He ran into the alleyway, his brother behind him, both out of breath. Their hearts drummed in their chest. Once the cops were out of sight, Butch punched the wall, only able to brake a brick or two. He ignored the pain in his swelling hand.
"I hate running away! This is all so lame; we should fight back!" Butch's red haired brother, leaning against the wall, didn't even avert his eyes from the street when he responded calm, almost emotionlessly.
"And how do you plan to do that? Do you think that you won't get caught?" The image of their blonde, blue haired brother surfaced in his mind.
"If we had out powers—"
"But we don't have our powers," Brick snapped hotly, whirling on his brother. Butch was silenced for a moment, not because of his brother's tone, but because he was still so unused to seeing Brick with dark brown—almost black—eyes instead of red; it was a reminder of his own eye color, which, like Boomer, had changed from their original vibrant hue to hazel. A mark of their loss.
Brick's eyes then softened a bit, but his body language expressed all the bitterness and tension that was forced upon them.
"I wonder how Boomer's holdin' up," Butch murmured, focusing his eyes on the ground or his shoes or anyplace other than his brother.
"I don't know," Brick sighed wearily, running his hand down his face. "But I do know that the only way we can find him is to get our powers back." Excitement and anticipation started forming a knot in Butch's stomach as his brother said, almost to himself, "And there's only one place we can do it that."
Nine Years Ago
After years of having their town torn apart by villains, the citizens of Townsville were getting fed up with paying the steadily increasing taxes and costs for repair. The Mayor, on the other hand, was getting unsettled by the steadily increasing numbers of citizens moving out of Townsville. But the rotten cherry on the melting sundae was His Highness, who was recruiting monsters and reorganizing crime into units of destruction on such a scale that even the Powerpuff Girls were straining to keep up. Where he came from or where he worked was a mystery; of course the Rowdy Ruff Boys didn't mind either way—this confusion just made stealing all the easier for the young twelve- year-olds—but Him absolutely reveled in the chaos. Rumor was that he was a close ally with Highness. So when word got out that Professor Utonium was about to finally perfect his shrink ray, so that now monsters would be permanently miniaturized, Him knew something had to be done. But he hated getting his hands dirty. And the Boys still hadn't repaid their debt. He was, after all, their better father.
"What? Hey!" Boomer spun around, wondering where the arcade had gone. In its place was a vast red expanse, with scenes of the on-goings of Townsville playing mid-air, and only a huge chuck of floating rock holding him up.
"Oh, Boys, so glad you could make it," echoed His sickly sweet voice from above, on his throne made of jagged rock. Brick stepped forward, his eyes narrowing.
"And what do you want?" Him dramatically placed his claw on his forehead, feigning appall.
"Always cutting so quick to the chase, why, haven't you missed your dear father?" Butch spat as an answer, his saliva reaching the arm of the throne. Him was angry, but tried to breathe it away. The sweet tone now had an audible strain to it. He never was a tolerant father. "I need you to steal the Professor's infernal shrink ray before he finishes it."
"And why should we do anything you tell us to do?" Brick asked defiantly. Him just sneered.
"You brats owe me, remember?" Butch and Boomer laughed at what they viewed as an empty comment-they didn't owe anyone anything-but Brick remained silent, sensing the silent threat in their father's words: Do what I say because I know your weaknesses.
"Fine." His brother's turned to him then, shock evident on their faces.
"What?" Brick shot them a warning glare.
"Excellent," Him purred. "Now, here's what you'll do..."
The task was simple: steal the Professor's new project. But some things are easier said than done. With stakes so high, the Girls took every precaution possible to make sure that the Professor finished the Ray. The entire neighborhood had been evacuated, and the Powerpuff Girls were ready for battle. The mob was coming. It was a slow trickle at first, one or two monsters at a time. But the more the girls fought, the more advisories there seemed to be. And there weren't just monsters: Fuzzy, Mojo, even the Ameba Boys showed up. It was no wonder that the Girls, bruised, battered, outnumbered, and exhausted couldn't even try to stop the Rowdy Ruff's from trespassing into the home. (It was a miracle that most of the house was still intact, to be honest.)
The Boys flew quietly into the home, begrudgingly following instruction as they enviously observed the rest of the villains fighting the Girls. In the lab, the Professor was hunched over furiously working on his ray, sweat beading on his forehead. Butch rolled his eyes- it was too easy. A moment later, Butch and Boomer had the Professor pinned down, bruised and bloody, while Brick was starting to carefully, albeit roughly, take apart the ray. Suddenly, he felt someone take a swing at his head, and felt his body slam into the wall behind him. Moments later the bodies of his brothers were thrown to each side of him.
He opened his eyes to see Blossom, with scarps all over her body and a gash on the side of her face, eyeing him with a sort of determined fury. He also registered a necklace with a small, white plastic box and a small red button swinging from the Professor's neck before Blossom threw another punch at him. She grabbed him by the collar and threw him and his brothers. Boomer saw the Professor getting up again, his hands once again furiously fixing the machine. His brothers were currently knocking down chemicals, smashing into cabinets, and having a full blown battle with the little pink Puff. They could handle themselves; he had to deal with the Professor.