This was a young centaur boy, around ten years old, with a small wooden bow on his back. Although the bow was small, it looked very well-made, with a clear elven style.
"Sir Josh, my name is Yondu Udonta. I'm Lady Vereesa's student!" Before Thalorien could reply, the centaur boy stepped forward and introduced himself.
Josh wasn't surprised that the boy knew his name. Even though this was Josh's first time meeting these centaur people, his portraits and statues were already placed across the fleet and in the city still being built on the planet.
Well… Even though Josh didn't really care for this kind of personal worship, it was necessary to keep the whole organization united. It wouldn't make sense for such a large group to not even know who they were following.
But when he heard the name "Yondu," Josh couldn't help but twitch a little.
Wow. Even though his plan to intercept these centaur people came from memories of Yondu in his past life after watching a movie, he never expected to really find him. Yet here the boy was, and he was even taken in by Vereesa as a student?
Was Vereesa pLyaning to train a non-human ranger general like her sister Sylvanas once did?
No wonder the boy carried an elven-style bow. It was obviously a gift from Vereesa.
Still, if Vereesa accepted him as a student, it meant Yondu was truly talented in archery.
It was just a pity that Josh didn't see any sign of the arrow whistle weapon Yondu used in the movies. The boy didn't have that special control device on his head either—just normal skin and some hair, though not much.
Thinking back to the fin-like prototype seen in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, it was clear that the weapon came to Yondu later in his life. But now that he had been rescued from the Kree twenty years earlier, it was hard to say whether he'd still get it in the future.
Still, being picked by Vereesa as a ranger student meant Yondu had a bright future—after all, in Azeroth's history, the one and only human Ranger Lord Nathanos was also extremely powerful.
"Yondu, is it? Good. Then can you tell me what exactly happened here?" Josh squatted down and looked at the boy. Even though he was young, he looked strong and healthy, probably because he hadn't been a prisoner for long.
"It was the Ravagers!" Yondu nodded and named the cause of the destruction on Planet D-01 and the trouble with the Ranger Fleet.
"How could that be? Weren't they already identified and locked up? And they didn't have weapons or powerful warriors. How could they cause so much damage?" Josh frowned after hearing Yondu's answer.
Josh had already been careful ever since Dracula warned him that a group of Ravagers who attacked the Kree fleet had gone missing. He had quickly informed Vereesa.
Vereesa immediately carried out a screening and had indeed found hundreds of Ravagers among the slaves. They had all been captured and locked up, just waiting for Josh to arrive and deal with them.
Just like Josh had said, when Vereesa filed her report back then, she clearly stated that none of the captured Ravagers were particularly powerful. Even their leader, Lyan Ogord, was no match for her.
Not to mention, Vereesa had a very special guard unit by her side—the same black-robed group that once appeared on Badoon. They were Yuriko clones from the Red Alert Universe, which Yuri had traded to Josh.
Even though they were clones, each Yuriko was extremely powerful. To compare, each one was at least as strong as Wanda when she first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and they were even more skilled in using their powers.
Of course, after Scarlet Witch awakened her full powers, that would be a whole different level.
And with their powerful fleet weapons, how could just a few hundred Ravagers fight back?
If these people were really that strong, they would have already shown their power when they first attacked the Kree transport fleet. They wouldn't have waited until now.
"It wasn't those locked-up ones. It was an older boy named Stakar, the son of the Ravager leader Lyan Ogord. He was supposed to be sent to the Kree as a war slave, just like us. The Ravagers attacked the Kree fleet back then to try to save him. Just one day ago, teacher found out about him while questioning the Ravagers. She sent people to catch him and found his location this morning. But something unexpected happened during the capture!" Yondu explained after Josh asked his question. As he spoke, his face showed fear.
"He was just a boy, a little taller than me… but suddenly, he turned into a giant glowing with golden light—about as big as…" Yondu pointed at a nearby Vrykul soldier acting as a guard.
"He was too strong. Teacher and her guard squad could only slow him down a little. Even the ship's cannons couldn't kill him. The whole captain's guard had to work together just to injure him a bit. Teacher got hurt while trying to protect me during the fight.
"And he could fly! He flew into space faster than the space jets. He destroyed the fleet by himself. But after all that, I saw him faint. Then the Ravagers he rescued stole a ship and took him away… I'm sorry. I couldn't stop them!" As Yondu spoke, he clenched his fists, and his red eyes turned even redder.
It was clear he hated how weak and helpless he was.
Back on Centauri-IV, he couldn't do anything against the Badoon invaders. Later, after Vereesa rescued him, just when life started to get better, Stakar appeared and it was the same all over again.
For someone as young as Yondu, all this was clearly a big shock.
"Don't worry, kid. Your teacher will be fine. And I'll definitely settle this score. Heh, so it was Stakar Ogord? Starhawk, huh? Great. He didn't explode with power when the Kree caught him, but as soon as my people get close, he goes all out?" Josh said after hearing the whole story, patting Yondu on the shoulder to comfort him.
Stakar Ogord—Starhawk—was a well-known powerhouse in Marvel, played by Stallone in the movie.
Of course Josh knew him.
He just didn't expect Stakar to be on that Kree transport fleet too. And with such power, he had now caused huge damage to Josh's side.
Tearing apart a fleet with his bare hands—in the early MCU phase, the only one who could do that was Captain Marvel.
Well, not exactly.
The Asgardians could also do that kind of thing.
Which meant that Starhawk's power, even if not as strong as theirs, wasn't too far behind.
This really surprised Josh.
But from Yondu's description, it seemed like Stakar had just awakened his Starhawk powers.
Also, if Josh remembered correctly, Starhawk's power came from the mysterious Hawk God in the Marvel universe.
This made Josh think of the Hawk God who had been tricked by Malacrass into the real universe, sealed into a statue, and turned into a living battery—one of the four dimensional gods.
According to what the Ancient One said back then, the dimensional god Hawk God was likely just an avatar of some much stronger being.
Back on Earth, Josh had gotten a little too comfortable, so he hadn't connected that Hawk God to the one who gave power to Stakar.
But now, because of what happened with Stakar, he couldn't help but make a bad connection.
What if they were the same being?
If so, that would be troublesome.
But only troublesome—nothing more.
Now that he had Tiamat's cosmic power and the Power Stone, Josh wasn't afraid of some unknown Hawk God.
As he thought about that, Josh looked at Yondu again.
Heh, in the original timeline, this kid was rescued from the Kree prison camp by Stakar, then joined the Ravagers. So in a way, he was part of Stakar's side.
But now, because of Josh's actions, they were clearly going to be enemies.
Interesting~
Still, their powers were on completely different levels—one was in the sky, the other on the ground.
But if Josh helped him, maybe this kid could one day stand on equal ground with Starhawk.
"Kid, do you want revenge?" Josh asked with a smile.
"Yes!" Yondu answered firmly, nodding hard.
"Good. Then work hard. First, build a good foundation with your teacher. Then, give me your loyalty. When the time comes, I'll give you the power to take your revenge—watch!"
After saying that, Josh pointed at a wrecked warship floating in space outside the window and clenched his fist.
Cosmic Power surged. The wreckage seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, falling fast toward the planet and crashing down in an uninhabited area dozens of kilometers away.
It exploded with a huge bang, and the entire fleet's alarm blared again.
Luckily, Thalorien quickly gave orders to calm everyone down.
And when they learned the strange event was caused by Josh, their leader, all the panic turned into excitement.
Many of the Centaurians and other aliens who had just joined recently were worried about their future after the surprise attack. But now, after seeing Josh's power, they were amazed.
They weren't loyal yet, but with such a strong leader, they felt more at ease.
And Yondu, who saw everything with his own eyes, was even more inspired.
After showing off a bit in front of the kid, Josh left Yondu in Thalorien's care and used his Cosmic Power to check on the unconscious Vereesa again.
Thankfully, it was just some mental shock—not too serious. She'd recover with some proper rest and treatment.
Once that was done, Josh returned to his temporary residence on the planet—a high-tech manor Vereesa had prepared in advance.
It wasn't large due to time constraints, but it was good enough for living and working.
When Josh arrived, Margaret had already been there for a while.
"How's Vereesa?" she asked.
Vereesa's injury wasn't exactly a secret among the higher-ups, especially given Margaret's status.
"Nothing serious, just some mental damage. She'll recover with some time and rest," Josh replied, sitting down.
"Have you figured out what happened with the fleet attack?" Margaret asked as she moved behind him and began gently massaging his shoulders.
Josh nodded and explained the whole situation—also sharing his suspicion about the Hawk God.
"This Starhawk is actually that strong? If that's true, it sounds like no one but only you can really take him on," Margaret said, clearly concerned.
Although she had been blessed by Tiamat and held the status of Josh's wife, Tiamat didn't spoil Josh without limits. Margaret's power was roughly at the level of an ordinary Eternal—not weak by any means, but nowhere near Josh's level.
Especially now that he also had the Power Stone.
As for something like tearing apart a fleet with bare hands—Margaret knew she couldn't do that. She could maybe handle wiping out a single warship by herself, but that was it.
Of course, even if she couldn't beat Starhawk, she had many magical and technological tools Josh had given her. Escaping was no problem.
So Josh wasn't too worried about her safety.
But the same couldn't be said for his other subordinates.
Vereesa had been lucky. It took the full force of her entire Captain's Guard—six fully-enhanced Yuriko clones fighting to the death—just to hold off Starhawk and keep her alive.
"Yeah… If I'm not around, and we run into him again, that could be a real problem," Josh muttered, tapping the table thoughtfully.
At that level of combat, sheer numbers didn't matter much—unless you had a hundred Yuriko-class fighters.
But when Yuri had traded the Yuriko clones to him, there hadn't been that many—only a bit over a hundred, all manufactured by the Shiro Sanitarium from the Red Alert Universe.
Getting Yuri to make more wouldn't be easy.
Especially since Yuri now treated the original Yuriko like his own daughter.
As for cloning the clones—that was practically impossible.
Yuriko's genetic makeup was highly unstable. Even first-gen clones had a high failure rate, and second-generation cloning? Forget it.
So now what?
Should he go back to Earth, grab the Space Stone… and try to "manufacture" a few Captain Marvels?
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