A/N: Well, this chapter is wa~y longer than the prologue. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Six people all stared up at the cloudless skies, speechless. Three were Human children; one a twelve year old African-American boy named Cedric wearing glasses and whose eyes occasionally flash to grey; a Caucasian thirteen year old boy named Mike who had sandy blond hair and green eyes. Both had the same forward-spiked hairstyle. The third Human child was a full-bodied girl of the same age as Mike; she had chin-length, dark brown hair, Caribbean blue eyes and was half Japanese, though her surname was Young due to the fact that her father was one-quarter Chinese.

The last three were short, bald, no-eared, blue-skinned aliens with no nose – though they have nostrils – enormous, round eyes and tiny irises. On there enormous, bald heads were caps that came to sharp points above their brows and were a few shades darker than their skin. Their cheeks were sunken in due to no teeth except in the front. They have three-fingered, over-sized hands with booted feet to match. All of them were wearing black boots, pants (with belts), a special pack and a Chinese-collared shirt, each in a different color; yellow, blue and red.

In order they are: Commander B-Bop-A-Luna (B-Bop), Lieutenant Tech Officer 2-T-Fru-T (2-T) and Corporal Do-Wah-Diddy (Do-Wah).

"Oh-no," B-Bop finally said after a long silence, "Not good..."

To which Angela, Mike and Cedric responded to (in order) with:

"You think?"

"Oh man..."

"What are we gonna do?"

The three Martains all whirled around to face their Human friends and said in response Cedric's question, "You guys are going to do nothing," B-Bop informed them, "Except go home and get your family into the mountains where you'll be harder to find."

"But what about you guys?" Mike asked, "You can't fight that many aliens all at once! Can you?"

The other two kids looked at Mike and then the Martians, fear and hope clearly etched on their features. Mostly fear.

"Guys," B-Bop said with a smile, "Don't worry; we'll be fine!"

"Yeah," 2-T added, "We've faced way worse than this!"

"We have?" Do-Wah asked, nearly sending the kids into fits of panic.

Instead of an insistent "Yes. We have." From 2-T (which would have indicated that he and B-Bop had been lying) what the tech officer said, in annoyance, was, "Do-Wah, have you really forgotten about the war with Queen Beryl?"

"Uhh... Who?"

"Uhg. Never mind," 2-T turned back to the kids, "Don't worry, I'm not bluffing; we really have faced worse than this." A pointed look at Do-Wah, "And B-Bop and I remember. So don't worry about us- we'll get through it in piece."

Do-Wah nodded at the kids in agreement to reassure them, though he still wasn't sure what 2-T was talking about.

"Now go get your families," B-Bop added, "And get into the mountains; having you guys in the city will be to much of a distraction."

"Right." Mike said, "Gotcha. C'mon guys lets go!"

The three Humans ran off to their hoverboards – grabbing their helmets as they went – and 2-T sent D.O.G. – a robot canine that he had built a few years ago – with them with orders to protect and conceal via deflection.

Mike, Cedric and Angela heard their friends start the BKM sequence that would give them armored suits which would make them (adult) Human height and were designed for inter-atmosphere and space flight. All the while the three Humans hoped that their friends really would come out of this in one piece.

Rei Young – once Hino Rei and now mother of Angela – looked out the window to see familiar green spaceships in the sky above. She stepped out onto the apartment's small balcony to get a better look. Over fifty years ago she had seen a vision in the sacred fire of these ships coming to destroy Earth, so, with her princess' blessing, she had found the place where it would start and began a new life.

Like her princess Rei had ceased aging sometime ago.

The former priestess stayed in contact with the princess and the others, so they knew about the recent alien activity and were on their way. It would be a couple of days before they arrived.

"Rei."

Her husband's voice next to her ear startled her. She turned to look up into his beautiful, cool Caribbean eyes. When they had first met they had acted like worst enemies – mostly because of Rei's hostility upon their first meeting due to his resemblance to Jadite. With time though (about five years) he won her over and after a turbulent courtship they got married.

Angela had come along a year later.

"We need to go before they realize that those are real," He told her, "Or we'll never find Angela."

It took her a moment to fully realize what he had said and the implications therein. She shoved the questions aside for the moment and nodded in agreement.

The three Human children were so focused on getting home that it took the trio a bit to realize that alot of people were staring up at the sky and more were turning their attention that way with increasing speed. They stopped and listened and after a few moments they realized that people thought it was just special effects.

The three exchanged horrified looks.

"We have to warn them!" Angela exclaimed, "Cedric – go get are parents to start heading into the mountains!"

"But-"

"No." Mike cut him off sharply, "Angela's right; we can't just leave these people!"

"Alright!" He snapped, "Fine! But I need Angela's address."

She rattled it off. The other two stared at her in shock.

"What?" She demanded, "So I don't live in the best part of town!"

"But-" Cedric started.

"You'll be fine!" She snapped at him once more, "It's not as bad as people make it out to be! Now go."

He obeyed – if somewhat reluctantly – and headed off to Mike's; it was the closest, only about five more minutes to get to.

"And take D.O.G. with you!" She called after him, the robot canine taking that as an order and following after the younger boy.

Mike turned to Angela and asked, "So how do we warn them?"

She opted for shouting at them that the ships were real. Of course, no one believed them, saying that they had been spending to much time in front of the TV. They continued to try and convince everyone, but none would hear it.

"Listen to us!" Mike begged, "You have to go into the mountains – you could die!"

Angela saw one man roll his eyes. Her temper flared.

"Look mister!" She snapped, getting up in his face as Mikey continued in his own efforts, "Either you listen to us, or you end up dead. Those ships are real!"

"No," He shot back, "You listen. There are no such things as aliens! It's just special effects for a movie."

She unconsciously grabbed him by his shirt and yelled in his face, "There aren't any movies-!"

"Than it's a gimmick for that idiot 'alien hunter's' show!"

"NO IT'S NOT!"

She was getting very frustrated with this suicidal twat, but Mike's hand on her shoulder stopped her from continuing to lecture him. The man would have taken the opportunity to get away from her as she looked over her shoulder, but the teenaged girl still had a grip on his shirt.

"Ange." He told her, "Let him go; he's not going to listen."

"But-" Angela started to protest, only to be cut off when the top half of the building next to them exploded from a photon beam shot by one of the ships.

Angela and Mike went flying as the man shoved them out of the way. Rover Pods followed the explosion and chaos broke out in all directions. The kids picked themselves up. The first thing that they noticed was that their hoverboards were broken from fallen debris.

"Oh man, my hoverboard!" Mike exclaimed in dismay.

After seeing that her own 'board was now a useless mess Angela picking herself up and looked around for the man she had been lecturing, hoping that he was all right. She spotted him laying on his back, half buried in debris and unconscious. She scrambled over to him and started trying to pull him out.

He woke with a pained yell and Mike yelled at her to stop. She did, letting go of his arms. He looked around blearily before focusing on Angela and Mike's faces.

Good, He thought, They're alright...

"D-don't worry; you'll be alright." Mike stammered out.

"Yeah," Angela agreed, "We'll get you out."

"Don't." The man said, his voice somehow carrying over the din of screams and explosions, "Just run."

"No way! Uh-uh!" Mike denied with a shake of his head.

"We're not leaving you!" Angela added.

"I'M DEAD!" He snapped, blood gushing, though the kids couldn't see it, "You're not. So just run."

"You're not dead!" Mike tried to reason, "You're talking to us right now!"

"I'm too injured to survive."

"You don't know that."

"You can't just give up!" Angela insisted, backing her friend.

"I do know! I saw my own injuries before I passed out; I can't survive them."

"Y-you shouldn't self diagnose."

"Yeah... Sh-she's right; you should leave that to a doctor."

"I am a doctor."

For the first time the two noticed the scrubs and white doctor's coat he was wearing and the color drained out of their faces.

"Trust me." He continued, "I'm dead. Both of you need to run and not stop until you're safe. Do you understand me?"

They nodded.

"Good. Now go."

They did as he had ordered, Angela hesitating long enough to say "I'm sorry." before taking off with Mike.

As the dieing man watched them leave, struggling to cling to what remained of his life, he wondered, Are they going to be alright?

'In time they will be.' A deep voice reassured him.

With a wash of relief he let go of his severed body and went towards the voice and it's brilliant light.

Cedric cringed as the first explosions sounded behind him, guiltily grateful that he had D.O.G.

Much to his relief he spotted Mike's parents standing on the sidewalk, staring slack-jawed. It was easy to see that Mike looked nothing like his dad. He did, however, look like his – is she pregnant? – mother.

"Mr. and Mrs. Ellis!" He called, snapping their attention to him, "We have to leave now. But we gotta get Angela's and my parents first!"

They both gave a start and pulled their eyes away from the invasion fleet to see him. Mr. Ellis blinked, came back to himself as he mentally shook off the shock and ordered him and his wife into the car. When Cedric tried to argue with him that it would be a bad idea Mike's mother – coming out of her own shock – pointed out that it would be faster and he caved because, at this point, she was right.

He had to wonder, though, how long would that last with all of the explosions going on in the distance?

Not long at all.

They were halfway there when someone – ragged, bloody and terrified looking – jumped out in front of the car and Mr. Ellis slammed on the brakes to avoid running them over. The terrified person pulled out a gun and yelled at them to get out of the car or he'd shoot.

"Do as the man says." Mike's dad told them calmly and they all climbed out of the car.

The hijacker climbed in and just before he drove off Mr. Ellis asked if he could have his house keys. The man stared at him for a moment through the window and inspected the keys. The one for the car turned out to be attached to a separate ring that was connected to the ring holding the rest of the keys by a piece that could divide in two. He separated the rings, rolled the window partway down and handed them off. Mr. Ellis thanked him and the man drove off.

Cedric thought that the entire process had been a little surreal.

"Alright," Mike's dad said, "Lets go."

And they headed off again, this time with D.O.G. flying in the lead, showing them the fastest route. Cedric walked instead of using his hoverboard.

It took a little over ten minutes to get there. It had been only a half hour since Bog's fleet had appeared in the sky overhead (Cedric had checked his watch). It felt like it had been a lot longer – or a lot faster – than that to Cedric. He wasn't sure which.

As they came up on his house a thought suddenly came to him.

I wonder how Mike and Angela are doing...?

He asked D.O.G. to patch him through to Mike, who had the communicator that the Martians had given them, on a shielded and encrypted transmission – and make certain that Bog doesn't pick it up! D.O.G. barked in response and a screen came out of it's back. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis exchanged surprised glances. How did it fit in that cartooney, big-muzzled, chihuahua body? There was white static for a few moments before Mike's face came into view. He did not look happy.

"Are you insane? This could get picked up!"

This coming from the oft-careless Mike...

"D.O.G.'s shielding it!" Cedric snapped "Where are you guys?"

"My place."

"It took you this long-?"

"Well excuse us for-!"

An explosion went off so close to Mike that he got knocked over and the communicator went flying from his hand.

"Mike! Mike!"

"I'm here!"

His friend's voice sounded, just before his face reappeared.

"I'm fine."

"You're bleeding!"

"Never mind! Where are you?"

Cedric looked up to see Mr. Ellis going in through the un-locked front door.

"My place. You're dad's just going in to get my parents."

"Alright. Meet us at Ange's."

"Angela!"

"Mom!"

Mike looked away for a brief moment, then back at Cedric.

"Scratch that. We got them. Remember where we went hiking on Angela's last birthday?"

"Uh, yeah! My legs only hurt for, like, a week!"

"Good! Meet us there!"

And Mikey's face vanished. Cedric almost groaned. Mr. Ellis came back out and announced that his parents weren't inside.

"What?" Cedric exclaimed, suddenly a lot more frighten then he had been a few moments before, "We have to go find them!"

"There's no point!"

"What do you mean there's no point?"

"I mean you wont find them! No lets go!"

Dread dropped into the pit of his stomach like a lead brick.

"Won't... Find..."

The twelve year old boy glanced between Mr. Ellis' wincing expression and his house. Cedric was an unusually bright child and – when he wanted to – would pick up on things that others often missed. Which was why he realized what Mike's dad was talking about. But he had to be wrong! His mom, his dad, they couldn't... They couldn't be...

He didn't realize when he bolted for his front door, screaming for his parents – terrified of what he was going to find – or even when Mr. Ellis grabbed him and tried to calm him down (only to get elbowed in the face). He just knew that somewhere in that retreating house were his parents and he had to get to them; warn them about the invasion fleet.

But Mr. Ellis held fast until he stopped struggling as they ran; he could not let the boy see what he had found in that house. The entire back half of it was gone and there had been gruesome evidence that Cedric's parents had been caught in the blast. No, there had been no room for doubt on that account.

A few minutes earlier...

They had barely gotten to Mike's block – Angela in the lead – when 2-T came crashing into a car in his blue BKM suit about twenty feet in front of them. Their minds blocked out the fact that it had been in motion and the crumpled body sitting in the drivers seat. Shrapnel came flying at them. Both instinctively ducked, the car crashing into a lamp-post, both crumpling from the impact. For a brief moment Mike thought that he saw a red glow around Angela, but dismissed it as his mind playing tricks on him.

What the two teens minds had blocked out to cope, 2-T's didn't and he heard the wailing of a baby. He relied on Do-Wah to cover him as he pinpointed where in the car the sound was coming from. Finding it he got off the wrecked vehicle and tore half the roof and a door away to get at the child. Sure enough there was an infant just over a year old crying and screaming desperately. He didn't look at the dead driver as he lifted the year and a half old child free.

This, he knew, was the real – the heart breaking – price of war... And it was the reason that they had been trying to delay the invasion as long as possible. A pity, to put it mildly, they had become so cocky in their assurance that they could continue tricking their Emperor.

"To-2-T?"

The sound of Mike's voice jolted the veteran Martain back to the present. He whirled around, a nameless anger rising in him, still holding the crying infant.

"What are you still doing here?" He demanded of the teens, then added with barely suppressed panic, "And where are Cedric and D.O.G.?"

"They went ahead," Mike supplied, "Ange and I stayed behind to try and warn people."

Commendable, but he still had to strangle the urge to yell at them. 2-T told himself that it was just fear making him like this. Goddess, the kids were supposed to have a lot more experience when this all went down...

"I-is that...?" Mike asked, referring to the baby his alien friend was holding, recognizing her as the infant he had recently taken to baby-sitting on occasion, "M-Maron?"

"Don't know." 2-T admitted as Mike ran up and took the baby.

That was when the Tech Officer noticed Angela bent over, her arms held against her gut, bleeding out alarmingly.

"ANGELA!" 2-T yelled, momentarily distracting the red-armored Do-Wah over head who got a blast to the chest.

"What happened?" Came over the comm from both B-Bop and Do-Wah, along with one from Mike.

"That's what I'm checking!" He snapped at all three of them, then said to Angela as he went over to her and knelt down, "Let me see."

Do-Wah landed on his feet and took off again, still covering the three of them.

"I-it's just my arm..." She answered shakily, showing him.

Seeing the injury he strangled the urge to shake her (just her arm? It almost hit the artery!) – and realized that he was entirely to panicky. Taking a deep breath he centered and focused as she re-pressed her bleeding limb to her abdomen. Looking around he grabbed on to the wooden fence next to him and broke a piece off.

"Bite on this." He ordered.

Blessedly, she didn't argue and just did what he told her to. He made some adjustments to his beam weapon and said, "Now let me see your arm again."

Again, Angela did as directed.

"Close your eyes," He said, "This is going to hurt."

She squeezed her lids shut and braced. As soon as he started cauterizing the wound she shrieked and instinctively tried to yank her arm away. He yelled for Do-Wah and the red-armored Martian grabbed the nearest Rover Pod and threw it at the others, sending them crashing or spinning around. He was there a second later, saw what was happening and took hold of Angela, keeping her completely immobile despite the teen's best efforts as she continued to shriek.

Rei felt a flare of power from deep inside like she hadn't in years. When her daughter had been born she had felt something leave her and had – when she'd been up to it and her husband was at work – tried to transform, only to discover that she couldn't anymore. It wasn't that the power was no longer there, it was just that she couldn't transform; it stayed quiescent, waiting... For what, she didn't know.

Not long after that Angela had showed signs of being able to control fire and even glowed a few times.

Rei had long since learnt how to reach out with her mind and suppress it; if people saw that they'd freak out. Especially now; they'd probably try to kill her given what was going on right now. So she suppressed her daughter's powers yet again (it had been flaring up more and more as the alien activity picked up; she wouldn't be able to keep a clamp on it for much longer) and picked up the pace, sensing more clearly now where Angela was.

She nearly had a heart attack when she heard her daughter's blood-chilling scream, the teen's power thrashing, trying to get free, to lash out.

Rei almost let it, but a telepathic voice said, 'Don't; they are your daughter's allies.'

There was no malignancy behind that presence – in fact it reminded her oddly of Queen Serenity, though she knew instinctively that it wasn't the moon queen – so she decided to listen and kept Angela's power in check.

When 2-T finished cauterizing Angela's wound she sagged, swooning, her nerve endings still screaming in protest. But she heard voices calling her and started mentally crawling her way to them, aware that she still had to make certain that her family was safe.

"Wha-?" She tried to ask.

"I had to cauterize it." A familiar voice said, over the screams of a baby.

It took her a moment to understand what he was talking about.

"C'mon Angie – we can't stay with you right now!" Another familiar voice – this one deeper – told her pleadingly as an explosion went off and new, unfamiliar voices that made no sense came into her hearing range.

"Angela! We need to go!" A third voice – Mikey's...

And the teen girl snapped back into herself all at once, pushing the pain to some recess in her mind that she hadn't known was there until now. Angela looked around, her face still pale, mostly from shock, a bit from blood-loss. She got her feet back under her as Mikey settled the baby with surprising skill and nodded to Do-Wah, who let her go, holding his hands out at the ready as she found her balance. Once steady she said, "Alright-"

And was interrupted when the Martian communicator went off in Mikey's pocket.

"Has Cedric lost it? That could be picked up by the fleet!" 2-T snapped angrily, nearly setting the baby off again.

When the teen opened the communicator Mike passed on the sentiments. Everyone was relieved by Cedric's answer (and his forethought on the matter). As the two talked Do-Wah and 2-T flew off to go back to fighting off the invasion fleet.

"Where are you guys?" Cedric asked.

"My place."

"It took you this long-?"

"Well excuse us for-!" Mikey started to snap at Cedric when a small missile got past their Martian friends and slammed into the ground near him and Angela.

As he went flying he dropped the communicator in favor of keeping the baby in his arms. His ears rang and his head spun. Adrenalin kicked up another notch and he suddenly understood why Angela had snapped back to herself so suddenly after 2-T had cauterized her arm. Said teen girl took the infant from him as he answered Cedric's frantic yells while looking for the communicator.

"I'm here!" He found what he was looking for even as he said it and picked the device up, adding, "I'm fine."

"You're bleeding!" Cedric accused.

"Never mind! Where are you?"

Cedric looked up from the communicator.

"My place. You're dad's just going in to get my parents."

"Alright. Meet us at Ange's."

"Angela!"

"Mom!"

Mike looked up just long enough to see Ange – still holding the baby – running over to a Japanese woman with long raven hair and purple eyes. Two crows and a man with short, sandy hair and the same crystal eyes as Angela were following her.

"Scratch that." Mike corrected, looking back down at his African-American friend, "We got them. Remember where we went hiking on Angela's last birthday?"

"Uh, yeah! My legs only hurt for, like, a week!"

The answer almost made Mike smile.

"Good! Meet us there!"

And with that he closed the Communicator with a sharp click and stuffed it in his pocket before running up to the Youngs.

"Who are those two?" Mrs. Young asked, pointing to Do-Wah and 2-T as her father watched the two in question while they fought against the fleet in the distance.

"2-T and Do-Wah. We'll explain on the way, but we need to get everyone into the mountains!"

Rei looked down at her daughter, equal parts surprised by the names and proud that Angela was more concerned about everyone else than herself. These days most people were concerned about themselves first, second and last. Then she noticed the burn on her daughter's arm and – carefully – checked it, mostly ignoring the fighting and the screaming people headed their way.

"What happened?" She demanded, bringing her husband's attention around to their thirteen year old's arm.

He looked alarmed.

"Shrapnel. It got cauterized. Mom! The people!"

Looking up, both parents spotted the crowd of fleeing citizens. Rei discretely fed some extra power to her daughter to compensate against the blood loss and shock that her body was still throbbing from.

"Baby," Mr. Young said, "I don't know if we can do anything for them; they're probably not going to listen..."

"Daddy, we have to try!"

Oh, Angela was really upset if she was calling him that...

"We're going to try." Rei announced.

He nodded, blowing out a silent sigh and knowing how stubborn his wife a daughter can be. He also understood that no matter how much he wanted to get his family to safety (screw the rest of the world) that they have a responsibility as people to help those around them to survive this catastrophe. There were times when he really hated having a conscious again.

Now, how were they going to get all those panicking people to listen?

A/N: So, any comments? Anyone?