WHAT IF THE AVENGERS LANDED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLONE WARS?
It was just another ordinary day in the Jedi Temple. At least, that's what it seemed like at the time.
Kate Bishop was one of the few Avengers present at the time. The other Avengers were elsewhere in the galaxy, dealing with their own issues. Some were out fighting Count Dooku to end the war, while others were engaged in various tasks related to the Separatist droid army.
Kate grabbed her quiver and bow from her room as she made her way outside. She wandered through the halls and saw everyone going about their business as usual. They were mostly waiting to hear back from Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was on a mission to finish off General Grevious so that they could finally bring an end to the Clone Wars. It had been a long road since they first appeared in this world.
When the Avengers were sent to this world, Peter Parker was discovered by Master Yoda on a mission. Since then, the Avengers have slowly been brought back together over the years.
"Heard that the war might be coming to an end soon." One of the clones muttered.
"Could you imagine?" Another asks.
"Not really. What would come of us if that day ever came?" The first one questions.
Kate sighed as she walked down the stairway and passed a group of Younglings being escorted to their lessons. She was more concerned about what would become of the Avengers after the war was over. There was likely still going to be a crime somewhere across the galaxy, but she doubted that the Jedi would continue to house them once they had served their time as allies in the war.
"Commander Bishop," one of the clones nodded to her as she passed him.
"Clint, how many times do I need to say that you can call me Kate?" Kate asks him with a laugh. She named this clone who's been at her side for many missions after the original Hawkeye as she thought it was a fitting name.
"Sorry, Commander. It still doesn't sound right to me," Clint said.
"Well, maybe after the war finally ends," Kate joked as she kept on going.
"Hey, Kate," Scott Lang greeted as he walked past.
"Scott." Kate greeted Scott. "Hope, great to see you."
"Hey, Kate," Hope Van Dyne greeted her.
Kate sighed as she walked over and ran into the person she was looking for. "Yelena."
Yelena smiled at Kate Bishop. "Wondering when you would wake up, sleepy head," she said with a grin. "You missed all the excitement."
"What excitement? The droid factories everywhere are all but destroyed. Dooku is gone, and Grievous is the last remaining threat to the galaxy." Kate replied. She sighed as she looked out and saw some Jedi younglings training in the quad. "I mean, did you wonder what we were supposed to be doing after the war?"
I would like to imagine we would be swept off our feet and brought back home," Yelena half-joked as she sighed and leaned against the wall. "But it's a fool's idea. We are going to have to get used to the idea that we are going to be living here."
"Could work out," said Kate. "Maybe we could hijack a ship if they don't lend us one and set up our own self-defense operation somewhere for money."
"Always thinking of others, aren't you, Kate Bishop?" Yelena scoffed as she looked at the Younglings.
"You have got to say my full name every time?" Kate questions. "I feel like you should be over that."
Yelena asked, "Does it still make you uncomfortable?"
"Yes, a little," Kate admitted.
"Then it is necessary." Yelena joked.
Kate scoffed as she returned to watching the children being taught how to move with their Lightsabers. As she continued to stare, Yelena looked over and noticed a few of the Clones were reaching for their helmets, indicating they were receiving a message. But as far as she knew, these were the Temple Clones meant only for guarding the palace. Why would they be receiving orders?
Then she began to notice a few other things, such as the fact that a few clones were whispering among themselves. She didn't like where this was going. Then she watched a few of them turn off the safeties on their blasters.
Yelena turned to her friend. "Kate Bishop? Get ready to run."
"What?" Kate didn't follow at all what she was saying. "What are you talking about?"
Then Yelena saw a few of the clones begin to raise their blasters. "Run!"
Out of nowhere, the clones began firing on their own commanders or other members of the Jedi and their friends. Scott was the first to get shot; he didn't even expect anything was going on. By the time Hope figured it out, she reached for her shrinking button on the suit but was already shot by the time she did so. Yelena reacted quickly, reaching for her blaster and managing to get off a few shots before she backed away to hide behind one of the statues.
Kate jumped and hid as she was mainly confused as to what just happened. "What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know, but I want to live to get some answers," Yelena stated as she readied her Widow Bites. "We gotta get the hell out of here."
Kate looked over and saw the Jedi Master training the younglings was defending them. But she wasn't fast enough, and there were too many Clones. Kate sighed and knew she couldn't let these kids die. She reached up and grabbed her bow and arrows before taking aim and shooting the Clones down. A few Clones got a few hits on the kids, but Kate wasn't going to give up on saving who she could.
Yelena decided to jump into the fray and helped shoot several of the clones herself. Kate grabbed another one of her trick arrows and shot an explosive arrow that flew across the temple and hit a balcony. When the balcony exploded, it took a squad of the clones with it. Grabbing another arrow, she aimed her bow at another clone when she was shot in the left arm. Crying in agony, she dropped her bow and looked around, seeing that the clone who shot her was Clint.
"Clint?!" Kate exclaimed in surprise upon seeing her friend had been affected by the same phenomenon. "Why?"
Clint said, "Good soldiers follow orders."
Yelena then entered as she shot another Widow Bite and killed Clint. Kate looked at her and watched as Yelena ran over and helped her stand up. "Don't go dying on me now, Kate Bishop."
"The kids..." Kate winced in pain. "We have to help them."
Yelena looked back and saw that the Master was killed, and most of the Younglings were already slaughtered in the after-effect of that moment. Yelena was unhappy with herself that she could not manage to save them. But then she noticed that there was one lightsaber still swinging around on the upper levels. Yelena knew that there must be a Jedi left that she could help and had an idea. Grabbing Kate's bow, she wrapped Kate and herself with her grapple hook from the gauntlets. Then she used a grapple arrow to drag them up to the higher levels where they saw a squad of clones closing in on a young girl.
"Not on my watch," Yelena muttered as she disconnected from Kate. Kate groaned and leaned against the elevator doors. "Stay here. I need to take care of some aggression."
Yelena approached the clones, who seemed to have not even taken notice of her. It was like they were filled with one purpose to focus and kill the Jedi. Even if they were just children. Yelena attacked the clones, shooting one in the back with her blaster before shooting another with a Widow Bite, causing him to spritz out in pain and fall to the ground. Then, with the last clone, she aimed her blaster at him, and he aimed his blaster at her, and she grabbed it from the hilt and smacked it out of his hands before kicking him over the balcony.
The little girl shuddered in fear as she backed away from Yelena and kept her green saber in front of her. Yelena raised her hands and lowered her gun. "Easy, kid. We don't know what's going on, but we want to help. What's your name?"
The young Jedi wasn't sure what to do or who to trust. She thought that she could trust the Clones and they shot down her Master. "Amber." She saw that they hadn't tried to kill her and had actually saved her, meaning that they must want to help. "Amber Morgan."
"Alright, Amber, let's get out of here," Yelena said and led Amber toward Kate. But then she looked and noticed dozens of Clones coming up the stairway. "О Боже."
Yelena shot a few more Widow Bites as she pushed the button to summon down the elevator. Kate managed to pick up one of the Clone's blasters while leaning against the wall and used her right hand to open fire on the clones to protect Yelena and the kid.
Amber helped out wherever she could by deflecting the stray shots to keep them from hitting her teammates. When the elevator arrived, Kate was the first one in, quickly followed by Amber.
Kate cried out, "Yelena, come on!" as she struggled to keep the doors open.
Yelena saw if she didn't hold these clones back, they would just swarm the elevator. She knew what she had to do and turned to Kate. "Kate...keep the kid safe."
"What?" Kate didn't follow what she was saying. "Yelena!"
Yelena pushed Kate out of the door and offered a friendly smile. "Don't worry," she said. Then she shot another clone before it could advance on her. "This will be a cool way to die!"
"Don't!" Kate cried, but it was too late; the doors had already closed.
Kate and Amber were left alone in the elevator, neither of them sure what to do next. They needed to get out of the temple and try to regroup with some others, but were there any others left?
When the elevator opened, Kate let out a sigh of relief as she recognized the Jedi. "Kelleran!"
Kelleran Beq looked over and noticed Kate and recognized she was injured. "Bishop! Morgan!" He ran over to their side, and they recognized he had a carrier that was holding Grogu inside of it. A small youngling that was the same species as Master Yoda. "Are there any others with you?"
"No, we're the only ones left," Kate said sadly.
Kelleran sighed in sadness as he processed the news of losing everything in the Temple. But he couldn't dwell for long as dozens of more clones began to approach them.
Kelleran drew his two lightsabers and quickly began to deflect the blaster fire. He spun his sabers around, while Amber helped him by protecting his six, while Kate stumbled towards the ComfortRide passenger airspeeder. When she saw the droid that was driving it, she didn't even bother explaining and just shot it in the face.
"Sorry, had one of those days," Kate sighed as she climbed into the vehicle. The carrier holding Grogu quickly flew in and placed itself safely inside. Kelleran leaped and skidded into the passenger seat, while Amber then jumped into the vehicle and continued deflecting the blaster fire.
One of the Clone ships flew into their vicinity and began to fire upon them. Once again, Amber was trying her best to deflect the shots and stay on board the ship as they flew around to try and escape. Grogu hit a button that ended up closing his capsule, and that was probably for the best.
Kelleran looked and noticed the wound on Kate's arm was only getting worse. "That doesn't look good."
"It doesn't exactly feel great either," Kate stated.
Before Kelleran could respond, the engine to their pod was shot out. "They took out the engine!"
Kate looked around for an escape and noticed the train tunnel. "There!"
Kelleran seemed to follow what she was thinking and made a sharp turn to get them into the tunnel. Amber dropped down into her seat to avoid getting hit when they saw a train approaching. They managed to avoid the train and escape while the ship was destroyed by ramming the front of the train.
"Where do we go now?" Kate asks.
"Hang on, we're gonna meet up with some friends of mine," Kelleran assured them. "But hang on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride."
And a bumpy ride that it was. They crash-landed onto a small platform, which ended with them being flung from their transport and rolling around. When they stopped, they got a look and saw they were right outside of a Naboo cruiser.
"Kelleran Beq!" One of the crew ran over to help him and Kate up.
"They're right behind us!" Kelleran warned them.
"Where are the others?"
Kelleran sighed as he looked at the four of them. "There are no others."
Then before they even had a chance to breathe, a new transport carrier came flying down and a squad of troops opened fire on the four of them.
"Take the ship! It's fueled and ready to go!" The crew member assured them as they held off the clones.
Kelleran wasn't told twice as he ran into the ship and everyone else followed after him. When they entered the ship, they were quick to take off as Kate still held onto her arm. They were chased after by Clone ships, but by the time they breached the planet's atmosphere, they jumped into Hyperspace and managed to escape.
Kate finally had a moment to calm down and relax. She wasn't sure what they were going to do or even what she was supposed to do now. She was the last surviving Avenger.
Or so she thought.
Her bow began to send out a distress signal that could only be accessed by an Avenger. Kate jumped and saw that there was a chance that there could have been other survivors out there.
Kelleran and Kate after landing thought it would be best if they split off into two groups so that they wouldn't be discovered. Kate and Amber followed the tracker until they made it to Umbara. It was a strategically hidden planet and had millions of places to hide if anyone would follow or sneak around for a quick escape. Kate also had to get her arm looked at before she followed the tracker, but by that point, it was too late to save it. Her arm was amputated due to the bacteria that she picked up from everything that went down. She managed to get a replacement for it. If that's what you can call a robotic replacement for what was once a part of you.
"Hello?" Kate was not sure if calling out was the best idea. Yet again, there was no real way to locate or pinpoint where the other Avengers were. "Anyone here?"
"Are we sure that's the best idea?" Amber asks.
"I don't really have a better one." Kate shrugged. "You?"
Amber shrugged as she walked over to a part of the plants and placed her hand against it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She began to sense the presence of other people that come through the area earlier.
"They were here," Amber stated. "They are watching over us."
"Can't really blame us, can you?" A voice called out.
Kate grabbed an arrow and immediately aimed it into the air to try and see who was talking. Then she saw two people at the top of the plants leap down to them. That was when she recognized the two of them and kept her bow raised. It was Peter Parker and Captain Rex.
"Hey, Kate." Peter was relieved to see another friend survived. "It's okay, you can lower your bow."
"Commander." Rex nodded with a sigh, seeing she kept the bow aimed at him. "It's okay."
"The clones turned on us!" Kate proclaimed as she refused to lower the bow. "They killed everyone."
"We know." Rex sighed as he remembered what happened. "But I didn't."
"Kate, Rex helped us escape." Peter tried to explain to her.
"Us?" Kate was slightly relieved to hear others escaped.
"Ahsoka is alive," Peter explains to her.
Kate gasped in relief and smiled. "She is? Where is she?"
"She left," Rex answered. "She was done fighting."
Kate sighed as she slowly put her bow down. "So, this is it?"
"Yeah..." Peter was sorry to say. "This is all of us."
"So, what do we do now?" Amber wonders.
Peter and Rex looked at one another and nodded. They already had a talk about this, and they decided that they were going to keep fighting. "We are going to keep fighting. We understand if you guys don't want to."
"What else are we supposed to do?" Amber asks. "I am a Jedi."
"In training." Rex reminded her. "The Jedi are gone."
"All the more reason we should keep fighting," Amber stated. "They think we're gone. We can fight in the shadows."
"You got a ship?" Kate asks.
"We got a ship," Rex confirmed. He then tapped his earpiece and contacted someone. "Cheep. Bring it over."
Then Kate looked over and watched as a ship came flying over that the Guardians would call the Bowie. It came flying down and landed. When the doors opened, CH-33P came rolling out and grunted and bleeped.
"Hey, cool it. We were gone for like an hour." Peter replied to the droid as he got on the ship. "We've got some new recruits."
"Cheep?" Kate was surprised to see him. "You survived?"
"We found his body and spent the last few weeks repairing him," Rex explained as he came aboard. "Come on, I'll show you where you'll be staying."
3 YEARS LATER
The heroes were making their way through the galaxy. The years haven't been easy on them after everything that they have gone through and suffered. They lost and gained dozens of allies and friends. Their actions against the forming Empire have turned them to get the name of the Protectors of the Nebula.
A year after the rise of the Empire, the Protectors were on a mission on Mandalore, where they were greeted by Bo-Katan Kryze. After the mission, one of the Rook Clan members wanted to join the Protectors of the Nebula, so that other planets wouldn't suffer the same fate as Mandalore. That blue armored Mandalorian, Kyler Rook, became a member at the age of 14 and was now about to turn 18. Amber had been doing everything that she could to keep up with her Jedi training over the years, while Rex helped out on that the best that he could.
Kate walked through the ship as she was fixing her official Protectors uniform. They decided a while back that everyone should have a uniform and they should have a symbol to help identify themselves as Protectors and a symbol to rally the galaxy behind. The symbol looked almost like the top of a flower, but their uniforms looked almost janitorial with the design and the dark blue and red fire to go along with it.
Over the years, Kyle wasn't the only other member to join the crew of the Protectors. Omega was one of the few last clones to ever be created before the Empire destroyed Kamino. She was once a part of the group known as Clone Force 99, AKA the Bad Batch, but...let's say that there were casualties. In order to stay hidden, Omega grew out her hair and dyed it black so as to go unrecognized by the Empire.
They were currently answering a distress signal while currently traveling through Hyperspace. They were listening to a few tunes in the process of flying through the blue tunnel.
"A Hope to Live. If we reset it to the start."
Peter sat in his seat, shaking to the rhythm of the song. "Here we are, going far to save all that we love! If we give all we've got, we will make it through! Here we are, like a star shining bright on your world, today! Let's make evil go away!" He looked down to the lower seat where his strategist Captain was sitting. "Sing it, Rex!"
Rex however has fallen asleep while the song is still playing in the background. "Code Lyoko, we'll reset it all! Code Lyoko, be there when you call!"
Kate however was wide awake and was mimicking the song lyrics without signing outould. "Code Lyoko, we will stand real tall! Code Lyoko, stronger after all!"
Kyle sighed as he rested his right foot on the control panel of the ship. Holding his helmet underneath his left arm, he tapped it to the rhythm of the music. He even bobbed his head back and forth a little, but he wasn't in sync with the music like Kate and Peter were.
"Why are we doing this again?" Kyle asked the group.
"It's a distress signal, Kyle," Omega reminded him. "Someone could be dying."
"I get it, but what if it was an Empire distress call?" Kyle asked the group.
"If it's the Empire, then we blow up everything and take their cargo," Peter stated as he leaned back in his chair. "If they're pirates, the same rules apply. Unless of course, they're willing to pay us off."
"What about if they're selling spice?" Kate asks him.
"Spice, we destroy their ship." Peter wasn't going to let those go into the galaxy.
Omega was still listening to the song and was a little curious about it. "So, what's the name of the song again?"
Peter chuckled and remembered she and everyone else wasn't aware of the song's origins. It was lucky that Quill's Zune actually had this song on it, which was a miracle as it was. "A World Without Danger. From one of the best old shows that I have ever watched as a kid, "Code Lyoko.""
Omega was confused on the pronunciation. "Code Loco?"
Peter chuckled. "'Code Lyoko.' L-Y-O-K-O. Lyoko."
"Oh." Omeha said. "What's the show about exactly?"
"It's about five teenagers trying to stop an evil artificial intelligence called XANA, who threatens to escape from the Supercomputer in order to take over the world." Kate explained, getting a shocked look from Peter. "What? I had a childhood." She then turned to face Omega. "The only way to prevent that from happening is for the Lyoko Warriors to enter a virtual world called Lyoko and shut down the tower. Well, four of them, except for Jeremie Belpois. He's the brains, eyes, and ears of the team."
Omega shrugged. "Seems simple enough."
"But, why do I have a feeling that it's not?" Amber asks.
Peter chuckled. "Because it's not, kid. In Lyoko, XANA creates monsters to fight the Lyoko Warriors and guard the activated Towers."
"What kind of monsters?" Omega asks
Peter then went into complete detail. "Well, the weakest ones are called Kankrelats. But they're stronger in packs. The Megatanks have to ability to transform into a rolling sphere, indestructible armor, and shoot a powerful elliptical laser. The Tarantulas are 4-legged spider-looking monsters that can shoot laser cannons on the tips of their front legs."
Kyle was now a little interested. "Out of those monsters, which of XANA's powerful monsters he has ever created?"
Peter chuckled as he sat up. "Oh, man. If you guys had that show in this universe, you could see the Kolossus."
But then their computers went off and alerted them that they were arriving at the point where the distress signal was coming from. The alert woke up Rex as he sat up in his seat and sighed.
"Looks like we're about at the coordinates," Rex reported in.
Alright, Protectors, be prepared for anything," Peter said to his team as they watched the ship emerge from hyperspace. "We don't know if this could even be a trap or not."
As they were all preparing, they noticed that their droid, Cheep was fiddling around with one of the old game systems Quill had left behind. Cheep even got a small upgrade to show his status as part of the team; he now sported their symbol painted over his eye.
"Cheep, put that thing away; I'm not going to tell you again," Peter warned the droid. But Cheep didn't seem to listen as he kept at it. "Cheep!"
Cheep then did a few whistles, causing the whole crew to gasp in surprise.
"Whoa!" Peter cried.
"Language!" Amber exclaimed.
"Hey!" Kate quieted everyone down.
"You've got some nuts on you, pal," Peter exclaimed as he focused on flying. "Ever since we rescued you from that Venator wreckage, you have been a total douchebag. I would have thought that you would be a little more grateful."
Kyle said in annoyance. "Keep it up; we'll smash your memory drive to pieces and start over again."
They arrived and exited out of hyperspace where they saw the wreckage of some sort of gigantic vessel that seemed to have exploded. Pieces were floating everywhere, and bodies of people in strange armor were floating around the dead air of space. They were all horrified and disgusted to see the bodies and the destruction, which made them wonder if it had been inflicted upon themselves or if someone else had done this to the vessel. And judging by the size of this vessel being bigger than any Star Destroyer, they didn't want to know what was capable of causing such carnage to this ship.
Peter was shocked when he saw the carnage and the size of the vesicle wreckage. If he had to compare it, it looked like five-star destroyers were destroyed simultaneously. "Oh my goodness."
Omega was just as shocked as she looked around. "What happened to them?"
Amber watched and looked out the window in horror. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Kate was a little confused when she heard those words. Those words have been uttered a lot over the years and it was odd. "Okay, I've heard everyone say those exact same words all the time. Is that like a thing or something?"
"Rex, let's get the heck out of here." Peter didn't think they should be staying around here.
That's when someone who wasn't wearing the same armor as everyone else saw the blood splattered onto the windshield, and everyone freaked out. The man was around the same age as Kate and Peter, and they were shocked to see that he seemed to even be alive. He was wearing what looked to be torn-up clothes, and had long hair along with a beard to match.
This was only the beginning of something a lot bigger...
They just weren't aware of it.