Jack Hart took his job very seriously. He was a mercenary with a full time salary, a handy man that dabbled in all sorts of crime for the people he works under, the ones who created him. So when the Professor they were pursuing gave them the slip, Jack found him. When said Professor needed some persuasion to get him to cooperate, Jack found four very good motivators. When the Professor realized they were bluffing, that he was actually helping them create the thing that he feared, and stopped working; Jack gave him an ultimatum. And when the people he works for grudgingly gave him their consent, Jack "worked on" the Professor until he had extracted everything he possibly could from the man, than he gave what remained to the organ harvesting division.

He was well respected by the people he worked under, so much so that the big boss let him listen in on private conference meetings in order to give his opinion. This is what he had been doing one week prior (?) when it was reported to the highest people that the project was at a standstill only a few days after he had finished with the Professor. And he stood in a corner of the room as the lead on the project stated that they seemed to be making no head way.

"We simply do not have the knowledge or experience needed and we can't just simply replace Professor Utonium. There is no one out there who is as brilliant as he was. He was a one of a kind genius. No one on this planet could possibly even begin to understand his notes let alone improve on them!"

Jack decided now would be a good time to put in his two cents, so he cleared his throat and stepped forward into the stunned silence.

"That's actually incorrect," he said, "while the Professor never actually mentioned this to me. When I went through his papers, his past and his family; I came across what could possibly be the answer to your problem. It seems that along with his four daughters, the Professor also stayed in touch quite regularly with a like-minded individual. I came across this knowledge both while tracking him down and during my search to find a motivator for the late Professor. And while interested in following this lead the second time; it proved to be a more time-consuming task than simply finding and threatening his children. As I was interrogating him I was given the privilege of going through all his personal effects that we had, and I came across what appeared to be rough drafts of letters filled with a code rather similar to what he used in his notes.

"When I began to realize how strong of a man the Professor was, I decided to look him up, in every data base imaginable; and I came across a mention of him in an incident that occurred approximately twelve years ago. Professor Utonium and his then three girls were involved in an incident rather far from their home which involved surprisingly; the predecessor to this very company," he paused here to look at HIM, taking in his blank poker face before continuing, "and all reference on this end was either wiped from the records or not even put on file to begin with. However I was able to find reference to the incident in a federal records building, where I noticed that the only successful part of the "raid" was accomplished by the Powerpuff Girls. The file was mainly filled with the supposed wrong doings committed by this company, but the one thing that caught my eye was an indication of an attempted kidnapping where it seems little was recorded about the victim, at the personal insistence of the Professor." Here he paused again looking HIM in the eyes again, this time getting a result.

"I am not sure what my colleagues at the time were hoping to achieve with kidnapping," here he closed his eyes as if thinking deeply, before continuing "but I do remember that said child's parents were scientists of very high caliber. My at-the-time equals considered them as helpful and unique as I myself found Professor Utonium to be."

Jack Hart allowed himself a slight upwards movement of his lips before going on with his tale, "It is a shame you weren't paying attention to your fellows actions, though I must say it's much more unfortunate that your colleagues weren't very bright. For if they had been they would have attempted to peak your interest on the issue, especially once the Professor and his girls got involved."

"Jack," interrupted HIM with one of his now hands covering his eyes, "I understand you're enjoying yourself but could you please get to the point and inform me of what those bumbling idiots overlooked."

"Of course Sir," he smirked, "to get to the point."

"Please do", mumbled HIM.

"It appears that the Professor was protecting an estranged member of his family with his actions," he continued; as HIM lowered his hand, "for it seems the boy and by extension his mother, specifically; are blood relatives to the late Brian Utonium."

The council room erupted into murmurs as HIM gave Jack an impressed grin. Discussions broke out as to what this could mean before HIM stood, silencing the room and looking back over at Jack.

"Thank you sir," He began, "now when I realized this I obviously dug further, but it appears the parents caught on to the company's desire to have the two "work" for them. For it appears that they entered the witness protection program, and while that normally doesn't mean anything to me; they've really covered their tracks well, at least when it comes to their child. I've pin pointed the two of them several times, unfortunately heavily guarded; and they disappear when they're done with their work. It takes me a few days to find them again and there's no pattern to their movements. As for the child we' don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, and every letter the professor ever sent out to who I, shamefully, can only assume is this child has its tracks so well covered, that when I lose the trail it takes me four days to pick it back up. Now while I am confident I could give you results if I used my usual methods, I also believe it will take much longer than either you or I wish to wait; what with the project at a complete standstill."

"You would be correct in my patience thinning with the utter LACK of forward movement," HIM said, his impressed smile visually giving way to a look of annoyance, "and I am pleased to hear what sounds like a plan in your voice."

"Yes Sir, though I'm not sure how possible it is."

"If you're worried about the council shutting you down before you start. I believe in rewarding those who get results or at least have a plausible plan to get said results and I believe you deserve my trust with how well you've pleased me."

"Thank you again sir. Though I do hope you feel the same way when I return," Jack said truthfully to his boss, "I would like to take Neil Grove and Chester out in order to use Neil's connection with Chester and the other canines, in addition to both of their impressive olfactory systems. I believe this will speed up the process of finding the child."

One just knew that those in the room wanted to shut down Jack's request quickly and loudly as their faces turned red. But they held their breath as they watched their Boss contemplate and many buried their faces in their hands as he began nodding his head.

"I had heard that you had become rather friendly with Grove and his pet. Now understand that that's the only reason I'm Okaying your request to take him and his mongrel out into the world and that you are responsible for any and all of his actions."HIM said.

"Understood Boss."

"Good now let's talk about the rest of your needs and then you can go tell Grove about your "road trip"," an amused HIM said briskly. Jack rolled his eyes before joining his boss and the put out board members in a discussion of what would become his most difficult mission ever.

Jack was jarred out of his memory by the car he was in coming to an abrupt stop. He sighed as he heard the slamming of the doors on the car behind him and three sets of legs running up to his window which he was obligated to open so as to converse with his cohort.

"Jack! The scents no stronger, Jack, but it doesn't appear to leave again! We're definitely close!" said the excited Neil Grove as his dog Chester barked in agreement.

"Finally. That professor was a tricky one. I knew you would be useful in a discrete way eventually Neil. Now where are we?"

"Just outside of a town called Peach Creek. I figured we'd find a place to set up camp and be twice as thorough now that we're so close."

"I see your blood is being useful again and working with your upper brain today," Jack half-joked.

A nasty perverted grin crossed over Neil's face as he replied, "All thanks to our compromise Jack. It feels good. This whole being-useful-in-the-real-world thing has really shown me that there are plenty of other fun things to do rather than just," here he makes a vulgar gesture that Jack rolls his eyes at," all the time."

"Bravo. You've actually impressed me." Jack said sarcastically as he got out of his car and reached his hand out to scratch his companions German shepherd mongrel behind the ear. He was very grateful he'd been able to make compromises with both trained trackers, for as long as he gave the canine some sort of attention at every meeting the giant refrained from jumping up at him; while Neil behaved for a majority of the day so long as he got a few scattered hours to release his pent up horniness. Both were agreeable concessions in Jack's eyes so long as he did not have to witness Neil's private time. He shuddered as the three of them joined the rest of their team who were awaiting his orders and collected himself before starting in on a discussion of how they should go about their search this time.

They'd agreed to stash the cumbersome vans in discreet areas in order to find any type of hotel/motel that the town had to offer. They'd already come up with their cover story but found that the "town" was actually bigger than they expected and Jack and his team were able to blend in rather well. After a late lunch and making sure Chester was comfortable with the other canines, Jack and Neil set off on their own to do a basic sweep. They'd come to realize that the child they were looking for had to at least be at minimum of thirteen considering the number of years that had passed since the attempted kidnapping, so they'd been doing a quick walkthrough of the local mall or shopping district; in case they found a stronger trail than the letter had. After only finding a weaker version of the scent, both men began their journey back to base; where they gathered Chester and a few of their men in unmarked cars and set off to the post office. At their destination Neil picked up the scent they'd been following for a week (?) and groaned, "We're so close! And he's up to his tricks again!" Now what he meant by that was that the Professor seemed to have some sort of system set up where each time they reached a new post office the scent seemed to cover a great many pieces of mail than they suspected he'd actually sent. Eventually the fake scents expired but not until you were far enough away to be peeved at the distance you'd travelled following a boogey.

So once again the two men and their "seeing eye dog" entered the post office under the guise of setting up a P.O. box for their stay in the town; this gave them a reason to visit the post office multiple times without suspicion arising. As Jack waited in line, Neil stood off to the side plotting all the smells he could while he let Chester breathe as loudly and as deeply as he wanted, oftentimes conferring with each other. By Neil tapping a Morse coded message on his dogs head and Chester responding in the dog snuffle speech that his owner was able to understand and actually speak, but what they didn't converse in so they would appear normal. When done Neil would go and confer with the other search dogs and give them specific leads to follow and report back in on; with him and Chester taking the hardest to follow. They would then split up, the dogs and their humans going in different directions while Jack normally went to the local library to see if he could find anything useful.

It was growing dark this particular June night, their first in Peach Creek; when Jack become conscious of something irregular to the usual routine …well two abnormal things really. First off Jack had not heard back from ANY of the search teams which meant they were still following a trail; and this was strange because every other time they'd done this at least one of the teams would call in within an hour or two. It had now been approximately six hours since they'd started and no one had called in to say that they'd lost scent. The other strange thing was that Neil had had an hour of private time scheduled…for two hours ago. And while he didn't have to come back to base to take his "break"; he respected Jack enough to let him know when he was beginning and ending said "break". This was to ensure Jack didn't go looking for Neil and scar himself; and so no one would worry and/or get their hopes up that a lead had been found. It was just passed seven o'clock and Jack was now beginning to worry.

Then his phone sprang to life.

"Neil!" Jack hissed into the receiver, "Where have yo-".

"Call everyone back and bring the best to my location, Jack" Neil smugly said as he cut Jack off mid-seethe, "'Cause it's a boy."

Jack had stiffened at the first word out of his cell's receiver, but he snapped back into motion at the sound of the click that meant Neil had just hung up on him. Orders came out of his mouth on auto pilot as he got back into the car he'd arrived in, so as to go retrieve some things from the vans they'd left in hiding. Knowing that while he was marshaling the troops on his end; Neil was sitting under some tree typing up all the details of his hunt into his phone so that Jack could read it on the way to the trackers location. As he reached the hidden vehicles he felt a vibration go off in his pocket signaling he was correct in his assumption, and after getting out to give a few more brief orders; he climbed into the back of his automobile and began reading Neil's briefing as another member of his team drove in the direction of the victorious pervert.

Jack had a look of amusement mixed with concern on his face, when the car stopped a few feet from where Neil's signal said he was; for the tracker was lying under a tree relaxing but Chester was nowhere to be seen. Since his partner looked so relaxed Jack didn't worry too much about where the big dog had run off to.

"Where's your mutt?" he called out to the figure under the tree.

"Narrowing down the scent web…and probably chasing a squirrel," Neil grinned over at his partner "He'll be back soon. You get my report?"

"Yea, can you give the rest of them a run-down please?" replied Jack as he gestured to the men beginning to gather around them.

"Just the short version, right?" Neil questioned still not completely confident with using his social skills around humans. After a brief nod, he began, "Alright listen up! You all know that as the most experienced trackers, Chester and I take on the faintest scents and the ones that are tangled up the worst. Well…ummm…ok basically we hit pay dirt. We'd run through all our trails and they'd led to dead ends, so we went back to the post office and sat for a bit then I remembered lesson eighty-five. Twins who were separated at birth tend to have many things in common once they've grown up. So I sorted through for a scent that COULD be the Professors but wasn't; and I found one in the worst, faintest tangled messes that I was saving for tomorrow. We followed it to a junk yard where we found this, "here Neil held up what looked like a piece of scrap metal and he turned it over as he continued, "Which as you can see is covered in gibberish, but I remember seeing this particular symbol in the briefing folder. Turns out, a good portion of the gibberish is part of the code that the Professor used in his notes. I was on my way back to base when I found a particularly recent trail from this mysterious maybe, realized it was pretty late, and gave Jack a call. Figured we could follow this trail. If it led nowhere, ah well. But, if it was a good lead, what better time to sneak around than after dark." Looking over at Jack as he finished, he asked how he did.

"Bit long but not a word wasted," he assured the tracker. Chester had entered the pow-wow at some point and leaned his head against his partner's leg reassuringly, before nipping him so that they could converse over what the German Sheppard had accomplished. Jack took this opportunity to discuss the game plan with his second-in-command. It was decided that Jack would search ahead a bit with the two trackers, while the rest waited for their call. It didn't take very long before they received a brief message from the trio just after eight thirty at night.

"Trail strong, but not completed. Found a potential source of information. Find us outside of the Park n' Flush trailer park and be prepared to gas the inhabitants."