"God damn it!"

"Stand still!"

Carnage and Savage both growled as they continued swinging at Astro. The prince moved between the two of them, dodging and blocking every blow with his sword. He scowled as he tried to find an opening to strike back against them, but every time he was about to cut one of them his sword started to move on its own, just barely making him miss. Was it the little blonde one? She hadn't jumped in yet, so maybe she was doing something else.

Priss glared at him from the sidelines. How in the world was this guy so strong? Usually her brothers could deal with someone like this easily. But not only were they unable to land a solid hit on him, but she'd had to use her powers to nudge his sword ever so slightly so he hadn't cut them. Just who was this guy?

Astro flipped back and looked past the three. The robot had left some time ago, but it wouldn't be too hard to follow. It was just a matter of getting these goons out of the way. "Alright, I'm getting tired of this. Stand down, or I'll start getting serious," he said dangerously.

Priss scoffed. "You're threatening us? That's a first," she said before raising one of her hands. A nearby bus that had been abandoned by the fleeing citizens was suddenly lifted up into the air. With a quick motion of her hand, Priss sent the bus flying towards him.

Astro sheathed his sword and then took a deep breath. "Diced Ice…" He brought his sword back out, and the bus suddenly froze over and broke apart into small cubes of ice.

As the ice rained down, the triplets lost sight of him. "Shit, where did he-" Savage was cut off as Astro suddenly rushed at him from his side. He lifted his sword and swung down, but Savage turned and punched him. To his surprise however, when his fist made contact Astro had turned into a puff of mist. "The hell?!"

"It's a fake!" Priss said growling.

"Sis! Look out!"

Priss felt a chill up her spine, and then turned to see Astro behind her. "You seem like the only one with a brain between the three of you, so I'll deal with you first…"

He thrust his sword forward, but Priss quickly flew up into the air to avoid him. She glared down at him angrily. That was close. Much closer than she liked. "Get away from our sister you moss headed bastard!" Savage and Carnage both rushed him again.

Astro stomped his foot on the ground, and ice spikes shot up towards them. The two both split up to avoid the attack, and Savage fired a laser from his eyes. Astro raised his sword and deflected it away, right towards Priss. "Hey!" she yelled angrily.

"Stop attacking sis!" Carnage shouted.

"Yeah! Attacking a defenseless girl! What kind of hero are you anyway?!" Savage added.

Astro narrowed his eyes. "I never claimed to be a hero. And holding back simply because she's a woman would be an insult to the entire Butterfly family line," he said before raising his hand. "Regardless, you three are demons aren't you? I can sense it. If that's the case, you shouldn't be causing chaos like this. Not with Vera here."

Priss scoffed. "You think that brat has some kind of power over us because of her title. There are things in the underworld that would eat that three eyed freak alive…"

Astro narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't care much for Vera, but he wasn't going to stand by and listen to her be insulted either. "There are things up here that would eat you alive. And unfortunately, one of them is standing in front of you…" he said pointing his sword at them.

A small cloud of mist slowly began to form around him. Carnage scoffed. "You really think a little fog is going to help you?" he asked. Astro didn't say anything. He just slowly stepped back, the fog hiding him from their view. "Get back here!" he said before firing a laser beam at him.

The beam blew the fog apart, and Astro was nowhere to be seen. "Over here!" The triplets looked up and saw him diving down at them. He swung at Priss once more, who nimbly moved out of the way.

Carnage growled. "That's it! That's the last time you try to attack sis like that!" He and Savage both roared before running after him. Astro smirked and took off, headed down a nearby alleyway.

"Guys, wait!" Priss called after them. The two kept running, too angry to listen at this point. When they turned the corner to the alleyway, they saw Astro was gone. There was nothing but… a portal? "Carnage, Savage, look out-"

Before she could finish, Astro jumped out from behind them and swung his sword. A wave of water appeared in front of him, and then washed the two into the portal. Astro quickly ran over and closed it behind them. Priss looked at him wide eyed as he turned back to her. "Why you little-!"

"You're brothers are somewhere in the middle of this planet's ocean. So you can stay and fight me, or work on finding them. I very much doubt you could beat me one on one, but you're more than welcomed to try," he said raising his sword.

Priss kept glaring at him, but then slowly flew up into the air. "This isn't over…" she said dangerously. "Not by a longshot." She turned and took off into the air.

Astro watched her leave before running out of the alleyway and towards the direction the robot headed. He probably wouldn't be able to trick them like that again. But at the very least they were out of his hair for now. Now, he needed to go stop that robot.

"Oh man! Oh man! Oh man! Oh man!"

Nia jumped from side to side as the robot stomped after her. She rolled to the side and then swung her hammer again, but this time the robot blocked it with its arm. Nia gulped as it aimed down at her and fired a laser from its hand. She yelled and quickly ducked out of the way, rolling a few feet before standing back up and running.

It had been going on like this for a while now. The first time she had knocked it down, she had clearly caught it off guard. This time it was bracing itself every time she swung.

The robot stomped after her again. This time it had only barely missed, and the force of the stomp sent her flying forward. She tumbled onto the ground and looked back to see the robots already beginning to fire at her again. She panicked and braced herself, but suddenly AJ came speeding by, knocking her out of the way.

The spot they'd once been in now had burn marks all over it. The robot turned back towards them and got ready to fire again, and Nia was suddenly pulled up off the ground. AJ pulled her up into his arms princess style and started skating out of the way. "Shit, shit, shit!"

He dodged laser after laser as Nia clung onto him for dear life. "If you got another crazy weapon thingy you can whip out, now is the time blondie!" he said.

Nia tried to think. Okay, the hammer wasn't working anymore. She needed something new. Something she could use from a distance. "Got it!"

The wand started to transform again, this time turning into a bow. "Whoa?! Is there anything that thing can't turn into?" he asked.

Nia pulled the string back on her bow, and an arrow of blue fire appeared on it. "Cool…" she said wide eyed. She then smiled and fired it. It headed right towards the robot, and then completely missed, smashing through the window of a nearby building. "…oh…"

"Wow, your aim sucks…" AJ said.

The robot fired again, and this time it landed close enough to AJ to make him stumble. He fell off his feet and onto his butt, Nia landing right in his lap. The robot quickly charged at them and threw its fist, but Nia held the bow up.

The wand quickly turned into a shield, and blocked the robot's fist. Nia had expected to be sent flying back, but to her shock it was the robot went stumbling back. AJ looked stunned. He had no idea how Nia was doing this, but it was amazing.

Nia quickly switched back to her hammer and swung. This time the handle stretched out, and it reached far enough to hit the robot in the leg. It fell back onto its back, and Nia quickly ran forward, turning it into a large axe.

"Got you! Blue Bird Blaze!"

The axe suddenly grew blue flames around it, and she swung as hard as she could. In one quick swipe, the robot was cut right in half from the waist up. AJ's jaw dropped as he watched the robot fall to the ground. "Holy shit!" he said stunned.

Nia tried to catch her breath as the wand turned back to normal. She wasn't used to using magic like this. Between changing the wand, and using her spells to power it up, she felt really drained. But at least she had done it. There was no way that thing was still alive.

Or at least she thought it couldn't. The top half of the robot suddenly raised its hand and took aim at her again. "Oh come on!" she yelled.

"Blondie!"

Just as the robot fired, AJ tackled her out of the way. The beam missed and hit the building behind them as they tumbled to the ground. The robot suddenly raised its arms and got ready to fire at them again. The two had braced themselves, but then a figure came crashing down, stomping onto the robot and flattening it like a pancake. Nia and AJ both gasped as they saw Cayenne stomping down on the robot's head.

"Fucking piece of scrap metal…" she muttered annoyed.

The two twelve year olds were amazed. They had struggled to take on that robot. Nia had used everything she had just to cut it. But this girl had stomped it flat like it was nothing. She turned towards them and crossed her arms. "Hey, you two okay?" she asked.

Nia slowly nodded. "Uh-huh… that was cool."

Cayenne smirked. "Me? I saw what you did earlier. You cut this bitch clean in half. Vera said you didn't know how to use that thing yet, but you seem pretty damn good with it to me."

Nia blushed as the compliment. "Oh, thanks! Wait, do you know who I am?"

"Vera told me."

"You know Vera?!" Nia said, amazed. "Wow, you must be the hero who's been teaching her! I never thought I'd get to meet you so soon!"

Cayenne raised an eyebrow. Vera was right. This kid really was just a ball of endless energy. She suddenly heard police sirens approaching and frowned. "Yeah, nice to meet you two kid. But right now we need to get you the hell out of here, otherwise your face is going to end up all over the news," she said before flying over towards them.

She grabbed Nia and AJ around the waists before taking off into the air. Nia was wide eyed. "Wow, you can fly?! That's so cool!" she cheered.

"Hey! Don't go carrying me like I'm some chick! It's unmanly!"

"Oh shut up you runt!" Cayenne said as she flew off towards the Vanguard base. They would have to sort this out there.

Heath and Alisha watched from a distance as the police surrounded the remains of the robot. The younger of the two was scowling. He had wanted a chance to jump in and test his upgrades, but the triplets had never arrived to back them up, and they knew it wouldn't be long before more of the Vanguard had showed up.

"What a waste," Alisha said, shaking her head.

"Far from it Alisha. We collected the blueprints and significant battle data on the security droid. Besides, your original objective was captured with no complications. I'd say over all this was still quite the success," Drake said from over the com link.

Heath grunted. "I still didn't get to stretch my legs…" he complained.

"As I said Heath. You will get your chance. For now, head back and meet up with Rogen. See what you two can make of the data and blueprints we collected. I'm sure it'll offer a few more improvements to your already impressive arsenal."

Alisha hummed. "Yeah, that's all well and fine, but what do we do about those two," she asked looking up to where Cayenne was flying off with AJ and Nia. "The boy seems like some regular punk who just but in. But the girl, she has some serious magic."

Heath crossed his arms. "Yeah. And the ice guy was going toe to toe with the triplets. If the Vanguard recruits them we'll have some serious problems to deal with."

Drake chuckled, and they could practically see him smiling from back at the base. "Yes, I suppose I'll have to arrange a meeting with the Butterflies. I could see much potential in them as our allies…"