"After 'em!" Buttercup shouted, and the girls took off right into the flock, ignoring the samurai's warning. Instantly, the lead wave of birds morphed into steely versions and doubled in size. They dove straight for the house, becoming guided missiles, detonating on impact.
"Lasers!" Blossom waved her sisters into position and they turned their beams on the birds, sweeping across the front flank and picking them off before they hit. Only the first six or seven had struck, turning the upper story of the house into flames. When the attacking horde noticed what was interfering with it, half peeled off and swarmed the girls. To no avail, as their slashing fists and feet blew the possessed grenades apart. What few did get by exploded harmlessly against them. The girls kept their beams concentrated on the ones attacking the house…and Jack.
In spite of his initial fear for them, thinking of them momentarily as just children, he left them to their own devices. He was convinced they could handle themselves, at least with Aku's first wave. This would not be all. He ran to the garage and leaped to the roof of it in a single bound, then began swatting the few destroyers that got past the girls. His sword sliced them in half easily and they erupted into shrapnel, piercing the burning upper story of the house. Ten minutes of this and the swarm turned into a trickle, and then the deadly flock was no more. The girls flew down and doused the flames with their super-inhalation. His eyes became huge.
"That ain't nothing!" Buttercup laughed, blowing smoke.
"Don't brag, Buttercup!" Blossom scolded. She looked at the warrior. "That wasn't really Aku, was it?"
"Not Aku itself. It may take many forms, but it also may control other creatures and change them. Those birds had no control over themselves. But Aku has also underestimated you. It will not make the same mistake next time."
"Then we better get down to the lab!" Blossom shouted. "Let's go!"
"And let's just hope it works!" Buttercup added.
"What is that?" Jack said at the same second all three girls said, "Uh, oh."
They felt a heavy vibration coming from below them. A grinding noise, the sound of rusted machinery creaking, came from behind the house, then changed to a whine of engines.
"I know that sound!" Bubbles cried. "It's DyNaMo!"
"Yes!" Blossom shouted. "Professor must've heard the fight and took the portal to the DyNaMo for safety!"
"All right! No way is this Aku gonna beat her!"
Momentarily confused, Jack asked, "What is this dynamo?"
"Look!"
As Blossom quickly explained the battle robot, an astounded samurai saw a gigantic metallic amalgam of the three small children rising slowly into the air, straight up, above the house. He just stared at it, mesmerized, until it was several hundred feet above the house.
"Professor's not taking any chances with the portal." Blossom said. "It's our last chance to get home."
"But why's he going so far up?" Buttercup wondered. "Oh, well. C'mon, Jack!"
She grabbed the startled warrior under the armpits and they took off. To their total shock, the missile ports on the robot's arms slid open and a dozen projectiles fired out. Directly at the house.
"Aku!" Blossom screamed. "Take out those missiles!"
She and Bubbles began intercepting the death raining down, exploding them with their laser beams. Buttercup instantly took Jack to a safe distance a thousand feet away, where he'd be less likely to be hit by shrapnel. She raced to rejoin her sisters, calling back , "You're sittin' this one out!"
Luckily, the professor hadn't fully reloaded the robot with its complement of weaponry. It fired perhaps two dozen missiles and the girls were able to take them all out except one. Blossom sped to get in front of it and turn it away before it could hit the house, but it was too much for her and it carried her straight down. She and the missile disappeared completely from sight.
Fear gripped her sisters' hearts. But the explosion never came. Jack himself was sure the poor girl was doomed, and was amazed the rocket didn't go off. He raced toward the house.
"A dud!" Buttercup shouted. "Bubbles, I really hate to do this, but we hafta take her out!" Meaning DyNaMo, not Blossom. She was probably looking for the professor.
They headed straight for the battle droid, knowing what would get the job done. The professor had told them what to do in a last-resort scenario. Hit the robot's pigtail fuel nacelles.
"Let's hit the same spot!" Bubbles shouted and Buttercup nodded. They didn't have time to worry about Blossom, or Jack, who was down to five hundred feet away. The robot came at them, taking a savage kick at Bubbles. She deftly avoided it and kicked her leg out, tripping it. Buttercup saw her opening and grabbed it by one arm, spinning with it and finding a spot on the left pigtail with her beam. She released the robot, sending it straight up, a thousand feet. Their infra-red vision found the hot spot on the nacelle and they locked their beams on it.
Buttercup saw Jack running toward the house. "Jack! Get away! This thing's gonna blow!"
Then time seemed to stop, the next horrible moment frozen like a photograph in their minds before they saw nothing more. At the precise moment the DyNaMo blew, there was a tremendous 'WHUUUMMP'. Their house seemed to lift completely off the ground for an instant, then was engulfed in a fireball, the debris falling back into all that remained, a gigantic, scorched, black pit.
Buttercup and Bubbles had only a second to scream inside their minds, "Blossom! Professor!", before the blast sent them into the falling wreckage of the robot. They crashed into the debris-filled street in what, to them, had been a quiet suburban neighborhood just a few hours before.
