Author's Note: I'm probably crazy for doing this, given there's not much of a Market for this story much anymore (or ever) but recent events have inspired me to at least give it a try. This is the infamous Black War, a story I completed about 75% of before the Snafu Forums died, and I lost months of writing progress and subsequently quit. Unlike most of the other Chronometal Stories, this story doesn't utilize (at least as much) time travel. It's a wholly linear story that tracks its progress in years. This is still a story from almost 5 years ago, and as such still has some of my old writing styles, and may have a few rookie mistakes caught in it.

Credit to the PPG/Dexter among other characters goes to Cartoon Network and their creators, while credit to the picture used in this story go to The Phoenix Society of Deviantart- or whatever he calls himself nowadays. It is a picture of a Corrupted Chronometal Ruby.

The Chronometal Wars
The Black War
Year 0
Prologue

A nostalgic feeling washes over them.

The hospital doors open and the sun beams hit their eyes, as they are slightly unprepared. They squint, one of them moving a wheelchair outside. On the wheelchair, there is a young woman roughly twenty to twenty five years old. Her hair is black and her expression is vacant. Her long time in bed has made her hair long. The person pushing the chair is a man of similar age.

He has long red hair in a large ponytail that nearly reaches the ground, and although he frequently wears a hat, he is not today. He is wearing modest clothing, pants and a coat that don't catch any glances. His left hand is robotic, as he has lost his real hand a while ago. His expression is one of genuine happiness, he's finally leaving this Hospital... leaving it on good terms this time.

There is a third member, her eyes still squinting as she uses her left hand to block the sunlight from hitting her eyes directly. Short blonde hair. She usually wears them in pig tails, but during a recent image change, she has decided to wear her hair down now. Her blue eyes, once so full of innocence and childish happiness are now filled with a jaded composure that occurs when one lives a life of hardship and betrayal. But her face is also smiling, she feels good, warm on the inside for the first time in a long while.

She is wearing a light blue tee shirt, but the right sleeve droops down with no arm to fill it. She lost her right arm a long time ago. But at this time, she considers herself master of whatever body she has left. She hasn't worn a dress in a long time, though several years ago you would never catch her wearing anything else. Instead she wears baggy pants, the dark blue coloration matching the light blue of her shirt. All three of them have left the Hospital, all of them admitted for different reasons, all of them leaving for the same reason.

They are going home.

"It's beautiful out today isn't it, Bubbles?" – "It's a little bright..." She says, responding to Brick, still squinting as the mid day sun hits her hard. "Do you think Olga will be okay?" – "What do you mean?" – "I mean she has been bedridden for months. Are you sure it's okay to just wheel her directly into the sun like this?" Before Brick has a chance to respond, Olga weakly looks over.

"It's... okay..." She says with a faint voice. Bubbles nods. "Okay, Olga. If you say so."

Brick looks around for something resembling a car, his face showing one of confusion. "Now this is the part I don't get. We can fly, right? We're superheroes? Why can't we just fly home with Olga?" Bubbles responds, walking in front of him and closer to the street. "Because after that press conference, it was made abundantly clear that the entire world is still uncomfortable around superhumans. We can't just call attention to ourselves like in the old days... times have changed..." – "You got that right..." Brick agrees, remembering everything that has happened recently.

"Alright I get it now, but where's our ride?" – "Right here." Bubbles says, turning around. To Brick's absolute astonishment, she is right next to a limousine. "You... you have a LIMO?!" – "I'm a celebrity now. I have my own money. I didn't have a use for the stuff for the longest time, but now that I'm keeping a lower profile... I need it now." – "I get it, I get it. Any food in it?" – "Of course." She says, opening the door to the back.

She turns back to Olga and kneels down to meet her on eye level as she sits in the wheelchair. She moves her eyes slowly to make eye contact with Bubbles. "...?" – "Can you get in yourself or do you want us to help you?" – "..." Olga sits in the chair motionless for a while. But then she gets up slowly, supporting her body with her wobbly arms as she gets out of the chair. Her shoe clacks on the road as she takes her first step in a long time. Then she moves into the car, sitting on the closest seat and sighing, the movements taking a lot out of her. Bubbles closes that door and opens another, beckoning Brick inside. He obliges quickly.

Bubbles circles around the limo and enters from the other side, sitting next to Olga. Brick is left on the other side as the limo driver speaks up. "Back home Miss Utonium?" – "Yes, please. Thank you." Bubbles looks over at Olga, who is still very distant. She scoots a little bit closer and strokes her hair to get a stray leaf out of it. It must have blown in there when they wheeled down. Olga looks back at Bubbles a little bit.

"Why... are you doing this...?" She asks. "Because it's in your hair, silly. Can't just have it in there. Ah, got it." She exclaims, throwing the leaf out the window. "Not that... this... me..." She says, looking at her hands. She is showing magnificent improvement. Just a couple of hours ago she couldn't even talk.

"What do you mean...?" – "My... memory isn't... perfect... but I remember a lot..." She says, her face showing pain. "I've done... terrible things... to both of you..." – "Shh..." Bubbles says, talking Olga down softly. "That was a long time ago. We're okay, all of us. All that's important now is that you're okay too." – "... Thank you..."

As the limo starts down the road, Brick notices there is some prime alcohol on ice. "Hey, Bubbles-" – "Yes, you can have some." Brick, satisfied with the answer, pops the cork and pours some in a glass. He nears the cut to his lips, but pauses, looking over to Bubbles. He parts the glass and sets it down.

"Hey..." – "Hmm?" Bubbles mutters having been staring in a random direction, his sudden noise catching her off guard. "Thanks. For all of this. I mean it." – "It's the least I can do. I can't have a new world hero wandering out of a hospital with nowhere to go. It wouldn't be right." – "Hero, huh?" Brick asks, looking out the window. "What you did with-" She pauses, stopping herself. Brick looks back, his chin still on his knuckles. "There's no kind way to say it, I know..." Brick reassures.

"What you did with Starfire... you're a hero, Brick." – "Had things been a little different, I could have saved her. Maybe Raven, too. Maybe even Jenny." – "Brick..." – "But it's okay. If I've learned anything from these damnable wars, it's everything happens for a reason... and wanting to change the past... wanting to bring the dead back to life only leads to more suffering than before." – "..." Bubbles nods.

Olga looks up at Brick, who almost doesn't even notice her because she is so sluggish and quiet. Once he finally does notice her, he speaks up. "What's up, Olga?" – "My head... hurts..." Bubbles looks over to her and puts her hand on her shoulder. "We're almost to my place. I can get you something." – "Thank you..."

The limo pulls up at the Utonium residence. Brick exits the car and stretches. "I didn't leave the hospital bed to be confined to another seat." He says, his last bone cracking into place being followed by a pleasured sigh. He looks at the house. It looks kind of like the house the Powerpuffs were living in back in Townsville, only a little bigger.

"Who else is living here? I don't really remember." Brick asks. "Just myself. The Professor is off doing something in Colorado. And, honestly... I haven't seen Buttercup in a few days. I wonder what she's doing..." – "Trust me, she's fine." – "I know, it just gets lonely here." She walks through the door, opening it with her left and only arm. She beckons Brick in. Olga follows slowly, still weak. Bubbles flicks on the light switch and the house comes to life.

"Make yourselves at home. I have something to do. Do you need anything Olga?" – "I'm... okay... just the headache medicine..." – "Right. Coming right up." Brick walks over to a desk nearby, a couple of papers strewn across it. A headline catches his eye.

"New Mayor's Aide makes headway at the young age of 15. Bright eyed highly ambitious 'Mandy' to set records in her field." Brick reads out loud. "Oh you're interested in that?" Bubbles says from the kitchen, overhearing Brick. "I guess so?" – "I've been keeping my eye on her for a while now." She says with a weird tone of voice. "Is that so?"

Meanwhile, in a cold abyss...

Electricity surges down wall panels. A current of forward leading energy guided to a core, the energy all serving a single purpose. The lights in this place are broken... the ventilation systems are in disrepair... all tertiary systems are beyond help.

There is only one thing he cares about now.

He stands, his huge hands straddling an iron bar as he looks upon his new life's work. Three individuals, one in a pod, two on a table. The two on the tables look barely alive, their bodies still broken and battered, their souls not much better in comparison.

"A soul once without a body, bursting with energy, limitless potential... a Body once without a soul, untapped capacity but nothing to fill it with. Body... Soul..." He mumbles to himself, his inhuman hands bending the iron bar as he squeezes down.

The kids are stable... but barely. A single mistake, a single surge of energy would spell certain death. He is in a terrible hurry, but he knows the risks of forcing his hand. So, like it or not... he waits... but until then, his side project is still running at full steam. A small little dog robot hops down the hall.

"X! X! The pod is ready!" – "Hng? Oh, Gir... thank you." He says with his demonic yet calm voice. He stomps down the hall, the small bot doing figure eights around his legs. He reaches a small circular pad on the floor. The dog jumps up and pounds a red button and before they know it with a crackle of electricity, they are in a completely different area.

Gravity here is much lower, and the halls echo a lot more due to just how empty this place is. "You have been careful up here... right, Gir?" – "Of course of course! You says it, I does it!" – "Hmm... good." He grunts as he lumbers towards the innards.

He passes one door and enters a room. He makes eye contact with nothing. There is nothing here important to him anymore... just failures... A1-01-XR... A1-22-LE... A2-49-PK... All failures. Nothing is magic like the first time...

"Bell..." He says to himself, Gir beginning to whimper a small bit. "But this next one is stable! More stable than the last ten attempts! You'll see! It'll work!" – "Your optimism is... comforting, Gir..." They enter another chamber. Similar failures present in all.

B1-02-AM... More failed attempts, all of them. The room is chrome and circular. The walls are lined tightly with pods. The only portions of the room that aren't packed with pods have thick glass windows that show a barren gray wasteland outside. "Cold emptiness..." He mumbles again.

He passes through the door into the next chamber. Chamber C.

C1-17-VX... it gave in last night. Another failure. "..." He says nothing as the bio energy is absorbed back into the facility, the pod shutting down shortly after. He passes pod after pod before he comes to the one Gir is jumping by.

C1-41-RE... He looks through the glass to the being slumbering within. He places a clawed hand on the glass and slowly caresses it, his eyes wide. "It's been weeks now... and she hasn't rejected the energy, this frame has not rejected the soul or the Chemical X... the data I mined from the Starfire test, it worked... a soul and a body without a source..." – "See? I toldya!" – "Indeed... this is indeed one our best attempts yet... I have great hopes for her..." – "Bell Bell Bell Bell!" Gir bounces around happily as X stomps out of the room.

Meanwhile...

Something is terribly wrong...!

Bunny gasps as the blue sky breaks into a pure black, pieces of the sky falling down as if they were glass, monitors and static present behind what was once the sky!

Is... is the world ending...?! "Boomer!" She yells out, running across the shattered glass, only to realize the lake is dried up and fetid. Boomer always frequents this lake. The meadow...! He must be there! Bunny jumps over toppled logs and newly risen computer monitors. Her purple dress flits and banks at every sudden movement. Her white scarred skin becoming harder and harder to see as the light in this area begins to fade.

She reaches the meadow only to see giant technological spires rupturing the once peaceful ground! What horrifies her more is the fact that Boomer is being hoisted between all five of them by cables! "Y-You?! Who are you?! HELP!" Boomer yells out, once again losing his memory to the point of forgetting Bunny, but she doesn't care, she has to save him!

She rams into one of the spike with her shoulder! It doesn't budge, so she does it over and over! It begins to tilt, a surge of electricity shooting to Boomer, locking his body up, forcing his eyes open and clenching his jaw! "BOOMER! HOLD ON!" She grunts, mustering hidden power within her inner self.

"Grr... grah... GAH!" She yells, her strength peaking... the spire begins to heave, the surge of electricity leaving Boomer and instead entering her! The pain is unbearable and she falls over, losing grip on the spire as it begins to topple. It crashes into another one and knocks it out of order! Three spires are still shocking Boomer, but Bunny is completely out of energy... she can't do anything else...

She looks into the falling sky with tears in her eyes. Boomer screams in the background and her muscles cry out in surrender.

"It will all be over soon Boomer... I promise..." She says, her eyes closing as her mind begins to swim...

"WHAT IS WRONG?!" X yells at the console, Gir jumping around in a panic. The two kids on the medical beds, ceasing, writhing, convulsing... they...

They are dying...

"They are not READY! This cannot happen! I... I have to activate one of them to stabilize the other..." – "But you said-" – "I know what I said, we don't have a choice... we are going to lose both of them!" Gir whimpers and backs out of the room, seemingly fearful for his life. Cranston also shows a small amount of fear, an emotion he rarely ever experiences.

The kids foam at the mouth and their empty eyes shoot open. If he doesn't do something now, they will most certainly die! He flips several switches and punches in a three layer authorization code. Machines with beakers, vials, and needles descend from the ceiling.

"Which one to activate...?!" He mumbles to himself. But just at that moment, the boy begins to cough up an alarming amount of bile, if he chokes on that, he will be dead within the minute! "Him!" He barks at himself, punching in the final code.

His arms spasm and his legs flail, both bound very tightly upon the medical table. The devices near him and inject him with a stark black Chemical. First one, then another... then another... before long, his heart stops. His glazed eyes staring off into the distance. An astute emptiness crosses his shell.

He is dead...

The girl seems to have stabilized, but her heart rate is still dangerously high. "Medicbots... tend to her now..." He says, defeated... "He... wasn't ready..." Gir lightly steps into the room and looks up at X. "It's okay... our backup plan will work... we will get Bell back, don't you worry... we don't need Shira..." X says to himself, slowly walking out of the room.

But... suddenly...

The room grows cold, colder than a station like this should. The lights explode and X covers his head to avoid the glass falling on him.

Suddenly, the heart rate monitor for the male skyrockets from zero to three hundred in less than a single second! The boy's eyes go wide as his skin begins to steam! "BLOSSSOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!" He roars out, shaking the entire station and blowing his table to pieces! A window is broken and the vacuum of space begins to force its way, sucking everything out!

"GIR, LEAVE, NOW!" – "OKEYYYY!" He squeals, hopping off into a different room. Cranston slams his fist on the ground, rooting himself in place as the wall to this part of the lab begins to crumble. Yet the naked boy just stands there, completely unaffected by the powerful vacuum that forces Cranston to his knees. He looks over to the growing hole in the wall and he raises his hand;

He makes a closing motion with it, as white energy from nowhere materializes along the cracks and the window, forcing it shut and causing the items in mid flight to suddenly drop to the ground. His short golden hair begins to lose color, as if it bleeds off of his person. His skin also bleeds, red blood dripping to the ground. Cranston rises to his feet, but the lad looks up at him, his eyes blood red!

"WHERE... IS... BLOSSOM...?!" He growls, his voice breaking electronics in the room. His newly white hair starting to wave off of him as if the entire room were statically charged. "She... is dead." His fangs begin to show; even his gums are bleeding, his skin still letting off a white steam.

"Are you telling me... that you remember? Everything...?!" – "BLOSSOM... KILLED... MY BROTHERS..." He rubs a bleeding finger down his chest. "ME... TOO..." His voice, still shaking with pure rage booms out, shaking Cranston with every word. "Blossom... IS... dead... and you will be too if you won't settle down." – "DON'T FUCKING TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" He roars out, teleporting in front of X and kicking him into the monitors in the back, causing sparks and explosions to go off! Cranston falls to the ground and begins to cough, all of his many eyes wincing in pain!

The super powered naked boy kneels down and picks him up by the chest and looks in his main eyes. "WHO ARE YOU, AND WHY AM I HERE?! WHY AM I NOT DEAD?!" – "I... revived... you... Boomer..." He says with little breath. "WHY...?" – "Does... it matter...?" – "IF YOU DON'T TALK IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, THIS ENTIRE STATION IS GOING UP IN FLAMES. ONE-" – "TO BRING MY LITTLE GIRL BACK!" He blubbers out.

Boomer drops him on the ground and then coughs up blood. Boomer himself begins to feel weak and cold. "I told you... to stay calm..." – "Grr..." – "Please... listen to me... I can't afford to lose you... I need you... LISTEN...!" Boomer shoots another angry eye at Cranston, but his expression is neutral. "What do I have to do?" Cranston rises to his feet and nears a locker and brings out a black cloak.

"This... should suppress the destructive nature of the Shira." He hands it to the bleeding Boomer and he shivers as he puts it on. Almost immediately, he feels better, like his excess energy is being recycled back into him...

Boomer lets out a malicious grin and looks back at Cranston, who returns the gesture. "Haha..." – "Haha..." – "HAHA!" – "BWAHAHAHA!" They both exchange maniacal laughter.

Boomer has returned...