Hey everyone :D
This is the first chapter of my first story, and I'm pretty nervous about it to be honest...
Hope you like it though! ^.^
Disclaimer: The Powerpuff Girls do not belong to me
Summary: One desolate world. Two desperate scientists. Three boys and three girls, trained to become the world's saviours. Heroes born for the sole purpose of bringing back the people's freedom, and paying for it… Because freedom always comes with a cost.
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Free
"The secret to happiness is freedom… and the secret to freedom... is courage. –Thucydides
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April 4, 2016
2:17 am
"Brick, come in! This is Blossom, there are troops invading the East wall, head over there and back the troops up. Do you copy?"
"Roger Bloss, on it now. How're you holding up?"
Grimacing, the red-haired girl rubbed the side of her cheek where she had barely dodged a bullet. A long red-line ran across her pale face which stung when she touched it, making her wince slightly as she crouched behind a stack of reinforced crates, gun clutched against her chest. She was really not looking forward to getting Bubbles' administrations later, no matter how gentle she was, those alcohol swabs were absolute torture. Yet, getting attacked by the cotton balls from hell were a much better outcome than…
Nope, she was not going to go down that train of thought. Not today, not now.
"Fine, just got a cut on my face." She rolled her eyes when the predictable barrage of "Are you okay?" and such filled her ears. "No, I'm fine Brick. Go on to the East wing, chop chop! And… over."
She ended the conversation just as grumbles started to escape the speaker, shoving the device into her back pocket. Just in time too, a few soldiers had snuck over to her area. She lifted up her trusty 'Freezer', a spectacular invention by her genius of a father. Load… aim… he was moving cautiously, as were his other two comrades. Aim… and… fire! Or rather… Freeze!
In quick succession, three squirts of water shot out of the nozzle, and as soon as it came into contact with the enemy, the water froze, immobilizing them effectively. She felt a smirk glance over her face as her victims started struggling frantically, to no avail. It was her favorite weapon, efficient and effective, basically her motto in life. Plus, it didn't kill anyone, just paralyzed them. She wasn't really keen on creating a bloodbath unlike her black-haired sister, she was more of a… behind the scenes kind of person.
To be honest, she had barely stepped out of her office to participate in combat… until tonight. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
Taking out a few more stray troops, she whipped out her walkie-talkie again as soon as she deemed the coast clear.
"Bubbles and Boomer, Blossom speaking, head to basement two and activate the new tanks. How are BC and Butch holding up?"
It was her baby sister who answered, "On it Blossy! And not too sure about that… our troops keep getting pushed back."
"Then hurry. Boom… take care of my sister please."
"I don't need protec-!"
"Don't have to ask Bloss, over." She smiled to herself, she had no doubt the shy but brave blonde would do anything in his power to keep Bubbles from any harm. The enemy's troops just kept coming however… she hadn't expected an attack on their own base tonight… no one had. Their base was a pretty well-hidden one after all… but regardless she was glad that the forewarning from the scouts gave them precious few minutes to prepare for the surprise attack, plus they had the new tanks her father and Professor Jojo had put together. Hopefully luck was on their side… yet there was a nagging feeling in her chest she couldn't seem to get rid of…
She yelped as she dove hastily behind another convenient stack of crates to avoid a barrage of bullets. Focus damn it! She aimed and fired a few more spurts. She was running out… crap. That meant she had to switch to her pistols soon.
Looking up to the pitch black sky, she bit her lip nervously, searching the darkness for the back-up she had called for earlier. This was no normal ambush… it had obviously been planned and realizing this she had immediately called for help. There was no way their small base with only a couple of troops could counter such an attack, even with six 'super-teens'… namely herself Blossom, Brick, Bubbles, Buttercup, Boomer and Butch. Trained from an extraordinarily young age to … frankly… fight a war. As she said, the attack was staged and they were taken slightly by surprise, they could hold them back for a while, with her two most trusted captains leading the defensive charge she had no qualms about that… but winning? Not likely… and she considered herself to be quite an optimistic person.
And… she was out of instant freeze water. Damn it. She snatched her pistols from their holsters at her belt and continued her so called sniping, taking out enemies that somehow got past their defense lines. They were growing in numbers too… she frowned and shooting another two more soldiers, she contacted her little sister again.
"Bubbles, you need to hurry up with the tanks! Butch and Buttercup are struggling to hold the defense walls!"
"Blossy! We're trying but… they won't start!"
"What do you mean they won't start?!"
Her sister sounded panicked and on the edge of hysteria, "We've been trying to start the tanks for the past five minutes but… they're not working! It… it's stuck!"
She felt her breathing and heart rate speed up dramatically. No no no, not now Blossom. Stay calm. Deep breaths.
"Did you try the other tanks?"
"Yeah… all of them won't work!" She heard a muffled curse from Boomer in the background along with Bubbles' panting, banging on the hard shells of the brand-new tanks in a last ditch effort to get them moving.
She shot another six more soldiers, even more were coming… rapidly. "But we just tested them last week! That can't be-Ow!"
Letting out a sharp gasp, she bit back a curse when she wasn't quick enough to duck behind the crates, a bullet now nestled deep in her left shoulder.
"Blossy! Are you okay?!"
"Fine," she grit out, ripping off a part of her sleeve to use as a makeshift bandage. The bullet was… rather deep, and it hurt. A lot. Damn it! She heard Boomer's voice, just as frantic but with a hint of anger, come from the speaker.
"Bloss! The engine of the tanks… they're completely wrecked! All of them! They've been sabotaged!"
The news sank in like a piercing arrow, threatening to release tears of panic. No! Blossom don't panic now! Your team needs you! Think!
"Blossy? W-what do we do now?"
"Boomer, Bubbles. Head to the West wing now. Offer as much help as you can. The only thing we can do is wait for back-up."
A gulp and poorly hidden whimper sounded before in a quiet voice they answered.
"Roger Blossom."
"Over," as soon as they went offline she finally let out the groan she had been holding in. It hurt so bad… but she had to hang in there… surely back-up shouldn't be too far-
Her sharp ears picked up the noisy whirring sounds in the distance, and upon turning her legs threatened to buckle in relief as helicopters came into view. Finally! They were here! Tears sprung unbidden to her eyes as the five air crafts flew over the more-or-less destroyed base, five was… rather little but surely there were more coming and… what were they doing?
The helicopters didn't seem to be… helping them push back the enemy lines, they seemed to be… circling around the field… as if they were… searching. She squinted up at the symbol painted on the sleek aircraft. It definitely belonged to the Anti-Force, the golden crest with the letter 'A' in the middle proved that… Hey, wait a minute.
Surely back-up teams didn't have helicopters of all things, she had organized a few herself. They had troops, or jet planes or something… and why was that one landing right next to-
She watched flabbergasted as Anti-Force soldiers jumped out of the helicopter, some shooting and covering the others… who were coming towards her.
What in the world were they doing?!
"Excuse me, the defense lines are up ahead, you should be- Hey! Let go!"
She struggled against their grip as she was man-handled rather roughly towards the helicopter.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"Sorry Miss, Mojo's orders."
They ignored her protests and continued pulling her into the aircraft just as it started to lift off once more. Her shoulder was on fire as she was thrown into the seat, still she tried to push the soldier off her.
"My sisters- my team! They're still down there! I need to help them!"
"We'll be collecting them shortly Miss, now please sit down."
"C-collect? W-what?"They were flying over the defense lines now… except the lines were… broken. It was chaos, numerous soldiers lay on the bloodied ground, and most of them were on her side. She tried to look for her military captains, praying they won't be among those lying on the ground, but… they were nowhere in sight. Where were they?!
Her eyes scanned the battlefield frantically before a flash of onyx black caught her eye. She saw her raven-haired sister in the thick of the battle, ferociously taking down numerous enemies with nothing but a knife. She had probably lost her gun while fighting but still she was a tough one to take down, Blossom felt a proud smile grace her features as Buttercup rapidly spun around and delivered a sharp right-hook to a soldier almost twice her height. Yet, they were closing in on her. Blossom felt the blood drain from her face when she saw her sister somehow pinned down and being dragged away. She was kicking, yelling, as she tried to struggle out of her captor's hold… but even the 'Shadow' couldn't slip out of the painfully tight grip she was in.
She started to scream for her sister, disregarding the soldiers on the helicopter pulling her back. They had to do something! Anything! Her sister was… was…
But they flew right past them, oblivious to her screams for them to stop. She was pleading, begging even. She needed to get to her sister! They… were supposed to be back-up… to help them! She didn't need rescuing! Her sister did!
Just as she was about to start another bout of screeching, her eyes caught a red dot among the chaos down on the ground. Like a beacon, Brick's hair waved in the wind as he blasted soldiers left and right with his flame gun. She looked on in horror, helpless to do anything but watch as an enemy soldier hit him on the head and he crumpled lifelessly to the ground, like Buttercup they started to drag him away into a van while the troops finally broke their last line of defense.
Bubbles and Boomer… were nowhere in sight… and so was Butch. And Brick… he… no.
No. No. No. No. NO!
"LET ME GO TO HIM! BRICK! BRICK!"
They only continued to pull her back to prevent her from falling out of the cockpit.
"NO! BRICK! BUTTERCUP!"
They ascended up into the night sky, higher and higher, away from the carnage… and him.
"No…" she whispered, she felt something wet trail down her cheek, and more came as she continued to scream. Her throat was raw but she couldn't stop. She just kept screaming his name, her sisters' names… and just… screaming.
She felt something prick her arm and she fell silent, but her lips continued to move wordlessly even as her eyes closed.
Brick…
"We got one of them sir, the red-haired girl."
"We got the green boy, the others… cannot be salvaged. Abort mission immediately." "MY BROTHERS ARE STILL DOWN THERE YOU BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" "Quiet boy! I make the orders here not you! Put him to bed boys!" "I DON'T CARE YOU- HEY LET GO! WHAT THE-!"
She heard the radio shut off abruptly. They were… leaving. Her sisters… Boomer… Brick. They… couldn't be…salvaged. Only she and Butch…
They were the only ones rescued.
"Blossom!"
Boomer and Bubbles were missing.
"Blossom! Open the door!"
Buttercup was captured.
And so was Brick.
Brick…
"Blossom!"
This… this was no back-up team.
"Blossom! Open up! You're late!"
It was…
"BLOSSOM!"
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October 19, 2016
8:23 am
She jolted out of bed, breathing heavily and hands clammy. Her night gown was completely soaked, her hair a bird's nest. Rubbing her hand across her face, she squinted at her alarm clock.
Meeting! Crap!
She leaped out of her sofa bed and attempting to smooth down her messy hair, she jogged over to the door leading into her office slash bedroom.
She was met with big brown eyes and an eyebrow rose as the young man took in her appearance. "You're not usually one for tardiness Bloss. Did you stay up all night or something?"
She felt her cheeks warm slightly. "Well…um… you see there was this new report on-"
The brunette cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Nah, it's cool. I managed to convince Dexter to postpone the meeting till about nine, so go and get ready. No need to thank me, I know I'm the best lieutenant you could ever have." He winked.
She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Thanks Mike." He smirked before sauntering off, muttering something about meetings that were way too early in the morning.
"She looked back at her desk, cluttered with official reports and… unofficial ones. She had finished going through all that was required of her, but her own business… had yet to be completed.
A blurred photograph depicting what looked like a bar was lying on her desk. She had gotten it from one of the scouts, a new friend she met when she first arrived to this base. Robin was a part of her… 'secret mission' in a sense, in fact she had been one of the first to volunteer when she was recruiting. The photograph wasn't very useful to be honest, since Robin had gotten it from another scout who had gotten it from his father… and so on. Therefore there was no way she could identify when or where it had been taken.
The bar was run-down but packed, she was surprised such a place existed even in these times. Guess life still carried on even with an on-going war. But what caught her attention, and presumably Robin's attention, was the tall man in the top right-hand corner of the photograph. He wore a black sweater and had a tuft of messy dirty blonde hair. He was also extraordinarily tall.
And Boomer Jojo was nothing if not tall.
Sure it could have been anyone who was blonde and had a great growth spurt… but one could hope.
It was the only thing that kept her going at times.
Her mind wandered back to her dream and other darker thoughts. Her dream hadn't been a dream… not really… more of a… recollection of events. And that made it all the more painful. She quickly shook her mind from such thoughts. First things first, a shower. She was sweaty all over.
Looking at her reflection, she briefly wondered how Mike hadn't started outright laughing upon her appearance.
Her way too long auburn hair hung in knotted clumps, her night gown was wrinkled, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She grimaced, she looked like something out of a horror movie.
A nice hot shower would do the trick.
Except that the water was icy cold. It was war after all, and it was turning to winter pretty soon.
Gritting her teeth as she let the freezing water flow over her skin, she reached up for her shampoo. She didn't like this brand though… but it was the only body product company that survived all these hard years. She preferred Love, especially the strawberry scented ones, but they went out of business two years ago.
Brick could deny it all he wanted, but he used to steal her shampoo for his hair too.
She blinked, before shutting her eyes quickly and started furiously scrubbing at her scalp. She hated thinking about Brick, because every time something as stupid as shampoo brought up memories of him, they would just keep coming.
His mischievous smile and the way he would fiddle with the bill of his hideous red cap whenever he was struck by an idea. His calloused hands rubbing her shoulders and her neck in all the right places every time she pulled all-nighters. Their talks late at night on the top of the east tower, refusing to look at the crumbling cliffs hiding their base… but instead staring into each other's eyes, his oddly compassionate crimson gaze roaming over her face, resting on her lips as they grew closer… and closer…
Their first kiss.
Her eyes shot open and her palm reached out for the slippery wall to steady herself. Her breathing came in short pained gasps and she could feel hot tears running down her cheeks in contrast to the cold water.
She shut off the tap, shakily stepping out of the shower and burying her face in a towel. She couldn't afford to keep having panic attacks like this, it would affect her performance and she couldn't let that happen. People's lives were at stake here… but…
She missed him. She missed them all.
It'd been months… she thought she could forget about them, but perhaps she overestimated herself. The clutter of blurred photographs and reports on enemy bases that could have kept prisoners attested to the fact that… she was nowhere near moving on. Some irrational part of her refused to give up… it drove her mad but… it was her only fuel that ensured she got up at six every single morning and scrape through the exhausting day.
Yet sometimes she wondered… if they ever gave up on her.
She didn't blame them if they did.
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"But it's a perfect opportunity!"
"It's too risky, my son. We don't have any spare resources for an ambush on such a scale, if we did we might do so, but we don't have any spare resources. Therefore we cannot-"
"They could be in ther-"
Blossom tugged at the sleeve of the young man's shirt, his dark green eyes immediately narrowing on her, but upon seeing her pleading expression gave in with a sigh and sunk back down in his seat reluctantly. She couldn't help but exhale the breath she had been holding.
"I expect everything that has been discussed this morning to be carried out accordingly, if not you will face consequences and I am sure none of you will want to face such consequences, so you have to carry out your task according to…"
She could still hear Butch seething under his breath above the droning voice, but he remained seated as he glared down at the grey table. A clearing of the throat stopped Mojo from continuing his speech, and he reluctantly adhered to the request.
"With that, meeting adjourned."
The scraping of chairs on the concrete floor flooded her ears as Professor Jojo, now General of the army, took his leave, before the rest of the group left as well. Butch was still brooding in his chair, and Blossom felt it was her responsibility to check up on her team member.
"Butch…" He looked up upon hearing her soft voice echo in the somewhat cramped meeting room, before his entire posture relaxed and tired lines spread across his weather-beaten face.
"I'm sorry Bloss… but sometimes I can't help it. I just want to punch that smug monkey face right off his-" He cut-off abruptly mid rant and buried his face in his palms, cueing Blossom to sit in the chair next to him and place a gentle hand on his broad shoulder.
""I know it's hard Butch… trust me I do. But we have to be patient-"
"I don't see why Blossom! You of all people should know that! Why are we waiting around, skirting along the edges and playing safe? Bubs and Boom could be out there, and Butters and Brick… who knows what those imbeciles are doing to them right this minute?! They could be-" He stopped himself a second time the moment he looked at her and his furious expression immediately softened to one of sadness and pity as he shifted closer to her side.
"Shit I'm sorry Bloss… I didn't mean to make you cry… I- I just… you know me. I'm that big idiot who always opens his big fat mouth before processing anything… Please don't cry Blossom, Brick would kill me then revive me just to kill me all over again if he knew I made his girl cry."
She blinked as she lifted a hand to touch her cheek. Indeed she felt something wet and warm on her fingers, funny how she never even noticed it. Maybe she was already used to it.
Smiling, she answered, "I'm fine, really, it wasn't your fault… just the dust in the air…"
He raised an inky eyebrow as she felt her cheeks heat up. Dust? Really Blossom.
"Bloss. You sound exactly like Butters sometimes, you know that?"
She sighed, "Yes, I'm fully aware of that Butch." He merely replied with a watery chuckle.
They stayed in silence for a while, only the soft whirring from the fan and Butch's booted foot tapping on the ground filled the quiet room. She kept her eyes on her lap, where her fingers were twirling a pink ball-point pen, engraved with her name. She struggled to push away the memories of Brick gifting her with the simple present, on top of that same tower, wishing her a happy valentines' day. She remembered flying into his chest, the stress from that day leaving the moment she was enveloped in his arms, believing she was safe as long as she stayed there.
She jumped slightly when she felt a light tap on her arm, realizing that Butch was staring at her and asking if she was alright.
"S-sorry Butch, I was thinking about something. What was it you said?"
He shrugged off the apology with a smile before repeating his question, "I was just wondering if you found out anything about… them. I know I didn't, Mojo didn't let us go anywhere beyond a twenty kilometer radius from here," he ended his sentence with a slight growl.
She shook her head dejectedly, "Nothing much on my end either, just a picture from Robin with a really tall blonde guy in it."
He perked up at that statement however, green eyes glinting with a remnant of that excitement which Buttercup had described to her once, when her tough little sister had transformed into a love-sick little girl swooning over her crush.
"Is it Boom?"
"I can't be sure, there was no date or location on the picture, plus it was really blur, just a flash of gold in the top corner."
His excitement faltered slightly, "Well, it's a start I guess. At least we got something." She smiled lightly at his optimism, wishing she had the same vigor and hope he had.
"You're not going to give up on them, ever, right?" He blinked at her, seeming slightly caught off-guard by her sudden question, she was surprised too. Where had that even come from?
Eventually he shook his head firmly, "No way Bloss. My brothers, Bubs and Butters mean the world to me. I'll never give up looking for them, the day I do is when Mojo stops talking in circles and decides to shave his beard off."
She chuckled, "He's your dad… and your General. Show a little respect."
He shrugged and rolled his eyes, muttering about non-stop talking dads and that they should get some brunch. Leading the way out the door, he gestured with his head to join him, and she nodded, gathering up her notes and files before flicking the light switch.
The picture with could-be-Boomer stared back up at her, tempting her to delve into it and solve it's mystery, thoughts of hope tickling the edges of her mind.
She wasn't going to give up on them either.
And she was going to bring them home.
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"Thank you, have a nice day!"
The customer barely acknowledged him however, and as soon as he walked out the door, his bright grin morphed into a scowl.
"Seriously, Bu- Alice. I don't see why we have to be so nice to everyone when they don't even give a shit about us."
Alice merely laughed as she wiped the last of the dishes, they were finally closing up the shop, thank goodness.
"Come on Ethan, it doesn't hurt to spread a little joy."
She continued humming to herself, brown braids swinging as she danced around the small kitchen, keeping the plates in all their respective cupboards. How she could still be so… happy… never ceased to amaze him, even after all that had happened to them, she still found joy in the smallest of things.
Even when washing the dishes, she blew the little soap suds such that little bubbles surrounded them until they landed on the floor and disappeared.
Just like how they disappeared.
He shook off his melancholy thoughts and settled for watching her. Her laughter sounded the same, like how it did before, but if he looked closely, her baby blue eyes… were different. They were older, like they had seen things no teenager should have to see. Heck they were only eighteen, and here they were working their butts off in a run-down café.
"Ethan? What are you looking at?"
He looked up at her, just as her hand reached up to tuck a small blonde strand that had escaped back into her wig. "There's no one here anymore…Bubbles."
She sighed and decided to pull the whole mop of curly brown hair away, revealing golden locks that tumbled down to her shoulders. She was no longer Alice, in her place was the angel he came to love.
He pulled his own brown wig off, before combing a hand through his dirty blonde hair.
"We have to go out later, you know that right?"
He nodded, "Yeah but… sometimes I just want a break from being Alice and Ethan. I want to be Bubbles and Boomer again."
Bubbles hummed to herself, finishing up the last of the clean-up and picking up her backpack. "Ready to go?"
He picked up his backpack as well and giving the café a last glance, he followed her out the door, both pulling their wigs over their heads.
As they stepped out into the cold autumn wind, he was no longer Boomer Jojo.
For he and Bubbles Utonium were dead.
In their place stood Ethan and Alice Smith.
And Ethan Smith would stay.
While Boomer faded away.
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Well, that's that :) I'm really excited to continue this story, but I'm sorry to say updates will be slow (you have been warned)
Do give any feedback so I can continue to improve my writing too :D
Toodles ;)