Author's Note:
Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter for Earth's Mightiest Huntsmen. But first, as usual, let's answer some reviews.
Blackmetalzane22: Interesting view on what Yang saw in that nightmare, though I won't dispute it. And yes, there's going to be a lot of battle this fight.
Red Scorpion: It's always nice to see weapon upgrades of characters, especially when they increase the destructive power of the weapon tenfold. It's always good to see the Brood be scary, as they are seemingly loosely inspired by the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. As for your question regarding Yang's memories...yeah, I can't answer that.
Thank you all for your continued support. Now, let's get back to the story.
The Sun Shredder—October 14th (Earth Time)
"How many of them?" Star-Lord asked as he, Drax, and Gamora continued down the passage in the direction of the power room.
"Over a dozen Chitauri warships," Richard answered. "They're taking strategic positions around the Sun Shredder."
"It won't be long before Titus gets his troops to board the station," Gamora warned. "He'll be sending people to the power room to restore the weapon's functionality and warp speed capabilities as well as the control room so they can take command as soon as possible."
"Then we must reach the power room first," Drax rumbled, "so we can complete the mission and destroy this weapon before the Chitauri get their hands on it."
"Hear that, Guardians?" Star-Lord asked. "Get ready for a fight."
"We're already ready for a fight since the whole flarcking station is infesting with Brood!" Rocket shouted.
"Can the attitude, Rocket. Are you at the reactor yet?"
"Almost there, Quill," Flash answered.
"Good. Get those charges set and get back to the Milano. The moment everything is ready to go, we need to get the hell out of here. Hopefully, the explosion will be enough to take down the Chitauri ships."
"Assuming we live that long," Rocket pointed out.
"Oh come on, Rocket, we've been through way worse situations than this," Flash reminded him.
"Like what, the Annihilation War? Of course mass murdering creatures from another dimension is worse than this!"
"I am Groot," Groot added.
"What do you mean, the incident on Kitson was worse?!"
"Is it always like this?" Yang's voice came over the comms. "All this arguing?"
"You get used to it, kid," Richard replied.
"Quill," Gamora reported. Star-Lord turned his attention back to the task at hand. His team had reached a sealed passage. "We've got a problem."
"What's the situation?" Star-Lord asked.
"The power room is on the other side of this passage," Gamora explained. "But according to this, the connecting tube has lost all air pressure. It's in the vacuum of space."
"Wonderful." Star-Lord sighed. "Okay, helmets on. Get ready for decompression." Gamora and Drax both nodded, activating their helmets.
"All right…get ready." Star-Lord drew his element guns and fired powerful blasts of fire into the door. It groaned, buckled, and finally gave in, sucking the three Guardians out into the long metal tube that connected them to the other side of the Sun Shredder. Instantly, he could see where the problem was; there was a large hole in the top of the passage roughly halfway down it.
He motioned for the others to follow as he activated his rocket boots and flew down the passage. Gamora and Drax slowly followed him.
"Gamora, make us an entrance," Star-Lord ordered. Gamora drew her sword and began to cut a hole through the door. Once it was fully formed, the circle she had cut flew out as the interior depressurized. Drax caught the circle before he and the others forced their way in. He then held the circle back in place while Star-Lord used his element guns to seal it back on with ice.
"That won't hold for long," Star-Lord warned. "Let's get this job done."
The trio continued down the passage. Time was of the essence now. They had to get enough power restored to the station so the reactor drain process could begin. All the while they had to fight off both the Chitauri and the Brood.
"This isn't going to be easy," Star-Lord thought. "Then again, we've overcome tougher odds before. Just gotta keep them at bay, and Rocket's bomb should blow to hell whatever's left."
Drax forced open another door, revealing a large power control room. "We've made it to power control," Star-Lord announced as he went inside. "Talk to me Rocket."
"Alright, we need to restore just enough power so that Ryder can initiate the reactor drain. But we also have to make sure that there's not enough power restored to main systems—specifically weapons control and the hyperdrive," Rocket explained. "You want to flip up power junctions twelve, fifteen, and nineteen."
"Copy that." Star-Lord searched along the walls to find the proper switches, flipping each one up one by one. By the time he reached the last one, the lights were finally flickering to life, illuminating the room—and, presumably, the rest of the station.
"Power restored," he reported. "You're clear to engage the reactor drain, Richard."
"Understood," Richard answered.
"We're heading back to the Milano," Star-Lord informed the others, starting to leave.
"Uh, Quill?" Gamora pointed up with her sword. Star-Lord looked up and saw, to his horror, the ceiling crawling with dozens if not hundreds of Brood, all of whom were now looking down at them with beady red eyes.
He cursed. "Damnit."
Chitauri Warship—October 14th (Earth Time)
"We're reading an increased level of power to the Sun Shredder," a Chitauri commander reported.
Diamondhead laughed. "Those Guardians are fools! They're doing half our work for us!"
"They're not fools," Titus told him. "They're preparing to drain the weapon reactor so they can avoid more casualties when they blow the entire station."
Saal clenched his fists. "What do we do?"
Titus flashed a toothy smile. "We take the control room. We ensure that they can't destroy the reactor. Once the Guardians are dead, we restore full power to the station, get it to warp speed, and make whatever repairs we need to get the main cannon up and running. After that, we wipe Xandar and the Nova Corp from existence."
He stood up from his command chair. "Send out the boarding crafts." He turned to Diamondhead and Saal. "You two head for the reactor room and secure it." He then looked at Talonar. "You're with me. We're taking the control room."
"Just remember," Talonar warned. "My brother is mine to kill."
"You do your job, Raptor, and you can have him," Titus promised. "But remember—the Sun Shredder is our priority. Understand?"
Talonar stared him down. "Oh…completely."
Titus turned back to the Chitauri commander. "Begin the assault!"
The Sun Shredder—October 14th (Earth Time)
Yang jerked her head up as the lights came back on in the control room. "Looks like power's back," she noted.
"Enjoy it while you can," Yondu told her. "In less than an hour, we're destroying this entire station. Should've done this a long time ago."
Richard moved over to the main control chair and activated the holographic controls, scrolling through the functions. "Ah, here we go," he said aloud. "Reactor drain." He pressed a button on the hologram. "Rocket, reactor drain in progress."
"It's about flarcking time," Rocket responded. "We're just about at the reactor. Gonna be a few minutes before this place is rigged to blow."
"Keep us posted, Rocket," Richard told him. "But be warned—the Milano is detected Chitauri boarding craft heading to strategic points all over the station—and that includes the reactor."
"Good. Something to fight," Flash commented.
"Not necessarily a good thing, Flash!" Star-Lord's voice yelled, barely audible over the sounds of his weapons firing and the screeching of Brood. "I think we found where most of the rest of the Brood were hiding!"
"Do you need help?" Richard asked.
"I think we can handle it—Drax, on your left!" The transmission was cut off by the sound of a blade slicing through flesh.
"I can go offer them a hand," Yondu offered.
"Negative! Just finish the mission! We'll be fine!" Star-Lord shouted.
"That doesn't sound fine, Quill." Yondu started for the lift tube. "I didn't come all this way to see you become food for the Brood. I'm on my way."
"Wait! How are you going to get down there?!" Yang asked. Yondu simply gave her a small smile, drawing one of his arrows and hopping down the shaft. As he fell, he gave a sharp whistle, propelling his arrow up and slowing his descent.
"Never mind," Yang said.
"Stay focused, kid," Richard warned. "We've got incoming."
Yang looked back to the window, where two Chitauri boarding craft were heading straight for them. She readied her gauntlets and took aim at where they were coming in.
The boarding ships attached themselves to either side of the control room. Sparks emerged as the Chitauri began cutting through the wall. "You ready, Yang?" Richard asked, raising his glowing hands as he faced one of the ships.
Yang grinned, aiming her gauntlets at the other one. "Let's kick their butts."
The holes that were cut in the wall blew inward, sending chunks of steel careening at the pair. Yang punched through hers, while Richard blasted his aside. The moment they did, two squads of Chitauri soldiers ran through, already shooting at them.
Yang charged forward instantly, using the recoil from her gauntlets to speed into the attackers. She caught the first Chitauri by surprise, blasting him into the ground. The next one swung at her with his rifle, which she ducked under as she delivered a powerful uppercut so strong that it stuck the poor guy into the ceiling.
Several of the Chitauri fired on her point-blank range. That sent her stumbling back several feet, but did no harm to her. In fact, the impacts of the blasters seemed to only make her feel stronger. She charged forward, letting out several rounds from her gauntlets that took down more Chitauri.
A Chitauri barked an order and several more ran at her. Yang shot two of them down, but the rest managed to grab her and hold her down to their knees. The lead Chitauri marched forward, drawing a knife and raising it above her head.
Yang pulled her pinned arms forward, overpowering the Chitauri on her, smashing her fists into the knife and shattering it completely. As he looked down at her in shock, she extended the blades in her gauntlets and shoved her fist straight up, impaling the alien straight through the jaw.
She fired another shot that tore the soldier's head open in an explosion of alien blood and gore and swung back, slicing through the arm of another Chitauri and forcing the rest to let her go by firing several more shots.
Yang slid several feet away, quickly reloading both her gauntlets as the soldiers tried to regroup. Behind them, she could see Richard fighting his own battle, though his was going far smoother than hers was currently. Chitauri soldiers were falling left and right in front of him, either from getting beat down by him or from getting holes blown through their chests from his energy blasts.
She focused back on the remaining soldiers on her side of the room. There were only five of them left, and they were all backing away slowly, fear evident on their faces. Yang flashed them a daring grin before striding forward. The Chitauri scrambled to fire their weapons at her, but these shots were wilder and more unfocused than they had been at the start, and many of them shot far past her head.
Yang reached the first one and delivered several blows with her fists, taking him to the ground. She kicked the second aside and shoved her blades through the third so hard that her fist emerged on the other side of his body. This allowed her to fire a shot into the fourth soldier.
She yanked her fist free just as the second soldier got back his feet and lunged, slamming her in the side with a blade. Just like with the rifles, this attack did no damage, though, as she stumbled away, she noticed that her body briefly flickered with some sort of yellow energy.
She shook this off, firing several more shots into this soldier, finally taking him down. The last Chitauri fired sporadically at her, most of his shots going far over Yang's head. She calmly marched towards this frightened soldier, catching up to him and grabbing him by the arm and throwing him aside, where he slammed into the wall before sliding to the floor, out cold.
She turned her head back to Richard, who was also just finishing off the last of the soldiers on his side of the room. He turned to her, looking around at her handiwork. "Nice work, kid," he told her.
Yang swung her arms, rolling her shoulders. "Is that all of them?" she asked.
"Definitely not. We got another one coming in." Even as he spoke, sparks emerged from the ceiling as someone began cutting through it.
"More Chitauri?" Yang asked, readying herself.
"I don't think so."
The hole collapsed, letting Titus and Talonar land in front of them. As soon as he saw them, Titus chuckled. "And here I thought that this might be a challenge."
Richard stepped forward. "Hello, Robbie," he said, addressing Talonar.
Talonar growled. "That's not my name anymore, brother!"
"You can still stop this madness," Richard tried to tell him. "It doesn't have to be this way."
"Oh, yes it does!" Talonar shot forward, smashing into Richard and slamming him into the wall.
"Richard!" Yang moved to help, but Titus backhanded her with his gun arm, sending her flying back towards the lift. Before she could recover, he fired multiple shots that knocked her into the lift. She quickly tried to balance herself, but she was already falling down the hole, tumbling and hitting the walls of the shaft as she fell.
Yang quickly stuck her arms out, extending the blades on the gauntlets once more and sticking them into the wall. The metal gave way with a loud screech, slowing her descent until she fully came to a stop.
She breathed a sigh of relief, looking back up the shaft—only for her eyes to widen in horror as she saw the hulking shape of Titus falling down after her, continuing to shoot down at her. Thinking quickly, Yang dug her hands out from the shaft and fired back at him. This propelled her down the shaft even faster.
WHAM! Yang hit the bottom of the shaft hard. She let out a brief grunt of pain, but quickly recovered, blasting the door at the bottom open and rolling out right before Titus stomped her.
He laughed as Yang examined her surroundings, seeing that she was in some sort of storage room, as evidenced by all the scattered crates. "Yondu's infamous new bouncer," he said, stepping into the room with her. "You certainly caused some problems with us before. That won't be happening again."
"I beat up your goon before," Yang shot back. "I can do the same to you."
Titus grinned. "Diamondhead is an idiot. I assure you that I will be much more of a challenge than him." He aimed his gun arm at her. "I can't wait to hear the sound of your screams."
Yang raised her arms and prepared for the fight of her life.
Flash shoved open one final door. "I think this is the spot," he announced, staring into the massive, circular room. At the center of the room, positioned in between two large pillars, was a large, glowing sphere that was almost blindingly bright.
Rocket pulled out his scanner. "Reactor drain's still in progress, but it's slow going," he announced. "Still, doesn't hurt to get the bombs ready to go." He hopped off Groot and activated his rocket pack, flying up to the sphere. He then began attaching bombs all along the surface.
"I am Groot," Groot warned.
"Yeah, I know the Chitauri are coming!" Rocket snapped. "I can only go so fast without blowing us and the next three systems into oblivion!"
"Yeah, I prefer not to be vaporized today," Flash agreed.
Blam! Blam blam! Without warning, blaster fire began echoing from a nearby passage, followed by inhuman screeching and shouts of pain. "Sounds like the Chitauri ran into some of our Brood pals," Flash commented.
"I am Groot," Groot agreed.
"The Brood aint gonna be able to slow them down for long," Rocket warned the two. "Especially if Titus or Talonar is the leading the charge down here."
"Strategically, those two would be securing the control room," Flash theorized. "Especially if Talonar learns that his brother is up there."
"Then let's hope that the kid can handle herself," Rocket responded.
The sounds of fighting got closer until finally, Diamondhead and Saal filed in, leading several Chitauri soldiers in. "There they are!" Diamondhead shouted. "Blast em!"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Flash shouted quickly. "Haven't you noticed where you are, Diamondhead! One wrong shot and this whole place goes up!"
"I am Groot!" Groot agreed.
"They're right, you flarcking morons!" Rocket yelled, not even turning around as he continued his work. "You shoot this reactor, we all die!"
Diamondhead growled in frustration. "Fine. We do this the hard way." He raised his fists. "A shame that blonde bitch isn't down here. I still need to repay her for what she did to me."
"This again?" Saal shook his head. "Your arm grew back! You're fine!"
"I still need to give her some payback! Maybe I'll cut her own arm off, see how she likes that!"
As the villains bickered, Flash rolled his eyes under his symbiote mask. "These guys are idiots," he said quietly.
"I'm almost done," Rocket said back. "Take them out quickly so we can get the hell out of here."
"Right. Groot?"
Groot grunted and raised his arms. They quickly extended and slammed forward, squishing all the Chitauri against the far wall, leaving just Diamondhead and Saal left standing.
"Bastards!" Diamondhead lunged forward, smashing through Groot's arms and trying to attack him. Groot let out a roar and ran at him as well, engaging in a furious melee with him.
Flash, meanwhile, moved towards Saal. "Come on, freak!" Saal yelled, motioning for him to fight. "Let's see what you got!"
Flash fought back another eye roll. Then he compelled his symbiote to strike out with multiple tendrils, which instantly wrapped around Saal's limbs and lifted him into the air. "Hey!" he shouted. "Put me down!"
Flash smirked. "Whatever you say." His tendrils slammed him into the ground, knocking him out cold. As he tossed the unconscious thug aside, he turned his attention back to Groot and Diamondhead. Both were squaring off evenly, with Diamondhead's diamond fists almost tearing Groot apart, but Groot's regenerative abilities keeping him in the fight.
Flash ran over to help, his arms sharpening into tendrils. He leaped onto Diamondhead's back, hacking into his tough skin. But, as expected, even his symbiote wasn't tough enough to cut through him.
Diamondhead laughed, throwing Flash off. "You think you can hurt me, Guardians! You can't hurt me!"
"Well, that's not going to stop us from trying," Flash responded.
"I am Groot," Groot agreed, stretching his arms out again to try to contain him, only for the villain to bash through them with ease.
"Keep it up, fools!" Diamondhead laughed. "I will be your undoing!"
"Does this guy ever shut up?" Flash questioned.
"I am Groot," Groot answered.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"Come on, then!" Diamondhead yelled, motioning for them to continue the attack. "Just try to break my skin!"
"Ahem." Diamondhead turned around to see Rocket floating behind him, aiming his rifle right at his head. Before the villain could react, he fired an electric shot point blank range. He buckled, spasming several times before falling flat on his back.
"Boy, Titus knows how to hire great help," Rocket said sarcastically. "I'm done here. The bombs are rigged up to my detonator. We can detonate and warp out of here before the shockwave hits."
"Then let's head back to the Milano," Flash decided, activating his comm. "We're all done here, Quill. We're heading back to the ship."
"Copy, Flash!" Star-Lord shouted, sending a jet of fire that incinerated a Brood. "We're trying to get there now, but the Brood aren't making it easy!"
Gamora sliced a tail off a Brood before stabbing it in head. "We're almost to the tunnel, Quill!" she reported.
"Push through!" Star-Lord ordered. "Push through!"
But more and more Brood were coming at them from all sides. Star-Lord could hardly see the door at the other end, which would let them back to where they had come in from the other side of the station. The entire space was filled with attackers, all of them wanting to kill them or infest them with more Brood.
"Quill, this is Yondu!" Yondu's voice came over the comms. "Seal your suits and get ready for explosive decompression!"
"Guardians, seal your suits!" Star-Lord relayed, activating his helmet. Gamora and Drax quickly did the same. A second later, the door they had been trying to reach exploded, creating a massive vacuum that instantly started to suck all the Brood—along with Star-Lord, Drax, and Gamora—out through it.
Star-Lord quickly activated his rocket boots, steadying himself and grabbing both his allies as they flew past him. The Brood, meanwhile, were forced out past Yondu, through the passage that connected the two sides of the station together, and out through the hole into the vacuum of space.
"We could've handled them," he insisted to Yondu.
"Right. Sure, Quill," Yondu answered, speaking through the comms to be heard. "The way back to the Milano is clear, but I don't know for how long. The Chitauri are sending landing parties all over the station."
"Any word from Richard or the kid?"
Yondu shook his head. "Last I saw them, they were in the control room. But they can handle themselves for the moment."
"Richard I'm not worried about. But are you sure your bouncer will be fine?"
"Miss Xiao Long is much tougher than she appears," Yondu assured him. "Believe me—she won't go down without a fight."
Titus and Yang circled each other, neither one willing to strike right away. Eventually, Titus aimed his arm cannon and began shooting at her. She dashed away, keeping one step ahead of his blaster fire, closing the distance and throwing several punches into him. But he blocked and batted each one of her punches with ease before swinging at her.
Yang backflipped several times to avoid getting hit. When she landed, she fired multiple shots, trying to put him off balance. Titus shielded himself with his gun arm before firing a shot back at her that sent her flying.
She landed well, skidding back across the floor before getting back into a fighting stance. "You may be able to defeat drunken weaklings in a bar, but you're no match for someone who knows what they're doing," Titus told her with a savage grin.
Yang narrowed her eyes at him. "Do all the thugs in this galaxy talk this much?" She ran at him, firing more shots the entire way. Titus stumbled from the impact of the rounds, but seemed otherwise unharmed. Yang followed this up with a blast behind her as she jumped, propelling her much faster as she brought her fist back for a devastating punch.
WHAM! Titus held both his hands up to block Yang's punch, but the force still pushed him back several feet. He countered by forcing her off him, where she landed on the floor and engaged once again in a furious melee against him.
Titus snarled. "You're starting to get on my nerves." He whacked her in the chest with his gun arm before grabbing one of the crates and throwing it at her. She blasted the crate aside with a single punch and fired again on him, forcing him to take cover behind another stack of crates.
Yang ran at the crates and beat them aside, only for Titus to quickly lash out and grab her by the arm, throwing her to the side with a growl. She got back on her feet a second later, not even winded from the attack.
He grabbed several more crates and started throwing them at her. She leaped over and spun around each one, shooting back at him whenever she had a clear shot. But it was once again clear that the rounds she had currently equipped weren't doing anything to him.
"Okay, let's try these," Yang said to herself, ducking behind another stack of crates and quickly loading her gauntlets with the so-called missile rounds. She poked her head back up just in time to see Titus charging at her.
She quickly aimed and fired a shot. Instantly, the force of the rocket blew her back several feet while the projectile hit Titus square in the chest, blowing him clear across the room. He hit the far wall with a CRASH, sliding down with a grunt of pain.
Yang stared down at her gauntlets, a grin forming on her face. "Rocket, you mad genius," she commented before planting her feet and launching several more missiles from her gauntlets. For once, Titus looked concerned as he dove behind the cover of another stack of crates, which was instantly blown to bits.
"You don't go down easy," Titus noted. "But I will make you bleed!"
He ran at her, aiming his cannon and firing multiple shots at Yang, who slid to the side and met his challenge by also running at him. She delivered several blows to Titus' torso, which caused him to grunt as he swung down with his gun arm. Yang, seeing this, jumped over the gun arm and prepared to deliver a punch straight to his head.
Too late, she saw his other hand—the real one—swinging right for her. Taken completely by surprise, she was struck upside the head, throwing her through three different stacks of crates, where she skidded to a stop against a metal support beam.
She let out a groan, slowly getting back to his feet. "That the best you got?" she challenged. That was when she saw something float down in front of her eyes. It took her only a second to realize that it was a single strand of her golden hair.
For some reason, seeing this filled her rage. With a scream of fury, she pounded her fists together. As she did, she felt a surge of energy explode out around her. She barely registered this, though—all she wanted to do was wipe the floor with Titus.
She fired two missile rounds behind her, rocketing her forward. Titus grinned and readied himself. "Come on, then!" he shouted. "Come and—"
What he was going to say, Yang would never know. Her next punch into him was stronger than anything she had done before (at least to her knowledge). This force alone blasted Titus so far into the far wall that he nearly blew a hole through it.
He got up again, but Yang was already upon him. As he raised his gun arm to shoot her, her fist connected with the gun barrel, and she felt it smash against the blow. Titus let out a howl of pain, stumbling back and clutching the smushed remains of his gun arm.
"You little brat!" he roared. But Yang heard none of this. She continued the assault, punching Titus with a flurry of blows before giving him an uppercut that knocked him high into the air. As he came back down, she punched him again while shooting another missile round. This explosion not only knocked Yang back several paces, but it also blew Titus into a small, open compartment off to the side.
Yang, despite the feelings of rage still coursing through her, quickly realized just what she had knocked Titus into. Before he could recover, she sprinted over and slammed her fist on the button, sealing the airlock door shut.
"No!" Titus yelled, slamming his hands against the airlock door. Yang stared at him through the window on the door, briefly seeing her own reflection. To her notice, her eyes were now red instead of their usual lilac color, and her hair was glowing with energy.
"I'm going to get you for this, you little brat!" Titus swore.
Yang snorted. "Good luck with that." With that, she hit the button that would vent the airlock into space. The back door opened, and Titus was instantly sucked out, his roar of fury fading as he was sucked into space.
Yang hit the button again to close the door before leaning against the wall for support as a wave of exhaustion set in. "Whew," she breathed out, wiping the sweat from her brow. "What a rush."
When Star-Lord's group got back to the hanger with the Milano, Rocket, Flash, and Groot were already back. "Bout time," Rocket told him. "We got Diamondhead and Saal locked up on board."
"Where are Richard and Yang?" Star-Lord asked.
"No sign of them," Flash answered. "No contact either."
Star-Lord cursed. "Not a good sign." He made a quick decision. "Rocket, get the ship out of here. We're going to do a space retrieval."
"A space retrieval?" Rocket repeated.
"It won't be long before the Chitauri find this hanger," Star-Lord explained. "The Milano needs to get out before that happens. She can avoid the Chitauri warships way better out in space. Yang has one of my old helmets, and we know Richard can survive in space. This will work." He turned to Flash. "Flash, you're with me. We're going to get Yang and Richard."
"I'll go with you," Yondu said.
"No, stay with the ship," Star-Lord ordered.
"Quill, that girl is one of my employees. It's my responsibility to make sure she gets out of this safe and sound."
"And I will get her out of this, Yondu. But the fewer people I have to worry about getting off this station, the better."
"Quill—"
Blaster fire erupted within the hanger. A stray shot struck Yondu in the side. He cried out in pain and collapsed as Star-Lord spun around to return fire on the invading Chitauri soldiers. "Get the ship out of here!" he yelled as Groot moved in to shield the injured Yondu. "Flash, let's hold them off!"
"On it!" Flash's symbiote extended multiple arms, each one carrying a gun, which immediately started shooting at the soldiers.
Rocket winced as a few more shots flew past him. "I hope you know what you're doing, Quill!" he shouted before the rest of the Guardians, aside from Flash, boarded the ship, with Groot carrying Yondu. The landing ramp closed, and a minute later, the Milano took off, amidst the weapons fire that came from the Chitauri.
"You do know what you're doing, right?" Flash asked.
"Come on, Flash, it's me," Star-Lord answered.
"That's what worries me!"
Richard blasted Talonar back into the wall. "It's over, Robbie," he told him. "Surrender."
Talonar let out a laugh. "Over? This is far from over."
"Your forces are being overwhelmed. Your allies are being defeated. And soon enough, the Sun Shredder will be nothing more than a bad memory."
Talonar scoffed. "That's where you're wrong, Richard. These are Titus' forces, his plans. My plans are only just beginning."
Richard's helmet began screaming warnings from the Milano's sensors. He suddenly realized what was going on. "Robbie, what have you done?" he asked.
Talonar laughed again. "Securing one of the most powerful weapons for the Fraternity of Raptors." His visor suddenly shot a beam at him. Taken completely by surprise, Richard was blown back into one of the Chitauri boarding ships.
He tried to get back to his feet, but it was too late. Talonar fired another shot that hit the control console, which caused the door to the ship to slam shut and the ship itself to detach from the Sun Shredder.
"Robbie!" Richard yelled, slamming his hands useless against the door. He began blasting at it with his powers, hoping that he wasn't going to be too late.
The Milano—October 14th (Earth Time)
"What the flarck?!" Rocket exclaimed. "We've got a lot of incoming warp signatures!"
"More Chitauri?" Gamora asked as she jumped into the copilot seat.
"Guess again." Multiple ships were now appearing all around the station and the Chitauri fleet. These were bigger, darker, and all were marked with a familiar insignia on their hulls.
"The Fraternity of Raptors?" Gamora questioned. "What the hell are they doing here?"
"Call me crazy," Rocket answered, "but I think Talonar's going rogue." As if to prove his point, the Raptor ships began bombarding the Chitauri fleet with powerful weapon blasts. Taken completely by surprise, it wasn't long before each one of the warships was blown to bits.
"Incoming!" Gamora yelled as several smaller shapes moved towards the Milano. "Raptors, and a lot of them! We can't let them breach the ship!"
"Hang on, hang on, I'll try to shake 'em!" Rocket pulled on the controls, spinning the ship to avoid the first wave of attacks. "Someone get on the back guns and vaporize these guys!"
"Look!" Gamora yelled, pointing out the cockpit window. "What are they doing?!" The larger Raptor ships were moving into formation around the Sun Shredder, and connecting tethers were being lowered down from the ships to connect to the station.
Rocket instantly realized what they were doing, swearing loudly. "We gotta get back to the station!" he yelled, twisting on the controls and sending the Milano back towards the Sun Shredder."
"What are they doing, Rocket?" Gamora asked.
"They're going to tow the station behind them as they go to warp! And we can't blow it up because Quill and the others are still on board!" Rocket explained, activating the comms. "Quill! Quill, do you copy?!"
Static was all that greeted him. "Damnit! They're jamming our comms!" He pushed the ship faster. "Come on, come on!"
Just as he was about to reach the station, he saw the Raptor ships' engines glow brighter. "Flarck!" he yelled, veering off course just as the ships entered warp, taking the Sun Shredder with it.
Rocket slammed his paws on the sides of his chair in frustration. The Sun Shredder was gone—and who knew where the Raptors were taking it.
So, uh...that happened. Looks like Talonar wanted the Sun Shredder for himself and the Fraternity of Raptors to use rather than follow Titus' plan. And now with the Raptors taking the Sun Shredder away from this system, the only heroes left to stop them are Star-Lord, Agent Venom, and Yang. This should be quite an epic fight.
Speaking of epic fights, there was a lot of combat in this chapter. Obviously, my favorite fight to write was Yang's battle with Titus. A lot of epic blows, a chance to show off some of the special rounds Rocket gave her, and, of course, Titus learning what happens when you mess with Yang's hair. The answer? Yang goes ballistic and chucks you out into the vacuum of space.
We got one more chapter left of this arc, and with any luck, I'll have it out before Halloween. But we'll have to wait and see. And if you think this arc is insane with battle, just wait until you see what I've got planned for the next arc. I wasn't sure how excited I was for it when I first planned it, but now that I'm getting close to starting it, I'm actually really stoked for it.
But anywho, that's all from me. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, signing off.