A Surprising Imperial KO

Fields of long brown grass with the occasional group of rocks or mountains stretched across the majority of Lothal's landscape, which were home to a variety of animals, the most common being a Loth-cat. The tall grass continued to wave peacefully in the breeze, undisturbed by anything. That is, until a young teenager's body rolled through the grass with a grunt. He got up, dusting himself off with a frustrated expression.

"Ezra, you did it again," Kanan said, arms crossed.

"Did what again?" he replied.

"Lose focus," Kanan says simply.

"You keep saying that, but I think I'm always focused on it! Kinda hard not too when you're being shot at," he retorted in annoyance.

Zeb chuckled in amusement along with Chopper, enjoying the moment. He could stay around and listen to this teaching method all day.

"You're focused on what would happen if you get hit. Not on deflecting them." Kanan pointed out.

Ezra sighed in exasperation.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just give me the next volley," he replied quickly, activating Kanan's lightsaber in his hand yet again.

He still had yet to build his own. This time it was Kanan's turn to sigh in aggravation.

"Alright, training time is over. Let's start this up later," he said firmly.

Everyone all groaned, but for different reasons. Zeb lowered his bow-rifle sadly.

"I was looking forwards to shooting the kid more..." he mumbled. Chopper beeped in agreement.

"Why are we stopping?" Ezra demanded.

"Because you're being hotheaded right now. You can't focus," he responded.

Ezra growled quietly in irritation but relented, deactivating the lightsaber and tossing it back towards Kanan, who easily caught it in his hand.

"Also, because we have to resupply at the city anyways. Now come on," he said, gesturing towards the Ghost, which was parked a few feet away.

"Fine," Ezra replied, and they all headed back into the ship.

About an hour and a half later, the Crew were lounging around the city streets, laying low to stay out of sight of the Imperial authorities. Hera and Kanan were handling most of the resupplying, with Zeb, Ezra and Sabine just moving along with them. Although Ezra decided to take his own detour, just for some alone time. He liked the Ghost Crew and all, but he still took opportunities to be by himself from time to time. Looking around the streets, with citizens minding their own business at their stalls, and the occasional patrol of stormtroopers, Ezra caught himself remembering his time as a street-rat here. It wasn't so long ago that he stole the shipment of food that Kanan and the others were in the middle of stealing. Who knew that would lead to becoming part of a group of rebels?

While remembering his past life on Lothal, he lost track of where he was going and accidentally bumped into someone. He moved to the side quickly.

"Pardon me... sir..." he trailed off, nervously realizing who he had bumped into.

"Out of the way street-rat!" Commandant Aresko said sharply, glaring down at him.

By his side was Grint, stuffing his face with food as usual, most likely bullied from the merchants. Two stormtroopers stood guard on either side of them. Adopting a sheepish smile, Ezra backed out of the way quickly.

"Sorry mister, it won't happen again, I promise," he apologized with a submissive bow of his head.

Aresko scoffed in distaste, brushing off his uniform on the spot Ezra bumped into him.

"It better not," he warned.

Ezra smiled innocently as the group passed by them, making a face once he was behind them before continuing on. Probably best to get back to the rest of the group now. unfortunately for him, Aresko stopped and turned to eye him with an inquisitive gaze.

"Wait a moment..." he said, stopping the troopers.

"What?" Grint asked dumbly.

He ignored him.

"Guards, bring him here," he ordered.

Ezra stopped in surprise and turned around nervously as the two stormtroopers brought him over to them forcefully.

"Hey uh, what's wrong? What'd I do?" he asked weakly.

Aresko narrowed his eyes at him, and Ezra stared back nervously, afraid that he would be recognized. even though these two were laughably incompetent at their job, they'd crossed paths plenty of times by now, especially when he infiltrated that academy. A few moments passed before Aresko widened his eyes.

"You're that Bridger kid!" he exclaimed. "Seize him!"

"Dang it!" Ezra yelled, wriggling out of the grip of the stormtroopers and leaping backwards.

He quickly took aim with his slingshot and hit the stormtroopers in the helmet, causing them to topple over with a pained cry. Aresko and Grint attempted to pull out their blasters and shoot him, but he was already running away as fast as he could. The civilians around them all took cover with terrified screams.

"I need stormtroopers down here immediately! We have a fugitive on the loose!" Aresko yelled into his comlink.

"Oh great. I'll never hear the end of it now," Ezra said to himself in dread.

Ezra turned a corner and leaped over a few crates, slipping past civilians on the way, who gave startled cries of confusion, annoyance, and fright. He accidentally bumped into a stack of crates, causing them to topple over and spill the contents. The owner of those crates shook his fist at him angrily.

"Sorry!" he apologized, but still continued on his run.

Glancing behind him, he saw three stormtroopers giving chase, and ducked around a corner. However behind that corner he ran right into two more troopers chatting next to speeder bikes. They stared each other down in surprise, before the troopers began to pull out their blasters. Thinking fast, Ezra raised his arm and slammed their heads with yellow energy, hitting them with enough bolts to stun them into unconsciousness.

"Now this might come in handy," Ezra said with a smirk, eyeing the speeder bikes.

However before he could hop on one of them, a thermal detonator was thrown right between them from an approaching stormtrooper. Ezra let out a cry of surprise and jumped away, just missing the explosion. Shaking his head, he got up and saw a patrol of troopers closing in.

"Really?" he muttered in annoyance.

Panicking, he scrambled to his feet and ran away again. The chase continued on for several moments before Ezra turned around another corner. Unfortunately for him, this was a dead end. "Oh come on!" he complained.

He turned around to run away, but by that point the stormtroopers had already rounded the corner, leaving him trapped. they advanced forwards with their blasters raised, ready to fire. Ezra backed away nervously. Just then, Aresko and Grint walked up between them, a smug grin on their faces.

"Surrender yourself! You're outnumbered!" Aresko demanded.

"Hey, you know, maybe this is all just a misunderstanding huh?" Ezra pleaded with an innocent smile.

"Secure him," Aresko ordered another trooper.

He complied and strode forwards, pulling out a pair of binders. Ezra scowled, about to raise his slingshot when the strangest thing happened. From the roof above them, a young girl with red hair a couple of years younger than Ezra, in a black outfit with no sleeves flipped down, striking the approaching stormtrooper with her fist as she landed. He collapsed to the ground with a pained grunt, stunned, and she wasted no time leaping in to action.

Before the Imperials could react, she jumped forwards and kicked a trooper in the face, using his head as a springboard to roundhouse kick another. Grint backed away fearfully, but the young girl slammed her fist into his face, spinning him around before he fell to the ground groaning. She picked up his food basket and threw it at another stormtrooper, the force of the throw surprisingly managing to knock him harshly onto his back, before rolling underneath a red laser bolt. She rushed towards the offending stormtrooper and jumped over his head, grabbing him in a headlock and pulling him to the ground.

Aresko's eyes were wide in shock and fear, and he started to run away, prompting Ezra to recover from his surprise. Running forwards, he easily caught up to the officer and shoved him to the ground, aiming his slingshot at his head.

"Ah ah ah," he chastised.

A stormtrooper's blaster slid across the ground next to them, and they both looked over to see the young girl approaching with a grin on her face, all of the stormtroopers sprawled on the ground, a few of them groaning in pain.

"That was fun!" she said cheerfully, as if she hadn't just taken on a bunch of Imperial soldiers.

"I... gotta admit I was not expecting that." Ezra admitted.

"Well that's because you weren't supposed to," the girl retorted with a wide smile, frowning down at Aresko. "Ugh, what a freak."

"Please, let me go, I-I'll give you anything you wish," he pleaded.

The girl rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Oh please shut up," she said, raising a small blaster pistol and shooting a beam of blue energy at him.

He cried out in shock before going limp. Ezra eyed her incredulously.

"Woah!" he exclaimed in shock.

"What?" she asked casually.

"Y-you just shot him!" Ezra exclaimed in disbelief.

"Hmm hmm," she replied. "So what?"

"You can't just kill people like that!" he protested with a glare.

"Oh relax dude, it was a stun blast," she retorted.

As if on cue, Aresko let out a low groan, shifting slightly. The girl pointed to him as if an example. "See?"

"Ok... I guess I overreacted," Ezra admitted.

He looked around the street, taking note of all of the stormtroopers groaning in pain, bewildered by how such a young girl could do so much damage.

"How did you manage..." he started to say, turning around to face her again.

However the girl was long gone, disappearing without a trace. He rushed out of the street and looked both ways, but could not find her anywhere.

"What..." he whispered in confusion.

His comlink then went off, causing him to jump slightly in surprise, and he gained a nervous expression. He answered it to be met by the angry voice of Kanan.

"Spectre 6, where are you?" he demanded.

"Oh, hey! I uh... I got a little sidetracked," he replied sheepishly.

"Sidetracked by what?" Kanan asked suspiciously.

Ezra glanced down the street again, before heading back in the direction of the Crew.

"You might not believe it..." he trailed off.

Up above, Mara watched him go from the roof with curious expression on her face. She knew exactly who he was of course, being the Padawan to Kanan on the Ghost Crew, and decided to help out. Her quick visit to Lothal was just to pick up some more supplies before she would be heading back to Ahch-To again. Grinning to herself, she stood up and leaped over the side of the house, headed towards the ship.