A power alight

Aprina peeked around the corner of the hallway to where there were people waiting to see her father… 

It seemed they always wanted some ridiculous request from him, like wanting him to destroy a town, or melt their enemies beyond recognition… 

She shuttered recalling the man that decided to threaten her within the manor, she never did quite figure out what happened to him; Archer had simply told her not to worry about that silly man anymore.

Her thoughts were brought back to the present as she overheard the people around the corner speaking.

“Is this really a good idea? I mean if he’s as powerful as people say…”

“Pfft, look man, rumor is the guy’s so weak he’s gotta have a doctor on call 24/7. We go in there, release the lock on this capsule and all the sweeticals here go night-night, then we grab him and return him back to where he belongs, with the Black Asteroids.”

Aprina felt her heart drop and she stepped from around the corner.

“No! You can’t hurt Father!”

The two men jumped as they heard her, clearly not expecting anyone to have heard their conversation. The more assertive of the two men, smirked, pulling out a canister.

“Sorry darling, but we’ve been undercover here for months and aren’t going to let a little pipsqueak derail all our hard work.”

She felt her sweeticalware materialize in her shaking hands.

“Please, I don’t want to fight you, just leave.”

With a laugh, he tossed the canister at her.

Her body stiffened before striking at the object, using her spoon staff more like a baseball than probably attended…

The canister flew back at the surprised men, hitting the one that threw it at her in the face within the area of his right eye. He began screaming as the red hot heated metal made contact with his skin.

His screams continued to fill the halls as the other man raced off, clearly not wanting his own body to be set aflame.

“Wait! No don’t go that”

Aprina reached out her hand begging the man to stop, that way headed to a dead end balcony right into her father’s section of the building; however, she felt the sugar magic erupt from her hand, she watched as the ground beneath the fleeing man’s feet melted and he fell through screaming.

Footsteps clatter down the hallway as one of the Furnadjiev Twins rounded the corner, his hand holding a spike of a candy cane shard.

“Aprina! What happened here?”

She felt tears streaming down her face, her voice cracked as she attempted to speak.

“They wanted to hurt Father and and I tried to stop them!”

Archer squeezed her tight as Ace rounded the corner, his normally smiley face nothing but a glare at the man on the ground trying to crawl away.

“And to think, we thought you were a true follower, working hard to free Asteria from her cage. Too bad about this.” He turned toward Aprina, using his fingers to push his mouth into a smile, “Good job catching him, Aprina. Now the Master is safe all thanks to you, so smile! I’ll get this all cleaned up!”

She sniffed as Archer let her go. “But the other one, he fell through the…” She looked at the melted hole of floor in front of them.

Ace carefully peeked over into the hole. “Oh don’t worry Aprina, I see him down there. He’s not going anywhere.”

Archer reached out his hand to her and waited for her to take it before leading her back to her own area of the manor.

“Those people, they were talking about the Black Asteroids… and bringing Father back to them… What did they mean?”

“A mystery for sure. I wouldn’t lose sleep over it, mistress. We are all here to keep Lord Aldebrand safe and well.” Archer had a soft smile on his face as Calida rounded the corner.

“Hello there dear, why don’t we go let Archer help his brother and we go rest?”

Aprina nodded, it was always a good feeling to see Calida, she was such a warm and caring person; she was more than happy to have her as a nanny.

______

Aldebrand looked down at the two disgusting humans in front of him. Levina stood to his right.

“Geez, these two had some serious bravery. What should we do with ‘em, Boss?”

They struggled against their bonds uncomfortable as she smirked awaiting Aldebrand’s answer.

“These two come into my house, enjoy my hospitality, share a table with my family even; but how do they return my compassion? By plotting against me and even attacking my poor daughter who is completely peaceful and native in the way of the world?”

“I know, how seriously rude.” She shrugged exaggeratedly, “You could always have them doing some community service at my dear little clinic, we don’t get a lot of humans showing up.”

Her tone was friendly; however, the two men struggled against their bonds again as her sharp eyes gave away her malicious intent.

Aldebrand waved his hand dismissively. “Sounds like a fantastic idea, Levina. Though I have a request.”

She looked over her shoulder at him bored. “Oh, do regal us all then, supreme leader.”

“Leave one of them recognizable. The Neo Black Asteroids deserve to know that their little plan failed.”

She clapped her hands together with a grin as the two men's faces drained of color. “That’s completely doable! I’ll make sure to send them a little message from me too!”