Nia pouted and crossed her arms as she walked down the sidewalk and towards Janna's house. After about ten minutes of thrashing that jerk of a bully, a teacher had come and separated the both of them. Then he took them to the office where they got a long talk about how fighting was bad and they were both wrong and… and she couldn't believe it!

That boy had been bullying someone, and she was getting nagged out for doing something about it! Back home that would have been something that warranted a reward. Not that she did it for a reward, but still. She was starting to wonder just how differently things worked here on Earth. Maybe Astro had been right about coming here…

"Hey blondie."

Nia perked up when she saw a figure roll up beside her. It was the boy from earlier. He had on roller skates now instead of his boots as he made his way next to her. "Oh, hey," she greeted, still frowning. "Are you here to yell at me for helping you to?" she asked.

"What?" he asked, confused. "No. Did they do that?"

"They said when a fight breaks out both people are responsible and blah, blah, blah. I tuned out after that," she said with a sigh. "I don't get this place."

The boy scowled. "Man, that's bogus," he said shaking his head. "Well, for what's it's worth I'm totally thankful for you stepping in. I would have tried taking that big lug down myself, but I'm one fight away from getting suspended, and my mom would totally kill me for it."

Nia grew a small smile. At least someone had appreciated her doing the right thing. "Your welcome. And don't worry, if he tries messing with you again I'll stop him. I don't care what those stupid rules say. Standing by when someone's getting picked on is cowardly."

He smirked. "Glad you got my back blondie. You got more guts than most of the other losers around here," he said. "Everybody is going on and on about how you wailed on that guy you know. You're the talk of the school now."

Nia looked slightly worried. "Uh… good talk, or bad talk?" she asked.

"Awesome talk. Everybody was totally impressed how so much badass got packed into one little girl," he explained. "You sure know how to make a first impression blondie."

Nia blushed at the complement. "Aw, thanks…"

"Hey, don't thank me. You're the one who saved my ass back there," he said waving her off. "By the way, never got your name blondie."

Nia smiled proudly. "I'm Titania Butterfly! But you can just call me Nia!" she said before doing a bow and curtsey.

The boy chuckled. It was hard to believe this girly girl was beating down some guy twice her size a little while ago. "Nia huh? Nice. Well you can call me AJ," he said pointing to himself.

"Well, it's nice to meet you AJ," she said sweetly.

"Likewise blondie. So where'd you move from?"

Nia blanked for a moment. Should she tell him where she was really from? She was supposed to be keeping a low profile, wasn't she? "Uh… nowhere you've probably heard of. How about you?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"New York, born and raised baby. Just moved here a couple of months ago," he said, not even bothering to question why she had so obviously just dodged his question. He either didn't seem to notice, or didn't care.

"Oh, so you're kind of a new kid too huh?"

He nodded. "Yup," he answered as he started skating backwards. "Ma got a new job down here and I got dragged along. Cities not too bad I guess. Lot of cool stuff goes on."

"Cool stuff?"

"Yeah, you know. The monsters and heroes and stuff. The city is crawling with them."

Nia nodded. "Oh right. So, where are the heroes anyway? How come they didn't come when that guy was trying to steal from you?" she asked.

AJ clicked his tongue. "Ah, they're not gonna bust out the powers for some school brawl. Specially not for some two-bit punk like me," he said shrugging.

"Why not?" she asked.

"I'm guessing they got more important stuff to do. Like fighting giant monsters and catching those Youngblood guys and junk," he explained.

Nia hummed. She guessed there must have been a whole lot of crime for them to deal with if they didn't have time to deal with the small stuff. When her brother was around nobody even thought about pulling something like that off. Just the thought of him showing up kept most people from fighting or stealing.

"So blondie, want me to show you around town?" he asked, scooting closer to her. "I may be pretty new here myself, but I already know the place like the back of my hand."

Nia looked up in thought. Learning her way around town would be pretty helpful. But what if Astro started to worry? She didn't have any way to contact him yet, and she knew how overprotective he could get… then again, it wasn't like anything dangerous could really happen. What could it hurt?

She smiled back at him. "Okay!"

"Sweet, let's hit the town blondie!"

Astro smiled and hummed happily as he took a bite out of his donut. Since he knew Nia wouldn't be out of school for some time when he left, he had decided to stop by that bakery and ended up ordering a dozen donuts. The old man behind the counter didn't even ask him for more coins than last time. In fact he insisted he only paid two, seeing as he had apparently overpaid for the ones from earlier.

He wasn't mad about it however. He'd pay double what he did for just how amazing these tasted. It wasn't as if he'd never had donuts before, but he never had so many flavors to choose from. One of them had crushed up cookies on top of it!

Astro knew he had a sweet tooth, and honestly it was just the thing he needed to help him forget about how depressing today had been. Even after leaving school he ended up having to deal with some other student who had started following him. He walked around for a bit, and when he realized the kid wasn't giving up he'd ran into an alleyway and used his scissors to give him the slip.

The last thing he needed was someone else trying to get into a fight with him. He'd dealt with enough of that for today. He looked down at the rest of his donuts. He had eight left, and as tempting as it was to scarf them all down, he knew Nia would get pouty if she found out he came back and didn't bring her anything. He also wanted to bring a snack for Sear.

He got ready to get up and leave, but suddenly another figure appeared before him. "Hello, would you mind if I took a seat here?" the redheaded boy asked as he approached the table.

"No, it's fine. I was just leaving."

"Actually, I was hoping to get a moment of your time."

Astro looked at the boy curiously. He didn't seem like he wanted any trouble, but he wasn't sure about anything on this planet. "That depends. Are you going to randomly try to take or attack me?" he asked cautiously.

"What? No!" he assured. "I just… uh, this is awkward. Look, I just wanted to talk with you. I think there's been some huge misunderstandings."

Astro kept staring at him, and then glanced over and noticed a brown haired girl sitting at a table near the door. She was staring towards them with her arms crossed, looking ready to act at a moment's notice. "And her?" he asked, glaring back at him.

"She only came because she was worried about… you know, things getting ugly. But you seem like a pretty reasonable person, so I wouldn't worry about it," he assured. "Anyway, my name is Kingsley. Kingsley Spicer," he said holding his hand out.

Astro looked at it hesitantly, but then reached forward and shook it. "Astro…"

Kingsley smiled. "You see, I understand there was an incident this morning with you and a police officer," he explained. "And another between you and a student at school."

Astro was slightly surprised at the statement. He had no idea what a police officer was, but he could only assume he was talking about the man who tried to take them this morning. And he knew for sure who he meant by the other student at school.

"And how exactly did you know about this?" he asked.

Kingsley pulled out his phone and showed an image of him at the school. It showed him standing over the downed bully who was on his knees holding his stomach. He then flicked the screen and the image switched to one of him freezing the police officer.

"A friend of ours noticed you looked like the report the police officer gave us this morning, and another of our friends checked the camera feeds around the city and found this. The one from school… well, everyone had been recording that. It wasn't hard to find."

Astro narrowed his eyes at him. "I was acting in self-defense in both of those cases," he said sternly. "That man tried to forcefully make my sister and I follow him, and the second one assaulted me. All things considered I'd say they should be the one you be going after."

Kingsley quickly raised his hands. "Whoa, whoa, relax. I'm not going after you. Like I said, I just wanted to talk. At first we were pretty worried about this, but thanks to a mutual friend of ours it's very clear this whole thing was just an accident."

"A mutual friend?" Astro asked, confused.

The girl near the door spoke up. "Vera recognized you frosty," she called. Astro paled slightly. "Lucky she did too. We were going to send a team to bring your ass in."

Astro glared at her, but Kingsley hurriedly cut in. "But it didn't come to that!" he said quickly. "Vera explained that you two aren't from here, and I guess from your point of view it seemed like you were being threatened… well, in that second one you actually were, so that's not really a problem."

The girl got up and walked towards him. "Enough beating around the bush. We know you're not one of the bad guys, but we still want to know why you're here," she demanded.

"Do you have to be so blunt Cayenne?"

"Hell yeah. I already have one royal to babysit, I'm damn sure not taking on two more."

Astro sighed. This was not how his day was supposed to be going. "So, you're the heroes that are supposed to be teaching Vera I suppose?" They both turned towards him. In his opinion, neither one of them looked all that strong. But looks could be pretty deceiving. Nia didn't look like she could harm a fly, but her magical power made her arguably more dangerous than him.

Cayenne crossed her arms. "Yeah, we are."

"Well you don't need to worry about me or my sister. We're not any threat to you or your world. We're just here as… tourists. To sight see and to help my sister better learn to use her magic. All we want to do is blend in and be on our way."

Cayenne scoffed. "Blend in? You attacked a police officer and gave some bully a beat down in front of an entire cafeteria of people. Not that the prick didn't deserve it," she said shaking her head. "If you're trying to keep a low profile you're doing a pretty shitty job."

Astro grunted. Partly because he didn't appreciate how crass she was being, and party because she was right. A small part of him was hoping that fights in this place were normal, and everyone would just forget by tomorrow. But that clearly wasn't the case.

"Your concern is… appreciated. I'll do better to keep my head low from here on."

Kingsley nodded. "That's good to know. But you should know that there are some pretty dangerous people around here, by the name of the Youngblood Alliance. Hopefully it won't come to this, but if they find out what you can do, there may come a time when they try to recruit you or your sister."

Astro rolled his eyes. "I'm not interested in joining in your little Earth battle. So you won't have to worry about facing or protecting me or Nia at any point. Like I said, we'll be keeping a low profile and staying out of everyone's way," he said before getting up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go pick up my sister."

"Oh… right."

"It was nice meeting you Kingsley. And… Cayenne?"

The brown haired girl snorted.

"…we met."

With that he turned and walked out, but not before grabbing his box of donuts. After he left Kingsley let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. That had been pretty tense. Vera had said he was a serious guy, but he didn't think he was that uptight.

"So what did you think?" he asked before turning to Cayenne.

The X-powered super narrowed his eyes. Vera had told them Astro was a skilled warrior. Someone who would be worth recruiting. But she had wanted to see what he was made of for herself. A small part of her had honestly been hoping for a scrap to break out so she could see.

"The guy has the attitude down. You can tell just by looking at him he knows how to hold his own. And not just anybody could shake Raleigh like that either. But he doesn't seem interested in joining."

"I know," Kingsley said disappointedly. They didn't really have any magic users within the ranks of the Vanguard. Sure, Serena could make potions, but beyond that she was pretty limited. Vivian had the scythe of course, but she wasn't really that experienced at using it.

At first he'd been hesitant about it because of their royal status, but Cayenne had pointed out that they needed stronger members in their ranks. Besides, they already had Vera working with them, so the royalty card didn't really hold up.

Having Astro and his sister would boost their combat and magical strength immensely. But it wasn't like they could force them to join. Not that he wanted to ask someone he knew just got here this morning to join with them. It seemed… kind of rude. "Let him get used to being here. Then maybe we can convince him later. When he trusts us," Kingsley reasoned.

"If he trusts us. That guy has some serious chips on his shoulder," she said, taking a seat. "And if he's out, chances are his sisters out too. You saw how protective he was of her with that cop."

Kingsley sighed once more. "Yeah. Guess we'll just have to hope for the best…"

AJ sat on the sidewalk and watched with a stunned expression as Nia gulped down the last of her cheesesteak. He had never seen anyone eat one of Antonio's mega cheesesteaks so quickly. He couldn't even finish his own. But this girl put it down like it was nothing. Where the hell was she putting it all?

Nia let out a burp, and then covered her mouth and blushed. "Uh, excuse me…" she said smiling nervously. Astro and her grandmother were always telling her to work on her table manners. Burping was supposed to be unbecoming of a future queen.

AJ kept staring for a while, and then smirked. "Man, you sure can put down some food blondie. I have never seen anyone eat like that," he commented.

She looked down embarrassed. "Sorry…"

"Sorry? Don't be sorry. It was freaking awesome," he said chuckling.

Nia smiled, slightly surprised by the compliment. "Oh, thanks."

"So, I'm guessing you enjoyed your first cheesesteak then?" he asked.

Nia nodded. "It was like the most delicious thing I ever tasted! I mean, it was totally messy and greasy, but it was just so good! So many flavors!" she said excitedly. Earth had so many great foods. Back home they had just started getting other foods aside from corn, so her options were still pretty limited. But here, there was so much to choose from.

"You think that's good, wait until you try New York Pizza. Best food on the planet," he said proudly. Nia looked excited to try yet another new food. Even after today's eating spree, she still wasn't even close to full.

She looked up towards the sky and hummed. The earth wasn't so bad. Sure it had it's bullies and rude people, but it had lots of food and nice guys like AJ too. It might not have been what she thought, but it wasn't necessarily bad.

Before she could think any further on it however, she heard a revving sound. Both she and AJ looked up to see Astro riding towards them on Sear. The dragon came to a stop in front of them, and her brother looked down at her with a frown.

She smiled nervously. She had forgotten just how late it was getting. "Hey bro…"

Astro sighed. "Nia, you… uh," he shook his head. "You can't just disappear without telling somewhere where you're going. I was looking all around your school for you and couldn't find you. If I hadn't of have Sear to sniff you out then I'd never-"

"Whoa, is that a mutant?" AJ asked as he looked over Sear.

Astro looked down at him confused. "What? No," he said, narrowing his eyes. "Sear no mutant, he's a dragon. Why would you assume… wait, who are you?" he asked.

He smiled up at him. "Names AJ. Nice to meet you dude."

Astro raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh… nice to meet you too."

Nia stood up and smiled. "AJ is my new friend! I met him at school and he's been showing me around town and tipping me about all the best eating places!"

Astro kept his eyes on AJ. "Right, friend…" he muttered. Earth or not, this kid was a member of the opposite sex, and he was hanging around his sister. Which meant he was in his crosshairs. "Well, it's late Nia. We need to get going."

Nia nodded and turned to AJ. "See you at school tomorrow?"

AJ gave her a toothy grin. "Totally blondie," he said holding his fist up. Nia fist bumped him before getting onto Seat and grabbing onto his brother. She waved right before Astro revved up the dragon and then pulled off. The dragon soon took off into the air. "Whoa…" AJ said watching in awe as they flew off.

Once he was out of view, Nia spoke. "I'm sorry about just leaving. I just wanted to do a little sightseeing…" she said knowing she was going to get an earful from him.

Astro just kept staring forward before letting out a sigh. "It's okay. I know how excited you were to come here. I can understand you wanting to look around. Just please let me know first so I don't worry. This place is dangerous. I need to know you're okay."

Nia looked slightly surprised at how understanding he was being. She decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and just nodded. "Okay…"

Astro then turned back to look at her. "Nia, you know we're just here to help you learn to use your powers right?" he asked.

She looked back at him confused. "Uh, yeah. I know."

"So… so if anyone comes trying to recruit you on any teams, we'll have nothing to do with it. We may be on Earth, but whatever happens here isn't really our problem. So we're not getting involved in any of their battles. Understand?"

She tilted her head. Was he talking about the team Vera was on? "But what if they need our-"

"Tell me you understand Nia," he said sternly.

Nia frowned, knowing there was no arguing with him at this point. "I understand."

"Good," he said nodding. He revved up Sear once more and sped up.

The two siblings flew off towards Janna's house, completely unaware of the winged figure that was watching them from the shadows. "Interesting…"