Many months ago…

New York wasn't normally a quiet city, except in this lab hidden by the underbelly of the city, it was rather quiet.

A snow cloaked superhero, face hidden by their feline mask, was sneaking through a laboratory. The broken pipes of the semi-abandoned lab kept spewing out smoke that kept their cover.

Following alongside them was a man not a superhero, but his face was hidden by a black scarf that was handed to him. He had fluffy black hair that was tied to a ponytail, dark green eyes, although his right one was cloudy, claw marks were glazed around his face.

"Are we sure this is the right direction?" He whispered to them.

"Yes Lyle, I'm sure." Their bright green eyes glanced up at a security camera, with the flash of their carbyne blade, it was sliced in half. "Indigo is keeping your sisters somewhere in this lab."

It happened in a flash. The Galaxian Pirates were somewhere in New York, but before Kat could find their base, they found the Rosemary's and kidnapped their daughters.

They were able to follow them but had Lyle tagged along, the eldest of the children determined to bring back his sisters himself, they didn't argue with an extra hand who knew how to defend himself.

Besides, they had also stolen Lyle's cat in the process, and Kat didn't want another animal to suffer under Dr. Lancer. "We'll find them, blow up this base, and then get out before he realizes we're here."

"I hope you're right, Kat." Lyle sighed, his hand was gripping the knife on his belt. "I swear, if that swine laid a single hand on my sisters, I'm going to give him a matching eye scar."

Kat raised an eyebrow. "Matching with his scarred eye or yours?"

He snorted. "I'll think about it until we get there." But he was determined to give the Galaxian Pirates a beatdown for what they did.

They had ruined such a nice family moment too…

Earlier…

"Merry Christmas Ari!" Rachel chirped as she tossed red and green streamers her sister's way.

Ari blinked in confusion at the streamers. "I thought Christmas wasn't 'till Friday…"

"Well we've only got a few days left to go, so why not decorate early?" Sarah chuckled. "I already started making some chocolate-gingerbread cookies, and it would be a shame if they went to waste-"

"Cookies!" And just in a flash, Ari was taking some of the delicious treats for herself.

Elio smiled at the sight, it was good to see the sweater girl smile. "After everything she went through… she deserves a little holiday cheer." Lyle stood next to him, a frown on his face.

"Agreed." It had been a little after Valentine's day since they were reunited with their missing daughter, she had been brought home by a cloaked samaritan, holding her carefully as the young girl looked like she had gotten into a fight with a tornado.

"You can thank the Galaxian Pirates for what happened to her…" They muttered after handing the sleeping Ari to a sobbing couple. "I'm sorry I couldn't get to her sooner."

Lyle had a hunch who that stranger was, but he kept it to himself. "Has anyone on the force caught them yet?"

"Well they did catch some burglars that had been hired by the pirates, they were snooping around Oscorp." Elio frowned. He wished that the pirates had been found and arrested already, even though Ari was back with them, the fear that she could be taken again still haunted him. "But I'd rather focus on the holidays than worry about those guys, give them less things to hold over me."

His son nodded. "Agreed." Besides, he has a very special gift for his little sisters since it was Ari's first Christmas with them.

"Hey! Save some cookies for me!" Father and son's attention went back to the kitchen as Rachel was trying to pry some cookies away from her hungry sister.

"But they're chocolate!" Ari protested.

Elio shook his head at the sight. "Kids will be kids, no matter what." He mumbled, then jogged up to the two girls. "Hey girls! You're supposed to nicely share the cookies, Sarah will make more-"

"Aww but that'll take forever and Ari will eat them all again!" Rachel pouted.

Her sister took offense. "Will not!"

"Will too!"

Lyle walked up to his mom, who was already starting another batch of chocolate gingerbread-cookies. "Do you need a helping hand Mom?"

"That'd be nice, thank you." Sarah smiled at him, and gestured for him to start stirring the bowl while she melted another bowl of chocolate. "I should really make these in advance but they never taste as good as they do when you microwave them."

"Agreed." Some things tasted okay if you re-heated them, Sarah's special cookies sadly weren't one of them. "It's okay though, I can wait on the cookies."

"Me too." They glanced back at the other family members, who were finally sharing the cookies with each other, and even decorating the ones left with frosting and sprinkles. "So, did you finally get that present finished for the girls-?"

CRASH!

A shriek went by the house as a blue cat darted into the room. "Someone broke in! They got Bluey!" Katie meowed frantically as she bolted up the stairs.

That was when the panic set in for Lyle, Katie and Bluey always went on morning walks together, what kind of monster took his cat on the holidays of all days?!

"Well, well, well." Apparently the same monster that haunted his family. "Looks like we have a happy little family." A woman with frazzled blonde hair and an orange eye sauntered into the room.

Ari gasped in horror as she recognized the woman, shivering as she stared at her clear-white eye. "T-That's the lady who's in ch-charge of the pirates… V-Voltrax." She stuttered.

"Aww sweetie, you can just call me Emily." The woman purred.

Lyle shuddered at the memory, next thing they knew, Voltrax had used her terrifying lightning to knock them all down and kidnap his sisters. He couldn't rescue them in that moment, but he could rescue them now.

They continued to walk through the semi-abandoned lab. It used to be one of the old I-Tech labs that was shut down after its illegal activities were reported, and now it was the newest base for the Galaxian Pirates. I wouldn't be surprised if I-Tech was looking the other way when it came to the literal terrorists squatting on their property. Kat grumbled, Bea told them that the CEO of the company was greed driven and wouldn't rat out the group if they paid him. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Tell me about it." Lyle mumbled. "I really hope this place isn't haunted."

"Let's not talk about ghosts since I'm about to confront mine." Kat tried saying something else but was cut off as they felt something whir past them through the smoke.

Crack! A sharp knife struck the wall, a few inches to the left and it would've chopped their head off.

They gripped the edge of the knife and frowned at the symbol. "You're getting sloppy Indigo." Kat deadpanned as they yanked the knife out of the wall.

A pair of cold purple eyes was seen in the smoke. "You're the one who's getting sloppy, thinking we wouldn't notice the cameras going off." A dark-haired brunette with freckles, a goatee, and scars around the right eye stepped out. "If you think we're going to let you hand over the girls, you're mistake-"

"Give me back my sisters!" Lyle pounced, knife in hand as he swung at Indigo, who ducked from the blow.

"Someone's a little angry today." Indigo smirked, ducking his head as Lyle threw punches. "You're about as much of a fighter as Elio, and that's sad considering you don't share blood."

"A family is more than blood!" Lyle exclaimed as he caught the second knife Kat tossed and swiped, hitting Indigo on the cheek. "I'll hold him off, save Rachel and Ari for me!"

As much as Kat wanted to throw hands with the leader of the Galaxian Pirates, the safety of the girls was more important. "Punch his stupid face for me!" They exclaimed as they ran out of the room and into another hallway.

"You're the one with a stupid face!" Indigo shouted after them, and barely dodged another swipe of the knife.

As Kat wandered into a security office, a familiar red-haired Galaxian was inside. "Uhg, not you again Flare." They commented, causing the ginger to yelp. "You have got to get a better job."

"If you think I'm gonna let you knock me out again-" Flare didn't get to finish as one punch from Kat knocked her into unconsciousness.

"There we go." Kat pushed the swivel chair Flare was in into a closet and locked the door, then they clicked through the cameras. "Where o' where is Rach and Ari… ah, there!" One of the cameras revealed them locked in one of the cleared testing areas guarded by two other redheads. "Tsk, tsk, Burner and Smokey, you two may not be as wimpy as Flare but you're twice as dumb."

"You know, I was hoping you'd see things my way." The leader of the Galaxian Pirates murmured to Lyle as he ducked another swipe of the knives. "Elio is a murderer, Sarah is a coward, maybe if you join I'll spare the little rat spawn of those two traitors."

Lyle's dark green eyes glared with anger. "Don't call my sister a rat! You're one to talk considering who your father is." He then winced as Indigo got a punch in, the force strong enough for blood to come out of his nose.

"My father was unjustly imprisoned because of Elio!" Indigo pointed out. "Caesar's death is on him, if it weren't for that coward he'd still be alive!"

"Your dad was imprisoned because he was guilty of attempted murder!" Lyle retorted. "And your response to that is running a terrorist organization? You need serious help!"

Indigo darkly chuckled. "If you think my father's wrongful death is because of why I'm a leader, then you're wrong." He grinned. "Avenging my old man is only part of my goals."

"Oh yeah you're a leader of crazies!" Lyle swiped again. "And if you want your face in perfect order you'll march your goons off to prison!"

He laughed in response. "Oh, you naive little boy."

"I'm the same age as you, moron!"

"Oh, I didn't know you knew how to count considering your imbecile of a father."

Lyle growled. "Don't insult my dad like that! You have a lot of nerve insulting him after all he-!"

The moment of his defence being down was all that it took for Indigo to strike.

Meanwhile with Kat...

They brushed their hands as Flare's moronic older brothers crashed into the wall. "Man, for a pair of twins you really take sharing a brain cell to the next level."

A giggle from the cell made them look up. "Least you appreciate my humor, Ari!"

"It was funny, they didn't even know what an aglet was!"

"...An agelut?"

A fluffy lighter-haired brunette facepalmed. "No, just no… stop it." Rachel groaned. "Get me out of here."

"Knew that was coming." Kat rolled their eyes. "Um, did any of them give you anything weird?"

"They gave us bread but we didn't eat it." Ari told them.

"Good job."

But as the girls exited out, Kat realized Rachel was limping. "I just got banged up a little when Emily threw me in." She explained. "I'm fine."

Her older sister glared, unusual blue eyes flashed with concern. "You are not!" Ari turned back to Kat. "Carry her?"

"I do not need to be-" Rachel got cut off as Kat scooped her up bridal style. "I hate this."

Ari snickered at her predicament. "Don't worry, like Mom always says, there will always be something else to hate!"

"Oh my god… never quote Mom again, like ever?"

"No promises!"

"Uhhhhg."

Kat smiled at the sibling banter as they walked back into the security room. "All we need to do is find where Lyle's cat is and we're free to go."

"I think they put Bluey in animal testing area." Rachel suggested. "It's where Lancer puts all the captured animals before he experiments on them."

They winced. "Well he won't get that chance." Kat flicked through cameras. "Bingo! I'll be back in a-"

"NO!" Kat and Rachel jumped as Ari screamed. "NO, NO, NO, NO LYLE GET BACK UP NO-" They looked at the center cameras to see what caused the sweater girl to scream, and that's when they saw it.

Indigo had grabbed one of Lyle's knives and slashed his throat. "LYLE!" Rachel cried out. "Get back up, please get back up-"

Then Indigo threw a knife at the camera, cutting the feed. "...I don't think he's getting back up." Kat monotoned. "We have to go now, I'll free the animal cages from here, let's just hope Bluey can escape as well." Before the bomb we set at the entrance goes off...

"What are you talking about?!" Rachel glared at Kat with green eyes full of emotions. "We have to go back for Lyle! He could still be alive or- I'm not letting the Galaxian Pirate's desecrate my brother's body!"

"Well it's either one body or four!" Kat exclaimed. "Lyle knew the risks, he'd want me to get you two out alive!"

Ari continued to stare at the broken camera. "So we're just abandoning him and Bluey?"

"We're not abandoning him-"

"Yes you ARE!" Rachel cut them off. "You're a coward, a stupid coward! He'd be alive if it wasn't for you bringing him because you're too chicken to face the Galaxian Pirates alone you-" Kat then pinched her neck and she passed out.

"Rach!" Ari squeaked.

Kat sighed. They kept Rachel in their hands as they released the animal cages, and on camera Bluey jumped out of his cage alongside other poor critters. "Let's hope Bluey can escape, come on."

"Lyle's not waking up… is he?"

"I'm sorry."

Ari blinked away tears as she tried not to wail. "It's not fair… I only just got to meet my brother…"

I know, kid, I know. Kat felt a burning anger inside them. If it wasn't for the Galaxian Pirates, Ari would've grown up alongside her siblings and lived a happier life with her parents. But she only got precious months ruined by trauma, and now Indigo ripped Lyle away. Lyle Palmer-Rosemary was a good man, son, and brother, his last words were that I'd protect his sisters.

So I swear to you Lyle, I will keep my end of the promise until you are avenged.

But long after Kat left, bringing the Rosemary sisters to safety, the camera audio was still rolling.

"Indigo!" The sound of Voltrax's voice was heard as she apparently walked into the room for the audio to pick her up. "Ah, I see you managed to get Palmer. Did you happen to get…?"

"Kat has most likely escaped with the rat and Ari in tow. The animals escaped but we managed to retrieve a few." The sound of a foot kicking the ground was picked up by the audio. "Including that pesky cat of his! Lancer will appreciate the extra test subject."

"Ha. Score one for us." Voltrax cackled. "So... what is your plan, my love?"

Indigo could be heard darkly laughing. "Oh, let's just say my newest scheme will hurt those traitors to the family name more than their precious son dying will."
"Ha! I love your schemes."

"The Rosemary family will rue the day they crossed the Galaxian Pirates." He declared. "Once I get little Ari back into our clutches, and destroy those rotten traitors, our revenge will be complete, and the world will be ours… forever!"

As long as Indigo was leader of the Galaxian Pirates, tragedy would always haunt the Rosemary's, and it would even follow them to San Fransokyo…

But perhaps the future would be different.

AN: Welcome to phase 3

*throws down flipflop on the ground* EMOTIONAL DAMAGE

Prologue I decided shall be a flashback, feat: the late Lyle Palmer-Rosemary (he kept his old surname when he was adopted), this event was basically the catalyst for the Rosemary family to move to San Fransokyo, sadly it didn't let them escape the Galaxian Pirates...

But hey, hope you enjoyed the prologue! Next chapter will be in present day