The Lanes Between – Jumba Jookiba's Spaceship:
"Lorwardia!?" Jumba gased incredulously as the ship emerged from Hyperspace into orbit over the infamous green world. "What is there about slimeball planet that Unchained find so interesting?" They'd spent the last week investigating the points mapped out on the Unchained Legion's maps, and after a few refueling stops, they had finally managed to reach the second to last place they needed to investigate.
"Hang on," Tony jumped in as Stitch began working his magic under the dashboard trying to get the cloaking device Jumba had installed years ago back online. "I think I remember these guys. Weren't they the ones who sent out those giant walkers back in 2007 only to be stopped by Kim Possible but S.H.I.E.L.D. covered the whole thing up?"
"They are," Nick Fury answered with a collected nod as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "And I was hoping that Warmonga and Warhok were just extremists who acted on their own."
"It's complicated," Thor explained. "Lorwardia lacks a true government, for all the different tribes are constantly at war over the planet's throne. Those two were able to attack Earth because they were the rare Lorwardians who had the capacity to think beyond their petty day to day concerns and recognize the potential of what they could do with their technology. Ships of the make used in their attack on Earth are still built on Lorwardia, but they rarely travel farther than a few star systems from home."
"All the same," Steve commented. "We need to make sure they don't figure out that they're here." Almost as soon as the words left Captain America's lips, a fleet of warships that looked like battleaxes emerged from behind the planet, heading right towards the small ship from Earth. Before anyone could comment, their ship's console began to beep, indicating that they were being hailed. Seeing as they had no idea if they even knew who they were, Sora cautiously answered the transmission even as Jumba began to turn the ship around. The brunette Keyblade Master's blood ran cold as a familiar voice emerged over the comm frequency.
"Hello, Sora," came the voice of a familiar witch. "And here I was hoping the Tesseract had killed you."
"What do you want, Maleficent?" he demanded. His dark battle suit (nearly identical to Vanitas' only with white highlights instead of red) began forming around him as he spoke, already anticipating a fight. Fury, Jake, and the Avengers tensed as they listened to the voice of the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" for the very first time.
"Always so blunt, aren't you," the green-skinned fairy replied coyly. "But in any case, given that you can clearly see my new armada, I think what I want should be quite clear to you." For a moment, nobody in the cockpit of Jumba's ship said anything. They all knew what this show of force was meant to accomplish: their destruction. Without warning, the comm channel closed and the armada opened fire on the heroes' ship. Stitch took the controls and dove quickly, but not before one of the lead warships score a glancing blow across the ship's stern. Alarms shrieked in the cockpit as the Avengers scrambled into their seats.
"Hyperdrive damage critical," a computerized voice announced from the ship's console. "System disabled." Everyone looked at each other in surprise and panic. Without the hyperdrive, it was going to be a race to see how long they could outrun the armada. And without a hyperdrive, they would soon run out of fuel, then the Lorwardians would reduce them to atoms. Without hesitating, Jumba put the ship into a corkscrew while Stitch crawled back through the ventilation ducts to try and fix the H-Drive himself. But despite the best efforts of both, they kept taking heavy fire. Tony was halfway into his suit (which he'd upgraded for space flight over the years) when the attacking warships began taking fire themselves.
"Attention suicidal idiots," a voice with a light New Jersey accent called out over the comm channel. "This is the Milano. We can give you a lift out of here if you're perfectly fine with not dying." With no other options, Fury replied that they would be grateful for the rescue as Jumba and Stitch put their ship on an intercept course with the new arrival. With the armada distracted, Stitch began returning fire as they prepared to dock with the Ravager ship. Sora took the lead as they scrambled into the Milano and disengaged the docking tube, leaving Jumba's old ship to drive unpiloted through Lorwardian space as the armada began to fire again. The Milano took off into Hyperspace while Jumba's classic ship was blown to pieces by plasma fire.
While Jumba and Stitch looked out the airlock window moruning the fate of the old ship that they'd grown attached to over the years, everyone else was slumped against the wall, their panic subsiding as they made their way to their next destination, wherever that may be. Sora volunteered to go up and ask the captain where they were going, and was gone to the cockpit before the rest of the Avengers could tell him that they already knew whose ship this was. So the Keyblade Master was in for the surprise of his life when he reached the upper cabin and found himself face to face with what appeared to be a walking tree. His surprise only multiplied when the tree smiled and spoke three simple words.
"I. Am. Groot."
Shooting Star Milkshake Bar – Dining Room; Now:
"This place is pretty neat," Sora commented as the combined rosters of the Avengers and the ragtag bunch of renegades often referred to as the Guardians of the Galaxy were gathered around a large booth at the Shooting Star Milkshake Bar, one of the galaxy's premiere restaurants. After yesterday's Lorwardian fiasco, the group stopped at the nearest space station to refuel and sleep. The food they had on the space station was terrible at dinner, so Peter Quill, the owner of the Milano and the "Guardian's" de facto leader, recommended this place. "I just can't believe that the owners bought this place when they were ten," the Keyblade Master added/
"Phineas and Ferb sure do a lot of things that everyone else considers difficult or outright impossible," Jake commented with an amused laugh. "It's part of their charm." The young men in question were already out of college by now, and both had made names for themselves as two of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Even Tony thought that those two were geniuses, which was really saying something. Sora was going to enjoy holding that over Tony that the billionaire thought two kids who were half his age were smarter than he was. The laughter and merriment died down, though, when three familiar silver haired young men walked into the restaurant.
In an instant, Sora was on his feet, Keyblade in hand. What are Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz even doing here? He wondered to himself as the three illegitimate children of Sephiroth noticed him and readied their own weapons. At the sight of the impending battle, the whisper of news carried around the room from patron to patron. In an instant, every weapon in the bar was drawn and aimed at either the Keyblade Wielder or the angel's bastards.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," the bartender interrupted. You got any beef to pick with each other, ya take it outside." Reluctantly, Sora and the three Inhuman men dismissed or sheathed their weapons when Quill walked in between the two groups. That didn't stop them from glaring at each other though, but the rogue would take whatever he could get. Despite the glares, the freaks with silver hair seemed to be looking at him with a degree of curiosity for some reason.
"Ok, we all hate each other," Star Lord interjected. "I get that. But can we at least walk into a bar without trying to kill each other?" As he spoke, the trio's eyes widened, whether due to surprise or shock, Peter had no idea whatsoever. Nor could he guess as to why. After a short murmured conversation interrupted by passing a slip of paper among themselves, the three mercenaries turned around to face the heroes.
"Unfortunately not," Loz commented as he tossed Sora a piece of paper with a string of galactic coordinates printed on them. "We have no quarrel with you, Keyblade Master. Our business with Maleficent was for the sake of restoring our father to life. But if you insist on a fight, come to Maveth. We'll finish this there. On one condition." The oldest of Sephiroth's offspring turned nodded in the direction of Peter Quill. "Bring him with you." With that, the three siblings opened a Dark Corridor and turned to go.
"We'll see you there, big brother," Yazoo remarked towards Quill as the trio disappeared through the Corridor before it closed behind them. Brother? Peter wondered incredulously to himself as he stared at the spot they had once stood in shock. They can't really be related? Can they?
Deep Space – Grand Councilwoman's Office:
Grand Councilwoman Nitayata Simalan was not in a good mood this morning. Between all the pointless political bickering in the galactic congress and the ominous radio silence from the Lorwardian raiders, she was completely exhausted and desperately in need of a chance to blow off steam. If only Senator Pelekai hadn't gone back to Earth until today. Talking to Lilo was always guaranteed to brighten up her mood. Over the last decade and a half, the Grand Councilwoman had become something of a maternal figure towards the young human girl, showing her the ropes and helping her adjust to galactic society. Lilo was gaining a great deal of popularity in the council, and Simalan had pegged the girl as the best candidate for her successor.
Much of the galaxy was still disdainful towards Earth and humanity, but Lilo had a certain charisma about her that made others take her seriously regardless of the listener's species. Why, during her experiment hunting years, she'd created a metropolis of insects who began worshiping her as a god. If that wasn't proof of her ability to persuade people than what was? The girl was certainly an eager beaver, but for her to really make it in the political arena, she'd need the endorsement of multiple prominent council members. Nitayata was already starting to introduce her to some of the politicians whose support she would need at Council functions, but she still had a few more months before she needed to announce whether she was going to run or not.
All thoughts of convincing Lilo to run for the position off Grand Councilwoman in the next election were forced out of her mind by the sudden blarring of alarm bells and the violent shaking of the room. Nitayata's eyes widened in horror as she looked up at the skylight to find an entire fleet of Lorwardian battle ships raining plasma fire down on the surface of Turo. Without hesitation, the teal-skinned Grand Councilwoman grabbed the plasma rifle that she kept hidden under her desk for emergencies such as this. And just in time, too, as the shadows around the door began to convalesce into solid, vaguely familiar shapes.
With a whirl, Nitayata launched into the fray, blasting the oncoming Heartless with both her rifle and the pistol she kept holstered on her legs. Around her, her bodyguards charged into the rooms with their electro-staves and began thinning out the herd. Times like this make me glad I started carrying this pistol everywhere, the Councilwoman thought to herself with a wry smile as she pistol whipped one of the attacking Neoshadows into submission with a single strike. A few more blasts later, and she was free of the swarm. She and her guards bolted down the corridor towards the security center, and was relieved to find that the staff inside were unaffected.
"STATUS REPORT!" She demanded as she stormed into the room. "Why is Lorwardia attacking now? They've never come this far from their home world before!"
"Unknown, your excellency," one of the technicians reported. "We've bee hailing them, but they refuse to answer, and we have to deal with these monsters on top of that. The Galactic Armada is spread thin, and the defense grid in orbit has been all but destroyed." Suddenly, it clicked where Nitayata had seen creatures like these before. Aboard the Durgon, nearly twenty years ago, the memory of the Unversed outbreak was seared in her mind as fresh as if it had only happened just yesterday. And in an instant, she realized that, far from being pure coincidence, these creatures had come with Lorwardia's invasion, and the invasion was being goaded on by whoever created these creatures.
"Contact the Millano," she ordered. "Contact Earth. Send a message to anyone in all the surrounding systems who can spare the resources to aid us. This is clearly a siege, and our citadels were not designed with prolonged campaigns in mind. As the technicians around her scurried around to carry out her orders, Nitayata Nitamalin could only offer up the silent hope that they would last long enough for help to arrive. Because otherwise, we don't stand a chance, she thought desperately to herself. We can only hope that Aqua or someone like her with the skills to handle this outbreak hears our message and comes to remove these creatures from the equation.
And with that, things start to get more action packed. I was originally just have the Lorwardia subplot be your typical KH Disney world level plot in terms of importance to the overall story and have the characters move on afterwards, but then I started thinking about how that didn't really make sense, so when I came up with the idea of Maleficent pulling a Darth Maul, the heroes wouldn't get away from this completely unscathed. And yeah, the Guardians of the Galaxy are now in the picture. The next two chapters will focus on the two teams catching their breaths after the events of this chapter and Star Lord learning the identity of his father. I'll give you a hint: it's someone you all know. ;)
The bit about the Fallen Ones isn't going to come up again in this saga. It's just a little foreshadowing towards what the Invaders From Beyond Saga will focus on when I finally get around to it. I was debating whether to include this conversation or not but I decided that it would be fun to both expand the scale of the universe I'm building and so that the explanation won't come out of left field when I start the next saga. You'll all probably recognize the names of the Fallen ones references in this chapter and yes, that means that they all exist in this universe (although we won't actually be visiting the Legend of Korra's galaxy. Things are complicated enough as it is without throwing non-Disney properties into the mix).
And yes, Sora gets a dark battle suit like Riku and Vanitas to go with his dark powers that he got after The Xehanort War, and since I don't see the Vanitas remnant as being canon (at least in my head for now, I'll accept an explanation if Tetsuya Nomura or a future game can ever offer one), I gave Sora the VR's colors. That's right, people. Robert Gonzales of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the other High Praetor of the Unchained Legion. When I came up with the idea of the Legion having Fantastic Racism towards all half- or non-humans, and Gonzales' prejudice against superhumans fit that like a glove, so I thought that it would be an interesting twist.
I've had the idea of Maleficent invading Turo since before I ever came up with the idea of the Acolytes of Chaos saga, and I figured that if I was going to give the Grand Councilwoman a POV section, I had to come up with a vaguely sci-fi sounding name. Since I've heard her be compared to the "Greys", the generic model of aliens everyone thinks of when they think of the word extraterrestrials, I decided to make her name an anagram of Tatiyana Maslani, the lead actress of Orphan Black who plays multiple different characters all with their own distinct personalities and identities.
When I decided to have Earth already be part of the Galactic Federation, I began thinking of what Lilo's working relationship with the rest of the galaxy was like. Do the other planetary representatives look down on her because Earth is more low tech compared to their own worlds, how do they see here as an individual, etc.? And then, as I was writing this chapter, I had the sudden surge of inspiration: have Lilo be well liked enough that the Grand Councilwoman and a few other councilors think that she should run for the position as head of the Federation. I can see it now: Vote for Grand Councilwoman Lilo Pelekai.
You read that right, folks. Forget Ego the living planet. In this universe, Peter Quill's dad is Sephiroth! I came up with this idea originally as a joke about how crazy everyone's guesses about the identity of Star Lord's dad were, and then I realized that it kind of made sense given what we knew of him: not human, has something ancient in his DNA (Jenova), etc. Peter's mom's cancer could be written off as the effects of Jenova on the body in this universe, and I could give at least one of the Guardians something to do in the story besides fight and shuttle the Avengers everywhere until they get a new spaceship.
As you can guess, the invasion of Turo will be ultimate site of the Sora/Kairi and Jake/Rose reunions. Next chapter will cover the encounter with Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, along with the villains' (both the Disney villains and the Unchained) perspective on the invasion of Turo.